Idle Minds are Deadly Minds

Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli, Captive

The overcrowding of prisons combined with the lack of programs and activities are causing prisoners to have unconstructive idle minds. Is the current system potentially causing more harm than good?

There are many reasons why inmates are housed in prison. Regardless of why they are housed, some type of productivity should occur. Programs and activities can help inmates by positively stimulating their minds and keeping them active, bettering their chances for success upon reentering society. However, most prisons fail to supply inmates with adequate activities or special programs. Budget cuts have restricted supplies and tools that inmates use to keep themselves constructive while serving time; causing them to focus on the hostile environment, which forces them to maintain negative brain stimulation. This has a major affect on the prisoners; emotionally, physically, and psychologically. We have heard the saying “idle minds are deadly minds”, so when we place prisoners in a kill or be killed environment without any constructive activities we are setting them up for failure.

This seems to be more than an understatement in the supermax prisons. “A prisoners mind may ‘break’ under supermaximum confinement. Critical accounts of supermaximum prisons emphasize the negative effects of solitary confinement on the mental condition of many prisoners who experience extreme states of rage, depression, or psychosis” (Rhodes, Pathological Effects, p. 1693).  Lack of constructive activities dehumanize inmates and cause them to become prisoners of their own minds. When people are placed in confined areas they must rely on themselves to be proactive and positive. However, being positive is almost impossible for most people to achieve under such stressful circumstances, especially since inmates are surrounded by nothing but violence and concrete. Most prisons have been under mass budget cuts; turning away from the rehabilitation model, heading towards the custodial model. While taking away from educational, recreational, and counseling programs available for inmates. The budget shortfalls are changing the face of the prison system. Due to the ever-growing U.S. population and lack of prison space, inmates are now being facilitated in packed prisons all over. Overcrowding is becoming a major issue within our prison system and has greatly diminished the chances for inmates to participate in productive activities. 

Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli, Decompensation.

Most of our prisons have become drastically overpopulated; they are placing thousands of inmates in facilities that were meant to house hundreds. Most of these prisoners are housed in huge warehouse like environments where they have tight living conditions and no privacy. Placing inmates in these conditions have caused most of them to become hostile and under severe stress. “The opportunities for inmates to participate in self-improvement and rehabilitative programs, such as academic, employment and vocational training are curtailed. The lack of work or work opportunities leads to inmate idleness, often reinforcing the maxim that idleness breeds discontent and disruptive behavior” (John Howard Society of Alberta, 2002). When one is placed in an environment where there is constant noise and the fear of being victimized by another, it causes them to be placed under constant stress and anxiety which ultimately leads to negative effects on their psyche.

 Keeping inmates as busy as possible and allowing them the chance to participate in positive activities may help reduce the chances for inmates to think negatively, possibly saving them from giving into the environment and becoming prisoners of their own minds.

 The concept of prison is to punish people who commit acts of crime and prepare them to re-enter society. However, this seems impossible without adequate programs and activities for inmates.  It seems that with the lack of activities and programs, people are exiting prison in a worse mental state than when they entered. Is this morally justifiable for our system to be conducted this way? Or is there a solution to the issue at hand?

 

Fritner, C. (2008, January 17). Lonely Madness: The Effects of Solitary Confinement and Social Isolation on Mental and Emotional Health. Retrieved December 7, 2010, from Serendip: http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/1898

John Howard Society of Alberta. (2002, May). THE EFFECTS OF PRISON OVERCROWDING. Retrieved February 11, 2011, from Patrick Crusade: http://www.patrickcrusade.org/EFFECTS_OF_OVERCROWDING.html

Rhodes, L. A. (2005). Changing the Subject: Conversation in Supermax. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Vol. 20, Issue 3 , 388-411.

Rhodes, L. A. (2005). Pathological Effects of the Supermaximum Prison. American Journal of Public Health: Vol 95, No. 10 , 1692-1695.

State Of California. (2009, September 17). CDCR Reduces Offender Rehabilitation Programs. Retrieved December 5, 2010, from California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/News/2009_Press_Releases/Sept_17_Programs.html