Parked Mind Syndrome: How Prison Routine Drains Freedom and Potential

During my time in freedom, I recall parking in airport long-term parking lots. I recall the thick layer of dust that turned into dirt on windshields, windows, and doors of vehicles that were left in those garages for months and sometime years. Involuntarily, I would make a mental note to get a jump for the car battery as the long-term inactivity of the motor would leave the battery drained. It crossed my mind to start a service where the owners of the cars could leave them in my care, and once a month I would come by and start them, letting the cars run during the time it takes me to wipe them down with a chamois and clean the windshield, windows, and tires.

Now imprisoned until further notice, I find myself fighting to keep my mind from dusting over due to long-term parking. I find myself reading fervently to keep my mental engine in working condition, and not be parked in the garage of institutionalization. I make it a priority to read books and magazines that challenge my mind. I only watch programs where I learn something beneficial. In this warehouse called prison, there are too many men who’ve parked their minds in the parking space called a prison cell. These men establish a pattern of comfort and fall into a method of routine that stays with them for decades — unless interrupted by some major shift in their institutional journey.

For most, as long as they can go to “the store” once a week, get clothing and food packages every other month and a visit every now and then, they’ll stay parked until, and if, the parole board decides to let them out. Those types of inmates spend time doing things that don’t challenge them, like spending hours in front of the TV in the day room, mostly watching sports. They couldn’t care less about the news, local, national, or international. A good sign of a mind that’s parked on a long-term basis is the unwillingness to read books.

The willingness to spend the majority of the day inside a cell when not on lockdown and only coming out to watch mind-dulling TV. These are the subtler signs of “Parked Mind Syndrome.”

Outwardly, some of the men may seem normal, they may work out, keep a detail (a job, aka free labor) or have a friendly demeanor, but after decades of the parked mindset, they’re ill-equipped to face society.

The thought of freedom actually scares people with “Parked Mind Syndrome.” I recall when I first started serving my time, I encountered a guy who had been there 19 years. With nearly two decades of living with a parked mind, he feared getting out of that parking garage and entering the traffic of life. On the morning of his release, the staff and some inmates had to go look for the guy. They actually had to search for him.

They called his name repeatedly on the prison’s walkie talkie system. The idea of having to deal with a job search, housing, lights, phone and living expenses scared a man who came into the system as a juvenile. While his body grew and evolved, his mind remained “parked” as an adolescent who wasn’t ready for a grown man’s responsibilities.

There’s a whole generation of black men who’ve spent 75% of their existence on this planet in prison. Young men who have no capacity to live a viable life outside of the prison walls. Men who’ve never been taught how to drive, how to court and romance a woman. Men who can’t functionally read or write. Men with no sense of common courtesy, who’ve become so accustomed to the violence of prison life that they would not be able to earn any respect without the use of physical brutality. I place the blame at the foot of the church, both black and white, and it’s a shame to have to describe the church based on color variation.

The white church shares the blame for the proliferation of “Parked Mind Syndrome” for their unchecked support of criminal justice policies and laws that promote some of the very values they claim to disdain like homosexuality, single parent homes, welfare dependence, lack of appreciation for education and abortion. Yes, the conservative, clean-cut, wholesome, lilly-white church’s unwillingness to pursue unbiased justice as the Bible dictates is a detrimental cause for Parked Mind Syndrome.

The black church is responsible for Parked Mind Syndrome by their unwillingness to engage those young men in prison. There’s no reason why young juveniles aren’t given more support to pursue a GED and vocational training programs while they’re behind bars. We entrusted the school system to educate them and were disappointed. Nevertheless, we entrust the prison system to rehabilitate them and are yet again disappointed.

The black church should be able to initiate and implement moral recognizant programs where the line between right and wrong are clearly drawn in the mind of these young people as they’re now grown men who are sadistically performing acts that their minds interpret as normal.

I live by the personal creed that although I’ve been placed in a pig pen (prison), I will not play in the mud. Men suffering from Parked Mind Syndrome find nothing wrong with playing in the mud. In some ways, if those in the society are comfortable with the status quo within the criminal justice system, society as a whole is suffering from a severe case of Parked Mind Syndrome as well.