Losers - May 10, 2010

It's hard to imagine in this place full of convicted felons, where each of us is in here for our immense capacity to screw up to the "Nth" degree, that a core group can stand out for being low in even our eyes.  The funny thing is, guys in here tend to be pretty open to "unique" personalities.  When you're living 96 to a building, you tend to overlook a great many idiosyncrasies of your neighbors.  Still, some guys stand out for being complete pains in the ass.

"Ron" ranks as a perfect "10" of the inmates I'd most like to see banished to the far ends of the world.  He is the stereotypical "institutionalized" inmate.  "State struck" is another term.  Ron gets up early (4:30 am) and starts his music blaring so loudly that you can hear it reverberate out of the headphones.  You can do a great deal to guys in the penitentiary.  You can subject a man to strip searches, listen in on his phone calls, serve him lousy food.  But, don't interrupt his sleep! 

Ron also believes whites are the devil.  He subscribes to that modern prison-created religion called "Nation of Islam".  He believes whites cause all the ills in the world and that they alone are responsible for the high divorce rate, drug rate, and incarceration rate among blacks.  That is ironic because he is in here on his second felony conviction for crack cocaine distribution.  He believes Africans are the original "Hebrews" and are God's chosen people (funny, I didn't know black Africans were a Semitic people).  Yet, when he needs help with a grievance or a complex legal argument, he comes to me - as mayonnaise and white bread a guy as you'll see. 

I watch Ron doing his third "bid" in prison and realize he is destined to spend more and more time locked up.  He is ignorant.  He has no concept of self-respect, no concept of respect for others.  

Then there are the "D and D" boys.  "D and D" meaning the role playing game dungeons and dragons.  There are six middle age white guys who play "D and D" every Saturday for hours.  Then, during the week they talk about "battle strategy" - how to defeat warlocks and monsters.  Here's the common denominator for these guys:  they are all convicted sex offenders.  Any adult man who watches "Strawberry Shortcake" cartoons and plays "D and D" has pretty much announced "I'm in here for kiddie porn!"

Worse still - if being a sex offender isn't bad enough - these guys are all self righteous pompous asses.  They "aren't" legally guilty of any crime, they tell you.  Morally, maybe it's wrong - they say (one guys who was abusing his daughter even goes so far as to claim government is censuring his relationship with her and his receipt of porn) but they don't belong here.  They aren't "criminals" like the drug dealers, murderers, and armed robbers.  No, they are worse.  They exploited children in the worst way and are protected in here.  I don't advocate violence, but the prison ensures these guys stay safe, while nothing is done to correct their predilections. 

So, in the end, they will do their time and get out without any sense of shame or remorse.  As my friend "E" says, they'll head out to Chucky Cheese to celebrate and pick up chicks!  SICK!

There are other guys as well:  Guys who refuse to shower; guys with anger issues; guys who have obvious mental defects.  There are "she men" (guys who make homemade bras, shave their legs and prance around like Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall).

Somehow, in the midst of this flotsam and jetsam of deviant human behavior are the relatively normal inmates, guys who will tell you candidly they broke the law and they're just trying to do their sentence the best way possible.

Life with losers goes on.