Social Chat

Let me make it clear: this is not a post for Ford Motor Company. Yeah, they make nice cars. I put 236,000 miles on my 2000 Mercury Mountaineer and had no complaints with it. But this post is about education for incarcerated inmates.

Click HERE to watch a TED Talk that took place at the Ironwood State Penitentiary in Blythe, CA. It holds education as one of its primary goals and works with a local college to meet it. Check out the Huffington Post ARTICLE that discusses CA’s biggest educational program in its state.

But more generally, to me it just makes sense that society would work harder at educating its inmates. After all, we have earlier learned that these individuals (93-98% will be released from prison) do get released from prison. So the question then becomes: “What has society produced during this time?” Have we worked toward making each inmate better or worse? If better, than how have we done this?

Thoughts?

This coming week we’ll be talking about the effects of sensory deprivation. I was taken aback when I discovered that Fox has a reality SHOW where contestants compete to see who can last the longest in isolation. The winner takes home $50,000.00 (I wonder if 50k will cover one’s medical bills that will result from post-show therapy sessions?).

Sit and ponder this for a moment: a reality show that exposes volunteers to sensory deprivation….

Thoughts?

I’ve tried hard to stay off social media since this past Tuesday. It’s pretty tough. It’s almost as if my fingers automatically type in “facebook.com” or “twitter.com” when I get in front of a computer.

Pretty sad:(

There’s a great deal of hurt, fear and anger in this country since Tuesday. AND THIS POST ISN’T AN ATTEMPT TO CONTINUE ANY OF IT. So this post isn’t a political one so don’t respond with one or I will delete it.

I just need a break from all of it. And maybe you do as well. Please don’t mistaken this break to mean I don’t think these emotions aren’t genuine or important. I just need a break.

Soooo

Tell me something positive that’s happened for you this year (“The person I voted for POTUS won.” is NOT an option) or tell me something you’re thankful for. I’ll start it off:

Last month I got to visit La Crosse, WI for a long weekend. We traveled there for my wife to do her first 5k trail run. We spent the weekend at some nice coffee shops, restaurants and bars. The foliage was so beautiful on the bluffs surrounding the area.

We also visited a the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe just outside La Crosse. It sits on a picturesque hill overlooking some gorgeous foliage. It was just beautiful.

The weekend was especially nice, as I got to spend quality time with two of my favs: Alexandrea and Sutton. We ended up driving home on State Highway 35, which runs next to the Mississippi River and it was magnificent as well.

This week we’ll be talking about prison life. In other words, we’ll be learning about others’ experiences of being incarcerated. Which brings up an interesting question: How does one prepare for a long prison/jail sentence?

Well, you might/might not be surprised to learn that there is a wealth of information on the WWW about preparing for prison. WIKIHOW (click HERE) has one. The US Bureau of Prisons has published an entire booklet on the topic (click HERE to check it out). and the website motherjones.com has also posted 8 Tips for Easier Prison Stay (click HERE). These were just a few hits from a simple google search.

And of course there are movies (Get Hard, Orange is the New Black, etc.) that address the issue of preparing oneself for prison (not sure I’d use these to prepare for my prison stay, however.)

QUESTION: What 3 things would you do to prepare for prison and why. Let’s assume you’re gonna be transferred to a medium security prison similar to RCI.