Overview:
After 39 years behind bars, Zhi Kai H. Vanderford argues that prison has become a warehouse for the poor and broken — not a system of rehabilitation. His call to action: reduce incarceration, invest in community-based alternatives, and restore humanity.
No one grows up aspiring to be a prisoner. The threshold for justice and forgiveness seem unattainable. I should know, I’ve been incarcerated 39 years on a 25-to-life sentence. I don’t have the answers yet, but I hope my experiences of time incarcerated promotes dialogue for improvements.
Most prisoners are parents. I’ve witnessed women come to prison not knowing they are pregnant, then lose custody of their kids. Some moms can’t get released during the mandated time to have their kids returned to them. Dads are usually not able to make any substantial payment of child support from prison, and of course their incarceration brings shame to their intentions to foster a severed relationship.
Most prisoners’ crimes had nothing to do with their parenting; some crimes are connected to attempts at financial support for their kids. Mainly, parenting is an incentive to do better, but the kids get completely cut out of their lives.
When put into prison, most people lose their jobs and homes, and relationships with family members become burned bridges. When people leave prison, they are worse off than when they arrived. This becomes a societal problem as prisoners and parolees become a taxpayer drain.
There are no wealthy people in prison; prison is a business built on human mistakes and misery. I believe a huge portion of prison abolition is possible by moving prison guards to probation officers, and moving prisoners to parolees, with appeal bond-type legislation.
Prison is full of broken people that have paid beyond any definition of justice. Family members die, health fails, and their kids call someone else “mom” and “dad.”
I’m a trans male and understand “blood is not always thicker than water.” I don’t have any biological children, but mentor plenty. Kids are devastated by collateral damage caused by arrest.
My vision would include “life coaching” any would-be prisoners as contributing members of society, where they receive treatment, contribute wages to their family and programs, and remain invested in their community. Additionally, I’d like to negate imprisonment of troubled youth through boot camp and ranch-type programs.
The prison system needs to shrink and become a place of last resort. Drug treatment, mental health professionals and life coaches need to be employed.
If justice is about correcting behavior, it is missing the mark. If justice is the equivalent of punishment, then it is served. Punished people are being released worse off than they started, and prison is just a human garbage dump.
Zhi Kai H. Vanderford is a 58-year-old trans man serving a life sentence, with 38 consecutive years of incarceration across California, Oklahoma, and Minnesota’s women’s and men’s prisons. He is believed to be the first female-assigned person in Minnesota to be transferred to a men’s facility without access to gender-affirming surgery, and he identifies as a modern-day Mulan. Zhi Kai is working on his Master’s in Business Administration and seeks parole support at freezhikai.org.