#138 Minimum custody mentality (retro)

Minimum Custody Mentality

This morning I woke up and checked my emails to see about 9 readers who wrote to me about the last couple of blogs. You will remember I wrote on “the middle ground” and the last blog I wrote was in response to one or two comments. I got a ton of emails asking me to talk more about minimum custody and if there is a mental difference between it and higher custody levels.

So let’s begin.

First off, how am I qualified to talk about minimum custody? Well, part of the time I spent incarcerated was in minimum custody prisons…in fact, six. Pasquotank Correctional, Tyrrell Prison Work Farm, Sanford Correctional, Guilford Correctional, Robeson Correctional and Dan River Prison Work Farm.

That means I am qualified to say what I am about to say, but having said that, I always try to tell you guys that no two inmates do their time the same, and every person is different.

As many of you know, there are different levels to prison custody. Depending on the state, there can be several different custody levels, each with a certain set of characteristics. Generally speaking, there are 5 different levels. The Supermax prisons and maximum security prisons are the types you see on television, where inmates with violent crimes or high sentences are usually sent. Close custody prisons are pretty similar to max, but with a few more privileges than max. In the first three cases, security is heavy and often times inmate movement is minimum.

Medium custody inmates are restricted in many ways, but enjoy a couple more privileges. Now, I said that inmates in max or supermax prisons usually are the ones with the highest sentences. That is not always true. I knew a guy in medium custody that had 99 years, and knew a couple of older guys that may well die in prison.

Minimum custody is, of all the security levels, the least restrictive and for many, the most desired. There are many more privileges afforded to a minimum custody inmate that a higher level could not have. For example, in minimum custody, an inmate (depending on the prison system) would have far more access to the phone than an inmate in higher custody levels. Some higher security level prisons allow one phonecall a year. Some might allow one a week if you sign up for it. In every minimum custody prison I have been in, you could use the phone 100 times a day if you wanted, just within the hours that the phones are on.

“Well what are those hours?”

Generally speaking, an inmate in a minimum security prison can use the phone as early as I think 10am, and as late as 10pm, excluding count time or if the camp has a lock down. The phone privileges and the visitation are two of the most desired privileges of inmates in minimum custody. Lots of guys in higher security levels desire to get “promoted” to minimum custody because there is often more time on the yard, more time to use the phone, and better contact during visitation.

I say this to clear up any idea that there is some “better than” mentality from a person that did time at a higher security level and thinks he is better, or “tougher” than a person in minimum security. In the time I spent in prison, that was never a thought, and anyone who ever thought I was “looking down” in inmates some form of a one ups man ship it insane.

In fact, in many ways, it is completely opposite. Often times when a guy makes it to minimum security, there is a subdued level of joy for them because they now are in a better situation. I am not sure if I ever saw a guy come from a higher security level, and look down on his fellow inmates in minimum custody.

That is because there is a mentality that inmates have when progressing through security levels. You have to understand, when a guy gets a promotion in prison, he gains more privileges, so naturally he is going to see this as a good thing. His incarceration, and his life, has just become a little simpler.

And I think people misunderstand that because they take my words and isolate it to just mean that their life has become perfect. I never said that. It is still prison, and it can still be difficult at times.

My mentality when being “promoted” was dislike, because at the time I was in medium custody, I had my incarceration in control. I had a nice cell, a cool cell mate, a dorm where I was cool with almost everybody. I was working as an assistant to the GED instructor, making $1 a day (don’t laugh). To me, I was doing fine.

But when I was promoted, things changed. My privacy in a cell was no longer there because most minimum security prisons are large dorms. So now I am surrounded by other guys. In many minimum security prisons you HAVE to go outside during dorm cleanup, which can really be a drag. I really didn’t care much for it, and would have been glad to have stayed in medium security. But it was where I was, so I dealt with it.

I think a strong mentality in minimum custody inmates is the preparation of going back to a free society. Many guys in this custody level are within 1-3 years of being released, so it is critical that the inmate gets into some focus what he will be doing when he is released. Sadly, prisons are very bad in preparing an inmate for release. Some have what they call a “home plan” which simply is identification. They want to know where you will be living, if you have a job, and if so, where, and your phone number. These to me are worthless because it does not help an inmate prepare for life after prison. I mean, what if they asked me if I had a job, and I said “no”. Will they help me FIND one?

Nope.

So what’s the point, other than just identification?

Yet it is during these times that inmates need to have venues to change or adapt some new lines of thinking. For example, when I was in one of these prisons, there were days I would sit to myself, break out some paper and pens and start designing ideas of how to get my fragrance business back off the ground. I used to have a mail order business that did pretty well, and I tried to use that time to figure out how to create different packages, and how much I could sell them for and still make a profit.

That is planning for the future, and it is necessary if an inmate in prison, especially minimum custody, is going to have a fighting chance to make it when released. Understand what I am saying here, I am not talking about a prison hustle, I am talking about a legit business, paying taxes and all.

This is where prisons miss it, because they don’t instill a positive thread of hope in an inmate, rather trying to curve their “violent behaviors”. Now this is indeed necessary for some, which is why some take Anger Management, but you cannot remove a negative without planting something equally positive. If you leave a void, you only delay that inmate from going back to his original thinking.

This mentality can be based on the inmate trying to balance two things: the NOW and the FUTURE. Most inmates in minimum custody will be reentering society, and it is necessary for them to start developing some ideas, some goals, some dreams. Yet a lot of guys are too busy trying to live a “thug’s life” as some say. In fact, a lot of guys embrace it because it gives them some form of street credibility. There are indeed a lot of guys that see prison as a vacation, and a lot in minimum custody see it that way because they aren’t doing life, they aren’t doing 20 years, or 10 years, maybe not even 5 years. In some ways, it might just be seen as a “time out”.

So a lot of guys don’t take it seriously enough to try to develop real dreams or goals to change their life. A lot see prison as a neighborhood of like minds, and embrace that kinda society…almost to the point where it’s cool.

But if you ask a guy doing 36 months if he would like to do 360 months, that tune would change very quickly.

I met a lot of guys in minimum custody that didn’t seem quite focused on changing their life, and you can tell it in how they lived. It’s not what you see for one hour a day, or a couple hours a week, it’s what you see every single day in a person. I knew several guys in prison that knew when to “cheese it up” when they are in front of prison employees, but in the dorms, they were as crooked as the Nile river.

But I also knew guys that really wanted to change, but just didn’t know how. And that’s hard, because to have a desire, but no instruction, is very tough. I remember one guy I got to know while at Dan River, who wanted to get into music. He had heard from another guy that I used to work in radio, and he was always asking me questions about how to get into radio or the music business. I could tell he was trying to get a plan when he got out, and I told him anything he needed to know. I can respect that because I saw he was trying to do something right, not trying to just be a rough and tough inmate. There is a place for that, and most times it is not minimum custody.

I also knew a guy that wanted to do something but just didn’t know what. One guy that worked in the kitchen with me at Robeson always wanted to get into fragrances, because he knew a lot of guys that would buy colognes and stuff. Once he heard me talk about it, we had a lot of chats about how to start a business, how to find catalogues and other stuff.

No inmate wants to fail in life, and for many the path to changing begins once a dream or goal is known. Even the most hardened inmate has a dream, and if somebody takes the time to help him identify it, you then give him a new mentality, not just one of living in the now in prison, but how to prepare himself for his life after he gets out. And if this can be accomplished, you also give him a positive desire while he is doing his time.

But why is this so hard to do? Because most inmates are not introduced to a different mentality by choice, rather by force.

“Force”

Well, not in the physical idea that you think. More prisons teach change to inmates by guilt and condemnation, which is only a constant reminder of why the inmate is in prison to begin with. Who likes to be kicked in the head with their own faults and then told that they need to change? Inmates already KNOW that, and the problem here is that you are trying to force an inmate to accept an idea, when many inmates have gone into a protective mentality while in prison.

This makes it even harder to talk to a guy that is protecting himself on the inside. Nobody wants to be “called out” while in prison. Understand what I am saying here, you cannot make an inmate “confess his sins” while in prison because he will go into a defensive mode. Does this mean he does not WANT to change…no. But to bring that out of him, the tactics need to be more…gentle.

And that’s hard to get out an inmate, because we are conditioned to be “hard” while in prison. That means no crying, that means no whining about how hard life is in prison. It means never showing a “weakness”. The life of an inmate is a constant defense of one’s self and mentality, and sometimes it gets embedded into us so much that we actually embrace it more than change.

But know this, and I say this to any person with a loved one in prison, there is a thread of hope in every inmate in any prison, because we all want to do better, we all want to see better days, we all want to make our loved ones proud of us. When it comes to minimum custody inmates, these guys are the ones closest to society. These are the guys that get to hug or even kiss a loved one at visitation. These are the guys that get to call them more than once a day. These are the guys that get to go on the yard a little more, getting a taste of fresh air. These are the guys that get to work in work release, get home passes, or community visit passes. These are the guys that will be reentering society, and it is imperative that they get the seed of hope planted in them.

This is why you are so important folks. For many inmates, you are the last line of defense for change in their mentality. Give them something to believe in, give them a reason to hope. Give them a reason to value the hope of a better life, rather than the idea of prison life. I am not saying for a guy in minimum custody to abandon the temporary prison mentality he needs, but if it is all he embraces, then he may not be ready for the real world. And all too soon, he’ll be back in society, but not mentally ready to deal with it.

Anyway, hope that helps some of you. My thanks to those who support my blogs and email me about prison issues, I hope to continue to share more as we go along. You know the email, derf4000 (at) embarqmail (dot) com.