I wish it existed. Ever so often, something happens to remind me, in a major way, the divide between rational thought and typical prison thought. The fact that some correctional staff are jerks is obvious, just as there are jerks in every walk of life. People in a free country cannot change the fact that they will encounter jerks. But we DO have control over how we respond to them. We can respond in kind (as nearly everyone in prison thinks is proper), or we can respond with Stoic resolve; that is, we deny other people the power to harm us or our lives. In prison, the former ALWAYS leads to negative results, and then the prisoners precede to sit around and complain that these negative results were the fault of the jerk. It’s the disconnect. Guys in here have to learn that the way they respond often makes things much worse, often just to make them feel better or assuage their wounded pride. Let it go. Behave like a Stoic. You’ll be better off, I promise.

Dan Turner
DOC# 767569