Prisons Narrative
Prisons characterized by enclosures, solitude, poor treatment, and inhumanity among other structures are built to transform criminal’s lives, but do they accomplish their goals? Imprisonment is the most utilized mode of enhancing behavior change, but the brutality endured by the prisoners can result in psychological and physical breakdown. The long periods of lockdown and lack of interaction lead to torment and family breakups. By reviewing the issues faced by the prisoners as detailed in different articles and journals, it will be easier to determine the impacts of incarceration on the prisoners and their families. The paper intends to determine whether imprisonment is human or inhuman.
Content
Life is worth more than anything in the entire world. However, does heroism of being killed in the war worth more than imprisonment in enemy territory that results in being termed as a coward? Al Nasiri (2009) asserts that,
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Because they all believe you died a hero’s death…my friends say that heroes die defending their countries, but a prisoner is a coward who has surrendered so he can stay alive (Al Nasiri, 2009).
The statement demonstrates the family ties losing their meaning after the ten-year imprisonment of the father. He does not feel accepted thus decides to run from home although he spent the last ten years dreaming and hoping for the day he would be free.
Psychiatric and mental breakdown following years of solitude in the brock and dark confinement of the cells are evident in ‘The Open Window’ by Blandiana. The painter, who is the prisoner, paints a window in the cell and the jailer tries to close it only to bump into the wall. The acknowledgement that the dark tower cell had no window and the move to close the window by the jailer demonstrate that the jailer and the painter have mental issues. The story is short but demonstrates that the jailer is also depressed by the conditions thus falls into the painter’s trap and fails to stop him from falling “through the open window the body of the painter could be heard falling through the air and then shattering on the pavement at the foot of the tower.” (Blandiana, 2005). The story is complicated and challenging to contemporize.
“Beheading just means a bowl-size scar. I will be reborn in twenty years as another real man” (Ang, 2011) is a complicated and an illustration of the Taiwanese culture that provided the prisoners waiting for execution with beef noodles and fish. The beef noodles which was unlike the regular noodles that are delicious were viewed to be food for the rich in the prisons. It demonstrates the poor eating habits and low nutrition benefits that prisoners have to endure.
The irony of freedom and new clothes for the freed Barry was meant to demonstrate that he should start a new life. Isolation characterized his time in Block C cell and loss of friends and family due to his imprisonment. Barry finds a new complicated world and plays catchup to try and impress his daughter, Rose. “The man she saw looked nothing like the father she remembered” (Keane, 2007). The distance and failure to connect through visitation had led to and the difficulty of reconnecting with one’s family.
Torture and experimentation of the prisoners may be illegal but the lack of legal channels for the prisoners’ results in the guards conducting dubious experiments on the prisoners. Brau (2002) is a description of the painful tests undertaken in prisons. The narrator states,
The prisoner trembled and held his breath…this was followed immediately by another, then another, then one more, in a dizzying series that disrupted the swarming sensation only to replace it with searing pain (Brau, 2002).
The electrification of the prisoner and the failure to be mindful of his health is a testament to the physical torment that prisoners endure.
Conclusion
The literature on prisons is evidence that physical and psychological torture breaks the prisoner to the point of no return, it is difficult to fit back into the community. The articles are different but depict the inhumanity of incarceration. The once criminal or political criminal is broken and hardened to the point that they become inhuman. Therefore, there is need to change the manner to transform behaviors.
References
Al Nasiri, B., (2009). The return of the prisoner (D. Johnson-Davies, Trans.). Southwest Review, 94(1), 66-72.
Ang, L., (2011). Beef noodles (S. L-C Lin, Trans.). Chinese Literature Today , 2(1), 6-13. Blandiana, A., (2005). The open window (J. Harris, Trans.). The Review of Contemporary Literature , 30(1), 19-20.
Brau, E., (2002). The prisoner (D. A. Yates, Trans.). The Literary Review, 46(1), 69-77.
Keane, M.B., (2007). Believers. The Antioch Review , 65(3), 438-453
