Break Prison Routines

Billy McFarland shares insights about maintaining creativity and individuality within the prison system, based on his experience serving time for fraud.

Prison's Institutional Design

• Primary goal is to strip inmates of ambition
• Creates a robotic, routine-driven environment
  • Scheduled feeding times
  • Regulated phone usage
  • Strict uniform requirements
  • Controlled lighting schedules
• System intentionally discourages creative thinking
• Designed to manage both good and bad individuals
  • Can't allow ambitious environment due to presence of bad actors
  • Results in suppressing everyone's drive

Strategies for Maintaining Creativity

• Active resistance against institutionalization

  • Deliberately fighting against set processes
  • Making each day different from the last
  • Finding creative periods within constraints

• Physical Activities

  • Boxing training with cellmates
  • Improvised equipment
    • Toilet paper rolls wrapped in tube socks for mitts
    • Towels used for hand wraps
  • Finding ways to practice restricted activities safely
    • Martial arts practice in less monitored areas
    • Short 30-minute training sessions to avoid detection

Impact and Outcomes

• Makes prison time feel longer due to active resistance
• Requires constant effort to maintain individuality
• Creates opportunities for mental escape
• Helps preserve creative thinking capabilities
• Allows for maintaining some sense of personal identity

Key Takeaway

The key to maintaining creativity in prison is finding ways to deliberately break institutionalized patterns while staying within acceptable boundaries of rule-breaking.