I’ve been here at this level 2 facility almost four years
and this will be my third major in charge of security. The first one was easy-going. He wanted things to run smoothly. His officers were mostly older. Both he and his staff had been in the system
a long time. Many of them had been at
the higher level facilities where stabbings and other random, mindless acts of
violence were daily occurrences. They –
and he – knew what it was like to lock a prison down for nine, twelve, or
eighteen months.
So, they gave some latitude to things. After all, this was a level 2. Guys spend years getting their level down to
come to a compound like this. A two
hundred series charge now and then was nothing – it didn’t cost you your job or
good time.
That first major retired and number 2 came in. He was from a receiving unit, a facility
where level 5’s (capital murder, rape and more) mingled with petty larceny or
DUI level 1’s. Those prisons, as I learned
on my own, are cesspools; they are powder kegs which erupt almost daily in
fights, robberies and worse.
Security’s goal there is simple: lock ‘em in until they’re classified and ship
‘em out. The officers did their jobs;
you acted out, you went to the hole.
They were detached. They walked
the floor when required; most times they stayed by the booth.
That attitude took hold here under Major # 2. Soon there were almost weekly memos about bed
areas (what was permissible to have).
Charges were regularly written.
And, even two hundred series charges (“minor” infractions) cost men good
time and employment.
Was the prison more secure?
No. There were just as many
fights, just as many drugs, just as many gang members. In fact, things deteriorated. Is that the Major’s fault? Probably not.
See, the prison population was changing as well.
When I first arrived here, most guys locked up were older
and they had time yet to do. Then,
Governor McDonnell announced his re-entry program and turned this into an exit
point for this region’s soon to be released inmates. What you get now is a mix of very young, very
dumb guys who have little time to do (and came from short jail bids), or very
old, long serving inmates who have been everywhere in the system. They come with health problems, few prospects
for successful reintegration into fast-paced society (many have never used a cell
phone or ATM), and years of scars built by the violence and degradation of
surviving higher level prisons. They
young guys think they’re in camp. They act
out. The old guys have seen the worst. They smell b/s a mile away. Both don’t care about any state announced
program.
There are a little more than 1,000 inmates here and maybe a
core group of 100 of us run the school programs, maintenance shop and
factory. The rest are short-timers who
don’t give a damn about another re-entry program that was just like the last.
The prison has changed; the inmates are worse; the problems
more noticeable. Into that comes Major #
3. What’s he like? He’s young, not even 40. That in and of itself is different. And, he carries himself like a military
officer: pressed uniform, perfect posture.
He was a captain at a higher level, cut his teeth on the violence and
degradation at level 4. And, he’s
checking things out.
No one, especially in prison,
likes change. But, some change is good,
especially if it cuts down on knucklehead behavior in here. So, I’m going to take a wait and see
approach. Now, if they’d only come and
clean house on the re-entry program…
A passing thought: Why
do Americans think the 2nd Amendment is so sacrosanct yet the 4th
Amendment can be circumvented in the name of security? I’m not sure what I think of the NSA leaker,
but I know this – the founding fathers were deeply concerned about Government’s
ability to search without justifiable warrant.
No less than Ben Franklin remarked that people who are
willing to give up their liberty for security will soon have neither.
I can tell you from living in here, under daily
surveillance, that freedom and privacy matter.
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