Punishment, Mistakes or Innocence in Jail? What of the Future?

This first short documentary is about a Otis Johnson who went to jail at 25 for attempted murder of a police officer and he was released at 69. He speaks of observing a new world.    He appreciated the freedom many take for granted. He had no family no friends to whom which he could go to.  He was used to be alone but I am sure he felt sad about not having family.  An amazing wise gentle man.

I wondered about reform, surely people can learn the lesson without having to be jailed for 44 years.  I wonder whether it would be wise to create a place in jail where people can learn how to question negative thoughts and learn peace.  Imagine if jail became a transformative experience where people found a new way of seeing the world. Understanding that life unfolds for a purpose. Imagine highly evolved societies I wonder if they would help a person meet with the person’s they have affected to learn about their impact and how to change that in the future.  All people, believe it or not, are good deep inside, it is just that they may learn ways that are negative or destructive as they haven’t been shown another way.  Some do have immature or bullying tendencies but they can be trained to channel their disconnection into working out how to behave so that they don’t impact others or deal with their own sense of powerlessness. No-one is born bad people make mistakes believing it will serve them.

I loved his wisdom at the end.  Holding anger only stagnates you, he said that people believe that society owes them, he says society doesn’t owe him, he said you have to learn to let it go.  He believes in going forward not backwards. Perhaps society could learn from this.   Note: The next video is about children incarcerated behind bars. It opens up questions about society and the dilemma for children who are not understood and who themselves grow up in a world that is not understanding.

Is punishment and control discipline? Are jails being used to reform children as parents or society cannot cope. What do jails teach? Should children go to jail? Should society teach parenting? Should society take responsibility for its citizens and is there room for understanding? Should society investigate its internal stressors? What are the role models in societies today? How do we reach people who are suffering? ‘ Just do as I say’ – is that true listening and healing or control/indifference and bullying? I see powerlessness being taught through control rather than teaching respect by modelling respect. What is respect – treating people the same no matter what they are saying or doing, it is respecting their right to exist, according them fair treatment. When the staff member is talking about respect they are not understanding the needs of the child who is being frustrated, they are not really listening to hear what is upsetting her and whether she is learning how to identify her feelings and thoughts that drive her discord. They are just treating her like she has no rights, must obey, be silent and closing psychologically down repressing her anger rather than really helping her to express herself nonviolently.  I see this focus on social order as a sign of the lack of emotional intelligence as the real reason why people end up in jail – young or old.  The lack of emotional intelligence is exhibited in society where the real pain of people is ignored and when they lose it they are punished to deter them from doing it again, rather than healing the issue.  If it is not healed it will be projected again, so can punishment heal?  People who are violent do not know how to deal with their inner anger, they project it out, it is in truth a cry for help?  Can we learn compassion and help them find themselves and understand the psychology of others.  In my work investigating bullying it is all about powerlessness parading as power, in truth there is great fear and insecurity underneath the mask of control.  I am learning about how men have been repressed disconnecting them and isolating them from their humanity.  I have observed that weakness is seen as emotion, that they must suck it up (as they say) and not investigate the negative feeling in order for it to let go of them. Negativity is never released by people it only releases when the person doesn’t identify any longer with it. Placing someone in a jail envionment without changing the narrative and modelling a society that teaches respect, peace, honesty etc. will never reform a person.  The person may change in jail as an inner decision, illumination may come from isolation but equally people can leave jail angry and confused. What would love do next?  That is the most fundamental question.  There is much soul searching to be done at this time about what creates a peaceful world. We haven’t really started the real conversation yet, I am waiting until people have suffered enough an start to look for different ways of reforming, educating and illuminating others in ways that are in harmony with both nature and each other.  I see a future without jails. I say that bearing in mind the jails we all create in terms of our perceived imprisonment, our perceived limitations. I see a world without fear and without limits.  I look forward to this new future.