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"...There is something
else I want to share with you,...Learned Helplessness: The
New Prisoners Dilemma
I have been incarcerated
since [the early 190s] and have observed many
changes in the treatment and attitude or prisoners. During
my incarceration I have been fortunate enough to earn a 4
year degree in psychology from xxx University. And at the
xxx where I was housed for 11 years, there was a psychiatric
unit and I moderated a peer counseling program, for 10 years
in which there were several men with emotional and
personality disorders. I tell you this so you will know that
I have some understanding of human behavior.
I know that you...are
very much aware of the abuses by prison guards that have
come to light, arranged by "Gladiator fights," beating and
killing prisoners with impunity, and the cover ups. And just
Jews were dehumanized and vilified in Nazi Germany 60 years
ago, so are lifers being dehumanized and vilified in
California today.
When I was first
incarcerated...there was a different attitude among
prisoners and guards than there is today. Firstly, life
prisoners were being rewarded with parole for positive
programming; secondly, the "CDC Inmate Appeal (CDC 602)
system worked. But today, virtually no life term prisoners
are being paroled, and the CDC 602 system no longer works
and guards get away with abuses.
"In the 70s and 80s, the
appeal process worked and when it failed and the prisoner
was right the courts righted the wrong. A prisoner is
wronged, files a 602 supporting his claim with facts and CDC
regulations and the 602 is denied, or "partially granted,"
whatever that means. The California courts have become so
conservative that there are no published opinions favorable
to prisoners since the early 80s. After being wronged a few
times, and the prisoner not being able to right the wrong
through the proper channels, he soon learns that no matter
what he does it will not change things, and he gives up and
quits trying; learned helplessness sets in. What will be the
long-term impact on these prisoners and society as men are
released back into society with learned
helplessness?
"And greater still are
the mood swings life prisoners go through doing everything
we are told to do then being denied parole and the parole
board blatantly violating the law in its operation. And we
have to watch men who are not doing life, leave and return,
sometimes 4 or 5 times, because they don't know how to live
in a free society. It is torture, but we somehow keep on
keeping on, and I think that says something about the
character of many of us lifers. I have watched, and
experienced myself, severe mood swings. As life term
prisoners who have committed a paroleable crime and are
eligible for parole, learned helplessness has affected us in
ways I never thought possible...
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