Читать книгу Prison Puzzle Pieces - Dave Basham - Страница 44

My first day in A-East was February 22, 2006. I was there until I retired with my last day being May 24, 2008.

I was on a round with another officer. An inmate, who didn't know who I was because he was new to the institution, asked what was going on.

I said, "He's training in the rookie".

An inmate on the flag said, "You ain't no rookie. Far from it."

An inmate in his cell on gallery three heard what was going on. He stepped out of his cell to see what was up. When he saw me he froze. He just stood there with a shocked look on his face. I could hear him say, "Oh shit!"

He turned around and went back in his cell. Obviously, my reputation came with me.

There was a barber in A-East that I had worked with in B-West. We had knocked heads many times before. When he saw me, he gave me a lot of attitude. I could guarantee that he would not comply with the job standards that I required. That means that I could guarantee that he would not be a barber in A-East much longer. Before I went to A-East, I was informed that the lieutenant wanted me to take over the swamper crew and get this block squared away. Those inmates that would cooperate and assist me in that endeavor would be around. Those that resisted and created problems would either leave on their own, be fired or leave by way of segregation.

I could tell that the other officers were feeling a little bit of pressure from me being there as they were well aware of my reputation for taking care of business.

The sergeant, that rarely wrote a report, wrote up three inmates that day.

Trying to get up to speed as fast as possible, I asked the other officers what was enforced in this block and what they didn't enforce. They told me what they were supposed to enforce, but I never saw them enforcing those policies.

The lieutenant told me that he definitely wanted the policy stating that, everyone is supposed to have their ID in the slot by the phone they were using, enforced and unauthorized area violations enforced. By the time I left that day, everyone on the phones had their ID's up and everyone was staying on their assigned side of all black lines that were painted on the floor.

When I cruised the flag enforcing policy, the inmates thought it was kind of strange because the other officers just sat in chairs passing the time of day. The inmates definitely liked the other officers' style better than mine.

One inmate that wanted to go out on a visiting pass gave me attitude. I told him I wasn't taking that attitude and that if he wanted to settle down, maybe we'd have a chat. He eventually squared himself away and apologized.

Being in A-East was like being on vacation compared to working in B-West. I didn't have to answer a thousand questions every day, there were only a few. These inmates were much more cooperative than those in B-West, even though they weren't exactly happy with me enforcing policies.

My second day in A-East the lieutenant called me into his office. He thanked me for bidding into his block. This was unexpected, appreciated and rather cool. It was a total flip flop from the way I had been treated by my last lieutenant.

And so began my stretch in A-East.

As I had just entered this block, a lot of policies were not being followed. During a security check, I observed 14 inmates using footlocker lids as headboards. I issued verbal warnings to the 11 that had this as their first violation. This was the second violation for three of the inmates, so it was necessary for me to lock them in their cells.