The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

Since I started working in prison, I have become highly attuned to stories of prisons and prisoners on the radio and in the news. On my daily drive, my ears perk up for any NPR story on the prisoners of Guantanamo...China...South America. Seems like prison stories are everywhere, even inundating me on my [fabulous] 3 day weekends...or maybe it's the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. Ever learn a new word or topic (usually obscure) and then start noticing it all around you? (Like when I went to the Nuggets v. Suns game last weekend and noticed the Suns' point guard Steve Nash...then Monday I heard his name in the lyrics of a Nelly Furtado song...oh, Canadians...) Anyway, you think it must be an amazing coincidence that the new information is suddenly everywhere! How did you never notice it before?! (One theory is that the brain has a bias for recognizing recently acquired information and patterns, termed the "recency effect.")

Such has been my experience since working in prison. And not always in a good way.

I really try to avoid knowing the legal history of my patients. It seldom has anything to do with why they are in my exam room, and I don't want it affecting how I treat them. I think a lot of the women may be there on drug charges, but others have convictions for sexual offenses and murder. Anyway, imagine my surprise while reading the newspaper last weekend to find a big article about of of my patients. Cringe. Then moments later, there was story on tv about a prisoner who escaped from Colorado Department of Corrections 7 times, which I had heard about briefly at work. The tv story described him building a huge copper ladder and climbing over the electrically charged "kill fence" before being apprehended by the escape recovery team.

And now that you know about Baader-Meinhof, you will probably notice it. Everywhere.

http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=165313&catid=339