The body of the work is a more detailed explanation and Case Studies of the attempts by inmates to set up and take advantage of prison employees. The fascinating piece seems to be that if the employee recognizes and resists the set up, they gain respect among the inmates and are actually able to do their work.
People targeted are either seen as too soft, therefore easy to manipulate, or too hard, where it is assumed that their hard attitude is a veneer that covers up a soft or uncertain underbelly. The authors use the term mellow to describe employees not so easily set up. The mellow employee knows their limits, when to be soft and supportive, when to be hard and rule-enforcing. They are, in other words, professionals in their work.
To anyone seeking to help others, there is the takeaway. We are compassionate and seeking to show the love of Christ. But we must also recognize that there are people out there who are going to try and play off that loving spirit to take advantage, to use emotion to manipulate, to lie for their own purposes. And their own purposes may not be noble, stealing to eat for example. Messing with us is simply the game they play, a game that might either lead to prison or be learned from prison.
The value of this work, being done in prisons, is that the data was be systematized and quantified. As a pastor, with a book devoted to the stories of manipulated pastors, the evidence is from the case studies, from the anecdotes, patterns are harder to find, and the consequences far harder to document. What pastor is going to admit being conned?
The conclusion of the work is on spotting the setup. That may be the most useful tool that we can take away from the book. More to that tomorrow.
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