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Tik Tik Boom: Inmates Waiting on Nothing but Their Thoughts

By: Maylani Castro

Abstract

The mental health of those incarcerated is what I investigate in this paper because not many people know enough about the impact it has. Incarceration has a short and long-term effect that has to be dealt with by society. This paper was inspired by seeing someone close to me go in and out of jail and watching as their mental health slowly deteriorated. I examine various articles that explain the waiting process in prison or jail as I try to discover for myself what this space might feel like. It is obvious that mental health is greatly affected during incarceration because the mind is becoming weaker. I conducted an interview with someone who works in a jail as a mental health counselor to get a better understanding of mental health issues common in jails and how their position contributes to the positive mental health of those being detained. I also reflect on my own aunt’s recidivism and dive into the broken relationship we have. My understanding has expanded and opened my eyes to how susceptible inmates are to developing serious mental health issues. It's more than we think, even if times are changing.

 All my life I've been told I should be a lawyer, hearing all kinds of statements such as: “You argue so much you should be a lawyer”, “don’t follow what your brothers did”, “You would make a great lawyer”, “we need people to fix this system”, “your family would be so proud of you. This brings me to where I am today, pursuing a criminal justice degree at ȺpÎÞÂë in Romeoville, Illinois.

But I am not seeking this degree only because of the comments of those around me. I have an interest in the field of criminal defense because I come from an extended family and have seen firsthand the cyclical nature of our criminal justice system here in the U.S. Some of my loved ones were changed by the actions they did, and some still do them because they have not changed. I always thought to myself, why do some of them become repeat offenders? What can we do as a society to help change this?
My aunt, in particular, has been in my thoughts from time to time.  She has been in and out of the judicial system since I was young, and there was definitely a change after each of her arrests – not a reformative change, but a mental one. Her experiences stood out to me because of the negative impact they have had on her and her mental health. They also stuck out because we do not have that aunt/niece relationship. I’ve always wondered how it would be, to have an aunt close to me, someone that was not my mom that I could go to, converse with, laugh with, and share a connection with.

My aunt has been arrested for a few reasons. The ones I'm aware of are retail theft and illegal drug distribution. When she was younger, she started with retail theft. She was in and out of jail. As time went by, she was arrested for selling drugs. This led to the addiction. She began using her product and became dependent on it.

She went through a detox period each time she was arrested because she was without the drugs that would be used.  She developed mood disorders that went untreated while being in jail. She never fully recovered from these disorders, and they worsened after each cycle of release and re-arrest until they became chronic. She developed bipolar and schizophrenia disorder and became a drug addict over time.

Others may look at this saying “She did this to herself,” “It's her life,” or “It's not jail's fault.” You would think that the time she spent in jail would have stifled her addiction. Instead, her mental health deteriorated with each time spent in jail and the addiction grew worse. She used the drugs as a method of dulling the emotional turmoil brought about by her mental health issues and for her own use. Seeing that happen is why I want to give a voice to people who don’t have one in our broken criminal justice system. Their minds are being put at risk with how the system treats them. Many people on the outside overlook how inmates are being treated inside the cell. Some don’t care what happens to them, but I do.

The mental health of those incarcerated has a bigger impact on recidivism than many think, and that's what I wanted to look into. So, I sat down with Kim Meyers, LCPC, who is a counselor at Cook County jail, to gather insight on the mental health effects of incarceration and this is how it went:

MC: To start off, what are your credentials and what is your job at Cook County?

KM: I am a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC). My’s counselor license is from Illinois. At Cook County, I am a mental health specialist. 

MC: How do you know when a patient is changing mentally? Do you see signs beforehand?

KM: You can see signs of decompensation, start talking to themselves, eating habits might change, acting hypervigilant, delay in responses, officers let me know about anything that's off with the inmates before I see them.

MC: Do you have a particular approach when you go about treating an inmate/prisoner?

KM: Not exactly, it depends on the patient. Lack of trust because I am white and most of Cook County jail is African-American. I expect not to be trusted but I try to be casual, try to keep a casual conversation with the inmates, try to make them feel comfortable.

MC: What steps would you take when dealing with a potentially suicidal inmate?

KM: I ask them if they have family or if they have children. How do you think their loss would affect them? Who would take care of the kids if they are not there? I share a personal story with them. I ask them if they were there a long time.  Why would they give up now? I ask them about their charges: “Are you facing life in prison, are you only facing a couple years? Are you reacting to things that might happen that haven't happened yet?” I try to figure out where they are coming from, and why they're feeling this way. A lot of factors go into it though, sometimes it's the death of a loved one that makes them feel like that, it's rough.

MC: How do you help the patient throughout the process when they have a mental issue? Medicine?

KM: I refer them to psychiatry because I am not one; but, we do have some as staff. If they are currently not referred to psychiatry, I can do that for them. Or if they're currently on medication and they're telling me they're having negative reactions to it or it's not working, I can put them in for a sooner follow-up with psychiatry and communicate that to the psychiatrist. I say, “Can we please see this person?” either saying that they're hearing voices or whatever. If their medication isn't working, please address this.” I can't prescribe, but medication is available to them.

MC: What do you think is the leading cause for mental health to increase in a person in prison?

KM: Lack of services, usually when you're in a jail vs a prison.  Jail is supposed to be a temporary holding facility while they’re waiting for trial. Cook County in particular is very slow on the court process. So, they just sit there for years waiting for trial to happen. The longer they stay in there, the more of a toll it takes on their mental health. Technology has made it a little bit easier to do zoom visits and stuff like that so people who didn’t have family members in the state have been helpful for them like extended family, who may not be in Chicago. And get a visual of them instead of a call. And our school process is if you're over 2,1 they don’t even let you go to school to finish your high school diploma. And that's messed up. Guys coming in here are here in their 20’s and 30’s, and they want their high school diploma they want to stop the cycle of coming into jail. So they kind of don’t see any other way. Plus, there's not enough staff. It would be great to do all this stuff with all of these guys. We have been short-staffed for years now, and we post positions. But we just don’t have the bodies. There aren't people coming in [emphasis added].

MC: Is privacy a thing? Can you keep stuff confidential?

KM: Absolutely, because it's a correctional facility, officers are present. But when I was working over in division 9, which is our maximum-security division, a lot of times I would use the attorney visit room. So, the detainee would be cuffed and changed to like a hook on the wall and there are glass windows so I would shut the door and be able to talk to them in private. But, security still had a full line of sight. But the detainee was still able to talk to me about whatever they needed to talk to me about in private. But confidentiality is an issue. The safety thing trumps all of it, but you'd have somebody who wanted to talk to you about something private you just try to have the officer stand back a little bit further where they might not be in direct ear shot but they're still on sight.

MC: Do you think that the role family has is important to that person in jail or prison? For keeping that connection?

KM: Absolutely. They feel very abandoned a lot of the time. People ar removing on with their lives while they're there, particularly if they're in there fighting a murder or something where they are there for a long time and if they miss their visit or phone call, they get very angry and distraught over it. And when there's a death in the family and they can't get that closure like going to services or even if they want to speak at the funeral or any of that stuff it all adds up. Plus, a lot of these guys were the sole breadwinners. They were the ones supporting the family with whatever money and now they can’t and so that affects them as well because now they feel like they are failing all these people that depend on them so it definitely has a negative effect on mental health while they are here [emphasis added].

MC: Are you able to let others know if they are ready for parole?

KM: Parole is prison based but we have something in Cook Country that does evaluations for the court that are psych based so there are questions whether or not someone is fit to stand trial but we the jail don’t have anything to do with that.

MC: How do you encourage the offender to stay positive? Or having good behavior when you talk to them?

KM:I try to ask them what they do to kill the time. They got 24 hours in their cell and they don't really have a lot to do. I ask them what they do, and encourage them to do more than that. And I try to remind them that this is a time that you can't control that you're here, but you can control what you do with the time when you are here. So do everything you can to try to leave better than you came in. So, I'll ask them what it is that we can do to make that happen. Some people want to be in religious programs so they'll talk to the chaplains or go to church and get bibles or whatever. Some of them will go to school if they are under 21. Some will go to workers. I don't know if they earn any money being a worker, but it takes their time, so they are not standing there doing anything all day. We encourage them to journal, to draw, to write letters, to write poetry, songs, stories, whatever it is. I constantly tell people to write letters to their kids even if the kids are too little to read them right now, because at some point the kid is going to grow up and ask them where they were. And it would be cool if they could give them this book of letters and say,” Look, I was thinking about you this whole time I was away.  This is what I was doing. Whether or not they're honest about where they are or not is up to them, but just to let the kid know “Hey, I didn’t abandon you. I couldn't be there but I wanted to be.” I think it repairs some of the damages that a lot of these kids end up feeling just from their parents being away from them for however long. We encourage them to exercise and stay active [emphasis added].

MC: Do you stay updated on any law or psychology changes on the outside?

KM: With the psych degree and license we have to do continuing education credits. 30 hours of those credits every 2 years and we can select whatever we want like, whatever seminars we want to attend. That makes it easy to stay current on any changes in therapy or treatment or on anything. Taking classes or a variety of seminars over the years helps you to stay fresh and current on any new medications and change modalities. Law stuff, I look at but probably not as much as I look at more with psych stuff with the new treated modalities.

MC: What is your understanding of the role mental health plays in offender rehabilitation?

KM: The role of MH is essential in offender rehabilitation. Providing linkage services (housing, places to get medications and follow-up with doctors, jobs or other financial services like disability income) helps to keep the patients stable and safe upon their discharge from jail. If a patient has nowhere to stay or goes off their medication, it almost guarantees their return to jail. Some need to be placed in nursing homes, with family members, or even other outside facilities if their illness is too severe and they are unable to care for themselves. Making sure they have MH care in place before the patients leave helps to ensure their survival [emphasis added].

MC: How would you handle an uncooperative inmate during sessions with them?

KM: Uncooperative inmates happen frequently, but the reason and the way they are being uncooperative needs to be examined and calls for different responses. If a person is being uncooperative as a product of their mental illness, I try to allow them to remain in my office and observe their behavior so I can get a better understanding of what is going on. I then try to describe as much of their behavior as I can in my chart so the next person who sees them can get a clear picture of what I was seeing at the time. Some people need to be sent to our inpatient MH unit and given medications or restrained if they are attempting to harm themselves or others. On the other hand, if a person is being uncooperative by threatening me or being disrespectful and it does not appear to be a product of mental illness, I usually terminate the interview immediately. Safety of all (myself, the inmate, and any other staff) is paramount in a correctional facility. At times, if the inmate refuses to leave, the officers have to forcefully remove them.
MC: Can you give your thoughts on what you think about prisoner rights and treatment inside jails? Do you think in other areas other jails have treatment available for their inmates?

KM: Prisoner rights have had massive improvements over the years. The DOJ (Department of Justice) addresses these issues and goes to various jails and prisons throughout the country to ensure inmates are being provided with quality medical and mental health care. It is a federal requirement for jails and prisons to provide care for their inmates, but I can't speak as to what those services are as I've never worked anywhere else (except Juvie here in Cook County).

Overall, the interview left me with a better understanding of how inmates feel in certain situations. It opened my mind up to how much time is spent in jail while awaiting trial, as well as the uncertainty detainees are faced with in this waiting space. Most of the time that detainees are in this waiting space, a criminal defense attorney is there spending time interacting with them. My curiosities and thoughts were altered because of this. I now wanted to find out what I could about the differences in services being offered in jails as opposed to prisons, and I especially wanted to learn all I could about the psychological effects of this waiting space. 

Life awaiting trial

During the time inmates are in jail they are waiting for their trial/court date, they are spending their time waiting in a cell for the moment that they will be ruled guilty or not guilty. They could be waiting in there for something they did not do or had no part in. Other criminals or innocent people that they are around could be putting anything imaginable in their heads. Any thoughts-good or bad. On top of tha,t the inmates themself are stuck with their own thoughts. Inmates think about their past, present, and future. It is during this time that the lawyer/client relationship becomes crucial to their mental health. Their defense attorney may be the only one they trust.

In “Spatial metaphors of psychological time: The study of Imprisoned men,” the way inmates view time is examined (Sekulak, et al.). The study assumes that time is subjective, and it aims to determine how inmates view the relationship between the past, present, and future.

Time is a confusing thing to look at. It can change, it can go by fast, or it can feel that it travels slowly. This study was conducted to see how prisoners would explain their own understanding of time. The authors tell us that “a person's psychological functioning, including the foundations of their identity, is highly influenced by recent events. Perception of the present can be different for particular people, but also for the same person depending on the context” (Sekulak, et al.1).

Each prisoner over time is going to look at it differently. The longer they stay in a cell, the longer their view of time changes. They are stuck in the cell waiting, waiting for time to go by, waiting for time to change, thinking of anything that comes to mind. What happened to them to get them in this spot that they are in is going to change their view of time. The psychological effects are there, too, because the mind is a place where many things can happen. The waiting period in the cell is a period where a lot of damage can occur to the mind of an inmate.

I came across a performance of Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” put on by the inmates of San Quentin Prison. That reminds me of the psychological impacts and the subjective nature of time this study seems to address (San Quentin Workshop, 1988). 

The play consists of two male characters, Vladimir and Estragon. These two guys are both waiting for Godot. Vladimir is certain Godot will come. Estragon is uncertain but is persuaded to believe that Godot will come. They move from topic to topic as they talk to each other, sometimes angry with one another and at other times behaving civilly. Two other men, Pozzo and Lucky, appear on the stage. The four talk, sharing any ideas that come to mind. They spend all their time in this space/room, interacting with one another. Their conversations go from talking normally to screaming at one another. Pozzo and Lucky leave and Vladimir and Estragon are left alone again, waiting for Godot. Eventually, a little boy comes in to tell them Godot will not come that night but will come another night. The two men interrogate the young boy.

The next day Vladimir and Estragon go through the process of talking to each other again while waiting for Godot. Pozzo and Lucky, the two men who were there the day before, return but they don't remember meeting Vladimir and Estragon, as well as not remembering them waiting for Godot. The little boy then comes back to tell them again that Godot won’t be coming this evening, but will come back the next day.

Vladimir and Estragon decide in the end to hang themselves, but then realize it's not worth it. It's an ongoing cycle they repeat. They make a deal to hang themselves unless Godot comes, and if he does come then they will be saved.

For me, Beckett’s play represents the waiting period of inmates awaiting trial review. They are waiting for something to happen. They live the same cycle every day and sometimes they cannot take it anymore and decide to do bad things to themself. When people are restricted from a sense of time, they can go crazy. For me, Beckett’s Godot serves as a metaphor for the legal process in this instance.

Psychological impact

When a person is in their own head, a lot forced to think about anything it's going to affect them over time. They might start talking to themself because if they're left alone, that's all they can do. As inmates wait, their mental health is going to go up and down as they try to cope with their new environment. They lose not only their freedom, but the bond of time that society shares being on the outside. In prison, there are strict systems in place to help one cope with this that aren’t necessarily found in unvarying jails.

In a study conducted by Porter, Lauren C., and Laura M. DeMarco titled “Beyond the dichotomy: Incarceration dosage and mental health,” an examination of what inmates are losing connection with while being in prison is conducted, comparing the relationship between depression and other mental health issues alongside the “dosage rate” of incarceration. The study concludes that “indeed, months served is positively related to mental health symptoms for former inmates, but negatively related for current inmates. Although being currently incarcerated is associated with worse mental health overall....Once released, however, longer spells are associated with worse mental health” (146).

Going into prison or jail it's likely for someone to start experiencing bipolar or depression disorder because they are in an unpredictable environment, placed on a schedule that they are not used to. Ties to the outside world are minimized and it is difficult for them to interact with their family, with the amount of limitations there are. Adaption is something that doesn’t happen fast with being in the system. Everyone's experiences their own situations with being in jail or prison.  They must be taught to distract themselves in positive ways and receive the proper treatment and care. Otherwise, the damage can be far-reaching.

Over the course of the next few months, I plan to continue my research by focusing on the space offenders occupy while awaiting trial. I hope to find ways in which we can improve the mental health services provided to these people and examine reasons we should advocate for improvements in detention centers. More importantly, I hope to discover what role a criminal defense attorney plays in all of this: To learn how I, as an aspiring defense attorney, might assist in the mental health of my clients as they wait in this liminal space.
 

Works Cited

Martyna Sekulak a, et al. “Spatial Metaphors of Psychological Time: The Study of Imprisoned    Men.” New Ideas in Psychology, Pergamon, 7 June 2022, .

A study on inmates in prison that looks at their view of time: the past, present, and future. This article takes the views on how inmates see time and expands on it from a scholarly view.  It examines the environment effects, and how inmates’ perception of time is altered.

This article is a good representation of the way time is relevant to one's environment and their psychological well-being. There is more to time than we think, and time for the ones incarcerated may not seem to them that it is in motion when in reality it is.

This will be used in my paper to start off the conversation of time moving and dive into how waiting can change one's perspective on time and make them see it differently.

Porter, Lauren C., and Laura M. DeMarco. “Beyond the Dichotomy: Incarceration Dosage and Mental Health*.” Criminology, vol. 57, no. 1, 22 Dec. 2018, pp. 136–156, . Accessed 10 Oct. 2019.

This article looks at the mental health connection to depression. Specifically, it looks at the symptoms and then connects them in terms of incarceration “dosage”. A study on inmates in jail is conducted to examine the relationship between incarceration ‘dosage” and long-term mental health.

The article points to the differences between inmates who have spent long periods incarcerated and those with shorter periods of incarceration. The primary difference is between the prison system and local jail systems. This difference can lead to insights one might not have previously considered. 

This article substantiates the claim that mental health can vary between inmates. I will use it in my paper to talk about the physiological aspect of being incarcerated. Mental health can vary between inmates. It depends on how they feel and how they are getting treated while being incarcerated. But the problem of mental health is still going to surface because there's not much a person can do in jail/prison while they are waiting.

“Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot (San Quentin Workshop, 1988).” Www.youtube.com, .

A summary of this play would be two guys named Vladimir and Estragon that are waiting for Godot. They are waiting for him in an empty space and two other guys, Lucky and Pozzo come up to them and they all start talking to each other. They go from talking to each other to yelling at one another. Luck and Pozzo leave Vladimir and Estragon alone to wait for Godot again. A little boy comes by and tells them Godot will not come tonight but will come another day. The next day it's that cycle again with the little boy coming and telling them that Godot will not come. That night Vladimir and Estragon decided to hang themselves but only if Godot does not come.

This play represents the emotional energy of the period inmates experience while awaiting trial or sentencing. The change in their sense of time may or may not be apparent to them, but it does have a psychological effect. The criminal justice system should be attentive to this impact to minimize the psychological effect of incarceration which could reduce recidivism rates.

I will use this in my paper to represent the waiting period for inmates and connect that to mental health problems that can occur because of that waiting period. Psychological problems can occur just by people being alone and stuck in their own head.

Kim Meyers, Lcpc. in conversation with Maylani Castro, February 2024.

This is an interview I conducted with Kim Meyers, a counselor with the Cook County Correctional team.

Advocates for Human Potential, Inc. Managing Substance Withdrawal Within Jails: A Legal Brief , US Department of Justice, Washington, DC, 2022, .