Depression in jail or prison
Scott Adams has an interesting post about the ethics of giving (or denying) anti-depressants to prison inmates.
His thinking is that prison can trigger a depressive episode, which is a disease symptom, and the depression should be treated. As is typical for such blog posts, the commenters are mostly people who don't understand depression or prison.
I've never been a prison inmate although I've been a jail inmate and I've taught college courses to inmates in a maximum security prison. And I've gone through a few periods of severe depression and I've gotten depressed in jail. So I have a little experience on this subject.
If I'm going to be in prison I want to be depressed. I don't want to engage in any kind of rational analysis of my situation. That's almost a surefire way to drive yourself completely nuts. Don't give me any drugs. Let me just sit in a corner and cry until I've finished my sentence. I can't think of a better coping mechanism for the stress of being a prison inmate.
His thinking is that prison can trigger a depressive episode, which is a disease symptom, and the depression should be treated. As is typical for such blog posts, the commenters are mostly people who don't understand depression or prison.
I've never been a prison inmate although I've been a jail inmate and I've taught college courses to inmates in a maximum security prison. And I've gone through a few periods of severe depression and I've gotten depressed in jail. So I have a little experience on this subject.
If I'm going to be in prison I want to be depressed. I don't want to engage in any kind of rational analysis of my situation. That's almost a surefire way to drive yourself completely nuts. Don't give me any drugs. Let me just sit in a corner and cry until I've finished my sentence. I can't think of a better coping mechanism for the stress of being a prison inmate.
Labels: depression, prison
posted by Gary Carson at
3:35 PM
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