SOCIAL ATOM: AN ALTERNATIVE TO IMPRISONMENT

Abstract

Each time I enter the prison gates, I am struck by the quietness of the place. It feels akin to the silence of a tomb where life meets death. I remember when I began consulting how frightened, enraged, and saddened I was at seeing this place. I was overwhelmed and frightened at the harshness and desolation of prison life; and, now, after spending four weeks a year for the past three years working with the male inmates in psychodramas, I am amazed how I no longer allow myself to fully experience the "place." In order for me to continue working with the men, I have to "control" what I feel, see, and experience; and I believe that is what is required of most people inside the prison walls. It is necessary to deny the reality of the moment to continue existing there. To me, being in prison is experiencing living death. It is an institution so conserved and controlled that to survive one must live in the past or future. The present has no room for relationships, spontaneity nor creativity. Time takes on new dimensions, and the notion that "each man does his own time" although relevant to every human being is a stark reality in prison.