Jailhouse Therapist

Book excerpt: Welcome to Rikers Island and Bellevue Hospital Prison ward for the criminally insane where all problems can be solved with a certain degree of violence. As a Jailhouse Therapist for over thirty years, I have seen and experienced firsthand violence that the average civilian cannot even imagine. It is a catastrophic assault on the human psyche which boggles the mind. I am leery of my surroundings when locked down with forty-seven criminally insane individuals, but I am not fearful. Maybe I’m stupid, and I don’t know it. I have learned to listen, respect, and look these individuals straight in their eyes with no fear. These individuals cherish respect above anything else. Money, women, and drugs are abstract compared to the concept of respect. Come visit Rikers Island and Bellevue’s Forensic Unit and see for yourself with the jailhouse therapist how these psychotic individuals function as they face twenty-five years or a life sentence for murdering their parents, kidnapping, robbing banks, or being stick-up artists and gang bangers. Walk through this New York City county jail in Jailhouse Therapist.