Other essays on this theme

Essay: "Aging"

For years I have heard, from various people in various lockups nationwide, how prison "preserves" a person. When I was much younger than my current 44 years, I actually believed this to be true. When you're in your teens and twenties, the body deals with constant stress, and wear and tear much more effectively. As a general rule of thumb, young people served shorter sentences in the 1970's and 80's. These two factors combined to seemingly verify the delusion that prison preserves one's heath and youthful appearance. There are exceptions of course to any rule, and how we use the time to improve ourselves is important, but the truth is that we will age at the same rate no matter where we find ourselves in this life. I would have still needed decent orthodontia, glasses, and a hair transplant had I remained free. Everything else is our individual approach to the life style we've trapped ourselves within, our reaction to stress.

It's also been said we are only as young as we feel. For sure our mental- emotional integrity can carry us far; it may be our greatest ally in surviving our sentences. But I can't count how many 35 year olds I've met in here who have the emotional maturity of a 12 year old, and yet physically they appear to be 50. If these specimens are only as young as they feel, they're a paradox!

Yet that's not as contradictory as it seems upon first consideration. Many of these people enter prison in their teens, immature and facing a long stretch of their lives behind bars. They may come under the influence of a mature convict role model, or not. But let's face it, hardly anyone in prison is a paragon of virtue. Without the tempering our characters are exposed to in the free world, our outlook can be stunted if we only do it on a "day by day" basis, with no thoughts to our future. People get lazy in here, physically and mentally, which in itself opens us up to a rapid deterioration on both fronts. Is it any wonder then, that statistically, prisoners live an average 16 or 17 years less than a comparable free person?

So much for the folklore that prison preserves. It'll destroy us if we let it.