# How the world seems after 44 years in prison. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 28, 2015, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827 "2015-11-28T14:25:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/1 "2015-11-28T14:25:13Z")
Al Jazeera made a video with a gentleman who spent the last 4.5 decades in the slammer. How different the world seems. Man, it must[have blown his mind](http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/shorts/life-after-prison/index.html). When I see pictures from 2005, it seems like a different world; what the hell must a person from 1975 feel like? ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/2 "2015-11-28T15:58:25Z")
Prisoners regularly see movies, TV, magazines, newspapers… ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/3 "2015-11-28T23:11:41Z")
I am guessing the year he went is a typo. The difference in his age when he went in and got out is 44 years- but 1975 was 40 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/4 "2015-11-28T23:27:34Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Prisoners regularly see movies, TV, magazines, newspapers… This is what I always wonder about. This type of article comes up from time to time and they act like people in prison are completely cut off from media. Like they’re just sitting there reading The only thing I can think is that reading materials, film and TV were extremely limited in this particular prison, and that the man who was just released might not be a big reader, or perhaps can’t read. Forty-five years of playing pinochle, though, must get boring. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/5 "2015-11-28T23:29:44Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > I am guessing the year he went is a typo. The difference in his age when he went in and got out is 44 years- but 1975 was 40 years ago. Jail ages you. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/6 "2015-11-28T23:43:55Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Prisoners regularly see movies, TV, magazines, newspapers… That’s not like living in the world. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/7 "2015-11-28T23:50:31Z")
It’s one thing to read about social and technological change and evolving mores and habits or to view representations of it in both fictional and nonfictional TV and movies; it’s another one to experience it, especially absent a family support network. Even under normal circumstances one could do a lot of reading and media viewing on, say, life in some foreign city (for example in my case, Mexico City, or Liverpool) and still be a fish out of water when you get there as an inhabitant as opposed to a tourist. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/8 "2015-11-29T02:12:50Z")
I’ve heard that after many years in prison, people can’t handle life outside and commit a crime just to get back “home”. Any truth to this? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/9 "2015-11-29T09:17:41Z")
Not necessarily people who’ve been in a for a long time, and not necessarily people who consciously decide to do so, either. It’s been a commonplace for a long time that people (usually men) who are on the margins might prefer to be locked up for the winter with at least some food and warmth guaranteed than doss on the streets. But I can also distinctly remember a TV documentary in the UK about a local magistrate’s court and some of the cases coming before it, one of whom was a young man who’d been in and out of trouble with no family behind him, until someone took a chance on him, gave him a job and he seemed to settle down. The trouble was, the children came too soon, he got into debt, he and his wife were falling out and couldn’t cope, and he committed some stupid petty crime he could never have imagined he’d get away with. It seemed to me obvious he was desperate to be locked up so he wouldn’t have to sort out the mess he’d got himself into. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2015, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/10 "2015-11-29T10:28:38Z")
I’ve a better question though, “how would jail be like after 44 years outside?” A 70’s edition of GBOWR says the longest time a prison escapee evaded capture was 44 years. The second time, he was turned in by his son. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/11 "2015-11-30T04:46:31Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > Prisoners regularly see movies, TV, magazines, newspapers… Watching somebody do something on TV or in a movie is hardly the same as experiencing it yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/12 "2015-11-30T05:39:12Z")
Wonder how the world looks to the family of the policeman he tried to murder 44 years ago? ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/13 "2015-12-01T00:06:54Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Wonder how the world looks to the family of the policeman he tried to murder 44 years ago? Your point is…? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/14 "2015-12-01T00:33:47Z")
Honestly, just being able to choose your own schedule, clothes and food would be such a difference after 44 years in prison that I think it’d take me a few months before computers and cell phones became the thing I marveled over. ---
**Author:** ![Chihuahua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dec6dc/32.png) [@Chihuahua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chihuahua)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/15 "2015-12-01T03:24:56Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#): > > Your point is…? Just a guess: The writer assumes that the thread is being written to elicit sympathy for the criminal. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/16 "2015-12-01T03:28:45Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > I’ve heard that after many years in prison, people can’t handle life outside and commit a crime just to get back “home”. > > Any truth to this? You can’t handle the truth. ---
**Author:** ![leahcim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b4bc9f/32.png) [@leahcim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leahcim)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/17 "2015-12-01T03:50:35Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Wonder how the world looks to the family of the policeman he tried to murder 44 years ago? Tried to? He got 44 years and wasn’t even successful at it? ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/18 "2015-12-01T05:38:19Z")
Ok, it’s only 30 years, but… > [@](#): > > …He asked the deputies if there had been a fire in the rolling farmland and was told that the devastation was a result of the state’s (decade long) drought… There were other details that startled him too, like the peculiar metal spires he saw in the distance every now and then, which he soon understood were cellphone towers. …At a gas station, he studied the self-service pump with its digital display and credit card reader. The last time he had seen the outside world was seven years earlier, when he had been transferred… He had not driven a car since midway through Ronald Reagan’s second term. From [Texas Monthly](http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/the-innocent-man-part-two/) ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2015, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-the-world-seems-after-44-years-in-prison/738827/19 "2015-12-01T06:13:38Z")
> [@dracoi](#): > > Honestly, just being able to choose your own schedule, clothes and food would be such a difference after 44 years in prison that I think it’d take me a few months before computers and cell phones became the thing I marveled over. Not just that but the sheer _size_ of your new world; what used to be so constricted and tiny now seems so fucking huge. That could impact a person just getting out of a half-century in prison in a few different ways, it seems.