Prisoner Life

My day job has given me the opportunity to interact daily with state inmates and its offered an interesting insight. Currently I work mainly with females but I've seen how creative any individual can be. I think that those of us in the civilian population realized how effective having nowhere to go and a lot of spare time can be for creative energy. We in the free world have several social media apps to share ideas and recipes with each other, but there isn't anything like that for residents in the corrections system. The benefits of having an outlet for that extra energy are far and wide, which is why I think it would be a grand investment in our communities to create a 'social media' app specifically designed for the corrections system.

In recent years technology has become a regular part of most correctional facilities in the form of computers and tablets. I know that where I work there are coding classes in addition to the everyday tablet options. When I used to do transportation work for jails all over the country, a lot of the people I would transport would talk about using tablets so it's logical to think they've become pretty common place. In talking to the people on the living unit where I work I've received all sorts of questions when the various inmate applications don't cooperate. Since a lot of frame work for inmate friendly applications already exists, it would be simple to create a DIY social network for inmates, like Pinterest for the rest of us.

The short time I have been working in a facility has shown me stuffed animals, blankets, bags and clotheslines that were crocheted/knitted to look like a professional made the. There have been complete meals and delicious desserts made from dry storage food items that most of us would disregard as undesirable at the grocery store. The main office for the transportation office even had holiday themed hanging ornaments made from raman noodle packets. One of the senior residents makes mobiles with different shapes cut from recycled health and beauty bottles.

I may only be security but the benefits of being able to have a constructive outlet are immeasurable. Part of being staff at a corrections facility, particularly female oriented one, is understanding that a lot of times they came from environments that weren't conducive to good decision making. In a lot of cases poor judgement results in making progressively worse decisions and getting themselves incarcerated. It is the epitome of 'idle hands are the devil's work' in many cases. Having an app that allows the sharing of productive ideas might speed up the resolution process. After all the entire point of CORRECTIONS facilities is to over the tools to correct that got residents there in the first place.

An app would allow some of the more seasoned inmates to share some of the knowledge gained through the years with the newly sentenced. I firmly believe that sharing some of the creative outlets available in prison might offer incoming individuals hope. Don't get me wrong they are there to serve time for a crime but that doesn't mean that we need to make the mental health situation worse. It is common knowledge that the United States prison system is the largest housing institution for those battling psychiatrics issues. Crafting, cooking and other creative outlets can offer positive outlets to assist mental health professionals with treatment.

Logistically an app for department of corrections would have to have some censorship due to the fact that security as a whole has to be the largest concern. There are enough prison themed tv shows for anybody in the general public to understand that some of the examples of creative solutions are not legal or safe. Posting and sharing would be for the inmates with an outside body for oversight. It would allow the inmates to feel connected and share patterns, recipes, and ideas. There are laws about the income that individuals who are incarcerated can make, so it would have to be non-profit based. It would mean that there isn't a need for advertising to outside parties.

Another use for the app would be to share experiences anonymously, or otherwise, with other inmates. Much like any blog, it could offer a chance of connection and show the newly sentenced that they are not alone. There have been several times that I have overheard, or been told directly, that jail offered the opportunity to step back and understand what toxicity surrounded them in their life. Countless times I've heard examples of prison being the time that individuals cut out problematic loved ones out because they couldn't be a part of the healing that was taking place after being removed from the bad choices.