Inmate complaints and inhumane guards

Hello, PDN Friends--This is my first posting. I am sitting with a group of inmates at a prison in eastern Wisconsin. I find that often they like to get into discussions and complaints about various situations in the prison. I try to steer them away from this line of discussion because I find it disheartening and pretty useless. Today, I said I would like to continue their discussion at the end of our sitting because I had some ideas I would like to advance. So we sat for our usual time, and then I raised the topic of Nonviolent Communication and how it might be used in some situations. However, it became clear to me that I was being rather naive and that the situations they face are complex and sometimes nearly insoluble--particularly in the area of their relationship with certain guards. Later, in chatting with one of the chaplains, I asked whether there was or could be an informal committee of guards and inmates that might address complaints about treatment from both groups--something outside the normal, formal process (getting written up and ending up in the hole). He surprised me by saying the chapel staff is also sometimes rudely treated by some of the guards and the institution in general. "If they had their way," he said, "they would get rid of us." The inmates have told me the place is safe physically--there are few incidents--but it seems to me it isn't safe for human thriving. I am wondering whether anyone else has seen these types of problems and whether anyone has tried to tackle them--outside our traditional Buddhist practice. It seems to me that leadership is really key here, and I don't think this institution's leadership is interested in these "softer" issues. Also, I doubt that the guards receive much or any training in effective communications, human relations, etc.

Any comments from this group?

Kathy Derene
Madison, WI

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Permalink Reply by Fleet Maull on September 23, 2008 at 11:41am
Dear Kathy,
Thank you so much for posting this. Having spent 14 years inside, what you are describing is of course very familiar. There is great variation among staff and the way they treat prisoners, the way the treat not custodial staff or program staff like chaplains and the way they treat each other. Some correctional officers are very decent and treat people very well. I would say though that the dominant culture among security staff is very polarized and tends toward negative and demeaning treatment of inmates and other staff. I think it is actually a minority of the guards who drive this more negative culture, but this mindset tends to dominate through peer pressure. The guard - inmate dynamic is very polarized on both sides and both sides feed this polarization. As you have suggested, I believe the answer is better training and more training in communication skills for security staff. I am working with the National Institute of Corrections now on a workforce transformation project aimed at recruiting, hiring, and training a more enlightened and more emotionally intelligent corrections work force including line staff, middle management, and executives.
During my 14 years inside, I found that despite the considerable negativity in the staff culture, I got the best results by treating everyone with respect and compassion. Even the most negative guard will generally respond well to being treated with respect and kindness.
Permalink Reply by Kathy Derene on September 26, 2008 at 9:36pm
Thanks for your response. I appreciate hearing the "inside" view on these types of issues. I agree that training is key here, but it seems to me that nobody really cares about the situation or wants to take any leadership. So what if everyone is miserable in these hell holes? As long as no one dies, is badly wounded or escapes, we are doing our job.

I hope the corrections people listen to your ideas. I think NVC could be an important part of the strategy for improvement. Good luck!

Kathy
Permalink Reply by Zang-thal Odsal on March 5, 2010 at 1:10pm
Have you been able to get the NIC to effect some policy changes? If any, what are they?
Permalink Reply by Newt Bailey on September 30, 2008 at 2:30pm
I've been teaching NVC in San Quentin prison, California (I'm one of the newer members of a well-established teaching team). So far I've not yet seen any attempt to use difficult dynamics that exist between corrections officers and inmates as the subject matter for role plays, empathy exercises etc. The NVC model suggests that an inmate would need sufficient empathy for his own pain before being ready to give attention to the feelings and needs of a corrections officer who had triggered that pain. Within the class setting there's probably rarely enough time to give sufficient empathy to help an inmate reach a point of compassion for his least favorite corrections officer. My hope is that by creating something of an NVC subculture within the prison, inmates might actually get to the point of giving each other enough empathy that their compassion for the corrections officers might start to awaken more. I've no idea if this has become a reality for any particular inmate, however. I'd love it if we also had an opportunity to do NVC training with corrections officers.
Permalink Reply by Zang-thal Odsal on March 5, 2010 at 1:11pm
Has anyone tried tonglen practice with any success?
Permalink Reply by Dow Gordon on September 30, 2008 at 8:30pm
Hi Kathy,
The interactions Kathy describes are of course an on-going issue in any prison trainings. I agree with much of what Newt shared, tho i think it did not go far enough. Freedom Project has worked in prisons for the last 9 years, sharing NVC and mindfulness practice (over 8,000 training hours in 2007). These interactions between security officers occur on a daily basis - often several times each day for each and every prisoner. We often find them very rich role-play opps in our workshops and classes. While as Newt says, it's true that insufficient time or personnel exist in most training programs to offer the prisoners remotely enuf empathy to allow them to begin empathizing with sec officers, there are other valuable opps w/in these interactions. First is that each such interaction is an opp for self-empathy practice - which ultimately enlarges each prisoner's capacity for empathizing with others who they identify with in a less hierarchic interaction (like their cellies, or the clerks from inside or outside the prison, or the faith-based people or the chaplains and their staff, or the guys on the unit or the guys in the card-rooms, etc, etc). The opps also offer prisoners the chance to internalize classic NVC and practice translating their own thoughts into feelings and needs in an idiomatic way. Every trigger is an opp to practice both NVC and mindfulness in an internal manner - stopping, slowing down, checking out what's going in in 'me' right at this moment, then translating into NVC is all practice, practice, practice - which prisoners get every day. it is also enormously valuable for prisoners to share what their internal processes are with other prisoners in a vulnerable way - this offer learning opps for all the other prisoners in their groups. Which leads to deeper connection w/in the prisoners giraffe support groups and eventually the creation of an inside NVC self supporting group (which Freedom Project now has and has had for several years in ONE of the four prisons we train in.
I want to add a final real life experience of what happened on one of our workshops several years ago. A security Lt was at cross - purposes with a group of prisoners that FP was training that day. He ordered his officers to infract every prisoner who did not sign-out of their units that morning - even though the prisoners were all on a call-out to that workshop. And, it was prison protocol to sign out whenever a prisoner left the unit, though the prisoners believed that the call out list was sufficient to let the sec officers know where they were at that time. FP trainers spoke at length w the sec Lt AND we spoke at length with the prisoners (it was an empathy 2-day workshop). Eventually, the sec Lt agreed to come and meet with the prisoners during the workshop. For an hour we facilitated an empathy circle with the Lt, and then asked the Lt if he felt ready to really hear what was going on with the prisoners (who expressed their feelings and needs and made requests to the Lt). it worked magically! That sec Lt walked out of that room, immediately quashed all the write-ups for not signing out and in all the years since has totally and unconditionally supported the Freedom Project program for prisoners as the best thing since sliced bread. He still does. True story! Now, i know most sec officers are not as willing or broad minded that that sec Lt. Most prisoners are not willing (or even able) to express that degree of empathy toward sec officers as they could that day with lotsa support from FP facilitators and truth be that facilitators are rarely present at such interactions.
Still, these interactions are very rich ground to plow for learning and practicing both NVC and mindfulness. the facilitators can support the prisoners in translating their judgments and criticism into feeling and needs first. Once that is accomplished, the prisoners can begin to move toward seeing the sec people as human beings, however unenjoyable they may be
Permalink Reply by Clay Daniel on October 10, 2008 at 8:42am
Kathy,
It seems a common occurence in the prison system. I spent almost 5 years in the Texas system. In 2 different trips.
i have found that addressing a complaint with an officer is a precarious situation to be in. Most of the time one could address the issue with a Guard, Given the hope that the officer did not have the superiority complex that many develop after a short time. That is one of the biggest problems . I agree completely with Fleet. Training and education for prison staff would make for a healthier safer environment. so many aren't as educated as the inmates they 'supervise'. it often times too seems like the state throws out any physcological guidelines and hires any old body to fill the position . the prisons are under staffed and the typical mindset takes place. Do my 8-12 hours without doing much at all and collect the paycheck at the end of the month. there were many officers during my last trip that conducted themselves as honorable intelligent humans. and I still communicate with them a couple of times a year. I think as in any profession it takes a special sort of individual to get an oftentimes angry,assaultive individual to look within and make the necessary changes within themselves. And many are not qualified or humane enough to think about the situation.they portray themselves as the executioner.And they thrive off of the suffering of others. That includes their co workers as well. In my experiences with the most hardened guard all it took was one instance where i took a positve action in my approach to him and let my actions speak for themselves. the thing i had to remember is that the officers are people who are doing a job . And my opinion ,unless they physically harmed somebody, was generally best left out of it. Then there is always a formal grievance process which usually resulted in retaliation from the guard. To me, the basis of friendship and respect and trust that i earned with some of the staff all resulted from me letting my walls down and just being me. The convicts walls and defense mechanisms set off a reaction within others. the officers are trained to expect the worst from any inmate. so they walk around hostile and afraid ... I Can't say it any better than my friend Fleet said it. " Even the most negative Guard will respond well to being treated with kindness and respect."... And while your dealing with them that is a tough row to hoe.
Permalink Reply by Phillip R. Trujillo on October 11, 2008 at 9:57pm
My experience with the prison system in New Mexico has been very difficult. My 27 year old son was convicted of a vehicular homicide, and entered the prison system on May 7, 2007. He was classified as a medium level security inmate and transferred to a private for profit prison run by the GEO group in Santa Rosa, NM. He was given a 6 year sentence, and per the sentencing order he was given a possiblity of parole after serving 85 percent of his sentence, but he has had problems with the guards who are constantly trying to find ways to write him up for whatever, and has lost some of his possible good time. I have personally seen abuse by the guards not only against him, but other inmates while visiting my son. I have seen intimidation by specific guards with little things that they do to intimidate the inmates, and I will give some minor examples in this first correspondence. The first is a C.O. who intentionally escorts female visitors(wives and girlfriends) from the visiting area which I believe is done on purpose to create animosity towards him in the hopes that the inmate will lash out which will of course result in possible additional charges or loss of good time. I have also seen incidents of which inmates including my son have had non-contact visits and minor intimidation such as C.O.'s shaking soft drinks prior to giving them to the inmates. New Mexico is a state with only about 2 million people with many communities where jobs are scarce. Santa Rosa is a perfect example with a population of about 5,000 people, and most recently the building of a new facility in Clayton, New Mexico with an even lesser population. They target these areas and convince the local authorities that they will create many jobs, and also request tax breaks. This is very appealing to these impoverished areas because the people that live in these areas do not really wish to move anywhere else. This, of course is a problem in itself because the pool of possible employees is very limited, and because jobs are so scarce results in the corrections officers doing whatever is asked of them, and in my personal opinion some of them should not be prison guards. And then of course there is the businees for profit motive of the "bottom line". Since the GEO group is paid per inmate by day there is no incentive for them to allow any inmate to recieve good time. It is also a difficult situation to motivate families to try and do something about the situation as a group for fear of retaliation against their loved ones. I have brought up questions and have also written letters to the Santa Fe administration office which has resulted in some positive results, but I believe the last time I did so, because of the death of his grandmother it resulted in retaliation against him by the GEO group, and as such myself, my family including his 6 year old daughter have not seen him or talked to him by telephone since June of this year. He has written, and in his correspondence has expressed the fact that he needs to get out of this prison, and I believe that the C.O.'s are trying to intimidate him into crossing the line, so that he will lash out against one of them which could result in additional charges. Basically, I am now between a rock and a hard place, but I have requested some time off from work this next week to see what I can do to get him transferred to a state run institution even if it results in more hardship due to distances involved in order to visit him if it will make things easier for him. I have decided that he need to participate ina group such as this and others to see if a can be of any assistance to any other families that are experiencing these like situations. I want to do what I can, so that other families will not experience these same kinds of situations.
Permalink Reply by Kathy Derene on October 12, 2008 at 10:20am
Phillip--I am so sorry about your son's situation. I can imagine how helpless you must feel and that you worry about him every day. I really appreciate the responses to my initial post. I am ready to take the next step and would like to hear your thoughts about getting NVC into prisons through trainings that involve staff and inmates. I have been told that wardens and higher-up staff run the institutions like their own fiefdoms, and I don't have contacts at that level. Perhaps I could try to interest the chaplains I work with to support an NVC training? Or what about putting a program together with NVC friends and then trying to sell it to the institution. Working with inmates is a great experience, but it seems to me that so much of what happens inside an institution is out of their hands. Yes, they can respond positively on a one-to-one basis, but it seems to me that change must involve all the players. Any thoughts?
Permalink Reply by richard on October 18, 2008 at 9:24am
I feel the best way to address this issue is to put yourself in the guards sittuation. See the world from their view. I feel sorry for the poor SOB's. Most of them are doing a life sentence. Inmates go home eventually but these guys are career insiders. Like traffic cops, their ability to climb the career ladder is to participate in the paper war, creating disicplinary write ups, etc. Inmates don't treat each other humanely much of the time. The environment is very combative for everyone. I think the most positive direction is to treat everyone as you would like to be treated whether, it be recipricated or not. Take control of the enviroment to make it better rather than accepting it for hell and contributing to it. Eventually there will be a change in the relationships of everyone.
Permalink Reply by Phillip R. Trujillo on October 20, 2008 at 12:12am
Thanks to both Kathy and Richard for your replies. I think Kathy's idea is a good one, and I would definitely be willing to do my part to try and implement programs such as this, but I also think Richard also brought up a good perspective which I have thought about on many occasions as I have practiced such thinking for most of my life. It is always very easy to criticize other people's actions and make judgements upon them not only in a prison environment, but also in our daily life interactions with others, but is it really fair without actually walking in the other's shoes. I think these criticisms and judgements arise out of bad emotions and are impulse type reactions based on emotions, and sometimes it is difficult for us to bite the lip, cool down, and think before responding or acting. So the question is? How do we go about changing the status quo? There are too many questions just as with any other issue, such as how, who ,when, where, etc. Unfortunately, due to my present life circumstances like with many of you I need to make decisions as to what I wish to dedicate my valuable time to, and I think that on this particularly site I may have found something here which may be worthwhile for others as well as for myself. On Sunday evenings I make my weekly calendar to alot time for the many things going on in my life, so this next Sunday I plan on dedicating some time each week to communicate with others like the both of you, and I greatly appreciate your responses as well as your insight. I will be back next week!!!!!
Permalink Reply by richard on October 24, 2008 at 5:32am
It seems pretty simple. Be an example and try and change relationships by who you are, not who others perceive you to be. Do unto others as you would expect them to do unto you and you might have the ability to Change the World.

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