Originally Posted by
JenniferParisHusband
It's the military. For those who were in the US Armed Forces, this strangely makes sense. There are rules for everything. The more you screw up, the more restrictive things become. I have cleaned my barracks with a toothbrush, I've seen DI's go behind beds and foot lockers and even under your mattress with white gloves looking for the tiniest speck of dirt. As you progress in their world, things ease up. I lived off base for a while after basic, and no one came and checked on my apartment. But my duty station was required to be kept clean.
So where she is in prison, there are going to be a lot more rules, more structure. She is going to have almost no say in the material that comes in and out. It will come from a controlled prison "library" and will have been approved by the people in charge, and provided, when allowed by her superiors, at their leisure and from an approved selection of items. I can't imagine they would let her have a book about Anonymous, or for that matter anything controversial. Her mail, anything sent from the outside, will be read. If that Vanity Fair and other material wasn't in the library, it's contraband. If it was supposed to be returned at a certain time and wasn't, it's contraband. If she was already on disciplinary restrictions and wasn't supposed to have it, it's contraband. See where this is going? Everything is controlled, and subject to approval by the people in command of the facility. But don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
If she has an expired tube of toothpaste, it could be that she is not keeping up with her hygiene and this was extra, or there was another purpose for it which is against their code of conduct, which also made it contraband. Can you get high on toothpaste? Holy hell, that would make my trips to the dentist a lot better. It could simply be that it's the government at work, and they aren't permitted to allow expired "medicine" and are required to make sure things are un-expired. It doesn't make a lot of sense if you weren't in the military, but if you've been in, you can kind of see what they are doing.
The sweeping food onto the floor, showing disrespect, yeah that's going to earn you persecution. I got persecuted by a Sgt. for not having my underwear folded a certain way. Extra miles and guard duty. It sucked, and that was just during BMT. One of the guys in my flight got caught with a Walkman. He failed basic, had to redo it, and the whole time they were gunning for him, and since he was in my flight, they were gunning for the rest of us by association. It is a different way of life. There will be punishment, but you have to respect the stripes, or your life is going to be miserable, even if you aren't in prison and in the working military. She isn't doing herself any favors by doing that. As for the tribunal, those are never public. So that's just SOP.
For the next 35 years, Chelsea's life is going to be incredibly regimented to almost the last little detail. It's not persecution. You know all this is a possible outcome, or at least should know, when you go through your BMT. I actively tried to avoid that outcome while I was in, and thankfully succeeded.
I don't really think any of this is persecution for speaking out, it just feels like this is the usual military thing. I've actually heard of worse. This is how they do punishment, and it could probably be much much worse. That's my opinion though.