<story><title>How I survived a year in ‘the hole’ without losing my mind</title><url>https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/09/30/how-i-survived-a-year-in-the-hole-without-losing-my-mind</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bm3719</author><text>Most of us have been the victim of some kind of crime at some point in our lives.  The many times it&amp;#x27;s happened to me, I also considered the notion of empathy: namely that the criminal lacked it for me, the victim.&lt;p&gt;Not saying the current system is in any way an optimal solution or even close to it, but one thing it does provide is a lot of time for those who have acted without empathy to reflect on their misdeeds.</text></item><item><author>travisgriggs</author><text>I hate the US penal system. I grew up a semi conservative individual. Good guys and bad guys. Three strikes and your out sounded great. Tough on crime. All of that.&lt;p&gt;A couple years ago, I was asked by my faith congregation to serve as a volunteer at our local maximum security state prison, offering Sunday services to the inmates. I did so for 3 years. It changed me.&lt;p&gt;We’re there some truly troubled&amp;#x2F;warped people there? Yes. Do I kid myself that their “stories” weren’t surely one sided? No.&lt;p&gt;I was struck by how arbitrary the whole thing is. And how utterly ineffective it is. What troubled me the most is that we have outsourced    this whole raft of problems, without sending it overseas. We want “problems” to just go away. And stay away. And so we outsource the existence of human lives to an alternate universe that exists right beneath our toes. And we maintain fascinating opinions about these people and their lives, with almost zero insight into what the existence we consigned them to was.  When people heard I went to the prison every Sunday to visit with inmates, they would immediately wax their opinion about what it must be like. And I found over time that their imagination did not match my reality. Their can be no empathy in that scenario.&lt;p&gt;I dream (pointlessly) about a world where a much higher percentage of lay civilians spent volunteer time in prisons. Awareness leads to empathy. And only then when we weren’t outsourcing the issue, we might actually be moved to find something more effective.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>PheonixPharts</author><text>There&amp;#x27;s a bit of irony in the tone of this comment since it shows no capacity for empathy for those who commit crimes, most significantly in the sense that you clearly believe that prison is for others who are not you.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve been the victim of a range of crimes over my life including assault and robbery.&lt;p&gt;I particularly remember the one case where I was robbed from a studio apartment while I was sleeping. I was, obviously, quite rattled. I remember looking for other stories of this happening to people and was surprised how many people viewed being robbed as an assault on their dignity and expressed incredible desire for revenge. I just couldn&amp;#x27;t muster these same feelings.&lt;p&gt;While my day was ruined by the evening I could already feel my life coming back together: the lock had been changed, I cancelled all my credit cards, has a replacement license on it&amp;#x27;s way to me, and all in all was just out about $20 that had been in my wallet.&lt;p&gt;I had a realization then that while my life was already coming back together the life of the person who robbed me was perpetually in the state of chaos that I had felt that morning. I high risk, low reward robbery like that is typically for drug money, and undoubtedly whatever fix that robber had gotten for my $20 was long faded and they were back putting themselves at risk.&lt;p&gt;The key insight that hit me was that that momentary break in my sense of security that morning, that&amp;#x27;s what the person who robbed me constantly lives in. That person goes to bed with the same sense of insecurity I woke up in. But my security is only disrupted on these rare occasions where our lives our inverted, but my default is comfort and theirs is perpetually in that state baring that brief moment where they have enough money for that next fix.&lt;p&gt;I earnestly felt no need for any vengeance as any desire for vengeance was already dealt out by reality. What more punishment could I wish on someone than for them to wake up every morning feeling the same as I did for just that one.</text></comment>
<story><title>How I survived a year in ‘the hole’ without losing my mind</title><url>https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/09/30/how-i-survived-a-year-in-the-hole-without-losing-my-mind</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bm3719</author><text>Most of us have been the victim of some kind of crime at some point in our lives.  The many times it&amp;#x27;s happened to me, I also considered the notion of empathy: namely that the criminal lacked it for me, the victim.&lt;p&gt;Not saying the current system is in any way an optimal solution or even close to it, but one thing it does provide is a lot of time for those who have acted without empathy to reflect on their misdeeds.</text></item><item><author>travisgriggs</author><text>I hate the US penal system. I grew up a semi conservative individual. Good guys and bad guys. Three strikes and your out sounded great. Tough on crime. All of that.&lt;p&gt;A couple years ago, I was asked by my faith congregation to serve as a volunteer at our local maximum security state prison, offering Sunday services to the inmates. I did so for 3 years. It changed me.&lt;p&gt;We’re there some truly troubled&amp;#x2F;warped people there? Yes. Do I kid myself that their “stories” weren’t surely one sided? No.&lt;p&gt;I was struck by how arbitrary the whole thing is. And how utterly ineffective it is. What troubled me the most is that we have outsourced    this whole raft of problems, without sending it overseas. We want “problems” to just go away. And stay away. And so we outsource the existence of human lives to an alternate universe that exists right beneath our toes. And we maintain fascinating opinions about these people and their lives, with almost zero insight into what the existence we consigned them to was.  When people heard I went to the prison every Sunday to visit with inmates, they would immediately wax their opinion about what it must be like. And I found over time that their imagination did not match my reality. Their can be no empathy in that scenario.&lt;p&gt;I dream (pointlessly) about a world where a much higher percentage of lay civilians spent volunteer time in prisons. Awareness leads to empathy. And only then when we weren’t outsourcing the issue, we might actually be moved to find something more effective.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>texaslonghorn5</author><text>If it&amp;#x27;s a repeat problem, then the prison time isn&amp;#x27;t working, perhaps the best solution would be some other rehabilitative way to learn empathy...</text></comment>