A perfect medical doctor

A prison psychologist told me the following story. She worked in an admission unit for mentally ill prisoners who made several problems in other prisons nationwide. These troubles were mainly suicide attempts and self harms, but sometimes extremely rare cases.

One day a very respectable prison psychiatrist, the head of the admission unit, called the psychologist, who told me the story. The psychiatrist said that the young psychologist could witness a pretty rare psycho-organic phenomenon which was caused by a brain tumor.

The patient was totally disoriented, and it was completely obvious that he was also extremely afraid. He felt the breath of death, however he could not recognize it. Later it became clear that he had a giant brain tumor. The psychiatrist told the medical, the custodial and the criminal story of the patient, and he highlighted also that this would be a very rare case.

In this place where almost exclusively mentally impaired prisoners are held with the most disgusting crimes committed, the psychiatrist leant forward and fell on his knee before the patient who was sitting in a wheelchair. He touched the shoulder of the patient and tried to relax him. The psychologist said that this moment was touching and somehow also heartbreaking. The psychiatrist who was responsible for the whole unit and had to do a lot of administration as well showed that he was a human being as a doctor and he could respect the rest of humanity in a totally immobilized and impaired person, who lost all moral values, who could not feel any remorse and who was a miserable creation facing all the scorn of the society, the prison, the other inmates and the medical staff. A perfect medical doctor.           

The chair in the room of a prison psychologist

I spoke to a prison psychologist. She works at the service at least since 25 years. She has to make interviews also with staff members. She has to decide whether staff members are fit for the prison service mentally. Inmates are sitting in her office on a chair. She said some prisoners smell bad because of lacking basic hygiene.

One staff member was summoned to her office to undergo an inspection on the service fitness. He sat on the same chair. He said: "This chair smells you have to clean it." The chair was brand new. The prison officer felt himself embarrassed to sit in the place of a prisoner.

An average non commissioned prison officer hates the inmates in Hungary. Some of them are also afraid. Some are too young and inexperienced. Some of them have drinking, gambling and domestic violence problems. Most of them are underpaid. Most of them are overload. Most of them try to work also outside of the prison like private security guards. Some of them are racist, authoritarian and sexually inactive. Some of them live in hostels next to prisons in less better conditions than the prisoners. Some of them came from countryside, from villages where the unemployment is about 70%. Some of them keep to stay in the prison service lesser than one year.

Having a dying man in your arms

Prison suicide is hard to witness also for the staff. I spoke to prison officers who opened up a prison cell in which two prisoners attempted to commit suicide after killing a third. The motive was that the third prisoner was a pedophile. The nurse saved the life of the other two. They were overdosed with benzodiazepines. A staff member said that the cell was full of smelling and steaming blood. It was new years eve. The guy said that he could not forget the smell of the blood which was all over the floor of the cell.

A juvenile prisoner died. He went to the toilet while his cellmates watched the TV. He closed the door and opened up the water to wash the smells. He told the others to give the volume up to hear the TV show which was going on. He made a rope from his belt and some ripped sheets and blankets and he hanged himself and died within two minutes. Cellmates screamed as they discovered him, but they could not save him. A guard came into the cell after the roommates were crying and screaming and hitting the cell door desperately. He held the young men for a minute, the body was warm but he could feel as it became more and more COLD. The life disappeared from the of the inmate. The guard laid the body on the floor and left the cell. Other staff member came, also the ambulance but they could not reanimate him. This poor guy was also overdosed with benzodiazepines. A staff member later said to me that the saddest thing was that the dead body of the 19 years old boy was not even covered, and she could see his naked dead eyes watching to nowhere. 

What is impunity in prison?

Impunity is to beat up an inmate in a prison being a prison officer in an unacceptable, unjust and illegal way, and getting no criminal procedure at all, in contrary, you will be celebrated among staff members that you are brave and you defended the honor of the community. Your self respect is even higher and you can climb forward in prison hierarchy. You repeat the beating again and again, and after a while you will get respect also among the inmates. And you say that you do not feel any remorse, this is your obligation, and this is your mandate. Bosses are reluctant to intervene, they try to manage the prison, and if they say that the prisoners are relaxed and not disruptive (because you have beaten up them), you can get nice words from your bosses, and later you will be the one who will get also rewards and reputation. You are going to get the position of the deputy prison director, you will have the control on the drug market and cell phone smuggling within the prison, you will get your profit as well...

This is a perspective for beginner prison officers in my country. Injustice stimulates the prison harms, and turns inmates even more hardcore. Injustice destroys the aims of rehabilitation and reintegration but also the supervision. 

Drawing a rose as a beg for pardon

One of the most dangerous Hungarian  inmate recently made a picture with a rose and other flowers for the prison psychologist after an ugly and harsh quarrel between them. The psychologist a young lady, the inmate is a young Romani guy who killed someone also within the prison overdosed from benzos.

Other prison psychologist told me that he had a client in the female prison Kalocsa. The inmate was also a murderer, she killed a patient in a mental institution in her netbed setting her in fire. After the event she was interviewed by the police and some staff members. She said that she just enjoyed to see the burning roommate in her netbed. Then she was sentenced to several years and behaved in the prison in an extremely disruptive way. She committed non suicidal self injuries in a brutal way, while spending time in isolation she inflicted deep cuts within her vagina. After a loud conflict with the prison psychologist she was again isolated and after her release from the segregation cell she gave also a drawn rose to apologize the psychologist. 

Non smoker cells are pure white cells

A brilliant prison psychologist told me the following story. In the Central Prison of Budapest there is a so called drug prevention unit which operates like a drug free unit: inmates here have drug user past, they agree that they wont use any drugs within the prison and therefore they can enjoy some privileges like home leaves more frequently or a more friendly environment where the can listen to music or they are allowed to play psp.

Smoking is not permitted in the common areas of the Hungarian prisons, prisoners are only entitled to smoke in their cells. All can smoke in the cells in exception those who want to live in a smoke free cell. All the inmates have to make an open and written statement that they don't smoke. However they can possess tobacco and cigarettes in the prison canteen. This implies that they smoke.

The non smoking cell in the drug prevention unit is only a cover story to segregate themselves from the Romani inmates. Only white guys stated that they didn't smoke. So they could create a pure white cell which is a racial segregation allowed by the law but a misusing interpreting of the letters and words of the law.

Romani inmates who are in majority in Hungarian prison population did not like this self segregation. One day they gathered and agreed on a secret mission. They took some sharp items and engraved their gang sign V.L (Vatos Locos) between the index finger and the thumb on their hands. Next day in the morning the took some legs of tables from the community room and they invaded the non smoking cell and severely beat up the white guys in it. It was a bloody fight with dramatic injuries. Prison management wanted to hear the opinion of the psychologist.

She said that she was not in favor to create non smoking cells as a hidden white segregation. Now non smokers have to be real non smokers: no tobacco allowed in their cells and they can not buy any smoker item in the canteen.

Sings of ethnic conflict on Hungarian prison graffiti - full paper

Here you can read it...