dsmilton

One of the astonishing things that I discovered in working in the prison- I had no idea of this from the outside- on the maximum yard, 5 to 10% of the inmates are unredeemable. They should probably be locked away and never thought of again. 5 to 10% (in my opinion) are likely innocent and wholly redeemable. The other 80% run the gamut from mostly redeemable to barely redeemable.

The tragedy is that they're all lumped together.

There were half a dozen times over 13 years where I thought I was in serious danger. These were one-on-one confrontations where, if the prisoner had felt like killing me, I'd have been dead... And I thought he might feel like killing me.

The craziest was when a female guard was walked off the yard after she was caught en flagrante delicto with an inmate. They escorted her off the yard, and it turned out her husband worked there too. He was a tower guard with a loudspeaker, and he was screaming insults at her as they walked her off. Also, as a tower guard, he had a gun, but luckily he never fired at her. All the inmates were forced to lie flat on the ground, but they found the whole thing very entertaining, hooting and hollering. It was a madhouse.

1. One horse-sized duck, because after I triumphed over it I'd have a plethora of tasty meals! Duck ala orange, peking duck, duck au poivre... Other things you can make with duck, I don't know. I love duck!

2. It was "you know the risks" all the way. Once I actually worked there, every year we went through a training session with the guards, but before I started there was no training. They said that most people from the outside didn't last long working in prisons, which I guess is why they didn't bother beforehand. Apparently it takes a certain kind of person to deal with murderers all day... And apparently I'm that certain kind of person.

I think the irredeemable 10% were just broken beyond repair. Either they were born sociopaths or life ground them down so hard and so fast that there wasn't enough human emotion remaining to work with. Though I'd say legitimate, diagnosable sociopaths were rare, there was definitely that 5 to 10% that was so without empathy that they might as well have been.

Most of the prisoners I met who were like that had had unspeakable things happen to them in childhood, so in a sense they were victims, but I couldn't pity them. I should add that not many of these ended up in my class. Once they were in prison many of them either became very apathetic or focused more on manipulating the hierarchy inside the prison for their own ends, and I wasn't useful in either case.

The answer to your first question partially answers your second... My daughter is a "Redditor". She's been encouraging me to do an AMA, I think to stop me from rambling about these things to her :) I mostly browse Reddit for the news and literature forums, but until now I've only "lurked". She made me register and it's been enjoyable so far!

To answer your second question more thoroughly, I have a son and a daughter. I'd say my life as a playwright etc. affected my relationships by making me a... "Player" I suppose is the term. I lived the bachelor's life in NYC and L.A. for a long time, and didn't get married until I was almost 50. My daughter is very much like me, interested in writing and the arts, while my son is very different (but I love them both equally of course).

Teaching in the prisons actually gave me an even greater appreciation for my children, because so many of my students were separated from their families. Many of them had children they hadn't seen since they were babies, and many had older children who never visited. I'd sometimes talk about my family, and the students, these hardened murderers, would always tell me to be safe and hug my kids.