by Jack Bragen
The messages are hammered in when you’re incarcerated, and you’re expected to believe them. You are told you’re no good. You’re bad news. You don’t deserve anything. Not love, not comfort, not money, nothing. You are undeserving. You are a bad person, and you should be punished.
Other people believe this of you under these circumstances. Try as you might, you can’t control someone else’s beliefs.
But deep inside, you cry in protest. “You have me wrong. I’m a good person, I’m a decent person. I deserve things the same as anyone.”
There are many ways your soul can be hurt. There are many ways you can lose your soul. Sometimes this happens without a single physical blow; a bad enough social situation can do it.
The messages that detainees of the “corrections system” are expected to believe are more punitive than the physical discomfort and physical suffering of living in extremely rough conditions. If people affirm your goodness while you’re subjected to the same discomforts of living under cramped circumstances, being caged, having no privacy, etc., then living in prison would be considered heroic. This would happen if we had a different label than punishment. If we called it “an experiment” and if it were thought to be a way to gain knowledge, many people would admire you for it. The difference is in the messages.
If your name were Nelson Mandela, who was incarcerated 27 years, on the inside you would have been protected from these negative messages, which you would not give them credence.
During the Vietnam War, many activists were jailed for their anti-war activities. This is an example of a broadly accepted reason to be jailed. Presumably, the incarcerated anti-war activists would need a lot of support and morale-boosting during their stay. Without this support, their justified reasons for being jailed could be forgotten, and they might be left absorbing the messages and hating themselves, regardless of the initial reason for being in there.
Our 47th president knows something about defiance. Donald Trump has been convicted of 34 felonies, yet his followers perceive him as a hero. In his case, Trump has not absorbed the label of “crook,” probably because he won’t serve any prison time.
I was severely punished for breaking the law because of my psychiatric illness. When I was released, my probation officer said to me that I was “not a criminal,” and this was “not a criminal matter.”
One example of incarceration’s assault on the soul is the environment itself: it’s so “in your face” that it leaves our minds wide open and unable to resist the evil-minded messages that falsely call us evil people. These messages get a foothold in our psyches, and this can take months or years for a person to get it resolved.
I sat at the very bottom level of society. It was like living at the bottom or even underground level of a giant structure.
In our culture, experiences and circumstances can warp people’s minds, hearts, and souls, as do the messages force-fed to them. In a carceral environment, we are not permitted to think of ourselves as good—and, as a result, we are damaged by these messages and labels. While these wounds aren’t visible, the soul feels it deeply.
When you label someone a criminal, dress them in an orange jumpsuit, and attach chains to them, that’s a powerful statement. It isn’t necessarily true that you are guilty as charged, just that the courts have found you guilty. Even so, the courts can and do get it wrong sometimes and punish innocent people.
Regardless, the negative messages get hammered in. The punishment continues when you’re released.
You could find you are unable to get a loan from a car dealership. You could find that you are unhirable, regardless of whether you can do the job. And it is partly the fault of computers, databases and the digital age. It’s worth noting that some cities, such as San Francisco, have “banned the box” of job application questions of any carceral history.
What does it do to a person when society has branded them as worthless? It can ruin a person’s hope for a better life, foster resentment, and instill trauma.
The messages forced on you in custody cause you to function at an emotional, mental and spiritual deficit.
Indeed, the human soul can be harmed. The abusive treatment that prisoners receive is evidence of that.
Jack Bragen lives and writes in Martinez, California. Available on LULU.com, now: “Instructions for Dealing with Schizophrenia: A Self-Help Manual, Second Edition.”
