Of Make-Believe
By: Norrel Armstrong
EM 6453
1111 Altamont Boulevard
Frackville, PA 17931
A penal institution is a dimensional paradox for the physical.
It's where a makeshift society exists within a society. The mental
atmosphere behind the prison walls barricading the subjected
persons, is polluted with illusions from Hollywood and
materialistic symbolism through advertisements on television and
in publications.
Inside the penal paradox the average mind is force-fed false hope. In the absence of real programs of rehabilitation, most prisoners become career criminals. They incorporate themselves into the prison life-style making it their first home. A mind in prison creates pictures of riches, but doesn't receive instruction about how to legally attain the riches. Those populating prisons are people who inherited poverty. They'll break the law to be free from poverty. During the penal process a prisoner is unquestionably dehumanized. He or she is abducted from the personal reality that was once relevant. Once an identification number is assigned to the prisoner, it becomes his or her birthright. The identification number is an extension of one's actual name. Whenever that person must produce his identity, the number must also be produced. The initiation of imprisonment entails a mortifying strip-search in which a prisoner is stripped of his or her identity. Once the layer of self-pride is peeled off, a new creation evolves through adoption of the prison environment. "Department of Corrections" is literally stamped on every prisoner. His clothing is tagged with his or her name and identification number. The thought of spending a duration of time or a life sentence in prison is demoralizing. The frustration leads to destructive behavior. Most prisoners construct coping mechanisms. They seek comfort in the confines of their imprisonment. In the United States, the prison system is built on psychological cultivation. It defeats the human will to live for anything beyond his or her own existence. In prison, a prisoner's mentality is transformed to the social climate of his/her environment by his/her acceptance of irregularity of prison's inhumane expectations. The wants, needs and desires of the average prisoner are regulated to the dependency of one's tolerance for restrictions. There's no escaping the loneliness of prison. A prisoner creates a smile, forces laughter and nonchalantly nods at the foreign exchange with strangers. He uses them to hold together normalcy. When reality surfaces to the conscious from the subconscious, a prisoner's personal life become a land of delirium; dreaming of a time that once meant reason amid other contentments and beauty. The pains of wanting to be remembered by those who are free, by those who have forgotten them, is acute. Being once out of sight, the prisoner is out of mind. A prisoner is an "once was" of what he or she once had been. The longing and ache to be loved and respected as an individual is orphaned in the echoes of letters sent out in desperation for acknowledgment. A prisoner's personal days become illusion, a factual delusion of not being respected as a man. He feels overlooked, unappreciated. A prisoner's imagination is the seed and free society is the soil. They create a garden of thoughts, hoping that they bloom in freedom. In the predicament of incarceration, one must reach outside instead of reaching inside. For correspondence write to:
"Intellect is invisible You are welcome to use or re-publish
any of our material.
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