My primary fear in prison is not the time. It’s not getting stabbed. My fear of prison is becoming severely institutionalized. I use the term “severely” because it is almost impossible to not be affected by prison culture and life after [...]
The expression "when the time hits you" is used in reference to inmates with long sentences. It’s the moment when long-term incarceration forces an inmate to assess the gravity of his situation. I’m talking 15-year sentences -- or more. Now, I [...]
Like many other communities, prison is largely self-segregated. Considering the psychodynamics within, this is not unexpected. One of the biggest surprises of prison life, however, is that so many on the inside are neither the racists they claim for themselves nor [...]
After spending 3 years in a medium security Ohio prison, a friend of mine once asked me if the time spent there had institutionalized me. At the time my idea of what it meant to be institutionalized consisted of simply forming [...]