Why don't people study while they are in prison

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I've been to jail only once in my life. And not for very long. This was over twenty years ago.

So with that limited experience, here's what happens in jail as a woman, anyway.

You've got your hands cuffed behind your back, so it's kind of disorienting getting out of the police car. They kind of have to pull you to your feet.

You walk in. They comb through your hair looking for razor blades or dope. You walk through a body scanner, and then they search your body to make sure you don't have said razor blades or dope hiding in any body crevices. Totally humilliating. You change your clothes while someone watches. You go to the bathroom and pee in a cup while someone watches.

You are photographed, fingerprinted, and asked a hundred humilliating questions. This can take a few minutes or a few hours. Other inmates may be sitting nearby, so you can't act like you're scared during this time, or you'll get beat up later as the new b word.

You'll get a peanut butter sandwich or perhaps bologna. This will be the only food you receive, repeatedly for breakfast lunch and dinner.

They put you into a cell. Often the other person in the room has been there a while, and they are laying on their bed facing the opposite wall. Do not stare.

In between the beds there is a toilet with a sink on top of it. You pee where you wash your hands and get drinking water.

When cellmate wakes up they will intimidate you. Especially if it's a woman twice your size and weight. Especially if you remind her of one of her children. She will bully and threaten you until all you want to do is lay down facing the wall.

 

[Rodafina]

I've been to jail only once in my life. And not for very long. This was over twenty years ago.

So with that limited experience, here's what happens in jail as a woman, anyway.

You've got your hands cuffed behind your back, so it's kind of disorienting getting out of the police car. They kind of have to pull you to your feet.

You walk in. They comb through your hair looking for razor blades or dope. You walk through a body scanner, and then they search your body to make sure you don't have said razor blades or dope hiding in any body crevices. Totally humilliating. You change your clothes while someone watches. You go to the bathroom and pee in a cup while someone watches.

You are photographed, fingerprinted, and asked a hundred humilliating questions. This can take a few minutes or a few hours. Other inmates may be sitting nearby, so you can't act like you're scared during this time, or you'll get beat up later as the new b word.

You'll get a peanut butter sandwich or perhaps bologna. This will be the only food you receive, repeatedly for breakfast lunch and dinner.

They put you into a cell. Often the other person in the room has been there a while, and they are laying on their bed facing the opposite wall. Do not stare.

In between the beds there is a toilet with a sink on top of it. You pee where you wash your hands and get drinking water.

When cellmate wakes up they will intimidate you. Especially if it's a woman twice your size and weight. Especially if you remind her of one of her children. She will bully and threaten you until all you want to do is lay down facing the wall.

Just reading your account here makes my heart race and I start sweating and stimming. It’s so inhuman. So tragic. So effing scary.

I’m grieved you had to endure this.

 

[Polchinski]

I've been to jail only once in my life. And not for very long. This was over twenty years ago.

So with that limited experience, here's what happens in jail as a woman, anyway.

You've got your hands cuffed behind your back, so it's kind of disorienting getting out of the police car. They kind of have to pull you to your feet.

You walk in. They comb through your hair looking for razor blades or dope. You walk through a body scanner, and then they search your body to make sure you don't have said razor blades or dope hiding in any body crevices. Totally humilliating. You change your clothes while someone watches. You go to the bathroom and pee in a cup while someone watches.

You are photographed, fingerprinted, and asked a hundred humilliating questions. This can take a few minutes or a few hours. Other inmates may be sitting nearby, so you can't act like you're scared during this time, or you'll get beat up later as the new b word.

You'll get a peanut butter sandwich or perhaps bologna. This will be the only food you receive, repeatedly for breakfast lunch and dinner.

They put you into a cell. Often the other person in the room has been there a while, and they are laying on their bed facing the opposite wall. Do not stare.

In between the beds there is a toilet with a sink on top of it. You pee where you wash your hands and get drinking water.

When cellmate wakes up they will intimidate you. Especially if it's a woman twice your size and weight. Especially if you remind her of one of her children. She will bully and threaten you until all you want to do is lay down facing the wall.

I am so sorry you had to go through this. The time I remember being bullied is back in junior high, in Russia. But what you described sounds like this whole thing all over again except much worse since you can't escape.

So what did they send you to prison for if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Rodafina]

^ @Polchinski,
Remember that jail and prison are different in America.

 

[Forest Cat]

Thats interesting. If anything, I would of expected the authorities to be "stopping" people from joining white hate groups rather than "forcing them to". Well, yeah, participation in white hate groups is protected by First Amendment, in USA at least. But the most First Amandment will do is to allow people to join them "if they want to". I don't see how it can actually be "forcing" people to join them.

Or are you saying that its not prison authorities that do the forcing but rather circumstances? As in, the prisoners are forced to join white hate groups in order not to be raped by the blacks? But in this case, wouldn't blacks be even more likely to rape them if they see they are in white hate groups cause that would piss them off? Or are you saying that its because the members of white hate groups would protect you from blacks, if you join it?

Many prisons are rough and prison populations are often separated into groups. Not by the prison, the convicts make the groups. If you don't belong to a group, you're a target and an easy one. You have no backup, no one to help you. So many people think they would never join a prison gang but then they end up in prison and realize they need help. And let's say you're a white male, which gang do you join? It's not like you can chose whatever you want, you'll join a white group, like it or not. You can either be on your own and get your butt kicked all day, or you can join a group and have some protection.

 

[Forest Cat]

I am so sorry you had to go through this. The time I remember being bullied is back in junior high, in Russia. But what you described sounds like this whole thing all over again except much worse since you can't escape.

Are you familiar with Russian prisons? Holy crap those places are rough. The worst prisons in Russia are very hard places.

 

[Mary Terry]

I never been to prison, nor ever going to. But when I hear how they are bored there, I can't help but think "why are they killing their time, the only positive thing they do have?" Because you see, as somebody in mathematics and physics, I don't have time to do the kind of math and physics that I like. I need to do what I am expected to do by my thesis committee. I also have to spend significant portion of time teaching, etc. I get lucky when I get a week to myself to do the type of math and physics that I want. But those people in prison they have YEARS to themselves. They don't have to work: they get free food basically. Yes I heard that in some prisons they do work, but not a whole lot since I heard they play cards. So why can't they all take all those hours that they are playing cards and use it all for studying math and physics?

I realize that, unlike me, they might not care about studying as much. But here is the thing. Obviously they regret that prison sentence is on their records, etc. When you get a regret, don't you want to make yourself feel better by finding some positive to counter it? The time to study is a clear positive. Why don't they use it?

Again I realize that not everyone like studying. But that is largely because you can't study what you want, you have to study

Are you willfully naive? Most prisoners have no interest in educating themselves and lack the intelligence, educational background or tools to do so.

You say you're an educator. I highly recommend you volunteer your time to teach math to some hardcore prisoners. State and federal budgets rarely, if ever, provide for teachers, books, computers or anything else deemed non-essential in prison. Sometimes an educated prisoner will offer to teach fellow inmates. But that's about it.

 

[Mary Terry]

Many prisons are rough and prison populations are often separated into groups. Not by the prison, the convicts make the groups. If you don't belong to a group, you're a target and an easy one. You have no backup, no one to help you. So many people think they would never join a prison gang but then they end up in prison and realize they need help. And let's say you're a white male, which gang do you join? It's not like you can chose whatever you want, you'll join a white group, like it or not. You can either be on your own and get your butt kicked all day, or you can join a group and have some protection.

You'd have to decide whether to be a Blood or a Crip in my area. Gang membership enhances the ability to survive prison life.

 

[Forest Cat]

Gang membership enhances the ability to survive prison life.

Yeah that's the thing about it, survival. One guy alone ends up being target by every gang so there's not much choice.

 

[Rodafina]

If we look to Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs, prisoners don’t have much chance to get above the lowest tiers.

 

[Forest Cat]

Meanwhile, in Norway...

I'm not sure yet how effective this is as punishment but this is the complete opposite from what I have seen from US prisons.

 

[Mary Terry]

Meanwhile, in Norway...

I'm not sure yet how effective this is as punishment but this is the complete opposite from what I have seen from US prisons.

That's utopian and is, indeed, the opposite of American prisons. Some prisons do have vegetable farms that are worked by the prisoners and the produce is fed to them. Prisoners jump at any chance to get out of their cells so they volunteer to work on the farm. A prison in my county of residence sells the extra produce to the public and I sometimes stop at the prison farm stand to buy vegetables that I don't grow myself.

 

[Polchinski]

Are you familiar with Russian prisons? Holy crap those places are rough. The worst prisons in Russia are very hard places.

I haven't been to Russian prisons, or any other prisons for that matter. I was referring to junior high school in Russia.

However, I know about Russian prisons by reading the internet. I will make a separate thread about it since its an interesting topic into itself.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

Just reading your account here makes my heart race and I start sweating and stimming. It’s so inhuman. So tragic. So effing scary.

I’m grieved you had to endure this.

That's really sweet of you.

That being said...

The sherriffs deputies were all very cordial and businesslike to me. I have no complaints.

I shoplifted from Rite Aid. I was an idiot 18 year old. I got busted like the criminal I was.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I don't mean to sound harsh, but I am a believer in do the crime, do the time. Once someone gets to prison, they usually have a rap sheet a mile long of petty crimes that have landed them in jail. Maybe even a few 30 day or 6 month sentences. Maybe rehab too.

In prison, that is your time to either join in with the prison politics, or to get your head together. You have to be strong through unspeakable horror (not from the guards. It's from the other inmates, who are often complete sadistic psychos).

In prison, if you focus- go to church, stay clean (there are drugs in prison), avoid fights, go to N.A. etc, there are computer classes and job training that are open to you. But you have to WANT IT.

If you get into a halfway house, in a larger city, there are often classes and job opportunities especially for felons. But once again, you have to want it. Most people will just fall back with their old friends, doin dope, running with fools, making their parents oh so proud.

Giving a handout is enabling. And most people won't appreciate it. The few that want help to rise out of their situation, those are the ones that go on to have successful lives.

 

[Judge]

Despite the very grim nature of "serving time" in the United States and how limited resources can be in terms of both survival and rehabilitation, there is one particular exception to it all. As strange as it may sound, in the long run a prisoner is likely to fare much better in a highly-structured and disciplined military prison than in any local, state or federal institution.

I know of one case in particular that is quite indicative of this, even though it occurred many years ago. My own cousin, who I believe is in fact on the spectrum of autism was a non-commissioned officer in the US Marine Corps and was an accomplished aviation mechanic. Like most if not all non-commissioned USMC officers, at one point in his successful career (just like his father, my uncle) would inevitably have to serve as a recruiter. A job that my cousin would clearly be unsuitable for. When he got his orders to transfer to a recruiting job, he went directly to his commanding officer and literally begged him to be excused from this kind of duty.

It became a heated exchange resulting in my cousin "losing it", and striking his commanding officer. OMG. My cousin's highly successful military career ended abruptly with a court-martial and sentence of eight years to the Camp Pendleton Brig. Incidentally, I believe my cousin is on the spectrum as well, and I fully understood his panic over having to excel as a recruiter. A job he considered strictly for "a people person". And he was right.

Lucky for him on two counts. First, life in military prisons used to quite grim a bit earlier than when my cousin became a military prisoner. When guards could be incredibly brutal as a matter of policy. Secondly, rehabilitation in brigs and stockades is taken seriously. Where one does have an elevated chance of bettering themselves through academic and vocational programs vastly superior to their civilian equivalents.

Despite having to do eight years for a crime in the civilian world that might have gotten him six months, he had the opportunity to learn cooking skills and made the most of them. When he got out, he applied and was accepted to a well-known vocational school and mastered that as well.

While my cousin's military career imploded, he was hired by a well-known and prestigious hotel chain and rose in their ranks to become one of their head pastry chefs. And he makes quite a good living at it.

https://prisoninsight.com/what-is-military-prison-like-compared-to-civilian-prison/
https://www.pendleton.marines.mil/M...s/Security-Emergency-Services-Battalion/Brig/