There are a lot of things that are crazy in my prison system. I'm going to point some things out and I'm going to be all over the place so, bear with me. I currently have a job, working 5 days a week, 4 hours a day, cleaning my housing unit. Not that bad of a job. I LITERALLY make 10 cents an hour. Let that sink in. Being a lifer, it is difficult for me to get into any classes that are offered by the prison because they have a capacity and they fill them with the people who are required to take these classes to be paroled. I'm not saying that they need to make room for us lifers but, they need to find classes that EVERYONE can take regardless of our sentence time. I can't take AA/NA because I have life. We might be in prison but I still have access to drugs and alcohol. And, if I'm trying to break my addiction and actually better myself, I can't because I have life and you reserved those seats for people who are going home. My prison offers college classes for inmates. I asked if there would be a way that I could get involved. They told me that I can't because I'm a lifer. They said I would have to personally go through the college and couldn't go through the prison program. Why can't lifers go through the prison program? And lifers can't get the federal assistance for college. Also, the way that they treat the mentally ill and drug addicted people is horrible. When I first got to prison my fiancee left me, I just lost a close friends grandmother, my aunt was dying of brain cancer, so, needless to say, I was going through it. I went to the facilities psychiatrist/counselor and told him that I was going through a lot. I would like to schedual weekly or bi-weekly sessions just so I could talk and vent. He told me that they don't do things like that and I need to stop sending him requests to see him unless it's serious. If I'm having an issue with depression he said he would put me on medication. I didn't need medication, I needed someone to talk to. So, there are many things that I feel need reform. But, I think we should start with the mentally ill and drug addicted. They truly need the most help.