Hard Times: Part Nine
For my final post about my prison experience I would like to share some of my opinions and observations based on my own personal experiences combined with my professional education and research.
"Criminal Justice" is an oxymoron. Like the military, the justice system likes the use of such phrases to make things that are incredibly dangerous and violent sound innocuous. During the Cold War our military and political leaders loved to name our nuclear weapons things like "Peacekeeper". Even the War Department's name was changed to Department of Defense to better reflect a non-aggressive stance. Something soft and yummy like Momma's apple pie. Like this example from the military, the American criminal justice system is loaded with contradiction and hyperbole designed to make us all think we are doing something wholesome and pure. And while I would say that the goals of both the American military and justice system are noble on the highest levels the tactics that are used in our name have strayed so far from a pure intent as to jeopardize the whole system.
A Call for the Decriminalization of Drugs
Prohibition was probably the single best example in American history of a policy with good intentions creating something that was ultimately disastrous on so many levels as to be laughable. The sheer arrogance that drugs are any different from alcohol is really becoming an untenable argument on so many levels. Almost every month we are seeing law enforcement busting down doors, terrorizing families, and even shooting the family's dog all in the name of seizing a couple of joints. These actions are not only unconstitutional but brutal in their approach. Thomas Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave.
In the end, there are two organizations who benefit from illegal drugs. The first group would be the drug cartel and street level dealers who make billions of dollars off of tax-free, illegal drugs. The violence that results from rivals killing each other is getting to the point of where a real war is actually being fought and lost by law enforcement; the Mexican drug war on our southern border has killed over 30,000 people in the last few years. Our inner cities are rife with violence and hopelessness as the only way out for most of these kids are gangs and the drug money that goes with being in one.
The second group who benefits is law enforcement. The amount of money spent fighting drugs is enormous and totally out of proportion to the success they provide. The DEA has become the modern version of the Treasury Department during prohibition. While individual agents are risking their lives going undercover in the drug world the billions of taxpayer dollars that flow into the bureaucracy is itself criminal in it's waste. However, each year we pour more funds on a local, county, state, and federal level expecting a different result. Short of throwing the Constitution out the window and the creation of a police state we will never, ever be able to "win" this war. I would much rather be free than to see the means necessary to eliminate drug use from the street level (the elimination of the right against unlawful search and seizure and warrantless arrests are two things that would be necessary, at the very least).
Finally, I can tell you from personal experience that putting drug users and dealers in prison is a doomed method to cure the drug scourge. I can't tell you how many "1 Year and 1 Day" prison sentences I seen handed down by judges for a violation of probation due to using or selling illegal drugs. These felons are put into the system with some of the most violent people on earth. What comes out after a few months with these wonderful blokes as your cellmate is not a rehabilitate drug user, but more often than not a violent, hardened criminal. He or she will most likely be back in and out of the justice system for the rest of their lives. From a cost standpoint it is very expensive to house these felons in state and federal prisons. Compared to county jails the cost of housing these prisoners at the state and federal level is much higher, and to what end? It just blows my mind.
Our country is broke. A major source of revenue would be the legalization of drugs and the high taxes that could be placed on their sale. If only some of this money generated would go towards rehabilitation and prevention you would see a much more positive result than throwing these people in prison. Drug use, in my opinion, would go down instead of up.
Should we legalize all drugs tomorrow? No. We should start with marijuana as a trial balloon. If libertarians like me are wrong, then by all means, go back and make it's use and sale illegal again. We can't continue on our current course, in any event. Even if you disagree with me you would have to admit that the War on Drugs in it's present form is a war we lost a long time ago. It's time to try something radically different. Let's come up with a capitalist solution to the problem, and put these drug dealers out of business tomorrow.
Prison is for Violent People
Non-violent crime, the two most common examples being theft and drug use, should never be punished with prison sentences. You must understand that prison is an incredibly violent place. If your intent is to rehabilitate the criminal you will be sadly disappointed. I had many inmates who were on their 5th, 6th, and 7th prison stretches. Rehabilitation is one of those things that liberals in classrooms talk about in theory, but never once have these pinhead professors spent one day working inside a hardcore prison. Their theory is so wrong it makes my head hurt.
My solution would be to house only violent offenders in prisons. If you murder, rape, or molest you belong in prison for the rest of your life. If you commit armed robberies as your career of choice you belong in prison for a very long time. If you love to beat people up for fun, you need to go to be housed with others who feel the same way. Too often, our prison system takes a non-violent person and makes the person into a hardcore, violent criminal on their eventual release. The reason for this is primarily borne out of necessity. Like a cynical Sergeant once told me, "You either fight, or f#$%." While crass, this statement is very true. Prison for inmates is very much Lord of the Flies; might makes right, the weak perish, and the sheep are slaughtered. What do you think would happen under those conditions? Violence in prison is not merely a symptom, but a way of life. A state of existence. A reality.
Sex Offenders Should Go To Hell
So much for my objectivity. While I am very open minded about drugs, I am the polar opposite when it comes to sex offenders. There is not a single worse person on the planet than a child molester. I have known hundreds, and consider this chilling fact. For every one of those creatures I had the misfortune of knowing personally they were responsible for molesting, on average at least one hundred victims. Victims whose innocence was taken from them in the worst possible way. I am not God, and I am generally a pretty non-violent guy for the most part. But I have no use for this filth. Life in prison is the only legitimate sentence. They should never see the light of day again. There are exceptions, such as statutory rape. Why our system of justice doesn't distinguish between these "criminals" and a child molester is another problem. Believe me, there is a huge difference.
In Florida, we have a facility for sex offenders called the Jimmy Ryce Unit. It is not under the auspices of the Department of Corrections, but the Division of Children and Families. Basically, a battery of mental health professionals evaluate a sex offender before his release. If they deem him irredeemable, then the inmate is sent to this facility under an involuntary, indefinite, civil commitment. I think this is basically a good idea, but flawed in it's execution. Why not just make certain types of sex crimes life sentences? No need for an expensive, separate facility that has absolutely no business being outside the FDOC's supervision.
The Death Penalty is Broken
This is a tough issue for me. For many years, I was as pro-death penalty as one could get. However, I have had a change of heart. For me, it's a question of morals. I am pro-life. I do not believe in the early termination of a pregnancy as a form of birth control. It's wrong, and I would never support it. How, then, can I play God and say it's within my rights to take your life? Evil for evil is a losing proposition. And if you think I am some lefty fruitcake from the 60's consider this: a lifetime in prison is no vacation in paradise. In truth, I would much rather be taken out and shot in the back of the head then spend the rest of my life behind bars. It's that bad, people.
If we were to look at the death penalty objectively there are two major arguments for it. One I can reject on an intellectual level, and the other on a moral level. The first argument is that the death penalty deters crime. It doesn't, folks. I never once had a person who had been on death row tell me that because he would be executed that was reason enough for him not to do the crime. Murder is something that is in the heart, and premeditated murder is something that comes from the soul; a very dark and black one. Once you have committed yourself to such a path nothing will deter you. Certainly not years waiting to be executed.
The second argument is that the death penalty is justice served. What people are really saying is that it's a legal lynching. It's the most honest argument for the death penalty, and one that I can relate to on a personal level. If my family had been brutally murdered by someone I can't say for one second that I wouldn't love to see the perp drawn and quartered. Is it right, though, and does it jive with a moral philosophy of behavior? No. So we must surrender to the better angels of our nature, love the sinner, and make sure he is as uncomfortable as possible serving a hellish time behind walls for the rest of his life.
Conclusion
I realize these are hot-button issues, and I am well aware of the counter arguments. I respect them. These opinions are expressed from the heart, but also derived from actual experience. I wouldn't tell an NFL quarterback how to throw a ball into coverage without first being able to relate on a practical level. Working in the justice system for almost a decade, along with 5 years of schooling, does give the basis for an informed opinion beyond the norm.
Does that mean I am always right? Heck, no. Your morality may not be mine, and I admit that I could be wrong. To err is human. I would hope, though, you would consider these arguments with an open mind. At the very least, I hope these words provided a spark of thought in the grey matter. In the end, that's all a writer can ask for.
I hope you have enjoyed this nine part series of "Hard Times". Till next time...
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Post Fourteen
Hard Times: Part Eight
This post was going to be the last concerning my experience working in the Florida prison system. That was the plan last week. Then I started thinking about a great many stories that you might find interesting. However, due to time constraints, I thought I would put these stories in a "Best/Worst Of" format. Hope you enjoy.
Worst Inmate
A tough one. So many candidates. However, there is one that really deserves this award above all others. This inmate came to prison in the 70's convicted of murder and rape. While in prison, he followed up this achievement by taking a female civilian hostage and raping her repeatedly. He fancies himself a disciple of Charles Manson, and put a tattoo of a swastika in between his eyes. He wrote and spoke the most horrifying threats imaginable; sent chills up the spine. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, but I felt that was an inappropriate diagnosis; he is just plain evil. He is a writer of extremely convoluted and complicated grievances and lawsuits. He threatened to kill me for lying in front of a judge against him during one of these suits. An extremely unpopular inmate among other inmates, but he was in solitary confinement during nearly all the time I had him so no one actually tried to kill him. No doubt the worst prisoner I ever had the displeasure of dealing with on a daily basis.
Worst Crime
Again, many candidates. However, this one is not for the faint of heart so stop reading if graphic violence bothers you. We received this inmate while we were still a general population facility. He was married and his wife became pregnant. As the baby started to show the man went berserk; he claimed the child was not his and she had an affair. He proceeded to stab his wife many times about the body. Once she was subdued he cut the baby from her stomach. He put the baby's remains in a suitcase, and mailed the suitcase to her mother. Somehow, he only received a life sentence. I think the D.A. felt that the crime was so bizarre that he might have had a mental handicap mitigation defense. He tried to escape from Charlotte, and spent years on Close Management. Ugly stuff.
Worst Start in Life
There is a debate on whether evil is born or learned. The answer is really both, but I think sometimes a person can be a bad seed right from the start with little blame to themselves. Such was the case of this inmate. His mother was a crack whore in Miami. His Dad raped her, and then Mom murdered Dad. His mother is serving life for that killing. So, this inmate was the product of rape and murder. He proceeded to follow in Mom and Dad's footsteps by raping and murdering his way into prison. Serving a life sentence for multiple counts of both crimes. You could feel the evil coming off of this one; truly a dark cloud hovered over him. A permanent resident of the Mental Health Unit due to non-manageable sociopath behavior.
Best Correctional Officer
No doubt this was my Close Management Dorm Lieutenant. The man was a rock and tough as nails. He never tried to be a friend to inmates or staff; you did your job, or you went to hell. I liked that. You always knew where you stood, and we really ran a great dorm together. Had my back through the thick and thin, and I let him do his job with minimal interference. A brother-in-arms that I truly miss.
Best Correctional Employee
My Supervisor who is now an Assistant Warden of Programs. I wouldn't have made it in correctional work without him. I really owe any success I ever had to him. A father-figure who treated me like a son.
The Only Inmate I Ever Felt Sorry For
If you have ever had a little (or lot) to drink and got behind a wheel of car you will understand this story more than most. He was a guy you could have met on the street, and I could have easily have been him. He was sick, and talk a high-powered, codeine-based cold medicine. He drove his family to some kind of function, and then went the bar. He had a couple of beers (he was barely over the limit), and picked up his family. On the drive home he was involved in a car wreck that killed his wife and daughter. Of course, he survived. His wife's family pressed for the maximum sentence, and he is serving 15 years in prison. I'm not saying he was innocent because he wasn't. But for the grace of God go I....
The Most Beautiful Music Performance I Ever Saw
Forgive me for not being politically correct, but blacks really have a set of pipes. Prison has a way of bringing out extreme emotion, and a bunch of black convicts who have a lot of emotion to get out really can put on a show. The Chaplain put on a gospel sing/breakfast for the staff one day. It was incredible. I have never heard such passion and pain expressed through the voice. Amazing in every way, and that music will stay with me for the rest of my life.
The Scariest Place in the State of Florida
There are scary places, and then there are really scary places. I have stood on the battlefield of Gettysburg and felt chills run through me; the place was alive. However, it pales in comparison to the death chamber at Florida State Prison in Starke. Hundreds of people have been either electrocuted by Ol' Sparky (the name of the electric chair) or by lethal injection. Such luminaries as Ted Bundy have taken the green mile to it's walls and met their maker. It's a chilling place, and one that I hope I never see again.
The Funniest Inmate I Ever Met
This inmate was a bug, meaning he was crazy but with NOS as a diagnosis-Not Otherwise Specified. The man was just plain nuts. His favorite thing to do was to pick up discarded cigarette butts and eat them. One day, he found an officer's golf cart with the keys in the starter. The officers spent the better part of half a day tracking him down.
So, that's it for the stories. I will get to my opinions (and the final post) in the next week or two.
This post was going to be the last concerning my experience working in the Florida prison system. That was the plan last week. Then I started thinking about a great many stories that you might find interesting. However, due to time constraints, I thought I would put these stories in a "Best/Worst Of" format. Hope you enjoy.
Worst Inmate
A tough one. So many candidates. However, there is one that really deserves this award above all others. This inmate came to prison in the 70's convicted of murder and rape. While in prison, he followed up this achievement by taking a female civilian hostage and raping her repeatedly. He fancies himself a disciple of Charles Manson, and put a tattoo of a swastika in between his eyes. He wrote and spoke the most horrifying threats imaginable; sent chills up the spine. He was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic, but I felt that was an inappropriate diagnosis; he is just plain evil. He is a writer of extremely convoluted and complicated grievances and lawsuits. He threatened to kill me for lying in front of a judge against him during one of these suits. An extremely unpopular inmate among other inmates, but he was in solitary confinement during nearly all the time I had him so no one actually tried to kill him. No doubt the worst prisoner I ever had the displeasure of dealing with on a daily basis.
Worst Crime
Again, many candidates. However, this one is not for the faint of heart so stop reading if graphic violence bothers you. We received this inmate while we were still a general population facility. He was married and his wife became pregnant. As the baby started to show the man went berserk; he claimed the child was not his and she had an affair. He proceeded to stab his wife many times about the body. Once she was subdued he cut the baby from her stomach. He put the baby's remains in a suitcase, and mailed the suitcase to her mother. Somehow, he only received a life sentence. I think the D.A. felt that the crime was so bizarre that he might have had a mental handicap mitigation defense. He tried to escape from Charlotte, and spent years on Close Management. Ugly stuff.
Worst Start in Life
There is a debate on whether evil is born or learned. The answer is really both, but I think sometimes a person can be a bad seed right from the start with little blame to themselves. Such was the case of this inmate. His mother was a crack whore in Miami. His Dad raped her, and then Mom murdered Dad. His mother is serving life for that killing. So, this inmate was the product of rape and murder. He proceeded to follow in Mom and Dad's footsteps by raping and murdering his way into prison. Serving a life sentence for multiple counts of both crimes. You could feel the evil coming off of this one; truly a dark cloud hovered over him. A permanent resident of the Mental Health Unit due to non-manageable sociopath behavior.
Best Correctional Officer
No doubt this was my Close Management Dorm Lieutenant. The man was a rock and tough as nails. He never tried to be a friend to inmates or staff; you did your job, or you went to hell. I liked that. You always knew where you stood, and we really ran a great dorm together. Had my back through the thick and thin, and I let him do his job with minimal interference. A brother-in-arms that I truly miss.
Best Correctional Employee
My Supervisor who is now an Assistant Warden of Programs. I wouldn't have made it in correctional work without him. I really owe any success I ever had to him. A father-figure who treated me like a son.
The Only Inmate I Ever Felt Sorry For
If you have ever had a little (or lot) to drink and got behind a wheel of car you will understand this story more than most. He was a guy you could have met on the street, and I could have easily have been him. He was sick, and talk a high-powered, codeine-based cold medicine. He drove his family to some kind of function, and then went the bar. He had a couple of beers (he was barely over the limit), and picked up his family. On the drive home he was involved in a car wreck that killed his wife and daughter. Of course, he survived. His wife's family pressed for the maximum sentence, and he is serving 15 years in prison. I'm not saying he was innocent because he wasn't. But for the grace of God go I....
The Most Beautiful Music Performance I Ever Saw
Forgive me for not being politically correct, but blacks really have a set of pipes. Prison has a way of bringing out extreme emotion, and a bunch of black convicts who have a lot of emotion to get out really can put on a show. The Chaplain put on a gospel sing/breakfast for the staff one day. It was incredible. I have never heard such passion and pain expressed through the voice. Amazing in every way, and that music will stay with me for the rest of my life.
The Scariest Place in the State of Florida
There are scary places, and then there are really scary places. I have stood on the battlefield of Gettysburg and felt chills run through me; the place was alive. However, it pales in comparison to the death chamber at Florida State Prison in Starke. Hundreds of people have been either electrocuted by Ol' Sparky (the name of the electric chair) or by lethal injection. Such luminaries as Ted Bundy have taken the green mile to it's walls and met their maker. It's a chilling place, and one that I hope I never see again.
The Funniest Inmate I Ever Met
This inmate was a bug, meaning he was crazy but with NOS as a diagnosis-Not Otherwise Specified. The man was just plain nuts. His favorite thing to do was to pick up discarded cigarette butts and eat them. One day, he found an officer's golf cart with the keys in the starter. The officers spent the better part of half a day tracking him down.
So, that's it for the stories. I will get to my opinions (and the final post) in the next week or two.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Post Thirteen
Hard Times: Part Seven
After the murder of Officer Lathrem things changed very quickly at Charlotte C.I. Security had a new Warden, Colonel, and Major. The number of new security staff who were transferred from North Florida brought a new, hard attitude towards how things were done. Charlotte was no longer a general population prison. Instead, it was now part of a handful of prisons in the United States that were classified as "Supermax"; prisons within prisons. Supermax prisons housed the inmates regular prisons couldn't or wouldn't. Some famous supermax prisons you may have heard of are Pelican Bay (California) and Colorado State Prison. Rehabilitation takes a backseat to incarceration and security. Discipline is applied without regards to civilian sensibilities. This prison was no longer a fun place to work; it was a serious battleground where the strong survived, and the weak quit.
As the Close Management Classification Officer before Charlotte went Supermax my Supervisor and Assistant Warden relied on me to implement Classification's compliance with the Osterback lawsuit (see previous post). This compliance required a great deal of contact and coordination with the other Departments (Security, Mental Health, Medical, and Education). Something called the Multi-Disciplinary Services Team (MDST) was formed. The MDST was the lynchpin of the Osterback decision. In short, the MDST coordinated the efforts of all departments within a single dorm. For example, I was assigned to G-Dorm. For G-Dorm, the MDST consisted of me, a Mental Health counselor, a teacher, a nurse, and a Lieutenant. Theoretically, we were all equal, but in practice Security, Classification, and Mental Health were the most active and had the most power (in that order). I must say that the MDST, while a pain in some areas (worthless paperwork that needed to be filled out, for one) was basically a good thing. It brought together all departments for the first time in history, and allowed for teamwork that never would have existed otherwise.
Within a couple of months after the murder we started receiving our new Close Management inmates en masse. A large amount of these inmates were received from Florida State Prison (FSP). FSP is one of state's oldest prisons, and had been our only Supermax prison in Florida befor the Osterback lawsuit. Now, FSP was transferring some of it's worst inmates to both Charlotte and Santa Rosa C.I. I can't say I was truly prepared for what came off of those buses. These inmates were unlike anything I had worked with before; they were as hard as marble and most of their jackets (files) had to be stored in multiple boxes. A great many had killed before, both in and out of prison, and none had made much of an effort to assimilate to general population. What struck me the most was their silence; at least at first.
At FSP you are not allowed to talk without permission. This rule was an FSP rule, and Charlotte had never applied such a strict standard. How FSP managed to do this one cannot say, but I am sure it involved methods that were not entirely legal. Most of their inmates didn't say a word for a couple of weeks. I thought, "Wow, this is a great!". It didn't last. Once they realized that their would not be any "discipline" for speaking they started yelling and screaming at anything and anyone. It was as if a bear had awakened from it's hibernation. The fact that the metal plates covering the windows had been taken down meant that anyone was a potential target. This problem had to be solved, and Security fought back.
Sabre Red is a type of pepper spray/tear gas that is incredibly powerful. It was not something one could go buy out of a self-defense catalog. The spray consisted of a 5% burning agent which would coat the lungs. In short, every time you took a breath you felt as thought your insides were literally on fire. I once caught a wiff of this stuff from a good 50 feet away, and nearly gagged. Security responded to disobedience with this new weapon. A normal use of force involved an inmate refusing to be cuffed. After going through the motions the inmate's cell would be flooded with Sabre Red through the cell's food flap. The result was immediate compliance.
In the worst situations, such as inmate's flooding their cells and covering their windows, Security would send in an extraction team. You have probably seen videos of this process on television. I never really witnessed one myself as Security cleared the dorm of all civilians. However, I have seen the end result, and the inmate always looked as though they had been through hell. Here is one story a Lieutenant told me:
An inmate was refusing to pull his towel out of the window or comply with any verbal commands. The Lieutenant brought down the extraction team and video camera (all premeditated uses of force are video taped). Assembling all this manpower takes time and is a very much a hassle.
The inmate thought he would get over on Security by taking down his towel and proudly saying, "I'll come out now", with a big smile on his face.
The Lieutenant was not impressed. He said, "You made your bed, now sleep in it. Roll the tape!" The inmate looked quite shocked as the extraction team burst into his cell, and the inmate received the full force of an electric shock shield. Did the Lieutenant follow procedure? By the letter of the law, of course not. But it worked, and that inmate wouldn't pull a stunt like that again for a long time.
As I said, G-Dorm was my new home. My Lieutenant was a former Army Sergeant that had a tough reputation. He was from Chicago and was as hard on his officers as the inmates. He was not entirely popular but he was fair. If you did what he said you didn't have any problems. If you broke the rules, you did. It was that simple. His view of order was on the same wavelength as my own. Early on in our three years together we set the precedence of our cooperation in stone. I was conducting my weekly tour when one of my inmates started yelling to me after I left his cell door; a big no-no. I attempted to counsel the inmate, but he would have none of it. For a couple of minutes I let him get it out of his system, but finally I had had enough. I told him, "Get off the door".
In Close Management you are not allowed to be on the door unless there is a reason. Once I had given the inmate a direct verbal order to get off his door that was an ultimatum. If he refused, bad things could happen. He knew it, and I knew it. After two more orders to get off the door I could see this was going no where. By then, my Lieutenant had shown up, and he said, "What's the matter?".
I said, "The inmate won't get off his door."
The Lieutenant coldly looked at the inmate, and said, "Get off the door". The inmate made some kind of vile remark. The Lieutenant calmly told me, "We'll take care of this, but you had better go back to Classification.". I did.
The next time I went through the dorm the inmate apologized to me in extreme terms. He said that he would never disrespect me again, and that he was sorry.
I said to him, "What happened to your face?". He said, "Oh, I slipped and fell on the toilet.".
"Oh...well, I'm glad that's over."
Not looking me in the eye he said, "Me, too, Mr. Z."
Sounds awful, doesn't it? Well, if you haven't been there and done it, believe me, you can't judge. This one example is nothing really; it's an everyday, or at least every week occurrence in lock down prisons. We were charged with housing the worst criminals in the country. Imagine doing that with nothing more than harsh language. It's impossible.
In addition to G-Dorm, I also was assigned to Y-Dorm. Y-Dorm wasn't really a dorm. It was shaped like an X with only two wings and one floor (fun fact; the higher-ups in Tallahassee made us change the dorm's name from "X" to "Y" as "X" gave off a bad connotation...and we pay these people?). We housed the worst of Charlotte's inmates there; inmates who would gladly ride shotgun for Satan himself. I remember one of our first tenants. He was transferred from FSP in the middle of the night for badly assaulting two of their officers. In order to save his life (not kidding) they moved him to us (in the old days, the guy wouldn't have stood a chance). It took ten officers to get him into the cell, from what I was told. When I went in to the wing the next morning this inmate had literally ripped the bunk from a concrete wall. The bunk had been welded into the wall. Feces were everywhere, and it appeared that was what his dinner had consisted of. I can still remember the smell. I have never smelled dead bodies, but I don't think it could be much worse.
For the most part, the three years after the murder were my best in the prison. I loved working with my staff, and things ran very smoothly (at least as much as possible). I never had a suicide or murder in my dorm; never even a serious assault. We ran a tight ship, and the inmates respected that. Like, no, but respected; huge difference. You never want an inmate to like his situation or you; it's prison, after all.
Next post I will close out my prison story with my opinions on corrections in general.
After the murder of Officer Lathrem things changed very quickly at Charlotte C.I. Security had a new Warden, Colonel, and Major. The number of new security staff who were transferred from North Florida brought a new, hard attitude towards how things were done. Charlotte was no longer a general population prison. Instead, it was now part of a handful of prisons in the United States that were classified as "Supermax"; prisons within prisons. Supermax prisons housed the inmates regular prisons couldn't or wouldn't. Some famous supermax prisons you may have heard of are Pelican Bay (California) and Colorado State Prison. Rehabilitation takes a backseat to incarceration and security. Discipline is applied without regards to civilian sensibilities. This prison was no longer a fun place to work; it was a serious battleground where the strong survived, and the weak quit.
As the Close Management Classification Officer before Charlotte went Supermax my Supervisor and Assistant Warden relied on me to implement Classification's compliance with the Osterback lawsuit (see previous post). This compliance required a great deal of contact and coordination with the other Departments (Security, Mental Health, Medical, and Education). Something called the Multi-Disciplinary Services Team (MDST) was formed. The MDST was the lynchpin of the Osterback decision. In short, the MDST coordinated the efforts of all departments within a single dorm. For example, I was assigned to G-Dorm. For G-Dorm, the MDST consisted of me, a Mental Health counselor, a teacher, a nurse, and a Lieutenant. Theoretically, we were all equal, but in practice Security, Classification, and Mental Health were the most active and had the most power (in that order). I must say that the MDST, while a pain in some areas (worthless paperwork that needed to be filled out, for one) was basically a good thing. It brought together all departments for the first time in history, and allowed for teamwork that never would have existed otherwise.
Within a couple of months after the murder we started receiving our new Close Management inmates en masse. A large amount of these inmates were received from Florida State Prison (FSP). FSP is one of state's oldest prisons, and had been our only Supermax prison in Florida befor the Osterback lawsuit. Now, FSP was transferring some of it's worst inmates to both Charlotte and Santa Rosa C.I. I can't say I was truly prepared for what came off of those buses. These inmates were unlike anything I had worked with before; they were as hard as marble and most of their jackets (files) had to be stored in multiple boxes. A great many had killed before, both in and out of prison, and none had made much of an effort to assimilate to general population. What struck me the most was their silence; at least at first.
At FSP you are not allowed to talk without permission. This rule was an FSP rule, and Charlotte had never applied such a strict standard. How FSP managed to do this one cannot say, but I am sure it involved methods that were not entirely legal. Most of their inmates didn't say a word for a couple of weeks. I thought, "Wow, this is a great!". It didn't last. Once they realized that their would not be any "discipline" for speaking they started yelling and screaming at anything and anyone. It was as if a bear had awakened from it's hibernation. The fact that the metal plates covering the windows had been taken down meant that anyone was a potential target. This problem had to be solved, and Security fought back.
Sabre Red is a type of pepper spray/tear gas that is incredibly powerful. It was not something one could go buy out of a self-defense catalog. The spray consisted of a 5% burning agent which would coat the lungs. In short, every time you took a breath you felt as thought your insides were literally on fire. I once caught a wiff of this stuff from a good 50 feet away, and nearly gagged. Security responded to disobedience with this new weapon. A normal use of force involved an inmate refusing to be cuffed. After going through the motions the inmate's cell would be flooded with Sabre Red through the cell's food flap. The result was immediate compliance.
In the worst situations, such as inmate's flooding their cells and covering their windows, Security would send in an extraction team. You have probably seen videos of this process on television. I never really witnessed one myself as Security cleared the dorm of all civilians. However, I have seen the end result, and the inmate always looked as though they had been through hell. Here is one story a Lieutenant told me:
An inmate was refusing to pull his towel out of the window or comply with any verbal commands. The Lieutenant brought down the extraction team and video camera (all premeditated uses of force are video taped). Assembling all this manpower takes time and is a very much a hassle.
The inmate thought he would get over on Security by taking down his towel and proudly saying, "I'll come out now", with a big smile on his face.
The Lieutenant was not impressed. He said, "You made your bed, now sleep in it. Roll the tape!" The inmate looked quite shocked as the extraction team burst into his cell, and the inmate received the full force of an electric shock shield. Did the Lieutenant follow procedure? By the letter of the law, of course not. But it worked, and that inmate wouldn't pull a stunt like that again for a long time.
As I said, G-Dorm was my new home. My Lieutenant was a former Army Sergeant that had a tough reputation. He was from Chicago and was as hard on his officers as the inmates. He was not entirely popular but he was fair. If you did what he said you didn't have any problems. If you broke the rules, you did. It was that simple. His view of order was on the same wavelength as my own. Early on in our three years together we set the precedence of our cooperation in stone. I was conducting my weekly tour when one of my inmates started yelling to me after I left his cell door; a big no-no. I attempted to counsel the inmate, but he would have none of it. For a couple of minutes I let him get it out of his system, but finally I had had enough. I told him, "Get off the door".
In Close Management you are not allowed to be on the door unless there is a reason. Once I had given the inmate a direct verbal order to get off his door that was an ultimatum. If he refused, bad things could happen. He knew it, and I knew it. After two more orders to get off the door I could see this was going no where. By then, my Lieutenant had shown up, and he said, "What's the matter?".
I said, "The inmate won't get off his door."
The Lieutenant coldly looked at the inmate, and said, "Get off the door". The inmate made some kind of vile remark. The Lieutenant calmly told me, "We'll take care of this, but you had better go back to Classification.". I did.
The next time I went through the dorm the inmate apologized to me in extreme terms. He said that he would never disrespect me again, and that he was sorry.
I said to him, "What happened to your face?". He said, "Oh, I slipped and fell on the toilet.".
"Oh...well, I'm glad that's over."
Not looking me in the eye he said, "Me, too, Mr. Z."
Sounds awful, doesn't it? Well, if you haven't been there and done it, believe me, you can't judge. This one example is nothing really; it's an everyday, or at least every week occurrence in lock down prisons. We were charged with housing the worst criminals in the country. Imagine doing that with nothing more than harsh language. It's impossible.
In addition to G-Dorm, I also was assigned to Y-Dorm. Y-Dorm wasn't really a dorm. It was shaped like an X with only two wings and one floor (fun fact; the higher-ups in Tallahassee made us change the dorm's name from "X" to "Y" as "X" gave off a bad connotation...and we pay these people?). We housed the worst of Charlotte's inmates there; inmates who would gladly ride shotgun for Satan himself. I remember one of our first tenants. He was transferred from FSP in the middle of the night for badly assaulting two of their officers. In order to save his life (not kidding) they moved him to us (in the old days, the guy wouldn't have stood a chance). It took ten officers to get him into the cell, from what I was told. When I went in to the wing the next morning this inmate had literally ripped the bunk from a concrete wall. The bunk had been welded into the wall. Feces were everywhere, and it appeared that was what his dinner had consisted of. I can still remember the smell. I have never smelled dead bodies, but I don't think it could be much worse.
For the most part, the three years after the murder were my best in the prison. I loved working with my staff, and things ran very smoothly (at least as much as possible). I never had a suicide or murder in my dorm; never even a serious assault. We ran a tight ship, and the inmates respected that. Like, no, but respected; huge difference. You never want an inmate to like his situation or you; it's prison, after all.
Next post I will close out my prison story with my opinions on corrections in general.
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