Mental health
My prison flashbacks sometimes come in clusters in rapid succession. They bombard my thoughts. They’re not limited to a single experience; they stymie my routine thought processes and are like a running chill down my spine. Something triggers these memories; any sensation can kick them off. The memories are vivid, dredging up feelings buried deep in my DNA.… Read the rest
Inmates have their own justice system; I learned this on the inside. Every prison yard has its own code of conduct, and the code is controlled entirely by inmates. Of course, prison administrators operate under state or federal codes designed to contain an overflow of omnipresent hostility. Under such circumstances, forceful confinement creates a precarious environment.… Read the rest
I’m not a trained mental health professional, but that doesn’t disqualify me from knowing when someone isn’t quite right. Most people have an awareness of when, as it’s colloquially put, a person is half a bubble off center. Prisons are magnets for the mentally challenged and have become mental health sanctuaries.… Read the rest
Colors are more than meet the eye. Anecdotally, bulls are angered by red; they charge the matador’s red cape—the muleta—on sight. But bulls are red/green color-blind. They see red and green as shades of gray or black. It’s the movement of the muleta, as it’s whipped around by the matador, that stokes the fury of the bull.… Read the rest
I’m not a military veteran. I did a year of ROTC at Ohio State in the late 1960s. During those tumultuous times, when the draft was alive and looming, campus unrest was a constant. In my naiveté, I figured I’d enroll in ROTC to become a military officer. I wasn’t thinking clearly on the subject in those days.… Read the rest
Prisons have become mental health asylums. The data is overwhelming. While researching my last post about Dorothea Dix, an early advocate for mentally ill prisoners, I learned more about the how mentally ill persons are treated in prison populations. I also became aware of parameters that proscribe the legal rights of mentally ill inmates.… Read the rest
It’s easy to lose your mind in prison. The insane world of forced routine accentuated by culture clashes, boredom, and the loss of personal freedoms can cause people to question their sanity. In February 2005, I wrote a quote from John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row in my personal journal. Sitting on my bunk on a cold and dark winter day, I was looking for a way to express my depressed mood.… Read the rest
We’re all going to die. We’re not all going to prison. Is there a connection between the popularity of prison-themed programming and our fear of dying? Put another way, why are movies and television programs about prison so popular to people who will never see the inside of a jail or prison?… Read the rest
In April 2001, the Prison Law Office in Berkeley, California, filed a bold class action on behalf of California prisoners. The lawsuit, filed in the US Supreme Court, brought front and center a pernicious, festering problem that the California prison administrators had ignored, or worse, didn’t care about. The issue was overcrowding and the problems associated with inmates being forced to live, eat, work, and sleep in cramped, unsafe, and unhealthy environments.… Read the rest
Statistics from The National Center for Victims of Crime website reveal that one in five girls and one in twenty boys is a victim of child sexual abuse (CSA). A 2009 study by The National Child Trauma Stress Network finds that “as many as 1 out of 4 girls and 1 out of 6 boys will experience some form of sexual abuse before the age of 18.”… Read the rest