Solitary Confinement: Connecting
the Dots Creates an Ugly Picture Highlights
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. . . Start here: A man should never be left alone with his thoughts if you know he doesn't have thoughts worth thinking . . .
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. . . When we let a man loose in society, we must ask ourselves the same question we'd ask a parent: 'Did we do everything possible to make sure that individual can be a productive member of society?' If we didn't, we've ultimately punished society.
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. . . Everything we know about punishment says it should be swift, relevant and weighted to the action, and once meted out, should not interfere with that individual's ability to move on with their life. Likewise a punisher shouldn't be looking for ways to make things worse, either in the short-term or long-term . . .
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. . . If individuals who end up in prisons tend to be less literate, access to libraries with books fills no gaps for many of them. Audio/text-based learning does . . .
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. . . If we give a man a puzzle he cannot solve, we teach him how 'dumb' he is . . .
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. . . If we want prisoners to start communicating with each other in ways which solve problems, we should give them something weighty to work on which does not directly affect them (they may not yet be ready to work on themselves) but has a direct bearing on others--particularly those in the communities they grew up in--things like: What resources do you see in the community that people don't use?; What resources do you see lacking in your community that need to be developed?; What's the one thing that, if you had it, everything else in your life would be great? (It can't be money) . . .
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. . . It's not enough that a man can just solve his own problems. Those kinds of solutions drive people to steal and engage in all sorts of other socially unproductive things . . .
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. . . We can educate a man. We can teach him how to mentally and physically relax. We can help him see visions of his future. And we can release him into an environment where none of that really matters . . . what might be even more damaging is that he might teach the generations in his community that come after him that no matter what they learn, no matter how hard they work, the opportunities will not be there for them . . .
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. . . if a man never finds his place in society . . . he may just decide that the structure of prison is better than no structure at all . . .
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. . . this article was written for the man (or woman) who just received his first prison sentence. Today that man is most likely a boy, perhaps only 12 or 13 years old, who will be put in a cell (perhaps with others) to think about what he did wrong. And then I come back to: A man (or child) should never be left alone with his thoughts (or those of others) if you know he won't have thoughts worth thinking.
Copyright © 1998 by Lisa L. Osen
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