Immigration and immigration reform are serious issues in the West. Ignoring this seems to me to be rather foolish. However, the inability of nations of the West to find workable solutions is a continuing source of both debate and ill will toward those who find their way to "our" shores.
Recently, there has been a rather unhelpful post circulating on Facebook on this issue. It goes something like this: if you came across the border illegally into North Vietnam/Russia/Iran you would be arrested, tried, imprisoned. After that, the focus changes to how illegal immigrants are treated in the United States. And of course, it is overly generous, infuriating, and a tax burden for schools, medical care and welfare.
This post is troubling at several levels. First, the lack of insight in comparing bankrupt tyrannies in which citizens attempt to flee oppression and starvation to a thriving freedom driven country is just silly.
Additionally, the dismiss the economic factors of illegal migration are shallow and disingenuous. People aren't flocking to infiltrate impoverished economies. Duh! People attempt to get to places where they can earn money to support their families.
So, perhaps what small hearted Americans should do is to ask God to take away the money and take away the freedom, and that will solve the illegal immigrations problem.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Adverse Outcome
Wednesday, we had an "adverse outcome" at work. Such words are a euphemism for someone died. Of course in our environment, there will be an autopsy because---in our setting, things are never what they seem.
So, on the surface, it appears the death was self inflicted.
In the prison setting, the threat of suicide is another bargaining chip the offender has to manipulate for practically anything. If one does not like his cell mate, he can threaten self harm. If he does not like his cell location, he can threaten suicide. If he does not like the security officers on his shift, he can threaten suicide. If he does not get his demands met soon enough, he can threaten suicide.
The issue of suicide in the correctional setting has come to have the flash point it has because it gives an emotional message that offenders feel hopeless, neglected, and abused therefore killing themselves is the only way out. Sometimes that is true.
Prison, at least the prison in which I work, is not a hopeful place. Nothing about it is hopeful. The building are poorly built, not air conditioned, stale aired, grey walled, loud, and full of people judged by society as unwilling to live by the rules of conduct the rest of the world lives by. One 18 year old offender told me "these are not nice people." No, they are not and one of these not so nice persons will be one's cellie.
Additionally, the food is barely palatable, security officers often unqualified and emotionally unsuitable for their jobs. Freedom is non existent, and everything is regimented. The snotty nosed teenager whose surly "Nobody going to tell me what to do" has no idea the Hell he will be in when he ends up in prison. The offender is told what he can wear, when he can sleep, where he can work, what he can eat, when he can shower, when he can shave, how can share a cell with him and what he can keep and what he can possess.
What medical and mental health care is available is parceled out often at maddening levels.
It should not be surprising that suicide is an issue in prison. And it should not be surprising that institutional prison administration should be hyper sensitive about the issue. Nothing so unmasks the facade of adequacy of prison care as a suicide.
However, given the hypersensitivity of the issue, offenders have found another way to attempt to manipulate a tired and often unresponsive system.
Additionally, the incarcerated setting has a higher than normal percentage of felons with personality disorders. The most troublesome lot are those who have "cluster B" personality disorders: which are identified as Borderlines, Antisocials, Histrionics, and Narcissitics. Simply explained these are folks who have a pervasive disregard of the presence, the rights, the needs, and the existence of others. Their worlds are very small with themselves at the center of the universe and pretty much the only one who matters at any given moment.
If this pervasive view of the world were not enough, Cluster B folks have great difficulty regulating their emotions and mood. So, when they are frustrated, it is not unusual for these folks run to the outcry of self harm or the attempt at self harm.
The most mind bending moment for me has been when an offender says, "If I don't get _________(you fill in the blank) I am going to cut my throat/hang myself/take this handful of pills/jump off my top bunk."
I know the anticipated response and the professional response is supposed to be "Oh, please don't do that." However, I find myself thinking,"Oh, OK, mind if I watch? I fail to grasp why that threat should motivate me to do anything to mediate your threat."
Institutionally, that is not the right answer. We don't want offenders to self harm because--well, there are too many papers to fill out, and well, it just don't look good.
My therapeutic approach is the old familiar "call their bluff." Institutionally, we are not equipped to do that.
So, as long as the institution responds with a frantic knee jerk reaction, offenders will continue to threaten self harm. And with the frequency of the threats, there will inevitably be "adverse outcomes." Not because they intended such an end, but because like everything else in most of their lives, they were as good at bluffing as they were successful as criminals.
So, on the surface, it appears the death was self inflicted.
In the prison setting, the threat of suicide is another bargaining chip the offender has to manipulate for practically anything. If one does not like his cell mate, he can threaten self harm. If he does not like his cell location, he can threaten suicide. If he does not like the security officers on his shift, he can threaten suicide. If he does not get his demands met soon enough, he can threaten suicide.
The issue of suicide in the correctional setting has come to have the flash point it has because it gives an emotional message that offenders feel hopeless, neglected, and abused therefore killing themselves is the only way out. Sometimes that is true.
Prison, at least the prison in which I work, is not a hopeful place. Nothing about it is hopeful. The building are poorly built, not air conditioned, stale aired, grey walled, loud, and full of people judged by society as unwilling to live by the rules of conduct the rest of the world lives by. One 18 year old offender told me "these are not nice people." No, they are not and one of these not so nice persons will be one's cellie.
Additionally, the food is barely palatable, security officers often unqualified and emotionally unsuitable for their jobs. Freedom is non existent, and everything is regimented. The snotty nosed teenager whose surly "Nobody going to tell me what to do" has no idea the Hell he will be in when he ends up in prison. The offender is told what he can wear, when he can sleep, where he can work, what he can eat, when he can shower, when he can shave, how can share a cell with him and what he can keep and what he can possess.
What medical and mental health care is available is parceled out often at maddening levels.
It should not be surprising that suicide is an issue in prison. And it should not be surprising that institutional prison administration should be hyper sensitive about the issue. Nothing so unmasks the facade of adequacy of prison care as a suicide.
However, given the hypersensitivity of the issue, offenders have found another way to attempt to manipulate a tired and often unresponsive system.
Additionally, the incarcerated setting has a higher than normal percentage of felons with personality disorders. The most troublesome lot are those who have "cluster B" personality disorders: which are identified as Borderlines, Antisocials, Histrionics, and Narcissitics. Simply explained these are folks who have a pervasive disregard of the presence, the rights, the needs, and the existence of others. Their worlds are very small with themselves at the center of the universe and pretty much the only one who matters at any given moment.
If this pervasive view of the world were not enough, Cluster B folks have great difficulty regulating their emotions and mood. So, when they are frustrated, it is not unusual for these folks run to the outcry of self harm or the attempt at self harm.
The most mind bending moment for me has been when an offender says, "If I don't get _________(you fill in the blank) I am going to cut my throat/hang myself/take this handful of pills/jump off my top bunk."
I know the anticipated response and the professional response is supposed to be "Oh, please don't do that." However, I find myself thinking,"Oh, OK, mind if I watch? I fail to grasp why that threat should motivate me to do anything to mediate your threat."
Institutionally, that is not the right answer. We don't want offenders to self harm because--well, there are too many papers to fill out, and well, it just don't look good.
My therapeutic approach is the old familiar "call their bluff." Institutionally, we are not equipped to do that.
So, as long as the institution responds with a frantic knee jerk reaction, offenders will continue to threaten self harm. And with the frequency of the threats, there will inevitably be "adverse outcomes." Not because they intended such an end, but because like everything else in most of their lives, they were as good at bluffing as they were successful as criminals.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
10 years later
September 11, 2001, is one of those seminal events assaulting all other experiences pushing them to the bar ditches of memory.
As if what is unfolding is unfathomable enough, the swirling waves of uncertainties multiply the clouds of confusion and disorientation. Such it was for most all in the United States that morning.
Our two sons were out of the country, out of reach, out of sight, but very much in our hearts. Our need to connect and reassure ourselves that scattered as we were, we were all safe.
I am not sure we have learned all the lessons 9/11 had to teach us and not really sure we have learned any of the lessons 9/11 had to teach us.
Ten years after, a nation that should be more safe is not necessarily so. A country that should be more tolerant is certainly not so, and a country that should understand the basic tenants of living together, sharing together is absolutely not so.
This weekend has been a soul searching time for me. I watched posts on the internet and grieved that Christian people are so easily misled by the loud arrogant militant doomsayers who appeal to the worst in all of us. In the late 1970's a small, self absorbed, strident band of morally superior preachers began to push their agenda and way to the front of the political spectrum. They managed to polarize, obscure, and misdirect the energies and lives of millions of people while making the American experience more toxic and less secure. By shading the history of America, leaving out significant facts in the tapestry of the shaping of the nation, by pushing forward an entitlement that never belonged, and ignoring some of the founding father's concerns about government and religion, we are now bearing the putrid fruit of that bastard movement.
The talk is more strident, the truth more blurred, the emotions more raw, the dialogue melting into escalating debate, the positions more intractable and problems neglected become more complex because of fewer options.
I am profoundly disappointed in how easily "protecting freedom" becomes "protecting the status quo." People being what they are allow themselves to think less critically and be more easily manipulated. Freedoms hammered out under the threat of a watchful tyranny, as slowly given away, slowly modified, and slowly corrupted.
So we move past this anniversary, convinced our greatest enemies are off shore.
I am less convinced and more troubled.
As if what is unfolding is unfathomable enough, the swirling waves of uncertainties multiply the clouds of confusion and disorientation. Such it was for most all in the United States that morning.
Our two sons were out of the country, out of reach, out of sight, but very much in our hearts. Our need to connect and reassure ourselves that scattered as we were, we were all safe.
I am not sure we have learned all the lessons 9/11 had to teach us and not really sure we have learned any of the lessons 9/11 had to teach us.
Ten years after, a nation that should be more safe is not necessarily so. A country that should be more tolerant is certainly not so, and a country that should understand the basic tenants of living together, sharing together is absolutely not so.
This weekend has been a soul searching time for me. I watched posts on the internet and grieved that Christian people are so easily misled by the loud arrogant militant doomsayers who appeal to the worst in all of us. In the late 1970's a small, self absorbed, strident band of morally superior preachers began to push their agenda and way to the front of the political spectrum. They managed to polarize, obscure, and misdirect the energies and lives of millions of people while making the American experience more toxic and less secure. By shading the history of America, leaving out significant facts in the tapestry of the shaping of the nation, by pushing forward an entitlement that never belonged, and ignoring some of the founding father's concerns about government and religion, we are now bearing the putrid fruit of that bastard movement.
The talk is more strident, the truth more blurred, the emotions more raw, the dialogue melting into escalating debate, the positions more intractable and problems neglected become more complex because of fewer options.
I am profoundly disappointed in how easily "protecting freedom" becomes "protecting the status quo." People being what they are allow themselves to think less critically and be more easily manipulated. Freedoms hammered out under the threat of a watchful tyranny, as slowly given away, slowly modified, and slowly corrupted.
So we move past this anniversary, convinced our greatest enemies are off shore.
I am less convinced and more troubled.
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