LEARNING TO LEARN

As I sit here in my 2 1/2 years of solitary confinement, I can't stand but laugh and be amused by my surroundings.

Anybody who knows SHUs, ad-segs and solitary confinement knows that the one thing it brings is sensory deprivation. In other words, you acted out and are now on time out. Let's be frank here, NO rehabilitation can come about being in solitary confinement. The only exception I see to this is if one is strong willed, minded to do something, if not, well, the landscape will eat you up and literally leave you in a black hole.

Now much has been said about the mental anguish people go through while in solitary confinement but I must say, for all the messed up mental problems it causes, it only gives me a determination to vict, yet sucked into the "victim". Honestly I find it amusing. It's like a desert, dry and a lot of nothing happening. At the same time, the solitude of it is great for your self development and awareness. I know the "prisoncrats" want to break my will and everything that comes with it but I view it as a battle. However, some can't stand the loneliness and the thought of not being talked to or interacting with other primates. Leonardo da Vinci once said, "For when you are alone, you are completely yourself, but if you are accompanied by a single companion, you are only half yourself". Now why would he say that?

We're social animals, nobody can deny that, but in the prison setting, more so in solitary confinement... it ain't happening. Time is not an issue as you find yourself stuck in your cell for days at end. Is the glass half empty or half full? Are we gaining or losing while being in solitary confinement? In no way am I for solitary confinement, it's a barbaric instrument of social control and should be abolished. I'm not defending the use of it either, heck, I'm anti-SHU for that matter. I only say all this in the hopes of perhaps teaching that although this (solitary confinement) is negative, we can, by applying ourselves, attain something positive.