In prison, the holidays have all the stress usual to this time of the year, but almost none of the accompanying joy. St. Thomas Aquinas said that the greatest punishment in hell would be the pain of loss. It's that sense of unchangeable loss that prisoners feel at the end of the year. No pomp and ceremony for me. I couldn't stand the feeling of being left out.
Tensions are high during the holidays in prison.
Only the long hot days of midsummer can contribute more to the alchemy of violence. At year's end more prisoners use the phones. Some to share season's cheer with their children, others to check up on their women to make sure they aren't partying too hard. Whatever the reason, more prisoners on the phones means more men learning that family and friends are having fun in their absence. So the telephone creates brooding men.