Johnny E. Maheffey
March 13, 2015

To Ellsworth:

Yeah, I know. I just called it that, the "idiot box because of
many of the things I actually see people watching. I have a
13 inch, HD LCD in my cell--I'm one of the lucky few to have enough funds to buy my own personal TV--not many here have that
luxury. Four 24 inch (I believe is their size) LCDs (non-HD) are mounted up on a wall, in the middle of what the inmates
refer to as "The Rock," a central day-room area in the middle
of each dorm. So, what they watch on those TVs are within the
views of population.
They attempt to be civilized when it comes to the channel
choices, and who gets to change them--trying to appease the
majority. Needless to say, lots of sports games are viewed.
In the near decade that I've now been imprisoned, I have never
seen anything educational chosen, never once has it been on PBS! What it is on occasionally: children's shows! There are
many "men" here that have the mentality of a fourth or fifth
grader. It's sad. It's also one of the reasons I work in the
Education Dept., to try to help offset the lack of knowledge
that surrounds me, It's not easy either, the wardens and staff,
had their hands full with these guys--they want to drink crude
wine, smoke dope, and screw and rape one another; in lieu of
getting an education, possibly decreasing their chances at
recidivism. You'll find guys--20 to 50 years of age--on the Rock, watching NBC Kids, and masturbating.

When I see some of the behaviors of certain individuals, I find myself thankful that they're in here--and not out there, around my family, and society. Yet, it's these guys that have release dates. The guys in here for life without parole, are oddly the most behaved. While the short-time offenders are like monkeys swinging around on the bars, simply waiting for their release... doing nothing to prepare, or better themselves. I wish there was a better system in place to evaluate those that should (or should not) be released--make them take an fMRI or something.

TV has value though, keeping us up with current events, fads, trends, style, slang, and general social knowledge. I love shows like Nova, and wish Cosmos would come back for another season. Yet, I still love a good comedy, plus I'm hooked on The Walking Dead, and wait anxiously for iZombie to start this week. TV Guide just listed the top 10 shows to see as:

1. Downton Abbey
2. Stevie Wonder, Salute
3. House of Cards
4. The Oscars
5. Better Call Saul
6. August Wilson
7. How to Get Away with Murder
8. Battle Creek
9. Citizenfour
10. The Americans

These being just last week's of course; but an analysis of America's top watched shows, can tell us a lot about America. The Nielsen Media Research shows no educational shows in its top 25, of the most watched shows--we watch for leisure.