Shattering Hope in Prison through Bureaucratic Ineptitude

 Hope can be a dangerous thing in prison; however, without it, prisoners lean into despair, sometimes choosing to take their own lives. Others give up and surrender to meaninglessness. That might take the form of illicit drug use, or it might look like sleeping or watching TV all day, among numerous other useless endeavors. 

Hope can also cause many prisoners to grasp onto every rumor of good time bills passing or revolutionary court decisions, or even onto promises of reform from politicians. In the fifteen plus years I've been in prison, I've heard the same rumors recycled over and over, often with a new twist to give it a hook to catch desperate people. Sadly, both unscrupulous prisoners and cold hearted staff members start these rumors. Sometimes, though, the rumors simply morph from one tiny bit of true information. 

Last year, for example, the Michigan legislature passed the state budget. Within the Corrections budget was a line item for the purchase of electronic tethers. If anyone bothered to look, that line item is in the budget every year because the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) manages the State's tether programs. This normal line item, though, somehow morphed into the rumor that the MDOC would soon be releasing thousands of prisoners early, on tether. 

Of course, this rumor was completely untrue, but trying to reason with people who are desperately clinging to any scrap of hope is usually pointless. I tried to explain the truth to those who excitedly shared this juicy rumor with me, but to no avail. 

Some hope, though, is reasonable. For example, prisoners who have been scored with a "high probability of parole" have an expectant hope that they will, indeed, be paroled. Lately, though, many prisoners have been receiving a deferral from the parole board. This isn't a denial of parole, but it's not an outright parole, either. 

The Michigan Parole Board usually gives deferrals for psych exams, community placement housing, or to complete a class. A prisoner might spend 10 years in prison, for instance, and complete all the requirements he was given, only to see the Parole Board who then decides they want the prisoner to take another particular class. The Department had ten years to add this requirement, but they wait until the prisoner is expecting a parole and hopes to leave prison within a few months. 

The book of Proverbs says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick" (Proverbs 13:12). I've seen this scripture fulfilled, sadly, hundreds of times. It shouldn't take months to conduct a psych evaluation or to find public housing. Prisoners have to tell their counselors months before they see the Parole Board where they intend to live, so the department knows well in advance if a prisoner needs community placement housing. 

I know several prisoners, right now, who are stuck in a black hole of waiting. They've been given a deferred parole, but they've since been given no updates, no expectation, no information for months. They may as well have received a denial (called a "flop"). Most of these deferred prisoners wait between 6-9 months after their expected parole date to finally leave prison. It's completely unnecessary, and I would argue unjust, to hold a prisoner past his earliest release date when he's done all that has been required of him.

I don't want to be cynical and say that the Parole Board intends to strip these prisoners of hope, but that is the effect of their current system. It's enough to make someone lose his mind...expecting to leave the hell of prison only to be told, "Sorry...you'll have wait some more, but we don't quite know how long." It's just another thing to add to the long list of reasons prison can contribute to a break down in mental health. 

The prison system ought to be cultivating a growth mindset in its prisoners, not causing constant disillusionment. It's enough to make some prisoners lose all hope.