Imprisoned by Stereotypes

4-25-2009 National:

What drives stereotypes? Is it the generalized, backhanded jokes told by comedians or murmured around the water cooler? Or the behavior of exaggerated token characters in movies or on television shows? Or perhaps stereotypes are rooted in an inept ability to describe what is not really understood or what is different in a concise—though often ignorant—way.

Are stereotypes ever perpetuated through actual, personal experience?

Granted, these preconceived notions continue to exist because there are people out there who live up to them. However, there are just as many people who shatter these oversimplified and demeaning generalizations. And the mallet used to smash such stereotypes is built from knowledgeable and concrete stuff: experience.

When the average person conjures an image of a prisoner, what is pictured? Does the mind’s eye see a lone shadow with defiance and anger on his face and evil and ill-intent in his heart, prowling for trouble and poised to wreak violence? And who or what provides this image? Movies? The news media? Fear?

When three people from Texas look into the faces of prisoners, they see an opportunity for repentance, a prospect for a second chance, a vessel of potential. Their perception of prisoners is not based on sensationalized images from any screen, or on what they think it means to be a prisoner. Among them, they have more than three decades of experience in prison ministry. And while they, too, acknowledge that there are prisoners who live up to society’s stereotypes, there are also those who reduce such notions into myth.

MYTH #1: There is something fundamentally bad or even evil about a person in prison.

With 15 years of prison ministry experience, Lloyd Knapp points out that people inside prison and people outside of prison have at least one major similarity: the capability of making poor choices. The difference between prisoners and nonprisoners most often lies within circumstance. “There are those of us who commit crimes, and there are those of us who don’t get caught. Obviously most of us haven’t committed murder or done drugs, but we’ve done things that we regret or wish we hadn’t. Prisoners make mistakes, too, but they habitually make those mistakes. They’re not evil at heart; they’ve just been down that road so long, it’s difficult for them to change.”

Judy Indermuehle, a prison volunteer for more than nine years, agrees with Lloyd. In fact, she says that looking inside a prison is like looking into a large cultural mirror. “The prison population is a large mix of society,” says Judy, “same as we have outside. Prisoners are bad and evil, just like we are. We are capable of what they’ve done, and unless we are able to view ourselves that way, it would seem we are full of arrogance.”

Adelaide Biggs, a volunteer with more than nine years of experience inside prisons, echoes Judy’s tenacious sentiment. “We need to remember that we’re all sinners,” she says. “Jesus changes us. Most of the people I see have lived a horrible life and made terrible choices, but they know they can be different people through Christ. And isn’t that the Christian faith?”

All three volunteers agree: Prisoners are neither more nor less evil than those outside of prison. The main difference between the majority of the incarcerated and the majority of the free is not something inherent, so much as it is something acquired.

Most prisoners are not filled with evil; they are devoid of self-worth. And when these volunteers reach out to them, they do not know if they can trust kindness and mercy or whether they even deserve it.

“We have moments in life that change our perspective,” says Judy. “People have come along and said, ‘You’re worth something. I believe in you.’ That’s happened in every person’s life, or else you’re in prison.”

MYTH #2: Whatever a prisoner endures while incarcerated is part of the punishment, and he is probably just getting what he deserves.

Many people would agree that prisons can be dangerous places. Many also think that much of that peril is instigated by the inmates housed there. This is only partially true.

Between August and April in 2007, the Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a survey in 146 state and federal prisons. Interrogators found that more than 60,000 inmates within those prisons reported experiencing “one or more incidents of sexual victimization.” Of the tens of thousands of men and women who were coerced to participate in sexual acts or abusive sexual contact, half of them told interrogators they were victimized by prison staff members, not their fellow inmates.

According to the 2008 World Report published by the Human Rights Watch, “in recent years, U.S. prison inmates have ended up with broken jaws, smashed ribs, perforated eardrums, missing teeth, burn scars—not to mention psychological scars and emotional pain.” Again, the injuries sustained were caused by both inmates and prison guards.

“Many officers turn the other way when a man is being abused,” says Adelaide. “Sometimes they are paid to do so, sometimes they are just unfair and angry people, and sometimes wardens allow things to go on because they don’t care. This is wrong on all sides."

Whether the mistreatment and the threat of violence derive from a guard or an inmate, it is ever present. Is instilling a deep-set psychology of fear, wariness, and distrust just “what a prisoner deserves”? Is the actual abuse that takes place within prisons “part of the punishment”?

“If someone said that to me, I would challenge them with, ‘Have we gotten what we deserve?’ ” responds Judy. “If we believe that these prisoners are getting what they deserve, then we believe in punitive discipline alone.”

Adelaide takes a biblical approach in responding to this notion of prisoners deserving abuse: “He who has not sinned, cast the first stone,” she says. “My feeling is that incarceration and the subsequent loss of family, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is enough of a penalty. For bodily harm or even emotional harm to be heaped on top of it is cruel, inhumane, and unjust punishment.”


MYTH #3: Prisoners are loners who don’t care about people, and people don’t care about them.

At the very least, a prisoner is someone’s son or daughter. However, more than half of the men and women incarcerated in America’s prisons have sons or daughters of their own. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, of the 53 percent of prisoners who have children, as many as two-thirds of them lived with their children before they were incarcerated. In fact, 77 percent of the mothers said they were their children’s primary caregivers before their arrests.

Aside from being parents, prisoners are also brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, or cousins. Oftentimes, however, they do try to separate themselves from loved ones to become the stereotypical “lone wolf” prisoner.

“There is a deep, deep vein of hurt,” says Judy. “I’ve even met a man whose biggest fear was to die in prison and not be wanted by anyone. They can insulate themselves and become loners, but it’s because they’re surviving in a very cruel and difficult environment.”

Lloyd agrees. “They’ve done bad things and ruined other people’s lives,” he says. “Even though they may know God has forgiven them, they have a very difficult time forgiving themselves for what they’ve done to those people.”

For those who desire to work through the hurt and pain, who want to reconcile with those people they have wronged, they are eager to reconnect. They very much need to know that people on the outside have not forgotten about them.

“One of the most important things I do is help them find their lost families,” says Adelaide. “Ninety-five percent of the family members burst into tears when I find them. Most of them are so happy and so thrilled, because they’ve already gone through the phase of forgiveness and just miss their loved one.”

MYTH #4: People can’t change.

This is not just a stereotype cast upon prisoners. How often in day-to-day life does someone include within a piece of heartfelt advice the sentiment, “You’re wasting your time. Once a (fill in the blank), always a (fill in the blank).”

In-prison volunteers often receive this “advice” as well. However, they insist that they would not spend hours, days, weeks, and even years behind bars if they thought they were, in fact, wasting their time.

“When people ask me why I ‘waste’ my time working with prisoners, I tell them that I do it for two reasons,” says Lloyd. “Reason number one is that I do it as a Christian who believes that all of us are God's children and that we need to treat all persons with that in mind. Reason number two is that I am a taxpayer.”

Lloyd deduces that it costs approximately $30,000 to keep a prisoner incarcerated for one year. If he succeeds in keeping 10 men out of prison for 10 years, then he has saved American taxpayers about $3 million. And after being in the ministry for 15 years, Lloyd believes he has offered a fiscally sound service.

“If we just incarcerate the ‘bad guys’ and then release them back into society, they will return to room and board paid by taxpayers,” says Lloyd. “There is a better way to use our taxes.”

Of course, these volunteers set out to do much more than save taxpayer dollars. Their mission is simply to help these prisoners find a better way: a better way for themselves, a better way for their families, a better way for the communities they will reenter upon their release. By guiding them through this transformational process, however, they are inadvertently proving that people can change—if they are given the consistent and faithful support to do so. And consistent and faithful are the key.

“Prisoners need time to sort things out. They need a mentor, a soundboard,” says Judy. “There are too many who said to them, ‘Yeah, I’ll help ya,’ and then didn’t follow through. Prisoners appreciate when someone cares enough to keep coming. It touches their hardened heart, and then they’ll talk to you.”

“I think that’s my job, to go in there and listen,” echoes Lloyd. “I think they need someone who will just listen and be interested in their lives. Then you can guide them, ask them questions, get them to think about whether they really have the right attitude about their lives.”

If the first step to establishing change is simply listening, then the second step is most likely forging forgiveness.

“We can forgive ourselves; we can forgive others,” says Adelaide. “We can reclaim our lives and dedicate them to Christ and make our lives better and the lives of others better.”

Transformation is not always a neat and tidy progression. Many prisoners stumble along their paths of change. However, Lloyd, Adelaide, Judy, and the hundreds of others passionate about prison ministry do not set out to keep prisoners from stumbling, but to make sure they are equipped with the tools to get back up when they do.

“There were some that I almost would be willing to bet aren’t going to make it, and they do,” says Adelaide. “You just can’t judge how they’re going to be. As soon as you think you understand what they’re going to do, they do something different, and some of the ones that I thought were the worst came out to do wonderfully.”

And not only wonderfully for themselves, but they also seek to do wonderful things for others. “I’ve seen people that get out, walk the straight line, and then come back in to help other prisoners,” testifies Lloyd. “They come back as volunteers, as mentors. You see it every day. They do change, and they do make a contribution to society.”

What Stereotypes Really Reveal

Someone once said, “Stereotypes are devices for saving a biased person the trouble of learning.” Says Judy, “Most of our statements are based on a vast pool of lack of knowledge. We have a lot of smug ideas. We’re all guilty of it.”

Lloyd says another tool that encourages a stronghold on stereotypes is a lack of compassion. “A major misconception that people have is they don’t realize how difficult it is for people to get back on their feet after prison,” stresses Lloyd. “Prisoners get no support, no money—we throw them to the wolves. I don’t care who you are, that’s a difficult thing to overcome.”

Whatever agitators contribute to the perpetuation of stereotyping, generalizations can be hurtful and unfair. Adelaide, Lloyd, and Judy agree that prisoners should be thought of as human beings, not exaggerated, faceless labels or media-inspired images of darkness, evil, and hate. In fact, a willingness to embrace stereotypes and to form opinions and judgments based on them might reveal a darkness in our character. Perhaps we are the ones imprisoned by stereotypes.

“I think most of our attitudes reveal the hardness of our hearts,” says Judy. “I’m not saying go easy on prisoners. I’m not a soft touch myself. I’m more of a drill sergeant with the men, but every man’s face I look into, I see nothing but potential. I know that that’s a work of God in my heart.”

And these seasoned volunteers are not only giving these inmates the chance to leave prison better men than when they entered. They are giving society a second chance, too—the chance to soften hardened hearts, to shed the ignorance of stereotypes, and to gain perspective from those who know best: the ones who didn’t “save” themselves “the trouble of learning.” ..News Source.. by Beth Reid