A Real Prison

Recently, I interviewed at the Jester Unit in Richmond, Texas, a prison for psychiatric criminals. In reading some of the prisoner's biography's, I was reminded that many build their prisons simply by one act. Most of the prisoners at Jester Unit are schizophrenic or have been diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, as well as anti-social personalities. By looking at their faces, one can see the mask that is commonly worn on their faces, a stoned-faced look. A look commonly worn by Schizophrenic patients. A unit within the prison system is supposed to be the most restrictive incarceration a prisoner can experience, a prototype of the Alcatraz prison in California.

What cue triggers their one act, the reason leading to a life-time sentence? In looking at their disorder from a current psychological perspective, a more objective reason is found. In theory, many factors would have led a prisoner to committ a crime such as family background, biological predispostion to a disorder or illness, a trauma, or a distinct psychotic episode. An objective view of an individual's act, reason, or perspective is a view that places no stigma or blame on a individual but should on their act.

Looking at their disorders from an old perspective, a person deviating from the norm, was considered insane or "mad". What madness drives a person to kill, to mame, to hurt without consideration for someone other than himself or herself? Madness or abormal behavior, thoughts, and actions, are a representation or indication of a person's emotions and thoughts, indicating an "illness" or trauma within the person. It is their outcry to the world of this "wrongness". In the past, it was thought that a person was demon-possessed. Obviously, in the present, the belief in demon-posession has nearly been removed.

A prison represents to me a safe confined space, a removal from reality, and a tortoruous isolation from people. People really are social-beings and need others to model behavior and to model for others. A prison also represents to me a "modern cage of steel", a representation of a prisoner's cognitive construct modeled in "real life". To explain what a psychotic episode experience might be for a prisoner imagine the moment when you loose your calm, "your cool". If you've ever lost your calm, then you probably know what triggering a psychotic episode is like. It is a quick disconnection from your comfortable self (ego), from your conscienceness. In thinking about a person's reasons for seeking to dissasociate from reality, one has to ask what the factor or factors were leding them there.

If you do not think there are forces beyond a person's control, you at least have to question their existence.

MY OWN PRISON
A court is in session, a verdict is in
No appeal on the docket today
Just my own sin
The walls are cold and pale
The cage made of steel
Screams fill the room
Alone I drop and kneel
Silence now the sound
My breath the only motion around
Demons cluttering around
My face showing no emotion
Shackled by my sentence
Expecting no return
Here there is no penance
My skin begins to burn
So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
We're all held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one
I hear a thunder in the distance
See a vision of a cross
I feel the pain that was given
On that sad day of loss
A lion roars in the darkness
Only he holds the key
A light to free me from my burden
And grant me life eternally
Should have been dead
On a Sunday morning
Banging my head
No time for mourning
Ain't got no time
So I held my head up high
Hiding hate that burns inside
Which only fuels their selfish pride
We're all held captive
Out from the sun
A sun that shines on only some
We the meek are all in one
I cry out to God
Seeking only his decision
Gabriel stands and confirms
I've created my own prison
Creed