On Cruelty: A Retired Prison Warden’s Reflections
“Our ability to engage and disengage our moral standards…helps explain how people can be barbarically cruel in one moment and compassionate in the next.”
-Albert Bandura, The New York Times, February 7, 2006
Institutional settings are breeding grounds for cruelty. Be it prisons, nursing homes, mental hospitals, schools, or even day-care centers, whenever one person is placed under the control of another, physical and mental abuse is always a real possibility. The greater the level of control and dependence, the larger the threat of abuse. The more vulnerable the group, the more likely it will be a target of cruelty.
There are several overlapping explanations why people persist in being cruel, and often feel much gratification. Some think that an ideology that justifies cruelty (such as the belief that males must dominate females, or Blacks are innately inferior to whites) is necessary for one group to mistreat another. Others think it is because of dehumanization; one group fails to see the humanity in another group.
A recent theory says it is precisely because we do see the humanity in others different from us that we abuse them; we see them as a threat to our way of life, our morality, our power. In a recent published article entitled The Souls of White Folk, William Spivey stated:
When discussing the souls of white folks, I don’t mean to imply they don’t have souls. Just that they are selective about what matters to them; cruelty to animals will have them up in arms; cruelty to people that don’t look like them, not so much. They seem to be for multiple guns in every household unless the residents are Black. When armed white men went to the Michigan Capitol, little was said, and nothing was done. When armed Black men once legally went to the California Capitol, laws were passed with the full support of the NRA, Republicans, and Democrats.
Finally, there is the argument that we get group approval, social acceptance and reinforcement, by treating members of other hated groups badly. A good example is a quote Dan Foster included in his article entitled “What all Mass Shooters Have in Common” concerning the recent massacre at a LBGQT+ nightclub in Colorado Springs:
“In an interview with C.B.S. News, which has since gone viral, Aaron Brink, the father of the Colorado shooter, reacted to the news of his son’s deadly shooting by saying, “They started telling me about the incident, a shooting… And then I go on to find out it’s a gay bar. I got scared, ‘Shit, is he gay?’ And he’s not gay, so I said, phew… I am a conservative Republican.””
All of these reasons for cruelty are valid and work in a cooperative mix depending on the situation. An example of muti-factor cruelty interaction is a response to a Facebook post that asked, “If you could delete anything in the world what would it be?”
An answer: “The devil and all who serve him!!!!! Basically all evil!!!!! And everything that’s against Jesus Christ and the Bible.”
We all have the capacity to abuse others, or at least countenance such abuse.
People working in controlling institutions have a running start on abuse because they are already in a highly stratified social situation. There is a clear distinction between who is in control and who is being controlled.
Because there are few institutions as controlling as a prison, Warden Biggie Biggins had to occasionally remind himself that part of his job was to be alert to abuse situations so as to prevent them or at least stop them before becoming part of the prison culture. The alternatives were for him to either tacitly or overtly participate in abuse, both of which are seductive because of the extreme gratification and validation we feel when we abuse others and can shelter behind group anonymity.
Prison workers do see convicts as people: as moral agents who deserve being punished; and as people whose behavior threatens the workers’ worldview. Prison workers also operate in a highly stratified social environment where the acknowledgement and support from their peers is not only gratifying, but necessary for survival.
Using power to strike cruelly is a natural human response both common and ubiquitous. It can’t be tolerated, and must be exposed, and stopped, but thinking cruelty isn’t a natural human reaction reinforced by group norms is a mistake. Until this is understood, we will not be able to control the cruelty in ourselves or others.
