I was watching a segment on TV this past Thursday about a futuristic technology that would have the ability to implant memories into our minds’ so that we genuinely and fully believe we have experienced something or learned something that we have not fully experienced past the participation in the “implantation process”. The segment theoretically focused on the potential use of this technology for criminal justice reform. Basically… you would hook up a criminally charged offender to said device and implant the full memory of his/her prison sentence into his/her consciousness so that he/she intellectually and emotionally feels as though they have experienced prison for X amount of years. When in reality they have just be hooked up to the implantation devise for a matter of hours or days. The theory is that the trauma of prison life and the emotional toll that this takes on an individual would be enough to reduce the offenders probability of re-offending without the collateral damage that an actual prison sentence takes on the offenders inner circle while also saving tax payers dollars in the process.
While I found the segment extremely interesting given my current circumstances… the reality of implementing this type of technology is extremely far fetched… in my opinion. I believe that a large part of our criminal justice system is about providing a sense of satisfaction for society when an offender breaks the law and is in turn sent away for X amount of years due to his/her decisions and actions. Society wants the punishment… right or wrong… and by solely punishing the offender by implanting these traumatic years of prison without him/her actually being physically stripped of everything they love in this life… I do not believe society will be satisfied with the punishment. And in some circumstances such as violent crimes… I am a part of that societal view. But this whole theoretical concept got me thinking about a conversation that I had recently with my Mom about the question surrounding the “end” of rehabilitation as it relates to a prison sentence and if a sentence goes much farther than this “end point”… does the person actually begin to regress as opposed to progress through his/her introspective work.
I will be the first one to say because I am actively living it as I kneel here and type… that sometimes… we need a real time out. I know this is true for myself but I believe many of us khaki suits were living a life that had gotten completely out of our control. We didn’t know which way was up and we were desperately making decisions that led to actions in the dire hope to “make things right” when in reality we were just digging ourselves a deeper hole. We needed to fall on our face… be slapped (hard) in that face and be put in “time out” in order to leave that life in the past and begin to learn how to live an honest… grounded in reality… present life from this point forward. There is a certain amount of time that is necessary for an individual to genuinely grasp the reality of his/her actions and once the acceptance phase is complete… move on to the introspective work that will lead to the life that we desire on the other side of our sentence. These phases take time… these phases take years. But… how many years? And once X amounts of years have passed… how many more years is too many before all of this work… all of this introspection begins to ‘harden’ a bit through resentment or the like and regression ensues? There is an abundance of “good” work being done for a certain amount of time but then this work needs to be put into action back in the real work…back in our real lives and if we are stuck behind these walls for many more years… it seems as though it would be extremely difficult for us and the ones around us to benefit from all the progress.
As with many ‘thought experiments’ in here… the result of the above conversation does not necessarily elicit an actual result or answer but more of a new way of thinking that will lead to new ways of living in order to combat any “growth fatigue” that we may experience behind these walls. There are simply far too many lessons being learned in here to not put them into practice out there.
So… while sometimes it does feel like I am going to “wake up” from this horrific nightmare and it was all just a sick figment of my imagination… at the moment there was no “prison experience” implanted into my reality. This prison experience is real. And my hope… really my belief… is that I will continue to learn and grow and change… and be allowed to venture back into the real world with all these new tools at my disposal in order to be the Man… the Dad… the Brother… the Son… the Uncle… the Friend… the Partner… the Human Being… that I know I have the ability to be. And this ‘new me’ will be out there far before any ‘hardening’ or regression takes the wheel and starts drivin’.
Stay Healthy. Stay Active. Never stop exploring seemingly far fetched notions… it’s where the growth lives.