Solitary Confinement?

Think back to the classic prison movies you’ve seen. A compelling scene in many of these films goes something like this:

A prisoner is sitting rocking in a corner or else involved in ritualised behaviour – pacing his cell, scratching out symbols on his wall, when suddenly he hears a noise…a tapping is coming along the pipe on the edge of the floor. He waits…and it repeats…tap, tap, tap. Three times, then a pause.

He is amazed and delighted – there is someone else out there…and they are trying to communicate. He approaches the pipe and waits again…tap, tap, tap. Barely able to contain his excitement, he responds: tap, tap, tap. Also three times – this way the other person will hopefully realise that this is a deliberate, intentional response.

What then happens is a flurry of exchanges…they vary the number and speed of the taps before settling into a regular exchange, repeated every day. They have made a connection, through walls and across their isolation, in a way they can both understand. The person in the other cell may not even speak the same language, but they can still connect with each other in this way. And this connection, the sense that there is another living human being out there is crucial to the prisoners survival, sense of identity and emotional well-being.

A dramatic analogy maybe and I am not saying the people we support are prisoners in their own homes, but often their social isolation is as profound. How do we make connections with someone who is non-verbal, seemingly engrossed in their own behaviours, who may not seem to even be interested in engaging socially? By carefully, sensitively using the techniques of Intensive Interaction we can reach out a friendly hand, we can tap, tap, tap the pipes that run through every cell…and guess what?…we will get a response!

The urge to communicate with other human beings is there in us all, however able or disabled we are. At La Jolla State Penitentiary in California, the prisoners in solitary confinement managed to communicate with each other despite the prison officers best efforts to keep them isolated. It began by them throwing notes up through skylight windows, using the wind direction to blow them into adjoining cells. After the skylights were nailed shut to stop this, the pipes became the only way they could maintain contact. And that couldn’t be stopped!

I like this analogy, because, despite the fact that the communication here is based on imitation, they are not “taking the mick.” The person answering the three taps is not mocking the person who started it. Also, if they carried on exactly the same every day, they would soon get bored, so variation began to maintain the mutual enjoyment: this communication game developed and expanded and grew in complexity over time.