have jumped right in to my new practicum (neuropsych) in which i do assessments in the clinic, the VA, and periodically on inmates in the pennsylvania prison system. many of these guys are on death row, and yesterday was my first go at one of those medico-legal cases. people kind of give me an incredulous look when i tell them that i'm doing assessments on murderers, but honestly, it's not at all as bad as it sounds, except, perhaps, for going through security, where they frisked me rather vigorously and confiscated my lunch.

apparently i'm allowed to be somewhat freer about discussing these cases, because all the results are available in the public domain, and inmates don't have the same protections and privileges my other clients would have. that is to say, i could, in theory, publish names here and not be in trouble, although i guess that would still be kind of rude (and pointless). i will say that i learned a number of things, among them:

1) that inmates make their meals more palatable by crushing them up in a ziploc bag with cheese doodles and re-cooking them in boiling hot water*.
2) that one really should not base ones mental image of prison on the green mile, the shawshank redemption, and prison break**.
3) that, convicted murderer or not, a WAIS is just a WAIS.
4) that really, the most awful thing is the same awfulness i've seen consistently over the past 2 years: that between bad genes and a brutal environment some people just don't stand a chance, and never did.


* it strikes me as a little bit funny that death-row inmates have access to 170-degree water while i was not allowed to bring a banana into the testing room, but such is the pennsylvania corrections system. perhaps they were afraid that i had hidden a shiv inside it.
** especially not prison break