Living with Dopes

Part 1 “Caught Smoking by the Urinal”

            Guys inside are getting dumber. I know, to get caught up in most of the stuff we do requires a certain level of dumbness, me included. After all, how can you ever think you won’t get caught? But, in my four plus years here I’ve noticed a change. When I first got here most of the 1200 or so men had been down for a good amount of time. Re-entry didn’t exist, just transitioning out. Oh, there were knuckleheads – prison is synonymous with knuckleheads. But, guys knew how to act. You didn’t act like a dope, you didn’t disrespect your neighbor or his space, and you didn’t bring heat on the building.

            But “re-entry” has brought a new breed of inmate, guys who cycle in and out, who have drug and alcohol problems. They’re young, dumb (uneducated, unskilled, and unmotivated), and loud. I was a fan of the AMC show “Breaking Bad.” Let me tell you, their portrayal of meth heads was accurate. Crack addicts, meth heads, heroin junkies, “dippers” (weed roll ups dipped in formaldehyde). I see them every day. It’s like living in the land of the walking dead. You think you’d get used to it and the resulting fights when a long-term inmate gets tired of the dirt and noise, and then you see two meth heads arcing a spark off the urinal …

            That’s right, arcing a spark off the urinal. We don’t have matches or lighters – usually – in here. Instead, you get two batteries, a razor blade, and the top of the urinal. The batteries “arc” off the razor and urinal cap and viola, a rolled up cigarette is lit! So, three guys huddle over a dirty urinal and they smoke this nasty smelling homemade cigarette, and the bathroom stinks, and the officers smell it, and the dopes get locked and lose their good time, and then they bitch because their eighteen month sentence (with good time) is now twenty months.

            Do they learn? No. I’ve seen dozens of these guys leave and come back to prison within six months after leaving. It’s what keeps the system running. And what of their self-respect? How does a man hunch himself over a foul urinal because his addict mentality won’t let him see how undignified he’s become?

            If it wasn’t so tragic it would be hysterical. It’s drugs, and ignorance, and a dozen other social problems and it’s lining the pockets of the prison-industrial complex while destroying families, and neighborhoods, and nations. It’s just a little spark arced off a urinal but it says so much more about this place …

 Part II “Leave the Officers Alone”
            There was a time in prison when you wouldn’t dare flirt with a female officer. Being friendly with officers was against the code. Violate the code and you were fair game. Those days are gone at this level. Here, dozens of young inmates, mostly African-American, almost all in on sex charges, spend hours talking to the female officers.

            Sex crimes. Here’s what I’ve learned the last five years: inmates tell you they hate sex offenders, but race trumps crime. Hundreds of men here are doing time for rape and sexual battery. Hundreds more are in on child porn charges. Daily conversations take place about “the white perv in bed 8” who is facing civil commitment. Nothing is said about the young black guy doing ten years for slipping a date rape drug to a girl and “takin it.”

            There’s a double-standard in here. I had a confrontation with an “African” leader about a year ago. He’s a black drug dealer from Baltimore who took a Swahili name, yet he knows nothing about Africa. He approached me when I came to the defense of a thirty-year old white guy who (as a teacher) the population discovered was in for having sex with a fifteen year-old student.

            “I hate snitches and sex offenders” Sankofa told me as he explained why he was urging everyone to shun this guy. I said, “I hate hypocrites.” See Sankofa regularly ran around with five young guys all in on sexual assault charges. And each of those guys would daily shout out to the female officers, “Hey baby!” Or, they’d stand in the dayroom and talk to the officer for thirty minutes. Snitches? Sankofa’s closest friend was a guy who told on his co-defendants to get a reduced sentence.

            No, the issue was race. The one guy was white, the others were black. I hate that as much as I hate those crimes.

            I struggle with dealing with inmates in on sex crimes. They are in my way of thinking sick and predatory and wholly devoid of empathy from me. How do you sexually violate a child? How do you sexually violate a woman? It makes no sense to me. Worse, when I see these guys behaving inappropriately around female officers I get incensed. Many of them are being released soon and their behavior has not changed.

            My friends who’ve done “real” time, hard time at higher security level prisons, tell me black or white this stuff wouldn’t happen up there. In the ruthless world of level 4 and 5 prisons acting like a sexual predator with the women officers lands you in trouble.

            But this is re-entry. And guys act like dopes down here. I don’t think I’ll ever get use to living like this; and I guess that’s a good thing.