This post is for Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, and it is inspired by the post that I did when my fiancée William (Founder of Behind the Walls Talk) went to solitary confinement. This was my first time experiencing this type of situation in our relationship. After the shock of him being back there wore off and the reality set in, my mind went to how he was feeling mentally and how it would be for the next 30 days. Solitary confinement for those who might not be familiar with the words, is the prison staff cutting off all communication with your loved ones and locking them away from people even at the facility which we also call the “hole” in other areas they have different terminology for it. There are three different topics that came to my attention again but this time I figured that we all can talk about it together. These topics that I would like to speak about are institutionalized, prisonization, and post incarceration syndrome. How many have heard these terms before? Have you ever asked your loved ones if they feel like they are institutionalized or if any of this sound familiar to them? What does these words even mean? When it comes to being institutionalized we have heard someone say to us that even when it comes to the size of a bathroom affects him. He must use the bigger one in the home. Or when you are sitting at home, but you feel the urge to get up and leave because you felt like the walls were closing in on you. Not realizing the aggression that you have towards your family until they bring it to your attention. Prison aggression and prison mentality having to survive in the concrete jungle. Just a few examples of what I have heard from different men.
Let’s think about this a letter deeper than just rules. How about living in inhumane conditions? Going to solitary confinement for days or even months on end, with an hour out if possible? Living in hostile environments? Having to watch your back even to just use the bathroom? I have a few stories from behind the walls that was told me, and I can’t forget them. And all I could ask was how are you ok? Because I am not ok listening to this. Witnessing some of the most horrific things becomes so normal to them. That alone is not normal. How about not having a hug daily or any form of affection. Sensory deprivation is also real. Even at visitation, we cannot show a lot of affection towards our loved ones. No holding hands at some facilities, only able to embrace at the beginning and at the end of the visit. The fact is that they have bans on certain books and magazines for sexual language. Here in North Carolina, we can no longer send mail to the facilities, the prisons at one point would print out the mail and give it to them, now we are no longer even doing that. Everything outside of legal mail, certain books, and magazines still can get to them all other mail is view on the tablet or on a kiosk. Just another way to desensitize our loved ones.
Of course, these are not all the reasons that someone can be institutionalized, or dealing with prisonization, but we need to have these conversations with our men and give them a safe place to be open and allow us, their family to help aid and assist them to our best abilities. Doing more research, looking up places that offer therapy, and making sure they have medical coverage just a few ways that we can help. The first step will be having the conversation within our community sharing information from the outside to behind the walls.
Post incarceration syndrome is right there with having the same symptoms as post-traumatic stress disorder. The only difference for me and some others that I have read about, is the fact the government does not want to admit that PIC is real just as real as PTSD because they would have to pay all these people and actually own the fact that the prison system is not doing the job the claim it is intended to do but yet sending home men in worst conditions than some was before they went in.
Our returning neighbors, family members, friends, citizens should not have to live in inhumane environments, with values, rules and conditions that contradict the norms of society and cause mental trauma that impedes a person’s abilities to successfully reenter society.
“Approximately 6,000 people, or about 20% of all offenders, currently receive psychiatric services that are available in the state prison system. Common diagnoses include substance use disorders, psychotic and bipolar disorders, trauma-related disorders, and depression, anxiety and personality disorders. In addition to the sentenced prison population, psychiatric care is available to the safekeeper population (pre-trial detainees who need a level of care beyond what could be provided in their county jail and sent via a court order to the state prison system).” this statement come directly from the NCDAC website. For me, I would say that number reflects the ones and record. What about those who have been in for several years and did not have any issues with mental health before coming to prison? Men who are like my fiancée that has been incarcerated for 20 years, he was open and honest about how he feels about this topic and in the ways that he can see that he is institutionalized. Down below will be some more information that I hope everyone can and will find useful in having these conversations with each other as well as being helpful in facilitating a successful reentry for your loved ones. In al truthfulness I truly want to bring more awareness to these very important mental health issues that so many individuals have been impacted by in our community. And to as always be their voices to help end solitary confinement, to focus the attention on rehabilitation and not continuous punishment, to be mindful of the conditions that they are experiencing and how it will impact all of us in the long run, we would continue to gain knowledge while being mindful of those who have mental health concerns, to bring in opportunities for those who need the help have access to it, and providing a safe environment for them to able to share their experiences with others and understand what they need to be the best them they can be.
Thank you all for reading this post, I am always open to speak with anyone in regard to our website, posts, prison related topics, and helping in any way that I can. Feel free to reach out to me the information is posted as well.
Meaning of INSITITUTIONALIZED; A person who has completely bought into the prison mentality. Their thoughts, speech, and actions all portray someone who has been locked up for far too long. Cambridge defines it as; If someone becomes institutionalized, they gradually become less able to think and act independently, because of having lived for a long time under the rules of an institution.
In clinical and abnormal psychology, institutionalization or institutional syndrome refers to deficits or disabilities in social and life skills, which develop after a person has spent a long period living in mental hospitals, prisons or other remote institutions. In other words, individuals in institutions may be deprived (whether unintentionally or not) of independence and of responsibility, to the point that once they return to “outside life” they are often unable to manage many of its demands; it has also been argued that institutionalized individuals become psychologically more prone to mental health problems.
The term institutionalization can also be used to describe the process of committing an individual to a mental hospital or prison, or to describe institutional syndrome; thus, the phrase “X is institutionalized” may mean either that X has been placed in an institution or that X is suffering the psychological effects of having been in an institution for an extended period of time.
Prisonization is the process through which new “inmates” learn the prison subculture. For many prisoners, the prisonization process involves learning the statuses and roles of the various inmates. The subculture is influenced by the formal organization used in prisons by the prison staff.
Post-incarceration syndrome (PICS) is a psychiatric disorder that affects individuals who have been incarcerated and then are released back into society. It is characterized by a range of psychological, emotional, and social difficulties that can arise because of being imprisoned.
2 responses to “Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month”
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