In the "Prison will reshape inmates..." article, certain realities are focused by the top Ohio Corrections psychologist, Lamar Johnson and by Carl Anderson, warden of the Mansfield Prison in Ohio. One 20-year-old man, J. G., headed to Ohio’s death row at Mansfield Correctional Institution said of ----- -----, convicted and sentenced to prison (for killing for money), "It’s a totally different world. I’ve had to adapt my whole life to millions of different environments. Getting myself right with God. But to live in that environment, I’ll have to do things that aren’t right with God."

He’s probably right...(he) will be entering a world supported by taxpayers, but which is largely shielded from public view.

Lamar Johnson... said life on the inside is rough. "Men test each other in prison...The stronger you are physically and the more powerful you are as a person, the safer you are going to be."

Johnson said gangs within prisons immediately try to extort new inmates for money and sex. When a new inmate comes in, they will test you and see how gullible you are. Someone will give you a couple of cigarettes and say, "Here, have these," Johnson said.

"The inmate who accepts the cigarettes is immediately marked. In prison, there is no such thing as something for nothing. The person who accepted the cigarettes is now in debt. They’ll be forced to pay financially, emotionally, physically and sexually." Johnson said.

Inmates will have the families of fellow prisoners send money to their own families. "The extortion goes on and on," he said.

Johnson said inmates also physically test a new prisoner. "If you walk away from a fight, you just got targeted. Whop ‘em to death. If you walk away, you’ve just become a commodity and you’ll have problems," he said.

Anderson confirmed the problems. "There are predators. There are gangs that try to control all of the deviant behavior in prisons -- drugs, prostitution,extortion," he said.

Anderson said prison officials don’t tolerate it when they find out about it. "But we can’t pretend like it doesn’t exist. Inmates are pressured to get involved in drugs and drug trafficking and prostitution," Anderson said.

The state of Ohio employs a person whose sole job is to investigate and monitor gang activity on the inside of prisons.

Ironically, it is the mindset of wanting to break laws and push limits that keeps prisoners safe from the biggest problems in state lock-ups -- their fellow inmates.

What an inmate was on the outside (free world) "...will be stripped away in prison.. .men will be judged by other inmates for what they are at their core."

Johnson said inmate gangs typically work in threes. "One is the brains, devising up the schemes for exactly what they want from each new inmate. Another inmate, usually the strongest physically, is the ‘enforcer.’ The third, the smoothest talker, will ‘reel people in,’" he said. He’ll be the one offering the cigarettes.

The inmates who will get the least amount of hassles from fellow prisoners are those with valuable skills, which in prison means understanding the law and being able to type.

"If you are perceived as having nothing else, you have your body," Johnson said. Prison officials admit rape behind bars is a serious problem they are virtually powerless to stop...Loners never make it unless they are extremely strong personally and physically...Johnson said many African-Americans become Muslims and whites often align with the Aryan Brothers.

"The groups give them protection," he said.

One former inmate said he will never forget the first night at the Lorain Correctional Institution -- where inmates are taken first for testing and processing (as one of two such facilities in the Ohio Dept. of Corrections; the second being Corrections Reception Center at Orient, Ohio).

"It was like the walls were falling in on me," he said. His mind, he said, was his biggest enemy. "I kept thinking they were going to get me," he said.

At first, he said he was most afraid of the guards. Later,...own you.’

He said he was never raped because he learned quickly how to handle himself. ‘You’ve got to walk, talk, and act like you’re bad," he said. "Rape, drugs, extortion, even knife fights over a pack of cigarettes are common, he said."

OHIO PRISONS: FACTS AND FIGURES

Ages of the general prison population in Ohio:

Source: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections

* * * * * *

Another interesting development in Ohio Corrections system, in another Tribune Chronicle article (written by Paul Souhrada for The Associated Press, Victims avoid parole hearings 9/7/96), was the new "Open hearings policy." "The open hearings -- required under Ohio’s sentencing law that went into effect July 1 -- are a change for a board that previously did all its work behind closed doors and based its decisions on written reports.

The new law allows victims, prosecutors, judges, police, and inmate representatives to tell board members why they oppose or favor a prisoner’s release.

Not all hearings will be open. Only those considered by the full 12-member board are eligible, including those involving life sentences and sex crimes. Last year, 501 cases were heard the full board; 23,760 more were heard by panels.

Paroles was granted about 20 percent of the time, prison officials said."

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The article noted the conspicuous lack of response on the part of victims to attend such hearings. Ms. G, Ohio Parole Board’s chairwoman speculated, "...she expected the number of victims or members of their families testifying at parole board hearings to increase as people grow accustomed to the new system."

So much for the newspaper articles. There is little that I disagree with, much like someone giving an assessment of what vendors sell at football stadiums at the games; peanuts, candy, pop, pop corn, and hot dogs on buns. My point is that there are many other items being hawked by vendors, in and out of the stadium -- everything from team memorabilia to pot to sex, etc. The same of prisons, prison games; and their players, ranging from administrators to simple employees, inmates, and the public. The players range through ranks of predators to victims, with the lines dividing the realms being very thin. How do you victimize and not become a victim? How can you be a victim and yet not victimize from that very condition? Philosophical questions? Probably, for the reason that there are so many complexities for the issues that simple answers are confusing at best. I refer to victims in the sense that many people are encouraged to become (turning the other cheek) victims to remaining victims through the narcotic of sympathy from others to enhance the self-pity kept alive in the "Ain’t it awful" syndrome so popular with sensation-seeking mass media workings.

One area of professional assessment/opinion was about the old "couple of cigarettes" routine. It’s along the lines of the old Anti-pot films entitled, "Marijuana Madness, and Killer Weed," popular in the ‘50’s. The films eventually became humorous to contemporary young people (in the ‘60’s to date) because of the absurdity posed in the dramatic films. In the joint (prison), if someone offers you a couple of cigarettes, it won’t be because he wants to force you into debt so that you’ll be forced to pay financially, emotionally, physically and sexually." It will be more likely that it is some nerd trying to befriend you out of empathy, sympathy, and possibly even compassion. The bad boys who want to thoroughly corrupt and violate you wouldn’t stoop to such archaic approaches as a "couple of cigarettes" or a candy bar or two. The new "predator" would simply take time to "size you up." This process involves a series of approaches ranging from hard stares to soft friendly conversations. In some cases, simple observations of the new inmate will classify his personality "type."

The predator will watch you and listen to you in your conversations with others before he approaches you himself. The term usually reserved for the intended victim is now "Sucker." The terms change from time to time, but the reference is always degrading, demeaning, and usually disgusting in some manner or other.

Usually the cultured, sophisticated, non-violent inmate is the choice target to victimize. Most of these individuals are oriented for keeping focused on a life beyond prison. The reality was best focused in Lamar Johnson’s assessment that "...men (inmates) will be judged by other inmates for what they are at their core."

If you have a capacity for violence to yourself and others, you may be an excellent candidate for becoming a predator in the prison you are placed in; if you have enough hurt that you avoid by not giving a damnned about consequence in any form, you may terrorize your more rational peers in the prison setting. Many predator inmates become quite adept at this process; many such inmates cannot even spell "psychologist," but they are one themselves. In fact, many times, they are more proficient at determining "fear" and to know just how "soft" (vulnerable) the target victim might be. Some of the victims will be selected for their perceived potentials. One type may be lucrative for money hustles, another for sexual abuse or one for both. Another victim is the one who may be manipulated into doing the bidding of the "clever" manipulative inmate. Fear is usually the medium approached in this type of endeavor. If you convince an inmate who is inordinately concerned with survival at any cost, you have found an excellent candidate for a step-n-fetch "go fer" (go for anything) type of follower.

Gang leaders are constantly concerned for recruiting such "follower" types. This is so particularly of strong, young men who are not particularly able to think for themselves when fear gets in the way of common sense or rational logic.

Coming in on another angle, it should become obvious now that a rationally planned, relatively fully-staffed twentieth century organization utilizing all of the scientific knowledge available about human psychology and sociology, could make helpless, childlike dependents of large numbers of people through a variety of techniques. It has been, and is being, done throughout the world in and out of prisons.

The young inmate has the current option through being imprisoned with large numbers of their primary groups (gangs) to cooperate in protecting each other (from other predatory inmates) and in this union, not be required to abandon entirely the prior cultural determinates of their status and behavior -- which usually led them to prison in the first place. In fact, members of some of these groups often consider themselves as martyrs as beiiig the oppressed of society rather than being the oppressors in their criminality. Amongst their peers, inside and outside of prison, many of the convicted felons gain esteem because their behaviors had determined them dangerous enough to be imprisoned. In this, there is also the aire of being considered by themselves and their peers as being superior to their oppressors (criminal justice systems). This is why many of this type of individual is able to sustain previous character, group consciousness, and a sense of responsibility which assists in preventing their personality disintegration.

Those who have had difficult, hard lives in the outside communit characteristically adapt less painfully to the prison environment. Many first timers seemed relieved when they see that prison life is not so different from their lives in the "projects." The fittest survive through deviance from societal norms as defined by statute in our courts of law. Lying, theft, deception, violence, hateful resistance of authority are healthy, acceptable character traits for the most influential inmate leaders/role models. The idea seems to be one which turns the inmate further and further away from what the system would feign desire of the incarcerated felon; to become non-criminal, socially acceptable/productive citizens someday in the larger community.

More and more, Corrections are moving away from the notion of rehabilitation in favor of the popular concept of revenge masqueraded as "justice." Punishment is gratifying to a fearful public and the politicians feed upon the gore therein.

A BREATHER, TO TAKE US OFF THE HEAVY STUFF.

Must protect against becoming tunnel visioned like most parole authorities.

" I am afraid to grow old--we’re all afraid. In fact, the fear of growing old is so great that every aged person is an insult and threat to the society. They remind us of our own death, that our body won’t always remain smooth and responsive, but will someday betray us by aging, wrinkling, faltering, failing. The ideal way to grow old would be to grow slowly invisible, gradually disappearing, without causing worry or discomfort to the young. In some ways that does happen. Sitting in small park across from a nursing home one day, I noticed that the young mothers and their children gathered on one side, and the old people from the home on the other. Whenever a youngster would run over to the "wrong" side, chasing a ball, or just trying to cover all the available space, the old people would lean forward and smile. But before any communication could be established, the mother would come over, murmuring embarrassed apologies, and take her child to the young side."

-- Sharon Curtain

I don’t remember where I found this tid bit above about aging, but I did remember to give credit to the author, Sharon Curtain.

I thought you might enjoy it and the somber reality it seems to focus for those of us who have survived to "age." My major problem comes when I look in the mirror and see this fat, old man looking at me as my reflection in the mirror. In my mind and heart’s "eye" I do feel about 26 years old rather than the actual 56 years of age. I am sure many younger people would think that was great, but I find this phenomenon a bit hazardous when I try to move and behave like a 26-year-old man. (Smile?)

The next sheet will begin with a-18. Have a good day.