Читать книгу Prison Puzzle Pieces - Dave Basham - Страница 11

One of my most memorable incidents involving Boomer was the time he saved my ass.

Most of the work in the block had been accomplished for the day. A few swampers were out on the flag, but other than that, everyone else was either out of the block at work or locked in their cells.

Boomer was out on the flag sitting at a table.

I was up on the fourth tier with an inmate plumber who was trying to unclog a toilet in a cell. We were never supposed to be on a tier alone with an inmate, but rules were established that were impossible to follow. The number of staff we had, more often than not, didn't allow us to have another officer up there with us. We were told that if we needed more help to call the watch commander and he would get someone. Someone tested this out once. He was chastised and hung up on. If someone had to go up alone, I would volunteer to do it, as would most others.

While I was up there, an inmate returned to the block. He had been at work, went to health services and then returned to the cellblock. Instead of going to his cell, he was hanging out on the flag. After watching him awhile and seeing that he wasn't switching in, I called down to him and directed him to switch in. He did not like this. He was yelling up at me and made it clear that he had no intention of returning to his cell. I directed him again to switch in. He continued yelling and started pacing. I could not make out what he was saying and could not leave this inmate plumber up on the top tier alone. I directed him a final time to switch in or I would call for the squad to come and get him. He continued to disobey, yell and pace. As this was nothing urgent, at the time, I called over the radio to have an unruly inmate escorted out of the unit. Upon seeing me grab my radio and hearing me make the call, this inmate went off. He hollered up to me that he was going to come up and get me.

At this time it seemed rather humorous to me. From the distance I was above him and his bizarre movements, he had the appearance of a little cartoon character. Something like you'd see in a Gulliver's Travel cartoon with the little guy yelling, pacing and shaking his fist up at me. As I found out, in this place, if it doesn't look real, that's when it is probably the most real.

He headed toward the back stairway. I thought he might be going back to his cell because the center stairway was the most direct route for him to get to me. He disappeared from my sight.

I started to evaluate my options just in case he appeared. At the time, I had just finished a class to be a trainer for de-escalation classes. It was necessary to evaluate what my options were and decide upon the best one in case he actually did show up.

I could stay there and take him on if he appeared, but most likely either he or I would wind up going over the railing. Either way, I would be screwed; either by me laying on the flag all busted up or him laying there.

I could see the headlines if he went over. "Officer throws inmate off fourth story of cellblock." Also, if I lost, he would have access to the plumber's tools and be able to use them as weapons on those responding to the incident.

I could leave the area and avoid the altercation. The problem here was that getting the plumber to respond quickly with me would be near impossible. If I left him there, the guy coming for me would have access to the tools to use as weapons again. Also, I had an aversion to running from any situation, but I would've done that if that had been the best thing to do.

This is all happening very fast. The speed things run through your mind when you're in a tight spot is amazing. I was getting ready to take this guy on when Boomer yelled up to me and said, "Hey Basham! Lock yourself in. This guy is crazy."

Wow! I hadn't thought of that one. As I saw the inmate coming down the tier for me, I was weighing out the options. I didn't want to lock myself in the cell with the plumber with the tools, but as the crazy guy approached, it seemed like the best option.

Just as he was getting to me, I stepped into the cell. As he was grabbing for the cell door, he saw and heard it click shut. This enraged him even more. He said, "Come out here you bitch!"

I just stood there and watched him. I was locked in like a caged animal, but he was the one that looked like a caged animal as he paced back and forth in front of the cell bars.

Staying aware of the inmate plumber with the tools was important too. As when anything goes down, you never know who is going to get a buzz on and join in.

Unbeknownst to me, Boomer had gone to the bubble. He told the officer in the bubble what was going down. The officer in the bubble was a good experienced officer. He made the emergency call and directed the unit camera to my location very quickly.

The tier started shaking. The A-Team had arrived and was coming down the tier from the front of the cellblock. There were at least five of them and two of them were a couple of the biggest officers in the prison. The crazy guy had started going toward them. I don't know why; probably because he was crazy. Right then I hit my radio button and called for the bubble officer to pop my door open. I figured that with the squad coming from the front, I could pop out behind the inmate and we would have him from both sides. The least that I felt could happen was that he would run down the center stairway and wind up in a safer location for apprehending him. The door did not open. Later I found out that my call did not go through. Someone else must have been on the radio first.

The crazy guy then passed by the cell I was in and was headed toward the back of the block. With the tier continuously shaking from the weight of the officers running along it, they followed after him. One held his can of pepper spray out in front of him with his other hand covering his nose and mouth.

What I could not see was them catching the inmate at the back end of the tier, him fighting back, landing a fist on one officer's mouth, and the inmate getting sprayed before they could take him down and cuff him up.

There were a couple of reasons that this inmate acted the way that he did. Supposedly, as reported to me by staff, he had been getting frustrated with health services. He wasn't feeling well and felt health services should be able to wave a magic wand and make him feel great.

The other one, as reported to me by inmates, was that he had run up a gambling debt in the cellblock so large that he couldn't pay it. Time had come for him to pay up or get his come upins'. He wasn't man enough to take his beating, so he figured if he attacked an officer, he would be sent to Oak Park and be able to avoid it.

This guy had been by Boomer before he blew up. Boomer said the guy had been acting and talking crazy before I ever said anything to him. He said the guy had a problem and was looking to create a bigger one.

After reports were turned in and the bosses evaluated everything, I was commended on how I handled the situation.

I ran into the B-East sergeant in the bathroom. He said that locking myself in the cell was a great idea. He said he wished he would've thought of it. He asked me how I thought of it. I told him that I didn't think of it, that an inmate gave me the idea. He wanted to know who it was. I told him that I couldn't say at this time, for that inmate's safety would be at risk for breaking the inmate's code of not helping an officer. I told him I would check with that inmate and see if he was OK with anyone knowing. He understood.

When I saw Boomer, I told him people were asking me about what happened and wanted to know the name of the mystery inmate. I told him I wouldn't say who it was unless he said it was alright. He said that it was alright, but not to blast it all over the place. If anyone could break an inmate code and get away with it, it was Boomer.

A member of the A-Team came to me and said they had heard an inmate tipped me off on going into the cell. He wanted to know who it was. For them to know information like this would be good for them as they have to rush into violent altercations all of the time. It's good to know that everyone isn't an enemy and that there are inmates around that might have your back.

Quietly, I told him, but not to spread it around. He got together with a couple of other squad members and went into the cellblock. No inmates were out on the flag. Most of them were out of the unit working in industry buildings. They had Boomer paged. Boomer showed up. They told him to turn around and cuff up. He complied, but asked what he was being arrested for. They let him stir just a bit. Then they started laughing and uncuffed him. They all reached out to shake his hand. They said, "We just wanted to thank you for what you did for Basham."

This was one of the coolest things I ever saw happen in this place or any place for that matter. Few people ever knew the full story.

However, this wasn't the end of it. I took a lot of heat from officers that thought I should've taken the crazy guy on. I was called a coward, behind my back; nobody had the balls to say anything negative to my face. Guess that makes them the coward. Many officers ostracized me. An officer that I thought was my friend was adamant saying I should've taken the guy on and stated that he would've.

My job was to enforce the policies of the institution. My job was to get the job accomplished in as low key a fashion as possible; to de-escalate situations. My job was the safety of others, including myself. My job was to be able to walk through those gates at the end of my shift in as good of condition as I entered them at the beginning of my shift. I did my job the way I was supposed to whether it was popular with everyone or not.

As time passed, I found out that the tape of the incident was being used for training the new recruits in the academies. It was being used as an example of how to do things.