Sunday, March 18, 2012

Two Worlds

Of course, we are in prison. And yet many of us spend up to six days each week out in the
community. And these are two very different worlds.
As we log out at the Gate - an ambitious title for a striped pole - we must look outwards, our mindset shifting instantly from "prison" to "community" with all that entails. Behaviour, language, perception, all have to be re-calibrated. Prison attitudes have to be shrugged off and the attitudes of the wider community adopted.
On our return we must use the short distance between the bus-stop or car park and the Gate to reverse the process. We are about to become "prisoners" once again. In just a few short steps the community must be shut away, boxed off in one’s mind and we must prepare again for the prison experience.


This shift, this switching between prison and Outside is one that I am told can be psychologically wearing over time. To be a Citizen one moment and an Outcast the next can leave some tired and prone to mistakes. Not criminal mistakes, or outbursts of outrageous behaviour, but mistakes that the prison allows no quarter for.
A strict delineation must be maintained in our minds between In Here and Out There, no matter how that strains our emotions. And this is something that our keepers have absolutely no comprehension of.

3 comments:

  1. I know how you feel. I was in a children's home for a few years. There was the life when we were cofined to the grounds, and the short time we were allowed out to go to ordinary day schools.
    We had two different ways of life, at the end of the school day it was returning to the home and re-setting our thoughts to "their way" of thinking.

    Just have in your mind that soon 95% of your time will be generally free.

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  2. It looks like what they require of you, is to be some kind of Shakespearian actor, ready to step onto any stage, to perform any character they wish! This is where reality jumps ship, as many of the staff at your favourite hotel, do not have any concept of acting, learning character roles, being able to comprehend the reasons why a character is like they are, or spell most of the text within.
    We know these are facts, as many of the staff at your favourite hotel, are either ex-army, or ex-police, and none of them, are too bright upstairs, as we are now being told.
    So, in truth, Ben, you have got to rise above their level, to be who you really are. So, "Just Do It", then you never will need to stay in any of their hotels again! They serve crap coffee anyway!

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  3. "A strict delineation must be maintained in our minds between In Here and Out There, no matter how that strains our emotions. And this is something that our keepers have absolutely no comprehension of."

    Maybe, maybe not. The police and prison workers, have to go to work, where they treat people as criminal; then their shift ends, and they have to treat people as 'people'.

    They do this week in and week out. And if they get confused, we get to read about it in the local press... sometimes.

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