NCJ Number
195610
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 82 Issue: 2 Dated: June 2002 Pages: 141-167
Date Published
June 2002
Length
27 pages
Annotation
Drawing on a wide array of original poems by prisoners, this paper explores facets of prison life and adjustment that might otherwise be inaccessible to practitioners and researchers.
Abstract
Poetry provides a window on the prison experience because it is a uniquely concentrated form of creative writing and communication. Poetry constrains expression, forcing the writer to choose the one precise and perfect word or phrase to describe the poet's perception of the world. Those who live outside the prison experience can discover something fresh, new, and even beautiful by listening to what inmate poetry reveals about the experience of incarceration. Samples of inmate poetry are presented in this paper to reveal how inmates discover meaning in the mundane, find beauty in a brutal world, describe violence and violation, express what lies behind a "mask of stone," and reveal loneliness and the search for love. The poems of inmates show that prisoners are, by and large, damaged people who damage other people in turn. To change them, correctional environments must offer caring relationships; only caring relationships can serve as an emotional bridge back to civil society, where relationships are the central feature of life. To a person whose anger and hurt have left him/her an emotional casualty, a relationship with a caring person in authority can offer nothing less than an opportunity for redemption from failure and freedom from an all-consuming rage. Inmate poetry reveals the ways in which prisoners attempt to maintain their dignity under circumstances in which their dignity is under assault. This is often done by building and sustaining fragile connections with the people around them, clinging to hope, and believing in the prospect for change. Those in the field of corrections should both encourage inmates to write poetry and share it with other inmates and with corrections staff, thereby enriching those in the correctional environment with a glimpse of the human spirit's needs and aspirations. 5 references