How Prison Taught Me Important Lessons, Like When to Hit Trump

 They're at it again. The same four prisoners are sitting at the table right outside my door, slapping cards on the table, hollering at each other about their stupid moves, like when they should or should not hit trump to the table. They're wiling away the day as they do every other day. They're playing Spades, and every one is an expert while the others are morons. With all the yelling, it makes me wonder if any of them are actually having any fun.

Scanning down the row of tables, I see others filled with the same groups of guys that normally fill the tables. Most are playing cards of some kind, a few chess, and every once in a while someone is using a table as a place to study. 

If I walk out to the paved area in front of the housing unit, the same handful of prisoners as every other day will be exercising. I can almost tell what day it is based on their routines. I'm one of those, of course, as I have my own weekly routines. 

Still others are found all day on the phones (who has that much to talk about?!), or at the microwaves cooking (who has that much money to cook up every day?!), or running around the housing unit conducting whatever hustle keeps them busy. 

By its very nature, prison is a horribly boring place, so I don't blame these prisoners for their repetitive routines. There's very little productive activity, direction, or purpose in prison. That's why so many people in the free world perceive prisoners as laying around watching TV all day, playing cards or chess, or lifting weights. 

Prison is very structured, but it's structured only in the sense that everything runs on a schedule. But that schedule is filled with precious little that really matters. Most prisons have a recreation director, but few actually have any recreation program worth speaking of. Most have a program director, but such few programs exist that most prisoners are simply waiting to get into a class. 

Some prisons, like where I'm currently housed, offer college classes in partnership with a public or private college. But the waiting list to get in is long, so not many prisoners benefit. Same with vocational trades. Only so many prisoners can go through the trades at a time, so there's always a long waiting list. 

Critics might argue that prison isn't meant to be a "fun" place, and I'd agree. But it ought to be effective. Having prisoners sit around all day playing cards or watching TV does nothing to aid in their rehabilitation. Boredom is the enemy of rehabilitation. Too many prisoners have not learned how to direct their own rehabilitation, how to discover their own purpose. And those who have are often frustrated in that aim by censorious and oppositional prison administrators. 

If all that bored prisoners are doing is playing cards and chess, watching TV, or exercising, we're lucky. Too many find other means of quelling their boredom. Getting high, fighting, or stirring up drama of any sort is usually the go-to for some prisoners. 

You can't expect to pack a bunch of testosterone filled men into what amounts to a cage with nothing productive to do and have them miraculously change for the better. It's insanity to believe that can even happen. 

If prison officials really want positive, productive change among their charges (which is a goal I'm skeptical they actually have), prisoners ought to have productive, educational, and purposeful activities to fill at least part of their days. And those who have discovered a healthy purpose ought not to have to fight with prison administrators to pursue their purpose. 

Prison ought to be a place to teach people how to be productive, moral citizens, or at least support self-directed efforts towards that end. It ought not teach them learned helplessness or passively condone the very behaviors that led them to prison in the first place.