Sex Urge In Prisons Abnormally Active

Other Forms Of Emotional Intellectual Expressions Are Blocked, Reason Given

Editor's Note-In this article in a brief and general way the effect of our penal system on the mind of the prisoner, the prison and the public at large is described by a contributor. His views are not necessarily those of "Justice Weekly" but are published in compliance with the paper's policy of giving everybody expression of his or her views.

Our present prisons bring into play a large number of disastrous influences constituting a vicious circle. This system. would put the most severe strains upon even a thoroughly normal person, but its savagery actually operates in most cases upon those who are physically or mentally abnormal upon commitment. Normal sociability is severely curtailed; self-assertion is practically denied even though the sex urge is rendered abnormally active, due to the blocking of other forms of emotional and intellectual expressions which might otherwise drain off or sublimate sex desires.

Hence, it is but natural that prison life should result in various types of explosions, sex perversions and general physical and moral disintegrations. No understanding can be expected from the average warden, as his function is primarily that of a jailer who must keep a certain number of humans herded within

the prison walls. Nor can much sympathy be hoped for from those outside the walls, as the prison supplies the law's machinery for vengeance through which society gets a vicious satisfaction as well as experiencing a pleasant indirect and symbolic release of the cruel and sadistic impulses which most citizens

7