I am well aware of the many psychological
studies that conclusively show prison inmates in regards to emotional and intellectual
development. Not all guards are so “childish”, but enough of them are that it
becomes prudent to generally avoid contact with certain guards for much the
same reason you might avoid contact with certain prisoners if I was in general
population instead of isolated on death row; they are bullies, and enjoy every
chance they get to make themselves feel good by making someone else feel bad.
But, what they don’t realize, per definition of their small minded
perspectives, is that every time they abuse their power over a prisoner they
usually end up making their own lives a little more unpleasant by at least as
much as they dish out, if not more.
For example, today I needed to use the phone
to call my attorney. So, I asked the prisoner who was currently using the phone
to pass it to me when he was done, which he agreed to do readily enough.
A
little while later a guard came on the tier and promptly started catering to
other prisoners’ requests to pass items between cells (a common practice). I
stood at my door and watched as he went from one cell to another opening and
closing the slots in the doors with his key to get and deliver the items
requested. As he passed my cell I asked him to get the phone for me, and told
him what prisoner had it, but he seemed to just ignore me. Then when he got
down the tier I heard the prisoner who had the phone ask the guard to pass it
to “Duncan”. The guard told that prisoner, “I’ll be back in a minute.” Then he
continued passing items for other prisoners before leaving the tier without
passing me the phone.
What am I left to think? Did he just forget?
Probably not; most likely this was --- from his limited perspective --- an
opportunity for him to make a “child killer” suffer, even if only a little; or
to at least remind a “dweeb” of his “dweebiness”, as bullies are won’t do.
Refusing to pass the phone is a rather minor annoyance as far as what guards
like him can and have done before, but it serves as a good example of how a
small mind creates its own misery. Let me explain.
By not doing his job and passing me the
phone when I ask for it he not only endorses the judgmental attitude that
instigates violence in prison, both prisoner on prisoner and prisoner on guard,
but he more immediately puts off his job onto another guard. Eventually
another, more mature and responsible, came on the tier and passed me the phone
upon request. So the inconvenience for me was minor; I made my call 40 minutes
later than I might have if the first guard had done his job; big deal. The
point here is that another guard ended up doing more work than he should have.
It wasn’t much, but it adds up, and the more responsible and mature guards are
well aware of the resulting work load shift. But, because of ordinary social
pressure, they typically don’t say anything about it as it would be immediately
perceived (note, “immediate” perception is well within a bully’s limited scope
of awareness) as “whining”, so they keep their annoyance to themselves, as a
mature person is wont to do.
However, as anyone who has ever observed the
most basic social dynamics is aware of (i.e. beyond the scope of a bully’s
awareness again) this creates underlying social tensions that results in
cliques forming that cause all kinds of workplace inconveniences, and in prison
it can also lead to some very dangerous situations. An obvious example flowing
from the phone situation above would be when another prisoner more prone to
violent behavior (and we all know prisons are full of them) doesn’t get to make
an “important” phone call later in the day because the phone sat unused for 40
minutes. That prisoner doesn’t know why he ultimately didn’t get the phone
sooner, when he asked for it (I presume here that he also shares a small minded
person’s limited perspective), he only knows he couldn’t make his call and
that, perhaps combined with a few other “critical” factors in his life (such as
not getting any mail that day) he decides it’s time to express himself the only
way he can in prison: with violence.
All violence in prison affect everyone, not
just the immediate victim, be it guard or prisoner. I admit, this example is
contrived, but it is perfectly reasonable. It also hints at the many subtle
consequences of ignorant small minded behavior that ultimately only comes back
to harm the original ignoramus in the end, and causing a lot more harm and
inconvenience for people other than the intended victim along the way. If there
were some way to make bullies “see” the extended consequence of their actions I
don’t think they’d stay so small minded for long.
