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140 ˜ A Work of Hospitality, 1982–2002
If and when you do see a prison psychologist or psychiatrist, he or she will
say that they are going to prescribe a little pill to help you cope during this difficult
time. If you refuse the medication, they will say that you are refusing treatment
and will have it forced on you. If you take the medication, they will say
that the medication is to help just one of the numerous psychological problems
you are having. In time, you will be “zombie-fied.”
Staff shortages occur frequently in prison. When this happens, all the socalled
mental health patients will probably have their dosages increased. The result
is that they often are destroyed psychologically. The treatment is forced on
them; if they refuse, they are physically restrained and given an injection.
If you follow the “logic” of the prison system, a man or woman who has
spent ten or twenty years in prison should be the safest, most stable person
around. But the American Psychiatric Association has said that anyone who
spends more than five years in prison qualifies for psychiatric disability. Why
For those ten or twenty years the prisoner is under constant supervision.
The prison system controls what they read, where they work, and what types of
education and job training they receive—not to mention what types and degrees
of counseling. Literally every aspect of a prisoner’s life is controlled and monitored.
Those who have been in prison a long time should be the most stable people
alive.
Yet instead of stability, most of us who have spent many years in prison are
filled with fear and anxiety. Deep down, we known that officials in charge of our
prisons are not there to help us become stable, competent citizens. In fact, these
people have carried out their duties in such a haphazard, horrendous manner
that we recoil in fear at their product: the bitter, aged convict.
˜ ˜ ˜
In the late 1960s or early 1970s, the psychology department at Princeton
University conducted a behavioral study on mice. They put mice in a pre-constructed
maze to see if they could “learn” their way through. After the mice
learned this task, the psychologists sought to determine how well the mice could
adapt to a change in the rules; thus, they changed the construction of the maze.
In time, the mice adapted to a new set of rules and learned a new path.
The psychologists then sought to learn the adaptivity of the mice’s learned
behavior. To do this, they changed the rules of the maze repeatedly. This is when
they made a startling discovery. Eventually, the mice would reach a limit to their
ability to adapt. They would, in time, approach a wall that previously was open
and try to push through it. When they failed, they would sit and begin to tremble.
In effect, the psychologists found that they could drive the mice insane. All
they had to do was to keep changing the rules.