The nation . emseK It is clear that many convicts ob-jectively get out of touch with theirfree life. Their wives throw themover, or at least worry them (Joethe Grinder has been in town, theyget joshed, cruelly). Their friendsdrop out of sight, sometimes coppingjointly owned cars. Their job hopesevaporate. These events are com-mon and the suffering is not subtle. Another unpleasantness of incar-ceration is the custodial officers—hacks to you. There are all kinds;the overtly and deliberately cruelones are not preponderant; in gen-eral, hacks are no worse than con-victs at the core. But they suff
The nation . emseK It is clear that many convicts ob-jectively get out of touch with theirfree life. Their wives throw themover, or at least worry them (Joethe Grinder has been in town, theyget joshed, cruelly). Their friendsdrop out of sight, sometimes coppingjointly owned cars. Their job hopesevaporate. These events are com-mon and the suffering is not subtle. Another unpleasantness of incar-ceration is the custodial officers—hacks to you. There are all kinds;the overtly and deliberately cruelones are not preponderant; in gen-eral, hacks are no worse than con-victs at the core. But they sufferfrom an occupational disease. Thosewho have been on the job a goodmany years, hearing a non-commit-tal Yes sir from inmates all thattime, have long since given up anyattempts they^ ever made to be sen-sitive to an inmates attitudes. You know, Davis, we had hun-dreds of those conscientious objec-tors in here during the war. Yes sir. Those guys arent sincere, therdont mean that about conscience. Oh, really?. .Lowell Naeve:from Die Phantasies of a Prisoner Naw. Or those that are sincereare crazy. Oh, really? Yeah, I mean theyre always go-ing on hunger strikes. Now whatsthe point of that? We just force-feed them. Yes sir. This hack was neither ventingspite against COs nor baiting me, hewas just chatting. The occasion ofthe chat illustrates my point as well:he had found me in another inmatescell; I had explained that the man(though not the authorities) hadgiven me permission to be there be-cause I had no quiet place of myown to study; I was manifestlystudying; the hack, a kindly sort,did not discipline me—but did stayfor over an hour of monologue. This extreme indifference to con-victs attitudes has not congealed inthe younger hacks, who also are bet-ter educated nnd have heard ofmodern penology. A few, havinghad psychology in college, are re-solved to have insight into theircharges (even to the point of com-posing fanciful personality analysesof inmates they dont know). Dontt
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