I don’t trust Vladimir Putin and find myself amazed that so many folk seem to. I asked Thom why he thought that was so. He looked up and observed, “They never worked a chain gang.” Prisons are surely microcosms of sociopathy. To a sociopath, the only thing wrong is being stupid enough to get caught. My all time favorite example was the inmate who asked me why the Fulton County detective “got in front of my gun if he didn’t want to get shot”. I did not offer any answer if you’re wondering.
Of course, everybody who is locked up isn’t a sociopath-especially since the passage of 3 strike laws and mandatory drug sentences not to mention the impact of our terribly inadequate system of residential mental health treatment centers. The jails and prisons we have are bulging at the seams; it is very hard to find good help. Indeed, I believe that some of the current correctional staff of prisons are juvenile offenders whose records were sealed. And. . . some of those are sociopaths. The point: correctional work is harder than it has ever been.
If you work in a prison and are reading this, remember that your work matters to the ultimate authority (see Kingdom of Heaven,p. 132) and that “you walk where others can not or will not go”. How you see yourself and your work affects how you do your work; how you do your work matters to people you will never see. If you don’t work in a prison, say a prayer for those who do.
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