In one of my journals, I wrote that some people seem to want to remain in prison. Some people asked me why that is. I think there are two reasons:
1) Some people are just lazy. They like the fact that they don’t have to work, cook food or do laundry. They can essentially lie in bed all day or spend nearly all day listening to music or watching TV. That is the lion’s share of what I see in this particular prison.
2) The other reason is fear. I think in the higher security prisons, you have inmates who have been there for so long that they become institutionalized and therefore are scared of getting out and facing a world that they no longer know. For instance, if you have been in prison for 25 years, you have never seen or used an iPhone. You may not have much exposure to computers. You haven’t driven a car for the past 25 years and don’t know anything about electric cars. I think that is the second reason.
Another interesting thing you hear in prison is the words, “I didn’t do it” or “Eric (insert any name here) did it.” It is said so much, especially by some people, that it is very annoying. I don’t know why they say it or how it got started, but you hear it quite a bit.
I have read the following books, but did not do a book report on them. They were read more for general history purposes or when I just wanted to read something easy because I couldn’t concentrate on any “heavy books,” because I wanted to learn more from these mini-classics or because there was not much that gave me concepts to improve my life after prison that was worthy of a book report. Some of these books are listed below:
Battle of Kosovo
Life of Christ — this one would be too hard to do a book report on
The Time Machine HG Wells
The Invisible Man HG Wells
The Island of Dr. Moreau HG Wells
The War of the Worlds HG Wells
Johnstown Flood – I did the book report and sent it in, but it appears as if it didn’t go through. I will not do it again.
Home Survival Series, Books 1-13
I just finished the book Shantaram. It is one of the Top Ten books I have ever read. It is almost 1,000 pages, so if you don’t have time to read it, I heard it is streaming on Apple TV. It might be worth checking out.
I have not been keeping up as much on my journal, but it isn’t because I am not doing the work. I finished 3 book reports yesterday & today, am writing out letters to two friends and signed up for two ACE Courses. Picked out two books that are on my book list from the library today. Still doing my 130 push-ups & sit-ups everyday. Once we can start going to outside rec consistently, I am going to double the amount I do.
