LIFE AND TIMES OF A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
By R. Mark Shepard

(Chapter 12)

When this particular prison opened up, it was supposed to be a Minimum to Medium custody Prison. That's what the Public in the county was told. And they were told it would hold only a maximum of 900 Medium to minimum violent offenders. But the secretary of corrections knew that the design of this prison was to be a Level 7 prison, which meant it was going to be a Maximum Security prison with the most Physically violent Felons you can imagine.

Then they added a new twist to this type of prison. A Psyche Dorm was opened for the Psychologically Disturbed, along with inmates who also had a minimum amount of time.

So you can imagine that, with all of the different types of inmates in a mixture like this, the Institution was nothing but problems from the Start.

The Close Management Unit is a place where inmates are housed, not only when they get into trouble on the compound; not only when they cannot get along with other inmates at all, but also when they cannot even get along with themselves.

Most of the inmates in Close management have a lot of time on their sentences, I mean 15, 20 years, and a lot even have Life sentences. They truly do not care if they start a riot or a disturbance and they would just as soon stab or try to kill you as to look at you.

Depending on the seriousness of his charge, his attitude and the problems he has caused (or has threatened to cause) on the compound, the inmate housed here would be considered a Management Problem.

The inmates in Close Management cells never come out of the Cell except for a shower 3 times a week, or a haircut when needed, according to the guidelines of the institution hygiene code.

When an inmate is brought from a cell, he is handcuffed behind his back, from a slot that has been cut through the door. Two officers are always present at the door when it is opened. The inmate is escorted to the shower, and when the shower door is shut, the inmate puts his hands through the slot in the shower door, and he is then unhandcuffed. The inmate has 5 minutes to complete his shower, and the water is turned on and off from the control room in the housing unit by an officer.

Before the electric razor, the only thing they had to shave with was a regular plastic razor. Can you imagine giving a Violent inmate who cannot even get along with himself a real razor blade? ...Well they did.

The best home made weapon for an inmate who was Locked Up is a Razor blade and a toothbrush. The toothbrush could be sharpened to a point by rubbing it on the concrete floor of the cell; or if the inmate had a tooth brush, a razor, and access to some matches, he could melt one end of the tooth brush and put the razor in the end of it. Now he had the sharpest, and probably the most feared weapon on the entire compound.

On a daily basis the Medical staff would make their rounds, passing out prescribed medication, going door to door with an officer who had the key to open the food slot door. The Nurse would hand the medication to the inmate after he put his hand outside the slot and he would have to take it in front of the nurse.

During the course of the Nurse's rounds one afternoon, the officer opened the food slot door to give the nurse access to hand the inmate his medication. Instead of the inmate putting his hand through the slot, he had a razor inside a toothbrush and sliced the top of the nurse’s hand wide open.

The blame for this incident is that of the inmate of course, BUT, when you let yourself get lax, let your guard down and start to trust an inmate, knowing that he would never do something like that, that's the time when it happens. Giving Inmates razors is not the dumbest thing the state has ever done. But right know I can't think of anything else. But I will.

An inmate in close management could be there from 6 months to 3 years. After a while the isolation works on a person's mind, being in the little room, day after day, never coming out, except for his 5 minute routine hygiene or go to the unit’s own recreation Yard.

Inmates are allowed 2 hours a week in the Recreation Yard IF they do not violate any of the rules and regulations of the institution in the Unit or give problems to the officers.

In one instance, an inmate who had been locked up for approximately 2 years, had enough of being locked up. He proceeded to bang on the cell door, cursing at the officers, and told the Sergeant of the unit that it "looks like a good day to die".

This inmate had 1 razor blade in his hand, and 2 or more blades in his mouth, ready to cut the first officer who entered his cell. He had collected Styrofoam cups from his meal trays and had filled them with a mixture of urine and feces that he was going to throw on the officers. He had soaped the entire floor and was waiting for the officers to enter the cell. As soon as they did, he planned to throw a cup of water or the other mixture on the floor, which makes the floor slicker than snot.

He had everything planned to his advantage. He was ready to fight, hurt and kill some officers, and die in the process, or you could say he was just plain stupid, thinking that an officer would just go right in and get feces and urine thrown in their face, and risk getting cut up.

The Captain and one of the Assistant Superintendents went to the cell to try to talk to the inmate, and try to calm him down. In the meantime, the Goon Squad was getting suited up in their rubber suits, masks and gloves, ready to calm the inmate down in the way that they know how to best: Communication Skills Through Body Language, if you get my drift.

The Goon Squad that I mentioned is a team of Professional Correctional Officers, trained to deal with incidents of this nature, and they do their job Very Well and are quite Effective.

But if this is want t he inmate wanted... he never got it. The Assistant Superintendent talked the inmate into giving up the razors, and pouring out the cups of Crap, and promised him a phone call to his Mommy, and a few other incidentals.

This is just one tiny incident that happens in the Close Management Unit. Basically all of the inmates in this unit act this way. They do not just threaten the officers from behind the closed doors, they curse and threaten each other for hours on end, day in and day out.

Like the inmate who is such a bad ass when he is with his gang, the inmate locked up behind the closed door is even worse. He will threaten the man next to him, across the hall, downstairs from him, just as quick as he would threaten an officer.

The officer cannot do much about the Verbal Abuse from this type of inmate except document his actions. His actions, verbal or physical, have a great effect on whether or not he is released from this housing unit. After a while, some inmates, and all of the officers get tired of hearing this.

In the system, when an inmate threatens another inmate, it's called "Selling Tickets". When the inmate goes to the recreation yard, the other inmate that he has threatened will find out if he can "Cash them IN." The fights were many and frequent.

As of 1997, the State spent a lot of money building fenced in areas behind the Close Management Units so that these inmates would not be in contact with each other. These fenced in areas look like individual, long dog cages.

But the Verbal Abuse continues, inmates cursing the officers and selling each other Tickets. Now they just wait until they get out on the compound and fight, which brings them right back to Close Management, again being locked up for another year or more. Smart!

Some officers on the Midnight shift who got tired of listening to the inmates selling out to each other, along with the screaming and hollering, came up with a bright idea. Do the words, "Thunder Dome" ring a bell? You know the scenario: Two men walk into a room, and only one man leaves. Well it happened right here at this institution.

A sergeant of the Unit figured that this idea would not only quiet things down, but it would relieve a lot of aggression and stress amongst the inmates.

Say if the inmate in cell 301 did not like the inmate in cell 315 and they had been constantly threatening each other, yelling, hollering, and cursing each other for months, it was time to see who could cash in them Tickets. So in the Wee hours of the morning, the doors to cells 301 and 315 were opened electronically from the officer’s station by the sergeant or an officer... and 'Thunder Dome' began.

After the fight was over, the winner would walk back to his Cell and the loser would usually have to be dragged back to his.

Thunder dome supposedly went on for quite some time. This entertainment was getting old for someone in that Housing Unit, because it all came to an abrupt stop when someone decided to write the Region office and tell them of all of the Alleged Incidents, in detail.

At first, the investigation was handled at the Institution Level, and the Institution Investigator came to the Conclusion that nothing was going on. Everyone was told that the doors in the Close Management Unit were very 'Unsecure' and 'Loose', and that the inmates could very easily unlock the doors themselves.

When the Regional Director was sent this report, the Department of Corrections sent their top investigators to the institution to look into all of the allegations. During the course of the investigation, an inmate actually showed the prison inspectors that he could take a piece of bed sheeting, tie a knot on one end of it, and put the sheet under the door. By putting the knot, of course, on the outside of the door, and gradually lifting the sheet up between the door and the door frame, when it reached the locking mechanism, the sheet was strong enough to stay together to trip the lock and unlock the door.

After seeing this, the inspectors came to the conclusion that the inmates could have possibly gotten out of their cells and fought with each other for a short period of time and ran back to their cells without the officers seeing this... RIGHT!

CONTACT MARK SHEPARD
markshepard2003@yahoo.com

LIFE AND TIMES OF A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
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