Читать книгу Prison Puzzle Pieces 2 - Dave Basham - Страница 38

Where this cell bar obstruction policy gets out of bounds is that it existed even after the panels had been removed. With just a coat covering part of the cell bars, we could still see in. Granted we couldn’t see in as easily, but they have so much time available to do whatever they want in their cell over every 24 hour period that not allowing them to cover part of their door is not going to be a problem. The fact is, even someone of low intelligence can get away with a lot in this place.

Inmates often put a coat or even just a piece of paper on the bars of their cell. This was to block the sun from shining in, a bright light, to prevent the annoyance of someone constantly eyeing them up and many other such reasons that had nothing to do with security. This would make it easier to sleep, watch their TV or whatever other activity they were doing to pass the time.

This policy did more to create problems in the institution than it did to hinder any problematic behavior. I had to enforce it, because Psycho LT had already made an example of me not enforcing it the way he wanted it enforced. Since that happened, I couldn’t chance not enforcing it his way.

I did have a sergeant at one point that I could trust to back up anything he said. We worked in a block where the morning sun would beat in. I explained to him how unfair this policy was to the inmates. He stated that as a policy of this cell block, this policy would not be enforced during the time the morning sun was shining in. The inmates could not totally block their cell bars, but he would allow them to block the bars enough to create a reasonable living environment. I stopped enforcing the policy during this time of the day. This sergeant had taken a bold move, applied common sense for the betterment of all living and working in this block and I could trust him to back me up if Psycho LT or some other officer like him came looking to stir something up with me.

Both officers and inmates liked having the panels covering the cell bars. There are things that these guys do that we would never want to see. We are supposed to write these guys up if we discover them pleasuring themselves. How ludicrous is that? As far as I was concerned, the more they did it the better. They are in the privacy of their own cell. They aren’t out creating problems. They are more mellow afterwards and likely to take a nap. Seems like a win win situation to me. It was easy not to write up something like this as I was generally naïve to it anyway, but who is to say what I saw or didn’t see. The inmate is definitely not going to yell out, “Basham caught me jerking off and didn’t write me up!” If he wasn’t standing there looking at me admiringly vigorously shaking himself with his tongue hanging out; I saw nothing!

Once the panels were removed, the cell blocks got very noisy. The panels helped contain noise from televisions, radios and loud talking. If an inmate was having a day where he was producing foul odors, the panels helped contain the odors as well. Walking along the tiers and getting a good whiff of something like this was one of the really bad parts of the job. Sometimes it was so foul, you could taste it and you would have to try work at keeping your last meal from coming out and adding to the smell.