Prison Counseling: Pros and Cons

A question I constantly ask myself is this one: Do I really enjoy what I do? I am a licensed professional counselor and work as a mental health counselor at Valdosta State Prison. People generally are intrigued when I tell them this is what I do for a living and want to know what it's like and if I enjoy it. I always find this a difficult question to answer. This is because, to me, there is not a simple way to answer it honestly. But, using this forum, I've decided to give it a shot.


I have had jobs in my life that I liked a lot less than working at the prison, but at the same time, it's extremely easy to imagine doing something I liked more. At times, I try to tease out the pros and the cons of my job; the parts of it I like and the parts of it I don't.


Here are the parts I like:

I enjoy the interaction with the inmates I work with in my assigned dorm. The dorm I work in is not the dorm where the most hard-core criminals live, but are mostly older guys who have been in prison for a very long time and guys who are genuinely mentally ill and would be almost certainly be very seriously taken advantage of if they lived in the general inmate population. I've been the counselor in this dorm for over a year now and have developed a pretty positive rapport with most of them. It seems that many of them feel I am an ally in an otherwise very hostile environment. Being a counselor in the prison environment and working on such a close person to person basis with inmates, it always seems there is a balance to be struck between trying to do what you can to help another person, but also being wise enough to be aware when that inmate is trying to corral you into some sort of game or scam. It seems that your guard always has to be up and you have to always be objective and follow your instincts. I find this aspect of the job to be challenging and enjoyable in a way. I like to think it is a job that not just anyone would have the wherewithall to do and take a bit of pride in this.


Another part about my job that I like is that it gives me a forum to explore topics I'm interested in and share them with the inmates I work with at the same time. I currently have a group that I call Mindful Therapy. In it, I focus on somewhat Buddhist ideas which coincide a great deal with theories of cognitive therapy. We discuss looking at life as it is actually is rather than how we would like it to be, accepting what is rather than resisting what can't be changed, and taking responsibility for our actions. I have a great deal of interest in Philosophy and so I bring in Philosophical literature to drive home my point. It's a good group that a lot of the inmates seem to look forward to participate actively in rather than many of the groups at the prison which feature extremely indifferent or downright hostile inmates in attendence.


I also hold an informal poetry group once a week in which three or four guys get together with me to discuss and read whatever poet I have chosen for the day. I enjoy poetry for mostly the same reasons that I enjoy Philosophy. In poetry, the poet attempts to express or analyze our existence in a transcendent way. The poet tries to do it through the medium of language while a philosopher tries to do the same thing through logic and pure analysis. Both are cool to me. I try not to set myself up as the authority in either group, but as someone who is studying and learning along with the inmates I'm working with, which is actually what I'm doing in any case.


One other thing I enjoy about my job are my fellow counselors. I think they are all very competent and earnest about what they are doing and that they really always strive to do what is right in a very challenging and downright dangerous environment. I tend to be a bit withdrawn at work and sometimes wonder if they misintepret this as me not liking them, but that is not the case. I just get this tunnel-vision focus at work very often and forget the importance of socializing at times.


As for things I don't like at work, there are these: It goes without saying that a prison is a very oppressive place. There is misery in the air and evidence everywhere that to take another human being's freedom is, next to death, the ultimate penalty. Prisons are necessary evils in our society, but they are evils, and I've found that working in a place that requires razorwire and extensive security precautions to control people does, in time, begin to wear on you. I have worked at the prison for the better part of two years now and can't imagine working there for a truly long period of time. It is an environment, that by its very nature, burns you out. I've noticed that I literally walk faster when I'm leaving for the day than when I'm going in. Going in, I have to take a deep breath to prepare to face the demands of inmates and supervisors. On the way out, I'm always a bit relieved to have survived another day and more than a little anxious to get away from it.



A deeper negative about my job is that, deep down, I do not think I am doing the things in my life that I should be. I don't believe I'm truly fulfilling my potential as a human being by giving so much of my time and energy to an institution. I would love to make my living through creative means such as writing or something else I'm deeply interested in. I have always had this desire, but have never acted on it like I needed to. At the same time, I can't close the book on that feeling. So I go through spurts in which I pursue my creative interests for a time and then let it fade into the background again. I'm not about to quit my job and become a starving artist. I like having a little money in the bank, a shelter over my head, and the ability to pay the bills too much for that. At the same time, I often think about how amazing it would be to be able to expend the energy I am forced to spend at work on the things I am truly passionate about. I think that I couldn't help but succeed if that were possible.

In any case, there is no doubt that on Monday morning, I will get up and go to work just like so many other people do, and do the best I can, not working soley for a paycheck, but also for the knowledge that giving your best effort brings meaning to a person's life regardless of the positives and negative circumstances he or she may perceive around him. If I were in my mindful therapy group, I would declare that doing so is the only way to the transcendence the poets and philosophers are always seeking.