> AggSeg is the VERY BEST place you can be in jail or prison.
You sound like you're introverted. Most people do not want to be left alone with their thoughts with no human contact - it would just drive them up the wall.
You also sound like you were focused on surviving your incarceration which end date. The author is in for life, without parole: he's the "random criminal" you didn't want to socialize with, because that was his survival strategy as a lifer, and it sounds like he can manage genpop just fine.
You shouldn’t make personality diagnoses via online comments.
The math doesn’t change for introverts or extroverts. AggSeg is safe, easy living. It’s nowhere near torture, or dangerous, or inhumane, no matter what TikTok says your personality type is. Genpoop on the other hand is dirty and dangerous and you are statistically guaranteed to be involved in violence at some point.
But there are lots of people like him who will complain as if it’s torture, because they like to complain, will say anything against the pigs, and they like to pretend they endured “the hole”.
Meanwhile he talked with other inmates every day and likely had a view of a TV, as is common in most AggSeg pods.
People forget that anyone (let alone criminals) will use everything available to improve their situation; criminals in prison are well known to abuse every process available to them for their own ends.
And that includes crying about how horrible everything is. Every guard and convict knows the ones that do it, and when it's real and when it's faked.
> You shouldn’t make personality diagnoses via online comments.
Going by what you said alone - you prefer the safety of isolation over the lack of human contact (regardless of your personality). Author of TFA weighs the tradeoffs differently.
The author of article doesn't share your safety concerns, as they wrote that they adopted a gangster persona and probably resigned to the fact that they will be repeatedly involved in violence, so they'd rather do it on their terms. The calculus of a lifer is very different to yours
I liked the part where you told me about he "calculus of a lifer".
Anyway, that guy is misrepresenting what AggSeg is. It's not torture, he was not egregiously isolated, he still had contact with people. He ate better food and had more TV. He's just the type who will always complain about the conditions of the facility, and all the inmates like to LARP about "the hole" being hardcore, because that's where the violent folks are sent.
1 book a week is a little rough. But meh. These guys tear library books up and clog the toilets with them.
And I didn't mean TV in the room - Often, there is a TV outside that you have view of in AggSeg pods (speaking from 2 facilities I have been to). They do this because AggSeg characters like to throw fits and shout and kick their doors and generally make the place sound like a zoo. When there is a TV most people can see, they are calmer and tell each other to be quiet so they can watch. It's not that "solitary", inmates can hear each other and usually approach each other's doors to chat on individual free times, depending on the facility. A lot of AggSeg guys just harass and threaten each other whenever they can.
Of course, there is usually some loss of privilege in AggSeg - he could probably have a TV in his room in genpop if he had the funds. Usually not true in AggSeg. Also he may or may not have had Cantine. In my experience they allow it, if you are not on restriction for whatever offenses you committed to land yourself in AggSeg.
Other than that it's just whining. AggSeg is disciplinary (in addition to being about segregating violent people for the safety of genpop). Grievance forms are usually one of the only things these folks can figure out as an activity.
I like being alone and spend most of my days alone, but not having the choice to socialize would make me itchy. Gotta sate the urge to boogie every once in a blue moon.
Which leads into your point -- the author didn't/doesn't have that temporary notion of "This will pass; For now, just get me away from these people." He's in it for life-o and has a totally different set of realities to cope with than a transient convict.
You sound like you're introverted. Most people do not want to be left alone with their thoughts with no human contact - it would just drive them up the wall.
You also sound like you were focused on surviving your incarceration which end date. The author is in for life, without parole: he's the "random criminal" you didn't want to socialize with, because that was his survival strategy as a lifer, and it sounds like he can manage genpop just fine.