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.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
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.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
The problem with tax money
Tax money is a never ending fountain of funding. "Never ending" is the problem.
Therefore, what is connected to the trough of public funding face intrinsic issues of accountability, relevance, and effectiveness.
As bad as business can get, generally in a capitalistic economy, the inefficient, the bloated, the ineffective, and the incompetent shrink and disappear. Funding, financing, and sales disappear. So does the product and the brand. (unless one is GM or Chrysler, or Citibank, etc.)
Government is different. Government is funded by taxes and taxes don't go away. So, over time, what does happen is government becomes less efficient, less responsive, less accountable, less relevant and less effective.
So the Texas legislature recently lowered the budgets for Texas agencies that feed at the trough of Texas taxpayers. In our agency's case, what is going to happen is that the meager services we were actually providing will go away. However, pending the renegotiating of a new contract, what will remain is a process and an unwieldy process at that. The process is simply documenting services that cannot be realistically provided but are contractually required so must be documented as being provided. (Wink! Wink!)
If that sounds confusing, you have not crossed over. If it sounds logical you have just crossed over into the world of the bureaucrat. If it is documented it happened. If it is not documented, it never happened.
So trust me, in the coming two years, the documents will show what is impractical, what is impossible, what is ridiculously unrealistic happened every day--however impractical, however impossible, however unrealistic and however ridiculous (Wink! Wink!) Because...
Therefore, what is connected to the trough of public funding face intrinsic issues of accountability, relevance, and effectiveness.
As bad as business can get, generally in a capitalistic economy, the inefficient, the bloated, the ineffective, and the incompetent shrink and disappear. Funding, financing, and sales disappear. So does the product and the brand. (unless one is GM or Chrysler, or Citibank, etc.)
Government is different. Government is funded by taxes and taxes don't go away. So, over time, what does happen is government becomes less efficient, less responsive, less accountable, less relevant and less effective.
So the Texas legislature recently lowered the budgets for Texas agencies that feed at the trough of Texas taxpayers. In our agency's case, what is going to happen is that the meager services we were actually providing will go away. However, pending the renegotiating of a new contract, what will remain is a process and an unwieldy process at that. The process is simply documenting services that cannot be realistically provided but are contractually required so must be documented as being provided. (Wink! Wink!)
If that sounds confusing, you have not crossed over. If it sounds logical you have just crossed over into the world of the bureaucrat. If it is documented it happened. If it is not documented, it never happened.
So trust me, in the coming two years, the documents will show what is impractical, what is impossible, what is ridiculously unrealistic happened every day--however impractical, however impossible, however unrealistic and however ridiculous (Wink! Wink!) Because...
Norway Grieves
Norway convulses in the face of inexpressive grief from what appears to be domestic terrorism.
My heart goes out to them, as the death toll rises in the face of a terrorist strike.
The picture is very sketchy, very tentative, and early in the unfolding drama. I think we there is a pointer.
Hate has historically motivated and driven the madness of murder. What fuels such madness? I think there is an sense of entitlement. There is also an enemy that appears to threaten to remove or destroy the entitlement. There is also the belief that powers of influence are indifferent to the danger and risks. I believe there is also a catalyst or voice or voices that drive the vulnerable to believe and to act.
I would call this the "weaponizing" of fear and hate.
My heart goes out to them, as the death toll rises in the face of a terrorist strike.
The picture is very sketchy, very tentative, and early in the unfolding drama. I think we there is a pointer.
Hate has historically motivated and driven the madness of murder. What fuels such madness? I think there is an sense of entitlement. There is also an enemy that appears to threaten to remove or destroy the entitlement. There is also the belief that powers of influence are indifferent to the danger and risks. I believe there is also a catalyst or voice or voices that drive the vulnerable to believe and to act.
I would call this the "weaponizing" of fear and hate.
Immigrants
Most civilized countries that enjoy some kind of participatory government have to deal with terrorism: from without and within.
In Norway, it appears to be from at least one person who believed that immigrants from the Middle East were destroying the Norwegian way of life.
I remember being in Norway twice and both times were extraordinary. Both times, I remember hearing concerns about the flood of immigrants whose final destination was Norway. One only had to look on a map to understand one could really not move further north. So Norway became a destination. It was so because there was a wonderful standard of living, exhaustive social services, a small population, and democracy.
Every western nation or those identified as "western" appears to face the same issues related to immigrants and for the same reasons. However, depending on the nation the "face" of the immigrants change. Their national origin may blur but the reasons for immigrating is generally economic and desperation. People really do yearn to be free and safe. For all its struggles "the West" has both large margins of safety and freedom.
And so they come. As long as the economies are decent and freedom is widespread in a world in which most live in poverty and without safety.
Perhaps the way to stop the flood of immigrants is to invest more in assisting their countries of origin to feed their populations in societies that are free and safe.
In Norway, it appears to be from at least one person who believed that immigrants from the Middle East were destroying the Norwegian way of life.
I remember being in Norway twice and both times were extraordinary. Both times, I remember hearing concerns about the flood of immigrants whose final destination was Norway. One only had to look on a map to understand one could really not move further north. So Norway became a destination. It was so because there was a wonderful standard of living, exhaustive social services, a small population, and democracy.
Every western nation or those identified as "western" appears to face the same issues related to immigrants and for the same reasons. However, depending on the nation the "face" of the immigrants change. Their national origin may blur but the reasons for immigrating is generally economic and desperation. People really do yearn to be free and safe. For all its struggles "the West" has both large margins of safety and freedom.
And so they come. As long as the economies are decent and freedom is widespread in a world in which most live in poverty and without safety.
Perhaps the way to stop the flood of immigrants is to invest more in assisting their countries of origin to feed their populations in societies that are free and safe.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Lied to again
I think I have been lied to--again.
Not that being lied to is that unusual. In fact, it is more likely getting told the truth is more rare. Working in a maximum security prison and having access to the one who has access to psychotropic medications makes getting lied to more likely. In fact, feigning mental illness in the correctional setting is a hobby for some and attempted art for others. However, one expects lying in the workplace--especially my workplace.
What I don't expect is being lied to by people who have no reason to lie. And yet it happens time and time again. There was the former university president(not deceased) who went on to work in the Baptist Building who was a liar of the pathological kind. I still remember the meeting in which he was the "resource" person appointed by the Executive Director, when it dawned on me the man was lying and had been lying.
Then there was the recent employee who is no longer an employee. His issues were such that lying was as necessary as breathing. Sadly, there was no real reason. When one fails and has nothing to talk about or brag about, or as Robert Frost said, "Nothing to look back on with pride and nothing to look forward to with hope," one can understand lying. One reshapes the past to imagine achievements that only exist in one's mind. But, in the real world where some achievements were made--apparently not enough.
Which brings me to the one recent liar. It appears to be a small thing, but it becomes a flag that causes the thoughtful person to look more sceptically. And when one looks more carefully, one realizes that there is no such thing as "just one lie."
Not that being lied to is that unusual. In fact, it is more likely getting told the truth is more rare. Working in a maximum security prison and having access to the one who has access to psychotropic medications makes getting lied to more likely. In fact, feigning mental illness in the correctional setting is a hobby for some and attempted art for others. However, one expects lying in the workplace--especially my workplace.
What I don't expect is being lied to by people who have no reason to lie. And yet it happens time and time again. There was the former university president(not deceased) who went on to work in the Baptist Building who was a liar of the pathological kind. I still remember the meeting in which he was the "resource" person appointed by the Executive Director, when it dawned on me the man was lying and had been lying.
Then there was the recent employee who is no longer an employee. His issues were such that lying was as necessary as breathing. Sadly, there was no real reason. When one fails and has nothing to talk about or brag about, or as Robert Frost said, "Nothing to look back on with pride and nothing to look forward to with hope," one can understand lying. One reshapes the past to imagine achievements that only exist in one's mind. But, in the real world where some achievements were made--apparently not enough.
Which brings me to the one recent liar. It appears to be a small thing, but it becomes a flag that causes the thoughtful person to look more sceptically. And when one looks more carefully, one realizes that there is no such thing as "just one lie."
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
What's wrong with this picture?
For the upteenth zillonith time, my cable went out. We called the cable company for the upteenth zillonith time. And eventually a repairman came out.
He assessed the issue and replaced the defective part.
I said to him, "This is really frustrating because the cable keeps going out and we call and you guys come out and nothing much changes. In fact, it goes out so often we don't call most of the time because we know it will be eventually come back on."
The middle aged cable man said, "Yea, when I subscribed to this cable system, it went out four or five times a week and I had to fix it when I got home. I got tired of it and switched to Direct TV."
I thought for a few seconds and said, "That's not a good recommendation for the company you work for."
And he walked out the door.
So, does that mean that Livingston is cable is so lousy that even its employees use something else? I guess so.
He assessed the issue and replaced the defective part.
I said to him, "This is really frustrating because the cable keeps going out and we call and you guys come out and nothing much changes. In fact, it goes out so often we don't call most of the time because we know it will be eventually come back on."
The middle aged cable man said, "Yea, when I subscribed to this cable system, it went out four or five times a week and I had to fix it when I got home. I got tired of it and switched to Direct TV."
I thought for a few seconds and said, "That's not a good recommendation for the company you work for."
And he walked out the door.
So, does that mean that Livingston is cable is so lousy that even its employees use something else? I guess so.
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