The Worst Mistake Of My Life

Without any diversion from their actuality, the inmates start to feel as though their existence is pointless. Hopkins says, “It strikes me that for most of them, prison has become a life of waiting: waiting in line to eat, for a phone call, the mail, or a visit. Or just waiting for tomorrow-for parole and freedom. For the older ones, with no hope of

Johnny sacks consist of a baloney sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an apple and a pack of mustard with a small bag of chips in a brown paper bag. Johnny sacks were usually passed out to inmates for chow during the booking process. One inmate yelled “This is some hoe ass shit” and throws his against the wall. I threw my Johnny sack away because of the pork, and I don’t eat peanut butter and jelly but ate the apple and the chips. I thought to myself “Damn was I hungry!” It was more acceptable to throw food in the garbage than to allow another prisoner to even insinuate that he is applying to take it. Experienced prisoners constantly observed the going-on of everyone and everything in the tank. These prisoners listened to the other prisoner’s tones of voice next to them when they spoke and observe their posture, and the personal space that he commanded within the jail tank.

"Count!" The prison guard yelled on a brisk Saturday in Maidens, Virginia. I watched as the prisoners lined the walls of the James River Correctional Facility. While the majority of my friends spent their Saturdays enjoying pizza and ice cream with their family, my Saturdays consisted of being in a prison visitation room. My father was serving a thirty year sentence for distributing crack cocaine. As the years went on, I began to look forward to seeing the barbed wire and prison guards. I knew that in the midst of the penitentiary environment, I would at least be able to see a father figure for a few hours.

Prior to visiting the prison, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was nervous but also excited to see how everything operated. I had never been to a jail or a prison prior to this field trip. I was expecting to see one big building surrounded by high fences and coiled barbed wire. Once inside, I was expecting to see people dressed in orange doing various activities, much like in movies and television shows, even though I knew these weren’t true.

Whenever you imagine prison, you think up ideas and violent images that you have seen in the movies or on TV.   Outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water are only a small fraction of the number of horrible, yet “just” occurrences which are stereotypical of everyday life in prison.   Perhaps it could be a combination of your upbringing, horrific ideas about the punishment which our nation inflicts on those who violate its’ more serious laws that keeps people frightened just enough to lead a law-abiding life. Despite it’s success in keeping dangerous offenders off the streets, the American prison system fails in fulfilling its original design of restoring criminals to being productive members of society, it is also extremely expensive and wastes our precious tax dollars.

We all make mistakes that we later regret, but that's life. We need to focus more on just accepting to live with it.

The one real mistake I believe we can make in life is to not learn from missteps

After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests.

In America, everyone seems to have a different idea about what goes on behind the grey, dismal walls of prison. For many of us, the idea itself conjures images of coiled barbed wire fences, chains dragging across the ground, somber faces behind rusting bars and those bright orange jumpsuits. These visions come from a variety of sources-- movies we’ve seen, the stories that we’ve been told and our own imagination that is constantly at work. However, the reality of prison life in America can only come from those who have stepped foot inside. Through memoirs written by Danner Darcleight and Ted Conover, I’ve had to reconsider some of these previously held visions of prison life. While Conover writes about the abusive relationship between the correctional officers and the prisons, through Darcleight’s writing we see the rewarding powers of having social life and the hopeful possibility for anyone to attain redemption. The first chapter of Concrete Carnival, by Danner Darcleight, as well as Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover has led me to re-evaluate these previously held visions of prison life, including the relationship between guards and inmates, social systems, and redemption.

Prison guard positions have not been well-regarded by the masses. The low pay, even lower social status, possibility of attacks, and harsh prison environments support such a notion. Furthermore, workload issues, such as limited recovery time, multiple workloads and high peak loads have created stress among a majority of officers (Schaufeli & Peeters, 2011). Workload issues have been linked to dependence on certain staff and the inability to adequately fill positions (Schaufeli & Peeters, 2011). As a result, the hiring and overreliance on less qualified, undereducated, and non-experienced workers created

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When the unfriendly staff unlocks the door, the beauty of temporary freedom puts a smile on my face. We walk in single file, with boys on one side and girls on the other. After they?ve checked us up, we put our hands behind a backs and walk towards the dining hall to eat breakfast, which consists of muesli and lukewarm water.

Mistakes something that we all do. People are not perfect therefore we will all make mistakes many times in our life. But there are two types of people in the world's ones that will live up to their mistakes and accept that they did it so they can move on. And there are those that will never live up to the mistakes they made and they will never be able to move on. The only way to truly learn from a mistake is to accept that you made one. There have been many times in my life that I have messed up and made mistakes. Some very terrible some not so bad. But none of them never were as bad as this one but, what i learned from the mistake made it all worthwhile.

Well to start up on my mistakes, my first one was ever thinking that I can be in a relationship with my best friend. I screwed that up pretty

Never did I think a horrible mistake would positively impact my life this much. During my short 17 years of life, I have overcome many obstacles that have now shaped me to who I am today. One of the first obstacles life ever threw my way was the changing of schools multiple times. I transferred schools three times in my life, which made keeping friends rather difficult. I first transferred to a new school when I was going into the 5th grade. I found this challenging because I was at my former school from 18 months old till 10, so it was all I knew. I was scared to acquire new friends, which now I find was the silliest idea to be afraid of. Once I found my niche at this new school, I made a huge mistake in life that altered my path forever.