Spontaneous
and Solicited Boredom inside a Prison
Without
getting into the morality or veracity of how prisons are being run or operated
and whether or not they are within our legitimately statutory or constitutional
guidelines in reference to human rights and confinement conditions decreed by
the courts, it has been widely expressed that under the dehumanizing conditions
of prison life, it is reasonable to say that the state of boredom has come to
pervade the experience of everyday life inside the penitentiary.
This
collective boredom can be the trigger mechanism to spawn not only moments of
illicit excitement (as prisons are schools of enhanced criminality as well as a
house of repentance) but larger arenas of short-lived crimes committed against
boredom itself, but a stimulus for a larger flow or migration of political and
cultural rebellion spread out over time sentenced and served.
Thus
it is safe to describe this collection of boredom inside a large jail or prison
as an institutionalized form of boredom due to ambient beats or tones in
relationship to its various sets of rules and cultural behaviors in various
levels of societal expectations or innovations.
Every
penal system has a brand or culture of its own and fosters daily under the
pressure of mental stress, intellectual excitement (thrill seekers or adrenalin
junkies) and therefore offers a rebellion of its own at times. Hence, a collective
or institutional boredom is an overall form of a human(s) engagement(s) with
time, space, rules, criminality and other factors explored to determine what
prisoners do when they get bored.
Like
out in the streets, institutional boredom can be destructive in nature and
needs to be addressed to avoid social disruptions or criminal activities from
taking over their efforts to do their time constructively and with some
acceptable form of rehabilitative efforts to come out a reformed person.
Anyone
who denies that boredom does not impact criminality, violence, property
destruction, disturbances or other negative environmental dynamics has not
studied the mannerism of those incarcerated for a lengthy amount of time and
how they do their time. take into consideration a few other factors to add to
the triggers of boredom and you have yourself a collective cause that are the
basic foundation of crimes, riots, looting and destruction of property when
activated under another reason or pretense.
Boredom
can be quickly accelerated into a vested ‘interest’ to participate and cause or
create a larger scene. One can invest in the act of incitement by merely
shouting encouragement or actually act out with their own activities or engagements
demonstrating approval, cohesion and rebellion.
This
is how the boredom is quickly and spontaneously spread into an organized or
collective effort to exhibit a sense of approval, whatever the cause, grievance
or complaint might be at the time of such demonstrations. Even tacit approval,
by silence, can bring a collective effort to its peak or climax if the tone and
energy afforded and applied matches the wills of those participating.
Encouragement
can come in many forms – (chants) talk along, mocking or repeating, laughing
and yelling or some other form of human engagement that displays some sort of
anthem or affirmation of something e.g. allegiance through a show of
cohesiveness and heavy taunting. This is especially true in gangs.
Realistically,
through some common or conflicting gang audiences, this method of communicating,
may in fact be translated into lyrics, or [rap] songs that represent their
moods or ideologies with a pretense or disguise these lyrics are just that,
songs, but in reality their mantra for behaviors and claiming or expressing
their membership of the gang.
Such
collective boredom strategies may be a form of organizing or dis-organizing
illicit or unauthorized gatherings while reinstating their presence and body of
force and power / control on those present at the time including correctional
staff. In a prison setting this could be done even when every individual is
locked up in a single cell as they collectively chant or taunt those who oppose
them. Thus the freedom to join in these impulses is solicited and inviting a common
cause or resistance.
Moreover,
such activists or instigators are in reality a symptomatic example of other
problems that should not be ignored in everyday existence. Remember that
everything in human life exists within the boundaries of buying and selling; a
web of exploitative and demeaning activities and behaviors that undermine the
security and order of any facility.
By
their mere example of behavior, they could trigger or force a demonstration of
resistance that threatens the everyday routine of any large jail or prison and
if not picked up, could cause apocalyptic consequences. Most people would heed
such a warning and alert those in charge something is happening and the place
is filled with a banner of subversive activities. A ghost of things to come
that is ever present in every penal institution everywhere.
This
cultural undercurrent must be observed or detected to avoid a more aggressively
animated unexpected uprising. The disregarding of such behaviors allows tension
and other stressors to percolate and if it remains unaddressed, it serves as a
fuel by creating an incendiary cultural dogma of the group’s desired wishes or
demands to be heard or mediated with in order to resolve any undetermined
grievances before the place blows up.
One
cannot deny that whenever such howling incantations of these type of activities
are present, there is in fact a critique that turns out or reveals that boredom
or too much leisure time was directly involved in such demonstrations. Hopefully,
nobody will say that boredoms are minor details and address such conditions in
a timely manner with secondary points of interest to discuss or mediate for resolution.
Boredom
is the tool of insurgents. The politics of boredom straddle criminality and
excitement. Boredom may be displayed as graffiti, vandalism, fights, theft,
sexual assaults and much more. With the agenda of mass incarceration and
overpopulated jails and prisons, boredom has emerged as some sort of motive for
aggression and a conceptual building block for activism and critique of the
environment. This by itself allows boredom to expand into broader social and cultural
condition at the whim of the activists or demonstrators.
Keep
in mind, revolutions are real or imagined creations for the possibilities to
change social and political justice. There is a strong relationship between
boredom, revolutions or disruptions and criminality. Having the condition of
boredom multiplies exponentially the reasons for incitement, excitement and is
implicit in institutionalized worlds like prisons.
Merely
based on penitentiary related customs and practices, there is a precarious tradition
to destroy or riot whenever conditions are unsatisfactory or when faced with
any other pragmatic situation that may need attention.
Boredom
as defined inside a large jail or prison could encompass features such as bureaucratic
rationalization, too much efficiency, excessive routinization, excessive or insufficient
regulation, too much standardization and others familiar to stifle the human engagement
to be productive or creative whenever incarcerated for a long period of time.
The
more repetitive the environment is, the more boredom is created and thus the
population senses no progress and becomes idle and frustrated. In plain English
– whenever overcome by the dulling sameness of the day, the more boredom is
created.
Here
at last is the paradox of boredom and institutionalization – the agency wants
regulation and consistency in their programs – the population suffers on
sameness and dullness. Thus the challenge is to emerge with some human measures
of worth, values and address the quirks of individualities and create some
incentive to provide a personal innovation to combat boredom.
Taking
into consideration that obedience to rules and regulation is rationalized as
success, this process takes away the independence of minds and creates problems
for the rulebooks due to misbehaviors and other resistance motives. Therefore,
an unusual rise or growth in disciplinary or misconduct is a red flag for
potential disruptions within the population.
Success
should be measured in defusing or recover a sustainable balance for moderation
and at the same time, find things to do in everyday life to counter-point the
dullness and make the individual existence meaningful with some kind of approved
democratic participation in the construction of their everyday life.
The
administration should find a balance between legitimate mental exertions and
physical or labor interests inside their facilities eliminating or reducing
negative forces that exert hate or discernment, personal discouragement and
irrational thinking and emotional disruptions which do not escape and escalate
with due time.
Today,
public schools serve as rehearsal halls for mental hospitals and jails/prisons
emerge as training centers for boredom through the enforcement of a tedium
agenda. To repeat this trajectory from schools to prisons is a dangerous path
to continue on as it has an emotional buildup that is rarely addressed through
constructive means or programs.
Children
today are being programmed and orientated into a state of disciplined
efficiency. Working assembly lines or fast food franchises are mass-producing
instruments of boredom and when re-instituted inside a jail or prison, the
process is continued without any freedom for individuality to appear and
invigorate the mind and body onto a new path.
One
can begin to see how the mechanics of conformity create a schedule of dullness
and sameness to a large degree in the everyday life and more so inside a prison.
This would be a positive attribute if the population was to remain under some
level of mind control or a rigid trained insightful means of behaving but the
fact is, in order to prepare them for release, we have to find ways to cut out
the rigidities of their sameness and create individuals who may think and
behave to conform to society’s rules which are much more liberal and filled
with more freedoms than inside the joint.
As
an alternative, we must seek an open circle of control rather than the closed
circle they [prisoners] have been orientated under and conformed to strict
rules while incarcerated. This could be addressed through custody levels as the
lower custody levels allow more individuality than the higher more rigid
custody levels.
Research
shows that boredom creates alienation, estrangement of relationships etc. as
their minds are not adequately occupied. It would appear that if there was some
change infused into the everyday life the monotony is reduced, and relief is
found making it more bearable and creative that may even include some
excitement for the lack of a better word.
Delving
into the emotional aspect of boredom, we find despair as one fatalistic element
as well as resistance. This would be exasperated for those who are mentally ill
and contemplate suicide. One can create radicalism through boredom as those who
resist boredom seek alternatives that are either constructive or destructive in
nature.
Sabotage
is another aspect of boredom. The idea to interrupt the normal or sameness
experienced daily becomes a challenge to disrupt to interrupt life’s
mind-numbing repetition. Researchers argue that boredom is indeed a
counter-revolutionary device meaning it might mean a fight against the
dehumanizing process of standardization.
The
advantage of some traditionally situated individuals who serve in the armed
forces is the fact that they may be sparked or stimulated by the chance of war,
deployment, combat or anything else that differs from everyday life. Thus life
is calculated by situations that produce risks and uncertainties.
