They symbolize our shortsightedness, our fear of the real problems caging us all. Abu-Jamal cites court cases, Camus, and journal articles, including his own published in a recent issue of the Yale Law Journal . He gives fairly recent statistics on who is on death row and more importantly, who is not . Never searching for pity, Abu-Jamal occasionally uses humor to capture the paradox of this life alongside death. The guards adopt a cajoling, rather than threatening attitude.
Television provides company and a distraction from an otherwise lifeless life.
Resistance becomes too expensive when the price paid is losing the last hold on the outside. Contact visits are not allowed. Visits are conducted in a closed room. The prisoner is handcuffed and never has the opportunity to touch his visitor, a partition of shatterproof glass serves as a wall inside the walls, yet strip searches before and after visits are the rule. Stick out your tongue.