A few days back, a report concluded that over ninety percent of the inmates in Iowa’s prison system had diagnosable psychiatric disorders, and this apparently is not at all out of line with the numbers other state’s corrections departments have arrived at.
I’ve heard at least a dozen times so far this year that the prisons are the modern replacement for the asylums and ‘county homes’ of yesteryear.
Like anything that keeps getting mentioned, there’s probably something to it. My father spent a summer working at the county home here in Cerro Gordo county, in either 1972 or ’73. I heard many stories of his experiences as I grew up, and later, I got to see many of these same types of people as they congregated in Mason City’s Southbridge Mall when I managed a pizza shop in its food court about a dozen years back.
Most of these people are harmless, but they are a bit odd and most of them and normalcy would be mutually exclusive. For whatever the reason, they just do not function like the rest of us do.
Right there is a hint as to what’s going on. Most of us are fairly well occupied throughout our days. School, work, home, hobbies…we hardly have enough time in the day to fit those in, let alone any real mischief.
But what about the unemployable individuals no one is likely to hire, or who just can never seem to keep a job if they could get one? They’ve got a lot of free time on their hands, but quite often do not have much in the way of family. Without significant income and a place of their own, hobbies don’t work so well for them, either. If you live on the street, there’s not a lot you can count as possessions – pretty much what you can carry on your back or keep hidden in your ‘camp’. You might spend time in a shelter or in a room at the YMCA, maybe even rent a hotel room from time to time, but what activities you can engage in there are naturally quite restricted. So, what do you do with yourself?
Socializing is pretty much it.
I noticed a long time ago that people I can connect with are generally as busy as I am, and one just can’t catch up with them so often. Those folks who are always available? They usually never have anything going on that they can’t drop in lieu of whatever else comes up. They’re usually unemployed, or under-employed. They’re seldom involved in anything that consumes any real time or requires any expenditure of talent or personal resources. Boredom becomes an issue for these people, and there does seem to be a favorite way of solving that problem…
It may be a rush, but action of most varieties is illegal probably eighty percent of the time. And if one is inclined to addictions and compulsions, running afoul of the law at some point in life is just about inevitable.
Most of us average, mild mannered types are going to stumble into trouble now and then, but when it finds us, we’re not too keen on revisiting it and try to stay far out of its way. But for those of us two whom the romance and adventure of it is irresistible, it’s the repeated offenses that get us.
While there are some notable exceptions, especially for federal offenses, first time arrests generally will not result in a prison sentence these days as long as it’s not a forcible felony. One can only expect to get lucky a few times, though. After awhile, the judicial system begins to lose its patience with people. After one gets arrested for about the third time, someone in an appointed position declares ‘no more Mister Nice Guy!’ by slamming a gavel down hard. Not long after that, something else can be heard slamming hard!
Most of us do not habitually commit crimes. That is part of what makes us normal and allows society to exist. If you do keep getting into trouble, you’re not only in the minority, but something is definitely wrong with you! Odds are good you’ll be in that 93% of inmates with psychiatric, addiction, or personality disorders.
Not quite that abnormal,
theTiGor
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