Читать книгу Prison Puzzle Pieces 3 - Dave Basham - Страница 41

Seeing as how we are on towers now, I may as well tell you a little more about them. First off, I only worked the towers early on while I was doing my time working at the prison. I did a lot of tower duty during the winter of 2000 – 2001.

The towers were in terrible condition. As you entered the towers, you would see junk piled at the bottom of the narrow metal spiral staircase that led up to the top of the tower.

Officers must have been a lot smaller 100 years ago when this place was built in order to easily get up those stairs. If you slipped on them, you wouldn’t fall all the way down; you’d just get wedged in them because they are so narrow. Cases of toilet paper and paper towels were crammed under the stairway. It was filthy at the bottom with debris, dirt and bricks that had fallen out of the walls.

Once you maneuvered your way to the top, you found what was like a filthy little hole in the wall in the sky. The entry had a radiator in it and a gun rack.

There was a small room to the side with a toilet, a sink and a window in it. You hoped you never had to drop your drawers in this place or you’d be mooning anyone outside that window. You had to shuffle out of the bathroom in order to have enough room to get your pants back up and get your utility belt back on.

Facing inside the prison walls was a little cubby hole with a stool to sit on where you could post up and watch what was going on inside the prison walls. I’m not saying this place was a total rat hole, but I think I caught termites from the window sill.

I spent a lot of time cleaning up after those who had been in the tower since the last time I was there. Whenever I was relieved, the officer relieving me would always comment on how clean it was.

It seemed as though all towers were a little different in their layout and size. The two towers by the gates in the wall were better maintained and larger than the other five, but you would still think they were being rented out by slum lords. Some towers you could step outside on a platform or catwalk and others you were just locked up in that little outhouse in the sky.