Prison Life - July 6, 2009 Personal Account of what prison is like

Brenda Odom,Yahoo! Contributor Network
Jul 6, 2009

A person, based on his or her life experiences, can view the life inside of a prison differently. A correctional officer could see it one way and an inmate could see it another way. There has been some research done to see which strategies work and which ones do not work. Strategies are constantly changing to make life in prison better for the prisoners. This article will focus on adaption strategies, from a corrections and prisoner point of view. In addition, how does the prisoner's need for respect, hope and safety affect policy? Last, an in-depth look at toxic shame identity, what is it and is it real?

Point of View Changes

From the outside looking in corrections appears to be nothing more than prisoners being controlled in prison by officers. The truth of the matter is that control in initiated as part of the deterrence or rehabilitation of these prisoners. All the actions taken by correctional officers are to rehabilitate someone so he or she will not come back to prison. Prisons are not only holding spaces for criminals, they are places where people can reform their lives if choose to do so. Drug treatments, therapy, job training, educational service and more can be learned and achieved in a correctional facility, jail or prison.

Prison Adaptation Strategies

According to K.C. Carceral (2008), a rite of passage for each new inmate takes place in the first few months of him or her serving a prison sentence. This rite of passage includes shelling away the old person and becoming a new identity of sorts, one of an inmate and this identity is needed in order to live in and make it in prison. To survive in prison, one must develop the right reputation in order to gain respect from other prisoners.

Prison is seen as artificial and not real life, but prison is a community all on its own. To live in prison one must become a new person inside this artificial life that is prison. The best way to describe prison life is to compare it to virtual reality, where in real life one lives a perfectly normal life, then life a completely new life in prison, one that does not seem real; however, prison life is very real.

Strategies for Inmates

Corrections understand the motivation to assimilate that a person entering prison feels. Prison has been described as a dog-eat-dog world and if one is not a bad dog he or she will not survive behind bars. The job of correction officers is to create ways to help a new inmate assimilate, but to do it a fashion that limits the negative effects and heightens the positive effects. One wants the inmate to come out of prison a better person; not more high risk than they were when they arrived.

Inmate Motivations

Inmates are people just like any other and that simple means they want respect given to them, they want to be helped to find the hope, they want to retain the hope they have, and they want to feel and be safe while in prison.

Respect

Respect simply means to show courteous regard for people's feelings. No one wants to be treated like scum or less than human. A criminal act does not mean that a person forfeits the right to respect.

Hope

Hope is the promise for what can happen next in one's life. People make a goal for themselves and set off on a path to reach that goal.

Hope lasts as long as the dream lasts. In corrections, redirecting dreams and helping to start new ones is very important to keeping the hope alive in the inmate.

Safety

People want to want to feel safe and they deserve that feeling. An inmate deserves to feel safe from other inmates and correctional officers. Safety is an impression that nothing harmful will hurt a person and that feeling makes it possible to get a good night sleep and function normally.

Correctional Changes

Some changes to correction that could make the system work more in the long-term, would be having an aftercare program so that inmates can have contact with a specialist that can help them once they are out of jail. Being free again after a short or long period or putting what one has learned into action can be challenge in itself. Another change would be including the family in the therapy where it would be beneficial to the inmate, to have a supportive environment to return home to and where family absence takes place, include friends. Alcoholics Anonymous has a program where each member gets a sponsor to call when they start to give into temptation, and corrections could have something like this, nothing like a helping hand to keep one on the right path.

Toxic Shame Identity

A toxic shame identity is one where a crime committed by one member of the family can reverberate throughout the family and through the generations of the family. A person born into the life of crime, by association, is more likely to commit a crime of his or her own. The only way to remove the toxin is to start positively influencing members of the family and slowly the toxin diminishes.

Guilt by association is very real, like if a person witnesses a friend shoot another person. Even though that person did not pull the trigger, he or she would feel responsible for not stopping his or her friend and it does not help if that friend adds to the guilt by asking the person to lie for them. That just adds to the shame and doubles the guilt factor tenfold.

In closing, prison life is not easy, on either the prisoner or those in charge of watching the inmates. Changes are needed in some areas and research is always bringing to light new information. More inmates are speaking honestly about treatment behind bars and because of that, people want changes. It will take time for these changes to have effect, but the changes to come in the future should make life in prison more bearable.