Carol:
What Leisure?
The above expression actually comes from a William Congreve play The Old Bachelor (1693) “Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure: Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.” But, if you google “repenting at leisure,” you will find that almost anything can be plugged in with it : invest in haste, move in haste, hire in haste, retire in haste, even tweet in haste.
Well, I am not a particularly spontaneous person, so doing anything in haste isn’t my style. I am a tortoise, not a hare. Although I wouldn’t mind having a bit of whimsical unpredictability in my life, I am generally happy with the results of being “slow and steady” in my choices. Take for instance, retirement.
For about three years, my college experimented with the “phased retirement” concept. Faculty who met certain criteria (length of employment, recommendation by a supervisor) could apply for a maximum three years’ phased retirement contract that allowed us to work half-time but still receive all of the benefits of full-time employees. The idea behind such plans is that the employer benefits from retaining the expertise of seasoned employees, and the employee benefits by being able to ease out of full-time careers and transition more smoothly into retirement.
At the time, I was so burned out that I would have quit working completely if the phased retirement option had not been available. I took advantage of the whole three years and left my job feeling like I had done some of my best teaching during my final year. I allocated myself Tuesday as my day off; no matter what meeting came up, what project, if it landed on a Tuesday, I was unavailable. Then, I began to play in other activities gradually. By the third year of my contract, I was ready to fully retire. That was also the year the experimental option was discontinued by the College because it wasn’t economically feasible to pay benefits for half-time employees.
If this essay sounds hurried, it is. I am glad—feel lucky—that I could retire at the age of 62. Mostly I choose how to spend my day, and today I choose to work at the College. I will spend my morning grading writing portfolios with my long-time English Dept. colleagues and the afternoon at my mythology class. I was going to use all that as an excuse to opt out of T122 because, like I said, I don’t really like to do anything in haste.
But, I have to have something for Megan to hang a cartoon on.
But, I have to have something for Megan to hang a cartoon on.
Megan:
Repenting at Leisure (in Prison)
Before I realized the actual beginning of the proverb, I thought it was “Act in haste” so of course, that brought to mind the prison and how it is a place designed for “repenting at leisure.”
Most of the guys in my prison, or at least the ones who were in for murder, had committed their crimes on impulse but some were the result of days or weeks of planning. Some killed with their fists or their feet or improvised weapons from materials nearby. I know of at least 3 who each strangled a woman with the scarf she was wearing and that is why the officers wear clip on ties and the use of dental floss is forbidden. Others used illegally obtained guns. One poured gasoline through the letter box in the front door of his ex-missus and tossed a match in after. Some of the crimes were motivated by hurt and jealousy – crimes of passion; or perverse opportunity, or gangland revenge over perceived disrespect or drug deals gone wrong. Some were motivated by racism and hate.
I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t spend much time exploring their crimes unless they worked for me, or if they’d caught my interest for another reason. But as a member of staff with regular prisoner contact , I was expected to contribute observations about their behavior to their files, and in doing so I learned their crimes.
If a prisoner wants to progress from a high-security prison to a lower one, he must follow a sentence plan which is designed by the Offender Management department, and reviewed on a semi-annual basis. In addition to staying drug-free, out of trouble and employed, the prisoners are set a series of other targets to achieve including taking a series of reducing re-offending classes. These classes are a key part of the “rehabilitation” process and are supposed to promote Enhanced Thinking Skills, anger management and victim empathy.
That latter requires that the prisoners discuss at length the circumstances surrounding their offense, their motivation and their thoughts and feelings about it now. Their interviews take meticulous notes and the information is accessible to any member of staff who may need to be aware of the contents or contribute to the files.
For prisoners who are appealing against their conviction or their sentence, it is not in their interest to discuss the crime with the staff, even though this perceived lack of cooperation may stall their progression through the system for years. And unless they took some sort of plea agreement, most of the guys start out on appeal. This is probably why it takes a few years for the new prisoners to settle down into the routine of prison life.
Whatever their circumstances, those guys have plenty of time to think about how they got to prison. During the day, every measure is taken to occupy their time, to educate them or to elicit some kind of productive and purposeful activity, but still they spend at least 14 hours locked alone in a 6X10 concrete and steel box. For first timers, adjusting to this isolation is difficult. And for some, especially the mentally ill, coming to terms with their crimes can have a devastating effect. They lose their hair, double their body weight or halve it. They may harm themselves for attention, stop bathing, refuse medication, or stop communicating all together.
But others take a more proactive approach. They read, learn a trade, earn some qualifications and mentor other prisoners. Their goal, in the words of one such prisoner, is to “be something other than older, when [they] get out.”
Most of the guys in my prison, or at least the ones who were in for murder, had committed their crimes on impulse but some were the result of days or weeks of planning. Some killed with their fists or their feet or improvised weapons from materials nearby. I know of at least 3 who each strangled a woman with the scarf she was wearing and that is why the officers wear clip on ties and the use of dental floss is forbidden. Others used illegally obtained guns. One poured gasoline through the letter box in the front door of his ex-missus and tossed a match in after. Some of the crimes were motivated by hurt and jealousy – crimes of passion; or perverse opportunity, or gangland revenge over perceived disrespect or drug deals gone wrong. Some were motivated by racism and hate.
I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t spend much time exploring their crimes unless they worked for me, or if they’d caught my interest for another reason. But as a member of staff with regular prisoner contact , I was expected to contribute observations about their behavior to their files, and in doing so I learned their crimes.
If a prisoner wants to progress from a high-security prison to a lower one, he must follow a sentence plan which is designed by the Offender Management department, and reviewed on a semi-annual basis. In addition to staying drug-free, out of trouble and employed, the prisoners are set a series of other targets to achieve including taking a series of reducing re-offending classes. These classes are a key part of the “rehabilitation” process and are supposed to promote Enhanced Thinking Skills, anger management and victim empathy.
That latter requires that the prisoners discuss at length the circumstances surrounding their offense, their motivation and their thoughts and feelings about it now. Their interviews take meticulous notes and the information is accessible to any member of staff who may need to be aware of the contents or contribute to the files.
For prisoners who are appealing against their conviction or their sentence, it is not in their interest to discuss the crime with the staff, even though this perceived lack of cooperation may stall their progression through the system for years. And unless they took some sort of plea agreement, most of the guys start out on appeal. This is probably why it takes a few years for the new prisoners to settle down into the routine of prison life.
Whatever their circumstances, those guys have plenty of time to think about how they got to prison. During the day, every measure is taken to occupy their time, to educate them or to elicit some kind of productive and purposeful activity, but still they spend at least 14 hours locked alone in a 6X10 concrete and steel box. For first timers, adjusting to this isolation is difficult. And for some, especially the mentally ill, coming to terms with their crimes can have a devastating effect. They lose their hair, double their body weight or halve it. They may harm themselves for attention, stop bathing, refuse medication, or stop communicating all together.
But others take a more proactive approach. They read, learn a trade, earn some qualifications and mentor other prisoners. Their goal, in the words of one such prisoner, is to “be something other than older, when [they] get out.”
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