So, it's been an interesting week. I worked some places outside of Dorm 2 and CPTU and I have to say that one of them was one of the most interesting and eye opening experiences yet. Currently, at our facility, we have a deathrow inmate visiting. He had to have surgery for his back, which makes dick all sense. There's some sort of rule that says you have to be healthy to die, I've never been quite clear on the specifics, but honestly; if nature wants to save me paying tax money to keep this asshole alive, who am I to stop her?
Regardless, this guy is in for some pretty serious shit. Basically, he killed 2 teenage boys, but not before bounding them up and raping them. The only thing those kids did was ask for directions after a football game. This guy deserves something horrible - BUT that's where the weirdness came in.
Last week I had to work 1 on 1. Since this guy is visiting our facility, he has to be watched at ALL times for two main reasons. One is so he doesn't try and escape.....which is easy since he somehow fucked up his legs recently and can't even walk to use the bathroom. Second is due to the nature of his crime. Believe it or not, mos.....a lo........som......afew inmates actually have some sense or morals and shit like that actually sickens them as much as it does us and given their previous track record of "being functional in society," they're not afraid to take action against this guy. It's not uncommon, Dahmer was killed when the corrections officers "accidently" left him out with other inmates. So basically, in essence, I sat for 8 hours and watched a dude exist. Rewarding work.
Back on point, the weirdness came just from who he was. I'd known what he'd done, but talking to him he was just.....brutally normal. He was polite. The few times we did talk, it was about very mundane shit. We talked about Transformers 2 for a short bit and special affects. Abit about Michael Jackson. I found out he was a really big baseball fan and liked the Braves. It was weird because he WAS normal. I'd have had a much easier time accepting his existance and being comfortable with it if he was asking me to smuggle in babies to eat while he shat on the original copy of the last supper and broadcasted "<a href="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo392aELFQQ">Be a Man, Hogan</a>" directly into my brain. It's kinda eye opening when you have to redefine evil as having seemingly normal character traits. Then again, unlike what the media shows, if anyone was blatantly evil, they'd be in pris-.....wait.
How often do people get raped by other inmates?
Can't quote an actual rate or anything for my facility, but I do know it happens. I've heard of cases where it was used as a threat by enforcers. If you didn't pay up, you'd be gang raped. I also heard in cases of COs who cast a blind eye to it. Needless to say, the later pisses me off more than anything. Regardless, rape does happen, though I've yet to encounter it myself personally. Gay sex is also common, despite everyone trying to deny it. I heard a story of a really....effiminate inmate who got out and in the local newspaper he was talking about his experiences. He then mentioned he tested HIV. Apperently the pill line was filled with around 200 inmates asking for an HIV test because they had encounters with this inmate. That's roughly 10% of ENTIRE inmate population of my prison.
How many people usually die in there, on a weekly/monthly basis?
Again, can't really say. Not for the above reason of not personally encountering it, but rather because no one ever OFFICIALLY dies in the facility. They always die either en route or in the hospital so there is NO statistic for it. The given reason? They try to ressucitate them until they reach an actual hospital and thus can't count them as dead. The real reason? To help avoid wrongful death suits, as for as I can tell. Have a harder time blaming the prison if Joe Smuck died in the hospital. I do know inmates die and have seen 3 go out that I know of personally this month. Normally it's folks from Nursing Care and Assisted Living that die though. I know one case that bothers me is this guy who was obviousily dying, but they didn't let him see his family until it was too late and he'd already died. Still bothers me on some level, though knowing my luck, he was in there for raping his daughter or some other sick shit. It's easier to just imagine everyone is in there for avoiding taxes.
Could you smuggle a Dictaphone in there?
I go through a metal detector, a metal wand, and random pat downs. The best you can hope for is just me being able to transcribe some conversations.
How many of these guys are in for drug possession?
I know there is a large population of inmates in my facility for drug possession, but I'm not so sure as to what extent as compared to other crimes. It seems like my facility has a much larger number of sex offenders than anything, since we have (apperently) one of the best rehabilitation programs for them in the state. I don't believe it, but what do I know?
I honestly try my best not to know what any of the inmates have done, because it makes treating them impartial harder when they've done something terrible and I know it. I have to try and pretend I'm fair with these guys and it's harder to treat someone like a human being when you know that they acted like an animal to get here.
