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Journal of
eISSN: 2373-6445

Psychology & Clinical Psychiatry

Opinion Special Issue Psychiatrist Cures Justice - II

Rehabilitation Implosion: What Needs to Be Done in Prisons

Samuel A Nigro M D

Retired, Assistant Clinical Professor Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, USA

Correspondence: Dr. Samuel A Nigro M.D., Retired, Assistant Clinical Professor Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 2517 Guilford Road, Cleveland Heights, Ohio 44118, USA, Tel 216 932-0575

Received: April 19, 2014 | Published: June 16, 2015

Citation: Nigro SA (2015) Exorcising Racism. J Psychol Clin Psychiatry 2(6): 00107. DOI: 10.15406/jpcpy.2015.02.00107

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Opinion

“Discovery is seeing what everyone else sees and thinking what no one else thought.”   --Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

“All doctors should spend two years in prison. They’d treat their patients better, as fellow flawed human beings.” --Walker Percy in The Thanatos Syndrome, p 81.

Prison is basically a warehousing of inmates to be counted 3 times daily. Basic meals, clothing, hygiene, sleeping, medical care are routinely provided. Eighty percent are expected to return back to prison after serving their sentences. The atmosphere is one of strained laughter, crudeness, and solitary watching one’s own little television or listening to one’s own little radio and taking care of one’s bunk space. Simple busy-work jobs and activities are routine also, secondary to physical muscle building exercises. Informative education programs are encouraged with limits on numbers able to enroll.  All falls into “punishment” routine even if it is just passive nothingness.  “Rehabilitation” somehow needs to be the punishment—but only if the rehabilitation is reconditioning into positive socialization not expected nor even wanted by the prisoners…”If you do not like it, do not come back.” Rehabilitation means that the “punishment” is a new way of life totally different from what prisoners have experienced. There was little “rehabilitation” in my experience.

A GLIMPSE OF PRISON LIFE (Skip this section, if you are not interested in this vision of prison life—to read this is to “feel” prison. Get in an uncomfortable chair and be there). Prison is only one huge, almost 6 page, paragraph of compression. One thinks of fraternity house life and religious retreats gone wrong. But overall, prison was a military like regimentation made easy by my past experiences in the Navy—It was sort of like being on a big submarine only with no mission and with a crew of tattoo covered, muscle bound, exercising men with markedly deprived backgrounds, poor communication skills, under-supported civility, inadequate education, sometimes limited intelligence, overly independent lifestyles, easily bewilderment with hiding behind loud nonsense, resistant to change, unsustainable relationship abilities, and extremely coarse obscene verbalizations about anything and everything. The food never approached the extraordinary wonderful Navy submarine delights. The fears in prison never reached that of killing 250 million Soviets as we counted down during “battle stations missile” about three times a week knowing that if we actually fired those missiles, World War III had started with much of the United States gone. The number of Hail Marys for me in prison never approached that of submarine missile shooting countdowns.

One does feel smothered however. The guards are often foul mouthed, hostile, militaristic without mission and thus often hostile beyond the need to demonstrate authority. Transportation outside the prison is almost always in uncomfortable handcuffs and chains. It is crowded. Living space, if not a cell, is a large over-crowded dormitory room of about 10 rows of 10 bunk-beds on each row. Inmates tend to be preoccupied with admitted and sought after “escape from life” by alcohol, marihuana, and “highs” from misuse of drugs, especially pain medications and narcotics. They will try anything to “escape” (from “life”) by induced highs wherever they are. There is a low level competition about what was, who had, and what gave the “best highs” over the years. Methamphetamine makers brag of chemistry sophistication and their sixty monthly buyers of Sudafed used to make the methamphetamine. Tales abound of pharmacists cooperating with drug dealers including buying back narcotics so they can sell them on the streets themselves.

At my first Catholic Mass, a young man who ended up serving the Mass, came up to welcome me; seeing his name was “Tony” I asked if he was Italian—“No, I am Cherokee” and we bantered a bit with his using a “Native American saying, that the Creator gave us 2 ears so we can hear from both sides”…in reference to “judges having only one ear” and only listening to prosecutors.  Hispanic card players tell clever anti-Catholic jokes. Protestants distort Catholicism especially by “Catholics worship Mary” to which I always retorted, “Just like Protestants worship the Bible.” Muslims have meetings and argue about which power group directions to follow. Blacks study rap and write rap and talk incomprehensively using “nigger” every other word—it seems to be a staged loud meaningless “look at us” sham emoting, to fool non-blacks into thinking they are missing whatever the blacks are pretending to talk about (The less than one milligram of melanin, about the tip of an ordinary lead pencil, characterizing those with dark skin from “white”, cannot account for the anti-intellectual and anti-social self-stressing habits preliminary to “escape” needs). The black groups often perform their “look at us” routines at meal times also. Otherwise, color is for the most part irrelevant. I witnessed a bright no-nonsense black guy (not one of the loud “groupies” mentioned) on the upper bunk greet his new white guy mate on the lower bunk with, “Hi, I’m Chris, and I’m not black.”

Shaking hands now, the white guy said, “I’m David, and I’m not white.” They got along fine—I am still stunned at this marvelous glimpse of the "oneness" these two muscle bound tattooed toughs showed each other, which should characterize all humanity, as lived by these 2 criminals whom I give unbridled respect rarely felt about others even outside of prison. Known child sex abusers are labeled, shunned and aggressively treated. Scattered groups go to the infirmary, library, recreation, chapel, school, commissary, work, dining room, and clean and work as porters for every building. After waiting in hot sun for two hours in commissary line, the guy five places in front of me and three places from the door to the commissary (almost there after a two hour wait!), loses it in a rage when a dude just walks up to break into the line in front of him—The enraged says, “oh no you don’t” and began to slug the line-breaking guy over and over, being unable to stop as the line-breaker inadequately defended himself stating “time out” over and over as his nose and face bled profusely— Guards came, used mace, handcuffed both, and took them to the Hole.

Without the guards, the striking out prisoner would never have stopped—I hope never to see such rage again. You sense that everyone is a bomb. Once in a long waiting-line, I commented, “Patience is a virtue.” The guys who heard me wanted to know what that meant—and I tried to explain about virtue and patience—they had never heard about either. Continuous crude joking and obscene genital obsessions are routine. Television shows and movies loudly portray salacious, anti-social violent men and women all foul mouthed and verbally threatening—the women worse than the men—I’ve never seen or heard such from women—these are movies routinely watched—no one can respect women after those movies. Television sets are on two walls in the dorms about 20 feet off the ground; and there is one in the conference room which has about 20 chairs, a pool table and exercise equipment.

CDs are available and channels are watched as picked usually by the first person who entered the room. The negotiations about what to watch are easy going and not a problem all deferring to whoever turned on whatever. Occasionally, a dude will come in and bizarrely change the channel to local “auto traffic” and then leave—I haven’t the faintest reason why, and someone else will then change back to what all were watching. Sex comments abound having nothing to do with sex in nature as in love or reproduction. Basically, one is surrounded by a bunch of dirty-minded schoolboys, each with multiple low grade disorders of attention deficit, learning disabilities, mood swings, rage reactions, impulse dyscontrol, obsessive-compulsive variants especially kleptomania and sexualized body dysmorphia, developmental deviancies, communication-vocabulary deficiencies, and micro-psychotic episodes, in varying mixtures rarely recognized in clinical practice and never in clinical studies (I kept saying to myself that 150 mg of lithium should be a daily ingestion at least for all of us).  After months living with them, I find the idea of “personality disorders” to be nothing more than a collective term for variations of the multiple low grade co-morbid disorders already mentioned. Most will admit to anything or do anything suggested by guards if it will make their life nicer in some way.

Most can relate in pro-social positive engagements for various intervals, especially to me as an old guy frequently hearing, to my surprise, “I respect my elders” when I received a simple un-requested gesture of support in a meal line or laundry for example. I was “pop” or “the old man” then “old school” and finally just “school.” Whatever, I tried to do my share and be one of whatever “team” was put together. Occasionally, there was an announcement that “All military veterans can go to the head of the line”…there were only a few of us, and no one complained to my surprise as we walked to the front. But most often, any positive or neutral interaction was temporary, always replaced by an extreme intense spontaneity which proclaims a selfish survival “in your face” style. Amazing microwave cooking experts abound offering everything from pizza to chocolates, and there are lines for use of the microwaves. There are book seekers and book traders. There is an underground, prohibited-but-ignored by guards, economy for noodles, candies, soups, envelopes, coffee, rice, tobacco, drugs, soap and any commissary item. Every item has value for games of poker and rummy especially. Dining hall announcements: “Thirteen minutes to eat, so eat fast.” (I would laugh at this “rehabilitation.”) You are unable to read the minds of a few inarticulate guards so you just do what the guy in front of you did. There is a frightening and disturbing frequent automatic thought of “What can I get away with?” about whatever presents itself. On admission, medical, psychological and dental reviews take place, quite competent and reasonably thorough.

The infirmary is open daily, appointment required except for emergency. Many are on medications and there is a medication call three times daily requiring prisoners on meds to go to the infirmary except for benign meds like vitamins which could be kept in one’s lock box at one’s bunk. Any complaint or suggestion can be officially made by filing “kites”—a one page form to complete for anything from wanting to go to the infirmary to describing a guard mistreating someone. Restrooms consist of 3 large connected rooms: Entry is into the sink room (about 40 sinks on one wall each with mirror) with entrances at both ends, and opposite the sink wall were 2 large rooms, one for showering and one for toileting; the large shower room (about 15 showers on each left and right walls); and the toileting room with 20 urinals on the left and 20 toilet seats on the right; all individual spaces, between each shower, urinal and toilet, are separated by 4 foot high brick walls for privacy and a hook at the entrance to hang clothes. Each inmate has a laundry bag marked with your bunk number.

Each dormitory row has a free laundry day each week—miss it and you can get your laundry done for a bag of noodles or equivalent as determined by the prisoner running the laundry. You have to supply your own laundry soap each time. Mail is hand delivered by guards to you at your bunk usually daily or you are called to the guard room to pick it up; all mail is opened and searched first; stamps are removed and not allowed because they can be doctored to give “highs.” All compete vigorously with tales of abject misery, hopeless neglect, calculated mistreatment, best “highs,” degraded women totally out of touch with genuine femaleness in nature for the planet, and extensive mistreatment by the law and most others prior to prison. There are a few scattered likely true stories of unjust incriminations, false evidence creation, probation hostility, judicial incompetent rulings and bewildering unfairness of bureaucrats. Prisoners regularly confirm Charles Dickens’ “The law is an ass,” and I wonder if prison was his source. Laws are seen by prisoners to create fees and facilitate guilt.

The “conceit” of judges is universally thought intrinsic to law. Everyone admitted guilt deserving prison except a few who really felt wronged--but I was surprised at the calm admission of guilt but all was semi-rationalized by what society had offered them from birth. The Grand Jury is a one-sided “kangaroo court” confirming the joke known as “equality before the law.” Prosecutors and investigators are considered a “gang out to get you” pure and simple—and just as criminal—“prosecutors and investigators get away with what we didn’t” is frequently heard or implied. All felt abused by the law at some time and would require videotaping of all interviews of any and all potential witnesses with all videotapes open to all parties—witnesses are considered to be just coached actors usually with something to gain if they say what the prosecutor wants. No one thinks the legal processes are transparent. Most think legal malpractice is universal, and “the law is lawless” because it is what the attorneys and judges “can get away with.” When, during court procedures, a numbered law is referenced, most think it should be read aloud in its entirety for justice’ sake each time. This is so the accused might really understand what the law actually was; that the law was relevant; and, most importantly, that the judge had heard the laws and
knew for sure which laws being used—most inmates thought that no one including judges could really remember all in the laws without going over them each time ever mentioned.  

The inmates did not trust the judge or anyone.  (I would add, that reading the full law each time mentioned in court would ensure the court records are complete ala’ trends with medical records now requiring more and more confirmation.) Due process is routinely thought non-existent.  Fairness, justice, truth are myths to most, regardless of their admitted misdeeds and crimes. And I heard a Great Course CD which proclaimed that the law was not interested in “truth or justice but legalisms.” Universally, the probation process was considered an extra-court scheme of self-incrimination, legal counsel deprivation, and recycling of prisoners, proving the law considers criminals to be “commodities.” All think it should be illegal for anyone in the legal system to own stock in private prison companies, pharmaceutical companies, and prison support companies, because of conflict of interest—convictions should be overturned if any member in the legal process, or immediate family, owned stock in such companies. All give victimization tales of how the probation process lets the judge be outside the law; thus the judge can act out any non-judicial personal opinion and “feelings” against the accused which is supposed to be prohibited by law-image-hyperboles of in-court judicial sanctimony.

All felt seeing one’s probation officer without legal representation was a great risk for being duped into incarceration again.  Probation experience is universally one of being “booby-trapped” and “body-bagged.” Everyone feels “equality before the law” is a joke—the prosecutor is superior in every respect. And to speak freely to the press about any judicial or legal flim-flam will inflame the judge and prosecution into worse treatment and worse sentencing, something my own attorneys said over and over—It was like they were protecting the judge and the prosecutor more than me…except for probability of the threatened worse sentencing (which seemed to me to be flagrantly unjust if that is what actually happens—I thought the “law” was supposed to be above all personal pettiness and sensitivity, especially that of the judge).  Almost every prisoner’s story has complicating aspects involving others and related deeds. There seems to be agreement that there is a sub-rosa conspiracy between long standing defense attorneys and prosecutors to adjust behavior and messages for public relations reasons—woe to the attorney or citizen who makes the judge, prosecutor, or elected public servant sound or look bad in public. Most inmates will admit to guilt, however, and wish they had better lives and stayed away from drugs. From overheard banter, it seems all are deprived of traditional family experiences and are overwhelmingly under-supported by non-incarcerated family and friends—one gets the sense that family and supporting others are un-socialized (have those “multiple low grade disorders” mentioned above) almost the same as the inmate but just not in prison yet.

Many have no place to go and sabotage release plans so they can stay longer (For them, it is not as lousy in prison as out). Some tell of having, when about to “hit bottom” again, willfully perpetrated a “benign” criminal act to come back to prison, where, from my observations, human conditions for meals, clothing, cleaning, shelter, and activities are probably better than for 80% of free humans trying to survive elsewhere on the planet (Regardless, if it is that “good”, it is still not “rehabilitation”). Eighty percent are recidivists many times. The youngest, under 21, are especially sad, as they bluster around unable to listen to any effort by older inmates giving good advice—it is like all the young ones cannot attend to serious talk. Most inmates talk fondly and sadly about their children, all wanting to do something to prevent them from going bad (“What can I tell them so they don’t end up here?” is frequently heard, and I have collected a list of aphorisms to be published soon, I hope). There are many unwritten rules, especially: Mind your own business. Sometimes, that doesn’t work: During trash recycling in the hot outdoors, the guard is instructing us by intensive aggressive military "HURA"; and the tough inmate next to me shouts as he points to me, “This old guy says you should shut the f--- up!” I held my arms up, shrugging my shoulders, with a wide-eyed puzzled look.

Everybody laughed, including the guard who then settled into a more pleasant instructing. Put your belongings under lock and key. Stay calm. Don’t engage deeply with what you hear. Do not accept anything from anybody.  Be careful of accepting help or becoming beholden to anyone. Cautiously stay with your small group if you have one. Be friendly but make no friends. Keep yourself, your stuff, and your bunk space clean. Keep your privacy private. The worst thing you can do is feel sorry for yourself. Keep busy by reading, studying, and going to activities especially jobs and religious services and studies. Write your ideas down as soon as you get them. Stay in crowded areas where there are guards. Never fight—You will be sent to the Hole and lose whatever program you are in. If you are isolated from many, you will become a target of gangs which will intimidate and co-opt you into doing “favors” for them, favors which in the long run will extend your prison stay. I was astonished that our culture creates millions of these men.

That it does so is a tragedy of the failure of family life due to the failure of the press and media to offer the transcendent and creating a culture that needs drugs to “escape.” Finally, for me, in the prison experience, the Catholic Mass, the Rosary, the library, the litanies, the Christian meetings, and the commissary lines were the most peaceful reflective intellectually pleasing near-levitations ever experienced—my own “escape” I guess.  The bareness of prisoners was never more clear than the day I left…with 7 others. I was met by a son and daughter and driving home wonderfully. All the others were taken to the bus station in Columbus with about $80 in cash, no job, no place to stay, no one to assist for the most part.

Rehabilitation proposals

To rehabilitate a diverse prison population, a uniform submersion into a safe pro-social overload is needed. The “punishment” continues but it should be a deprivation and replacement of behaviors and experiences which got the inmates to prison in the first place. Overall, what I witnessed in prison borders on the useless in terms of rehabilitation. It was just “more of the same” for most whose lives were deprived, abuse filled, and without any type of sustained success.  Most were being as crudely treated as in their non-incarcerated lives. In contrast, “rehabilitation” means that real justice is empathic and forces a prosocial habit-forming productive routine:

  1. Universal Problem-Solving Pro-Social Messages from guards should be canned, rehearsed and required repetitively in dealing with any and all possible events involving prisoners. Call it “Good mothering/fathering” if wanted, but, in general, most of these men never had a real childhood or enough loving decent relationships to learn what it is. When an unrehearsed new event occurs, rehabilitators should meet to develop appropriate verbal responses which teach pro-social behavior for that event, all to be incorporated into the training of all who deal with prisoners. From my observations, some guards need as much rehabilitation as the prisoners. The goal is to provide models of pro-social problem solving behavior which most prisoners rarely experienced and never learned from childhood. Hostile negative unsocial routines are to be confined to physically out-of-control situations due to a prisoner’s incorrigibility not yet extinguished.  Naturally, physical correction will be necessary with some levels of violence and loss of control, but should diminish with time. Few want to go to the Hole. Even grossly canned, theatrical pro-social management by all guards will still enable learning, observing, experiencing, and living verbal management of violence and dyssocial behavior. Such is critical for any place offering “rehabilitation.” The rough “military” style can be acceptable for large groups with verbalized special “military-like mission” as elementary as “our mission today is to have a good day thinking of life, sacrifice, virtue, love, humanity, peace, freedom and death without fear, so hit the ground for push-ups!”, but the emphasis must be on cordial empathic virtuous lifestyle reinforcement. Because of the frequency of “I respect my elders” I received, I wonder if this theme could somehow be broadened for rehabilitation purposes.
  2. Virtues will be taught to all prisoners and repeated in review every month using inmate events (See my books Everybody for Everybody1 and Soul of the Earth 2 for list of defined virtues).
  3. “Rules for a Good Game of Life…Best Messages” will be taught to all prisoners and repeated every four months, preferably with my pamphlet Ancient Secrets Updated to Scientific Mysticism.3 Those with children will be encouraged to share the messages with their kids and other family members for preventive purposes. Paternal support must be available for those discharged with children.
  4. Stanley Milgrim Suggestibility4 and Stanford Penitentiary Experiment Abuse5 will be taught to all prisoners and guards and repeated every six months. These were experiments of suggestibility and obedience to do evil when authoritatively ordered or set up as authority. Knowing of them should help all understand the corruptibility and propensity to do evil when “obedience”, “power”, and “authority” suggest, or even demand, “Evil.”  All are to be taught such and reviewed with annual sign off. Evil and corrupting “suggestibility” phenomena can only be defeated by a concerted effort beginning with a “minority of one” against peer pressure to do wrong. When pressed to do wrong by authority, all must respond with “You do it yourself, because I won’t!” It is difficult to find examples of “Milgrimism” and “Eichmannism” worse today than the creation of crime by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives6 and Planned Parenthood’s destroying childhood by teaching school youths about adult sex and abortion.
  5. Home Environment analysis needs to be done with plans to remedy where-ever the prisoner will return. Four questions to answer: What prosocial life was missing from where they came and where they are going? What coping skills were missing? What can be changed so it does not repeat after return to their “homes”? And, what can be done to enable independent living? This should be at group processing on admission and every six months. The AA book7 must be read and used. Negative in-penitentiary experiences must be identified and corrections promulgated so they are not carried home. Past negative home experiences must be identified, processed and rendered inactive before return. Job security must be supported. Local religious agencies will hopefully be able to assist.
  6. Music in prisons will be pro-social and limited to melody and harmony with rhythm generally excluded. Contemporary dissonance, from classical cacophony to rap, will be excluded (If you do not like it, do not come back!). Mozart, Beethoven and others of classical sophisticated music styles promote health. All radio and media played will offer the same options of classical music, opera, educational courses and old civilizing radio programs.  Individual radios will be discontinued unless properly programmed for pro-social communication. Outside public news will be limited to sports and weather—the sensationalism and distortions of usual
  7. News programs contain too many uncivilized negatives and should be censored. Call all this “punishment” if you want.
  8. Television and all electronic communication options in prisons will be sports events and educational programs recorded and played without violent ads.  Winning a world championship will be the paradigm for winning at life meaning that “There are rules to life, and, just as in a game, those rules must be followed to be a winner (The outstanding, Catechism for Hockey 8by Alyssa Bormes will be promoted vigorously without proselytizing).  Again, if you want to “win at life,” basic behavioral rules (Ancient Secrets, again) must be known, learned, followed and lived; or you will “lose!” Continuously available will be salutary pro-social programs of Dean Martin, Bill Cosby, Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, Red Skeleton, William Buckley, Burns & Allen, Marx Brothers (not Karl), and those of similar genre. The Great Courses, CDs of Cardinal Sheen and pro-social features such as “Singing in the Rain,” “Mary Poppins,” “The Wizard of Oz”, and like features will be shown biannually. Unsocial presentations will be prohibited regardless of alleged entertainment value. (“If you do not like it, do not come back.”) Celebrities will be shown as the fake humans they usually are—It takes them hours to look like they do, and all they want is you to look at them and then do what they tell you to do. Public television will be limited to weather and sports. Call all this “punishment” if you want.
  9. Swearing will be forbidden as examples of vocabulary deficit with opportunity for learning appropriate communication at the same time. All guards will be trained in extinguishing swearing for themselves and prisoners. Swearing and obnoxious language is pollution to be prohibited. Rehabilitation means language will be civilized, pro-social, and community enhancing. It is that basic. Incivility of whatever nature undoes any rehabilitation. Call clean speech “punishment” if you want.
  10. Books, newspapers and journals of pro-social nature will be available, encouraged and discussed. Because of its well documented creation of murderers, the Koran will be prohibited, as will any other document of proven un-civilizing nature.
  11. Pro-humanity religions will be promoted. My brief stay revealed Bill Glass9 promotions and Christianity efforts as occasionally effective, but I am sure there are others. Success should increase with implementation of 6, 7, 8, and 9 supra. Those embracing Jesus were astonishingly remarkable. I suspect that such also occurs with other denominations which primarily promote Love and the transcendentals. “The Ensoulment of the Anthropic Principle” (attached) 10 could be the paradigm for all inmate activities in weekly discussions…and, as mentioned before, Ancient Secrets Updated to Scientific Mysticism from which it came could be used without proselytizing. The Inner Change Freedom Initiative of Houston, Texas and the Prison Fellowship of Chuck Colson11 sound right to me in trying to develop prisoner created and run “businesses” when released from prison. Well recognized is that a good “culture shock” (real “rehabilitation” for inmates) is needed to replace criminality with genuine spirit instead. Those against these programs, such as Americans United for Separation of Church and State, should be recognized as unconstitutional and un-American in trying to prevent the “free exercise” of religiosity comparable to the Founders12 These anti-religious organizations are bigoted and discriminatory in that they malevolently attack “church” freely exercised in the state but do not attack “state” whenever freely present in “churches”—in other words, the church-state separation maniacs are frauds. The theophobia discrimination by the Americans United and others is nothing but contemporary bigotry equal to that previously used against Jews, Blacks, Asians and any group thought different enough to be called derogatory names, mocked, rejected, not hired, first fired, demeaned in theaters, degraded by press and media, editorially persecuted and considered to be intolerably thinking the wrong way—just no armbands with a Cross on them yet. It seems that some of the protestors of past discrimination are unwittingly doing the same to the latest rejected group—believers. This bigotry should not be allowed in prison rehabilitation efforts especially—the Founders' religiosity cannot be denied imitation.
  12. Sexual matters will be understood as simple biological acts which should be compatible with the planet and Nature, i.e., biological pheromone control for reproduction for sub humans and, for humans, the psycho-social pheromone of traditional marriage.  Copulation (reproduction consistent natural sexual activity between mature opposite members of the same species) is a simple biological reflex in all nature. For humans, it deserves privacy like all personal biological acts. The right to privacy for one’s biological personal acts exists as does the obligation and responsibility to keep those acts private without imposing on and violating the privacy rights and expectations of others. Privacy should be kept private. Sexuality is not natural any way other than as Nature rules, which is obvious in the animal kingdom of which humans are a part (Do you have a cat?).  Biological reflexes should not be used incompatible with natural function. To misuse biological reflexes is unnatural and thus is behavioral pollution for humans leading to dyssocial behavior and impaired human relationships. This is true both in prison and out. So-called “recreational sex” (I name it “sexcretion”) will be understood as an excretory relief offering act, but out of norms for the animal kingdom including humans. The sex act is a simple 60 second biological reflex. Like any other body reflex, it can become over stimulating and take over habitually which is not only un-natural but stupid as well. When it does this, it is body dysmorphic disorder which should be treated as any other disease or disorder consistent with disability laws. Over all, the sex act and its cultural sensationalizing for advertising and attention-getting, is to be mocked and excluded from rehabilitation efforts.
  13. Lie Detectors must be developed which are inexpensive and accurate so that inmates, guards, bureaucrats, and administrators learn that truth (which includes being in confluence with nature) is the best policy and the only sustainable basis for pro-social outcome. President Obama has spoken of providing billions of dollars for brain research. Its major goal should be to develop an inexpensive effective lie detector for use by all in the legal and political system.
  14. Homosexuality is to be treated respectfully by laws as for any other disorder.  However it is time for “gay” is to be recognized as a “cult” of penis maniac/ vagina phobia for males and vice versa for females.  The gay cult13 with its promotions, blurring of development, recruiting (chicken-hawking), seducing, violence, 6 foot penises for parades, etc. is to be prohibited and to be seen as the confused peace-disturbing anti-social plague it is. Prisoners were mostly negative about homosexuality and rejected them almost as the child molesters were rejected. Rage reactions would be more common also. Most inmates wanted nothing to do with them and thought them sick if any wanted to play openly the gay role. Homosexuals should receive help if they want it. If not, they should live with it, but without promoting it or disturbing others by imposing a disdain of basic privacy rights and normal and natural obligations. Thankfully, people with disorders do not promote their disordered state but use disability laws instead and try to fit in normally. Homosexuals and anyone with other body dysmorphic disorders should do the same. Sex should be psychologically returned to a simple biological act instead of a disorder demanded to be seen as normal. Body dysmorphic disorders cannot be promoted in prisons any more than diabetes, epilepsy, hypertension or any other malfunctioning of the body. They can deny they have a disorder all they want, but they have to keep it to themselves and not demand to act it all out, even in prison. Penis maniacs have to learn to control themselves.
  15. Pregnancy backgrounds of all inmates are to be assessed for each prisoner: mother’s health, birth control used before impregnation, pregnancy environment including television movies seen, music listened to, and violence or stressful experiences imposed during their intra-uterine lives. This information should help with research for causes of anti-social and criminal behavior which began in utero and likely continued during early development. If musically gifted children result from mothers who played classical music to their unborn children, then it might be important to identify adverse effects, if any, of violent movies and raucous discordant rap on the unborn child (As an aside, I personally concluded in prison that the number of tattoos a person has, is reflected by the loss of confident selfhood resultant from the cacophonous dissonance of their intra-uterine and immediate post-delivery lives).  Intra uterine life registers what is outside and prepares any child in anticipation. Precociously musically talented children from music playing mothers parallel young Native American boys removed, placed and raised to manhood in a total white culture who reverted immediately to Indian Culture upon return to their biological families.14 The intrauterine lives of the tattooing, drug-abusing, criminal population must be considered as linked to the intractable need for “escape” by almost any means possible. Today’s technology must present inexpensive devices capable of offering calm and intelligence which prepares, for the intrauterine child, a productive and prosocial life after birth. We are not born blank.  Hopefully, sound recommendations for the treatment of pregnant women and protecting the unborn child will be forthcoming and helpful in reducing many disorders.
  16. Cigarettes, alcohol, marihuana, and street drugs are to be prohibited. My experience revealed almost universal history of “escape” inducing drug use by prisoners since about 13 years of age. It has been estimated that over 90% of crimes are related to drug-alcohol abuse. The legalizing of marihuana (It remains in the body for weeks), seems counterproductive, no doubt another Stanley Milgrim/Adolf Eichmann “evil is good” fabrication imposed by stoned editors of the liberal press & media.  The long term use will prove detrimental to many, and this will be censored by the same editors. The use of the mentioned agents overall is more damaging than plain cigarettes.
  17. Propoxyphene (Darvon) should become available again for pain treatment because it has potential equal to methadone for prevention of drug abuse. The suppression of this fact is unethical and efforts to improve this quality should be undertaken by pharmaceutical companies.
  18. For long sentenced prisoners, income producing jobs must be learned while in prison and available at local factories given tax advantages for locating near the prison. Ideally, supported housing would be available nearby for those finally being released, and might be provided by the employing local factory or business.
  19. Victimhood promotions should be prohibited. They prevent assumption of responsibility and promote “poor me” paralysis. It really is just begging.15 Victimhood is counterproductive. "Color" identification needs to be ignored. Do not label by color but by the content of character. "Color" as designating people has not worked. Color divides; fragments; creates hostility; puts chips on one's shoulders; offends automatically; depersonalizes to incivility; makes one to be a professional victim, begging or demanding without productivity; paralyzes one to "poor me" ineptness; inflates with loud self-deluded arrogant Narcissism; dehumanizes to violence; makes people crazy; and enables evil leaders to manipulate weak suggestible peers to un-virtuous acting out of emotions. Color means "unworthy content of character" and that one can do anything one feels like doing without consideration of virtue.  Color makes one to be a Klu Klux Klan thinker of old: "I am better than those different and they must defer to me!"  Any one who uses color should be rejected as a KKK (kolor,kolor,kolor)--which is the same as a CCC (color,color,color)---beige, black, brown, pink, red, white, yellow--empty wavelengths signifying nothing. We must identify as HUMANS: African, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, Negro, and by other words which bring the personhood of transcendent human history: Life, Sacrifice, Virtue, Love, Humanity, Peace, Freedom, and Death without Fear by commitment to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Color does none of that and is just an empty wavelength.  Color does the opposite. Tell those dealing with "color" to stop and deal with humanity based words instead. Color makes matters worse. "Color" is superficial and skin-deep thoughtlessness. Color always fails. It will always fail because it is not fully human because it ignores the content of one's character. Instead, people should be known by the content of their character.
  20. Because of the deprived and abusive stress filled backgrounds of all prisoners, abreactive "Amytal" interviews will be performed at time of admission. Behavioral improvement after such abreactions has been almost routine in military for post-traumatic stress disorders. The potential for improvement for those with comparable "social traumatic stress" almost universal in criminals. It is likely that such interviews will have therapeutic impact on anyone needing to use drugs to "escape" from their childhoods and social assaults.
  21. With much discomfort, I thought of requiring prisoners to expatriate themselves to another country of their choosing if convicted of incarcerating criminality after a third prison term was served.  None liked the idea when broached. May be it will work? Five months in prison has compelled me to offer this for the benefit of millions of men, and probably women too, who have been unable to achieve a prosocial civilized life in a culture which overwhelmed them to need to “escape.” These 20 rehabilitation proposals will begin a process of healing not now existent.

Acknowledgments

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Conflicts of interest

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