Today’s blog is from Carole Santos
I’ve watched a few of episodes of Hoarding: Buried Alive on TLC. Hoarding is a disturbing condition in which sufferers are unable to stop themselves from acquiring and holding onto possessions. It’s a costly, debilitating condition that destroys relationships and creates an isolating environment. Hoarders are unable to break the behavior cycle without extreme intervention. Each episode of the show features the intervention process; specialists who treat the condition attempt to help a hoarder let go of (and dispose of) mountains of hoarded possessions. The emotionally wrenching process is probably what fascinates and draws viewers. Nevertheless, the show places a giant spotlight on this horrific, secretive condition.
I’m constantly thinking about prison in some way–even while I watched an episode of Hoarding last week. As the drama on television unfolded, I found myself comparing the characteristics of hoarding behavior (secretive; excessive acquisition of possessions; failure to use or discard possessions; costly; debilitating; destroys relationships; isolating environment) to prisons and those who legislate, regulate, and govern them. The more I thought about it, the more clear it became to me: The prison system is a compulsive hoarder!
There are volumes of published reports, studies, and statistics that validate and document the relatively recent explosion of federal and state prison populations and the resulting costs, both social and financial. But those reports are usually prepared by and distributed among the “think tanks,” not the general public, and if/when they are reported in the news media, citizens don’t seem to have an interest in hearing about prison or changing it.
Of all the prison system’s characteristics that are consistent with hoarding, though, I think the most relevant is its vigilant resistance to reducing the massive population. (Remember, inability to discard possessions is classic hoarding behavior.) Whether it’s individual States seeking to balance budgets with massive deficits, or the BOP’s willful disregard for the provisions of the Second Chance Act, or Congress’s romance with prison lobbyists, even discussing the idea of implementing early release for nonviolent and deserving prisoners generates extreme emotional distress among those who rely upon, support, and operate state and federal prisons.
Prison dehumanizes because administrators treat prisoners like possessions, like inventory. Registration numbers replace names. Prisoners are processed and managed in the same way inventory is processed and catalogued. Move them here, send them there…pack up, disrupt…just a number on a page in a file. Wives be damned, children be damned, families be damned, costs be damned…it’s all about the numbers and acquiring more! Even while hoarding such a massive, ever-increasing population, the prison system refuses to utilize those tremendous resources. (For one example, read Michael’s recent blog article: Catastrophe in the Gulf: Utilize Prisoners as Manpower.) I’m not an expert, but it doesn’t take an expert to figure out that by removing opportunities for prisoners to maintain community ties, eliminating mechanisms for earning freedom, and cutting programs that promote rehabilitation, administrators and legislators utterly reject the idea that prisoners are human resources, the majority of whom could contribute to society in meaningful ways—especially those with valuable skills, education, and talents.
Treatment for a compulsive hoarder is comprehensive. It requires an interdisciplinary team of professionals who are committed to going the distance, and who are prepared to confront deep emotional dysfunction and irrational resistance to change. As explained by the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization (NSGCD): “Assistance is needed from many sources. A team needs to be assembled. Members of the team should be identified before beginning additional work. A written strategy needs to be outlined and contractual agreements made before proceeding.” To “treat” (translate: reform) the prison system will require scores of professionals (scholars, sociologists, activists, and others who are pushing hard for prison reform). Senator Jim Webb has proposed a committee to define the written strategy—Congress only needs to agree to it.
The problem is obvious to me but, as Michael’s wife, prison is part of my life and I think about it every day. Perhaps if it was featured on an episode of Hoarders, millions of viewers would finally recognize that the prison system is desperately in need of an extreme hoarding intervention. Does anyone know the executive producer at TLC?
Michael’s exercise log for today:
ran 10 miles / 4,917 miles over 552 days
1,000 pushups / 65,600 pushups in 2010
Thursday, 17 June 2010
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3 Responses to Prison Journal: Day 8,347
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Way off base. “hoarding” has nothing to do with the need to control those individuals needing to be controlled. I am now much less receptive to your web postings . . . surely you realize your loved one who is incarcerated is probably an exception . . . The largest percentage of criminals incarcerated need to be there – for a long time. I do wish you the best, however. Just get your head on straight.
Hello. I’m not sure why you read our blog…from your comment it doesn’t appear that you have much knowledge of or experience with the prison system. Nevertheless, I’m happy to respond to your comment.
I wrote an analogy, a metaphorical comparison between the concept of the present-day prison system as a dysfunctional system and the concept of hoarding as dysfunctional behavior—specifically, the shared behaviors I see from my perspective. I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s not a literal comparison.
As I wrote in my blog entry, I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve spent a long time making a conscious effort to grasp the macro and micro concepts of prison. My head is exactly where it needs to be. For the past nearly 10 years I’ve had a unique opportunity to study prisons from many perspectives. I am married to a long-term prisoner who is an ethnographer and whose work is a study of the prison system at all security levels. I’ve read the published reports, I’ve read the legislation, I’ve met and interacted with scholars, professors, lawyers, judges, as well as many prisoners, many prison families, and many people who work for the prison system. I’ve also studied and cared for many people who suffer from mental health illnesses, including hoarding—I understand the pathophysiology of the condition.
Simply put, the end result of hoarding is the constant acquisition of too much stuff with a refusal to part with any of it. The analogy I use in comparing our overstuffed prisons to hoarders—and it’s absolutely true—is that the prison system is bursting with people who do not need to be serving decades-long sentences, yet any proposal for early release of non-violent offenders or any prisoner who has demonstrated an effort to earn freedom raises massive resistance. Choruses of fear mongering and justifications burst forth from those who make money off the system and those who insist that longer sentences are the answer to the problem of crime in our society. Rather than releasing non-violent offenders into community programs or home confinement, rather than reducing the prison population by freeing prisoners like Michael who have demonstrated a commitment to earning freedom, they push to build more prisons. Much as they (and you, apparently) would like to believe that message, it’s wrong. Further, it is offensive to use prisons as mechanisms simply to sustain and generate jobs.
Some people do need to be in and should remain in prison. However, the root word of penitentiary is penitent, not punishment. Prisons in America began with the purpose of encouraging offenders to become penitent, not to lock them away and forget about them. The greater percentage of those incarcerated today (and many are non-violent offenders) in the American prison system do not need to be “controlled” but given examples of people like Michael to follow. They need role models, they need education, they need HOPE that something better is possible. It is a proven behavior model that works exceptionally well. The prison system rejects Michael’s example of making a commitment to earning freedom because Congress makes laws about governing prison from a skewed perspective, clinging to the idea that simply locking someone up for years and decades will “correct” them. It doesn’t work, and the majority of those who are incarcerated are going to return to society–significantly less prepared to live law-abiding lives than they were when they entered prison.
Educating the public about the need for prison reform is the purpose of Michael’s work, and our blog is one branch of that effort. Please seek out and read the reports, read the statistics, study the system–not just from the law enforcement side, from all sides. Until then, the one thing I agree with in your message is that my husband is an exception. Michael is a magnificent human being in every way–as a man, as a husband, as a leader, as a role model, as a visionary.
Best wishes,
Carole Santos
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