Transcript
INSTITUTIONALISM Many of us incarcerated individuals who are cognizant about the nature of prison life will have the ability to grasp the inner meaning behind this article. lnstitutionalism plays a tremendous role in controlling the minds of those confined to these prisons. Prison politics have a way of keeping a person’s mentality stagnated, only focusing on the here and now. All of which is irrelevant to one’s progression. For those reading this article, ask yourself how many times you have sat back and watched grown men spend their time focused on irrelevant matters such as who is partaking in homosexual acts with other homosexuals, who has what in their cell, who owes whom money, who talked smack to whom and he didn’t do nothing about it. Jailhouse gossip never has gotten anybody anywhere. When one is institutionalized, their mind remains where they are at physically. Situational factors and the environment in which these people are confined dictates their moves. The institution becomes their life. Unconsciously, they allow these institutions to become their home. Instead of being focused on matters that allow them to greet success with acceptance and honor, they remain focused mentally inside the box. They have no ability to use abstract thinking. They are so absorbed in prison politics that they miss millions of opportunities to make themselves better people. Academically, they lack. They only know the ways of the institution. They live in the ins and the outs of these places they have mastered. Prisons back in the day were academic arenas that provided time for people to learn. Education was important to the people who used these institutions for the right reasons. lnstead, now, in modern times, you find the average man walking around these institutions dead to the world psychologically. The men who spend time reading books and seeking a higher education have minds that are not trapped inside these oppressive establishments. This is the real meaning of doing time and not allowing time to do you. To defeat oppression, we must be able not to accept it. Once we accept it, we support it. Freedom is established when we learn to control our own bodies and not allow the places we live in dictate the person we are. Educate to liberate. Christopher Balmer GX—5754, SCI Greene
