
I Am Fully Capable of Entertaining Myself in Prison for Decades If Need Be - gpresot
https://theintercept.com/2016/10/16/i-am-fully-capable-of-entertaining-myself-in-prison-for-decades-if-need-be/
======
emilga
Interesting story. Reminds me of this story from _Flow_ :

> Tollas Tibor, a poet who spent several years in solitary confinement during
> the most repressive phases of the Hungarian communist regime, says that in
> the Visegrád jail, where hundreds of intellectuals were imprisoned, the
> inmates kept themselves occupied for more than a year by devising a poetry
> translation contest. First, they had to decide on the poem to translate. It
> took months to pass the nominations around from cell to cell, and several
> more months of ingenious secret messages before the votes were tallied.
> Finally it was agreed that Walt Whitman’s O Captain! My Captain! was to be
> the poem to translate into Hungarian, partly because it was the one that
> most of the prisoners could recall from memory in the original English. Now
> began the serious work: everyone sat down to make his own version of the
> poem. Since no paper or writing tool was available, Tollas spread a film of
> soap on the soles of his shoe, and carved the letters into it with a
> toothpick. When a line was learned by heart, he covered his shoe with a new
> coating of soap. As the various stanzas were written, they were memorized by
> the translator and passed on to the next cell. After a while, a dozen
> versions of the poem were circulating in the jail, and each was evaluated
> and voted on by all the inmates. After the Whitman translation was
> adjudicated, the prisoners went on to tackle a poem by Schiller.

------
pmoriarty
I always thought prison would be a great place to practice meditation. Even at
home, where there are lots of distractions, I can easily spend hours
meditating. In prison, with much more time to waste and a lot fewer
distractions, I'd probably be able to focus for much longer and get really
good at it, as the more you practice, the better you get, and the better you
get the easier it is for you to meditate and the longer you can meditate.

Another reason meditation could be great for prison is that it could be a
fantastic antidote to boredom. After a few weeks of regular meditation, I
found I actually started to look forward to "boring" chores like brushing my
teeth and waiting in line, which provided great opportunities for meditating
(which consisted of just focusing on my breath).. and those boring times just
seemed to fly by as I meditated and no longer seemed boring.

Yet another reason that meditation could help in prison is because it could be
used to help one "detach", in the Buddhist or Stoic sense -- not to cling to
things one desires, to be content with one's circumstances and surroundings,
to help with pain, anger and other emotional issues, and just to achieve peace
of mind.

Meditation need not rely on any physical items that can be taken away from
you. If you use the technique of focusing on your breath -- your breath being
something that will always be with you as long as you live -- it can always
serve as an object of meditation.

Meditation seems tailor-made for prison (not to mention ordinary life, where
it can also help).

~~~
jkaptur
Have you ever been to prison? I think you may have a romantic view. For
example:

> “Plaintiff is being tortured on a daily basis in Attica Correctional
> Facility Special Housing Unit,” he wrote. “Plaintiff is subjected to having
> to listen to loud banging all day and night” and to “screaming and yelling”
> and to “feces being thrown in plaintiff’s cell” by “mentally disturbed
> prisoners” who were housed near him.

From [http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/20/derrick-
hamilto...](http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/06/20/derrick-hamilton-
jailhouse-lawyer).

Or (from an article about how prisons are putting two people in a solitary
confinement cell):

> The two started arguing immediately. Each had to prove that he would not be
> messed with, because if something happened — if one attacked the other —
> there was no escape. The only way to alert a guard was to bang on the door
> and hope the sound could be heard above the din.

From [https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/03/24/the-deadly-
con...](https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/03/24/the-deadly-consequences-
of-solitary-with-a-cellmate)

~~~
sverige
Yeah, most of your meditation will be on how to survive another day if you
land in an American prison.

~~~
pmoriarty
There's lots of variation between the kind of incarceration you might be in.
Minimum security, maximum security, supermax, solitary confinement or not,
federal, state, county, death row, etc. Mixed in with the general prison
population or not, among murderers or among white-collar criminals?

Some types of incarceration will give you more opportunities for meditation
than others.

If someone has the leisure to write a book in prison, or to work on some
software project, work on a game (like the author of the article this HN
thread is about), read, exercise, make license plates or belt buckles or
perform other minimal-skilled work (like many prisoners do), get vocational
training, or even simply do chores like cleanup or kitchen duty, they have
great opportunities to meditate.

Also, you can actually meditate while doing other things. I do it all the time
-- especially when something annoying or boring is going on (like when I'm
talking to my boss). Helps keep the blood pressure down.

Still sounds perfect for prison to me.

I'm also reminded of the Forest Monk tradition[1], where monks deliberately
lived and meditated in the forest, among wild beasts, with very little to eat,
and in very primitive (if any) shelters, etc.

 _" Fear accompanied many wilderness newcomers, due in part to the insecurity
of daily life and survival but especially fear of wild animals, sickness and
injury, and -- given the accretions of cultural lore -- ghosts._

 _" Many forest monks record their encounters with wild animals, namely
tigers, elephants, and snakes. Tigers often lurked around hermits in their
open air klots at night, and the monks learned to face fear directly..._

 _" In such settings the training of the mind was invaluable..._

 _" A second fear that masters bade their disciples overcome was fear of
corpses and spirits. The Visuddhimagga teaches the corpse meditation as a way
of inculcating a spirit of impermanence but also as a practical way of
conquering sexual temptation, and fear of illness and disease. But spending
the night in a cemetery, whether in the open air or in a klot, could be the
source of great fear._

 _" The cemeteries of southeast Asia were not the tombstones and spacious
lawns of the Western world. Corpses were brought and deposited in shrouds on
the ground, make-shift cremations incomplete or left unfinished with
nightfall. One monk records being in a cemetery at dusk when villagers brought
a shrouded body and left the smoldering corpse on the ground where the monk
could see it from his klot. As in any such case, the odor was overwhelming and
the monk's imagination stirred. The monk was taught to recognize and observe
fear, to control it with mindfulness, and ultimately to transcend it. But that
seldom happened without considerable experience._

 _" The third fear was fear of bodily suffering. The widespread contraction of
malaria by forest-dwellers called for perseverance, especially when palliative
drugs were unavalable in isolated locales. Despite suffering malarial fever,
some monks did not deviate from their discipline, walking in pain or sitting
stolidly in the open air during rain storms. The conviction that pain is
rooted in the mind was a strong motivation to discipline._

 _" In terms of physical hardship, the forest-dwelling monks contrasted their
wilderness context to the cozy, rarified atmosphere of the monastery. To the
forest-dwelling monks and hermits, book learning could not overcome bodily
suffering. A strong intellect might mask emotional weakness, undermining
mindfulness. Ajan Man, who passed a rains retreat while suffering severe
stomach pains, would sometimes enter towns and villages in order to test
himself against temptations of food and sensual desire. Mastering sense
stimuli would guard against viewing the forest as an escape."_

Of course, some prison experiences can be even worse than this, with people
actively trying to harm you, but I still think there are a lot of parallels
and meditation can help in both types of situations.

[1] -
[http://www.hermitary.com/articles/thudong.html](http://www.hermitary.com/articles/thudong.html)

~~~
ue_
Excellent post. It's important to let people understand that meditation need
not be in long times of peace and quiet on a comfy cushion.

------
scandox
It's interesting that he references GURPS given that it was created by Steve
Jackson Games, who were also raided by a Federal Agency and had their
computers taken away without cause (Secret Service, I think). It is covered in
Bruce Sterling's excellent The Hacker Crackdown
[http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html](http://www.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html)

~~~
evgen
Yes, it was by the Secret Service and yes they were overly excessive in what
they grabbed (e.g. everything plugged into an electrical socket that was not
involved in food production), but even Loyd would probably admit by now that
it was not entirely without cause...

~~~
mcv
There was of course a reason why the Secret Service raided them, but that
doesn't mean it was a good reason. At the time, everybody was shocked and the
courts sided with Steve Jackson, but with the past 15 years, I can imagine
people are now more used to this kind of invasive, ill-justified raids by law
enforcement organizations, and more willing to accept this as normal
behaviour.

~~~
evgen
It was a good reason even if they were incorrect regarding their suspicions,
and they did not have either the proper paperwork to enter the premises or the
legal authority to remove what they did. As someone personally involved in the
whole affair I can assure you that it was considered excessive and the Secret
Service rightly deserved losing that case.

------
pmoriarty
I am reminded of something that I heard on the Alcatraz audio tour (which I
strongly recommend if you ever tour Alactraz, which is awesome), where a
former prisoner said he made up a game to help pass the time in his months of
solitary confinement:

He'd take a button off of his shirt and throw the button down on to the floor
of his cell, in the pitch darkness. Then he'd crawl on his hands and knees to
find it. Then he'd repeat the process again.

~~~
feborges
You can also see this game in the Brazilian prison movie "Carandiru"
(available with english subtitles). Highly recommended.

------
mcv
Part of me is actually a bit jealous that he gets to design an intricate
campaign full-time. The bigger part of me is outraged that an innocent guy got
locked up for uncovering a criminal conspiracy.

~~~
ChoHag
And part of me is dismayed that he butted heads with the DOJ - a DOJ he was in
the process of demonstrating was corrupt - and expected to come away clean.

~~~
mcphage
I'm not really sure he expected to, although he still seems (justifiably)
bitter about that.

------
roh0sun
> The chairman and co-founder of Palantir is Peter Thiel — the same man who
> more recently funded the lawsuit that destroyed Gawker, a media outlet that
> had angered him, and who served as the final speaker at the Republican
> National Convention. His firm continues to work closely with the U.S.
> intelligence community.

~~~
pmoriarty
And who recently made headlines by donating $1.25M in support of Donald Trump:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716825](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716825)

~~~
tzakrajs
Wow, gross.

~~~
SixSigma
There are people in this world that have different opinions to yours.

He his opposing a party that co-ordinates violet protests at political rallies
as well as many, many other crimes.

------
guelo
One of our political prisoners.

------
greggh
Barrett is one of my best friends. He gets out soon and I can't wait for a
time when he can put out articles like this every week again. It takes a lot
longer to get through the process while in prison.

------
hellofunk
For some reason, this is something I have very often thought about. Not
because I think I'll ever to go prison, but because I've often wondered what
I'd do if I didn't have access to things that please me, like a musical
instrument, or a computer. I've often thought that I would also be capable of
keeping my mind excited without anything, and for me the one item that always
stands out is that I'd commit myself fully to number theory and just think
about integers and prime numbers all day and all night, for years, trying to
work out the most basic puzzles in existence.

That would probably never happen, I'd more likely end up a depressed opiate
addict, but the thought that it _could_ happen, even in the face of
incarceration, gives me a bit of strange solace.

~~~
restalis
Contrary to what we like to imagine from outside, in prison you don't get the
most favorable conditions for meditation. It's still an effort to get your
mind serene and ready for heavy lifting like math. It's way more productive to
focus on things that both have a lesser mental demand and touch your interest
on a deeper, personal level.

------
mhd
Former "nerds" having grown up, finding mentions of D&D is no longer really
rare, but I'm always surprised where you find GURPS. I do wonder whether
prisoners might find the increased realism interesting, as there's a higher
likelihood that they might actually know a bit about losing "hit points". (If
it's white collar crime, the point-based accounting might be a bigger
incentive)

~~~
pmoriarty
GURPS is not particularly obscure, so I'm not surprised to hear mention of it.
Though it definitely is more obscure than D&D, which is sadly the only RPG
that a lot of gamers have ever played.

------
fsloth
Is there any other backstory available? What are the actual charges? Are there
any?

~~~
stplsd
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_Brown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrett_Brown)

------
q-base
Am I the only one surprised to find Peter Thiel's name in that article? Anyone
who has anymore on that?

------
eddie_catflap
I really like Barrett's writing, both the style and content. I look forward to
seeing much more from him on his release. How he has maintained his wit
throughout this episode is beyond me - especially after receiving such a harsh
sentence.

------
eternalban
This exact url was posted earlier
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12719095](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12719095)

------
bobsgame
I always imagined I could just program something on pen and paper and that
would keep me busy, and when I got out I would have a masterpiece to sell.

~~~
nibnib
Has anyone ever done this? There have been successful books written in prison
but not many, and that translates much better to pen and paper than software
does. It sounds like something of a fantasy to be honest.

~~~
Houshalter
I don't know about complex pieces of software. But many algorithms were
invented on paper first (or whiteboards.) Conway's game of life became popular
before computers were programmed to do it, and people executed the moves with
pencil on graph paper. Turing had a chess playing algorithm which he executed
by hand on paper.

I've written short sections of code on a notebook before implementing it into
a computer. It's slower, but it's possible, and I don't think paper is _that_
inferior to a text editor. It will definitely require a lot more debugging
when you finally implement it on a computer. So maybe write lots of test
cases.

~~~
nibnib
>algorithms were invented on paper first

This I can see, but the parent seems to be talking about commercially viable
software. I think people should be careful when discussing imprisonment as
some kind of distraction-free vacation for intellectual pursuits, the reality
is that a large amount of time would be spent caring for your mental
wellbeing.

~~~
Fjolsvith
Well, most of the people I knew in prison used weight-lifting, tennis,
jogging, arts and crafts, instrument playing, card games, reading, cooking, TV
watching, naptime, and even alcohol to manage the mental wellbeing.

What can really be tough is if you have someone on the outside you care about
who is struggling with their own issues. That, more than anything, puts an
imprisoned man into depression.

------
Houshalter
For those who didn't read the whole thing, the part referred to by the title
is at the very end. This guy constructed an insanely elaborate RPG world,
which it sounds like he plays by himself:

>I oversee some 70 fully realized characters as they pursue their blood-soaked
vendettas against one another in accordance with the several handwritten pages
of primitive, dice-based behavioral heuristics I have devised for them. Their
entire world is limited to a map I’ve drawn on graph paper and taped to my
wall, their stage confined to my cell’s steel wall-mounted desk on which I
have created an elaborate city consisting of dozens and dozens of buildings,
vehicles, vending machines, trees, dogs, rats, surveillance drones, and
dwarves — a small world, yes, but one of extraordinary depth and intrigue. I
make the pieces out of cardboard tea boxes, drawing and then coloring them
with very sharp pencils, and I don’t mind saying that I’ve become very good at
making itty-bitty tea box people over the last year or so.

Otherwise a very sad story that this guy got locked up and it didn't even
accomplish any change.

From the discussion on the reddit, many prisons ban D&D, probably because of
fear D&D sessions could turn into gangs and...:

>D&D can "foster an inmate's obsession with escaping from the real life,
correctional environment, fostering hostility, violence and escape behavior,"
which in turn "can compromise not only the inmate's rehabilitation and effects
of positive programming but also endanger the public and jeopardize the safety
and security of the institution."

[https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/57uz74/i_am_fully_capa...](https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/57uz74/i_am_fully_capable_of_entertaining_myself_in/)

Also the author says he couldn't do this at his previous prison because they
kept taking away his books and papers.

~~~
faraggi
> because they kept taking away his books and papers This is very worrying.
> There is a (light?) documentary[1] which compares nordic and american
> prisons which tries to compare both systems. Both have totally different
> operational philosophies ergo, results.

Very interesting watch but probably even better if coupled with more
insightful reading.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfEsz812Q1I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfEsz812Q1I)

------
anondon
Not directly about the article, but the Quote of the day, which is below the
article.

> “Bob, please get me the names of the Jews, you know, the big Jewish
> contributors of the Democrats. … Could we please investigate some of the
> cocksuckers?”

— Richard Nixon, 1971

I don't know the context of the quote, but hatred towards Jews is something
that I never really understood fully. I tried reading up a little on the
history of Jews, and a few reasons seems to be (I know I am missing a lot):

-first Abrahamic religion, difficult to acknowledge for Christians and Muslims

-Palestine-Israel conflict creates hatred among Muslims

-super successful and influential for such a small community.

Without becoming a flamewar, can someone provide an objective TL;DR about
hatred towards Jews?

~~~
sfrechtling
I think an objective summary is going to be hard to come by.

The only thing I can add is that this view is common throughout history -
think Shylock in the Merchant of Venice. The stereotype of Jewish people as
being involved in the processes of finances and money lending may have been
one seed for this.

~~~
beagle3
In many places in 17-18th century Europe, foreigners (which usually included
Jews and gypsies among others) were forbidden from owning land and engaging in
quite a few honorable jobs.

Jewish practice converged to require praying from a book, so the literacy rate
was extremely high (not so much among the general population, especially in
Eastern Europe), and as a result of both this and the restrictions, Jews were
constrained to jobs like trade, bankers, lawyers, doctors, which later became
much more desirable than the (previously) more honorable jobs and ownership
positions that they couldn't take.

IIRC, at some point in the late 19th century Germany, Jews were ~3% of the
population, but were about 30% of the doctors and 70% of the lawyers; they
were also over-represented among the rich. (Can't find a reference right now,
so numbers might be off - but I'm quite sure about being over-represented in
lucrative and rich circles).

I have no idea if a percentage of jews involved with finances (among all jews)
was high; But they were definitely over-represented among finance people.

And besides, hating someone who's different is an established tradition among
the people of the world.

I don't think it is entirely irrational to suspect a group that has non
trivial dealing with the land's finances, law and health - yet is distinct,
marries among itself, has its own "secret" languages and rituals, and has a
demonstrated history of moving around and rotating loyalties. (My statements
are not politically correct, I'm afraid)

------
Rapzid
The cliché-ridden passages created by the gamemaster aren't the only ones
you'll find in this article..

------
intended
I really can't wait for the future, the kind of childish maliciousness we have
today will be replaced with increasing technological sophistication and
innovation.

People working on this are probably on HN, and I can only doff my hat to them.
Being employed by palantir et al is far better than being on the receiving
end.

~~~
jstanley
The kind of childish maliciousness we have today will be replaced with
increasingly effective and omniscient childish maliciousness.

