Swampland – Pt. 2: Rats

            Years ago, my younger son – then in Kindergarten – came home and announced at dinner that his best friend wasn’t speaking to him. When we inquired why, he matter-of-factly announced, “I told the teacher on him.” My immediate reaction was right out of “Sopranos”: “Son, dead finks can’t squeal.” He laughed and for weeks after that, as we would run around the yard, I would hear him giggle and repeat my words over and over, “dead finks can’t squeal.” It also gave my then wife and I a chance to instill a life lesson on our son, one I had to call on a number of times since my arrest: Namely, unless there is an imminent danger of harm to someone, I won’t be a teller.

            Rats – no one in prison is as despised as a rat, a guy who goes to those in charge and tells on his fellow inmates. And yet, this system couldn’t survive without guys ratting each other out. There is no honor in telling. Usually the guy doing the telling is already implicated in his own wrongdoing. “Tell us what you know and we’ll go easy on you.” Too often, that is what passes for “good” police work.

            In here it happens daily. And, it’s usually the guys who beat their chests the loudest and say they hate guys who talk. Case in point – two idiots in here (Heemer and Fat Dom) steal a case of laundry detergent from the loading dock. Why? Who knows. The dock area has a camera and when the case turned up missing, “let’s go to the video tape.” Both knuckleheads are locked up for theft. Here’s where the “rat” comes to play.

            Fat Dom is a scumbag. There’s no other way to say it. He tries to act like one of the five percenter philosopher kings, spouting off multi-syllable words, which he neither understands nor correctly pronounces, yet he is one of the most ignorant men I have ever met in my life. He sells out Heemer. Before you know it, Fat Dom is out of the hole – guilty plea on a theft charge and loss of a little good time (but hey, his “bid” ends in May!). Heemer? He’s being transferred. The irony is, Heemer is a follower. Dom is the truly corrupt one. But Dom regularly is in the officers’ ears so his behavior is overlooked.

            And that’s the problem with Rats. You never know when they’ll come after you. Piss one off and your name gets in front of the officers.

            What does it say about the system that they rely on guys telling on each other to maintain order? George Orwell, in his classic novel “1984” described power vesting in “Big Brother” who knew your every move, even your thoughts. And “Big Brother” made sure folks told on each other. Big Brother is alive and well in here and relying on dishonest, dirty inmates to tell on other inmates. It’s just another sign of how dirty this place is.