O YE DRYBONES : Prison Reform Activist & Psychotherapist George Mallinckrodt

George Mallinckrodt is a licensed psychotherapist who has been in private and public practice for 20 years. He is an advocate for humane treatment of the mentally ill. He is also professional artist. George will speak about his prison work and the struggle to end mass incarceration of the mentally ill. He has been heard on Democracy Now and his experience referenced in The New Yorker magazine. Getting Away with Murder has been banned by the Florida correctional system.

History has always made concentration camps to be synonymous with the atrocities of Nazi Germany. But, America has its own dirty secrets about the use of concentration camps. These camps were located in Natchez, Mississippi and were used to corral freed slaves during and after the American Civil War. As slaves were being emancipated from the plantations, their route to freedom usually took them in the vicinity of the Union army forces. Unhappy with the slaves being freed, the army began recapturing the slaves and forced the men back into hard labor camps. The most notorious of the several concentration camps that were established was located in Natchez, MS.

As the slaves made their way to freedom, the town of Natchez went from a population of 10,000 to 120,000 people almost overnight. In order to deal with the population influx of recently freed slaves, a concentration camp was established to essentially eradicate the slaves. The men were recaptured by the Union troops and forced back into hard labor. The women and children were locked behind the concrete walls of the camp and left to die from starvation. Many also died from the smallpox disease. In total, over 20,000 freed slaves were killed in one year, inside of this American concentration camp.The union army did not allow them to remove the bodies from the camp. They just gave ’em shovels and said bury ’em where they drop.” The camp was called the Devil’s Punchbowl .