INTERESTING OCCURENCE AT WORK YESTERDAY:
the post that I've been assigned to over the past few months provides gun coverage for one of the chow halls & the property hallway (since there are very few inmates in either area during my shift, my presence is mostly symbolic)
once a week we have what's called "train"--actually a bus that transfers inmates from one institution to another in the state. roughly half stay for a spell to enjoy the hospitality, the rest--the "overnighters"--stay, well, overnight (hence the name) & then mosey along.
after being disgorged by the train, both overnighters & new neighbors file into the property hallway, are strip searched & photographed (if they have tatoos that haven't been documented yet)
the difference I've noticed between the stay-overs & the lay-overs is that the ones who are coming to stay have been thru this before--they usually know a few of the officers & other inmates, are a bit cockier, talk & joke a bit more.
the lay-overs are generally non-violent offenders--drunk drivers, dead-beat dads, guys caught during a traffic stop with an ounce of weed under the seat (thus a threat to society who must be locked away for several years) & they are generally scared shitless. most are new to the penal system & it's strange ways, but have no doubt seen the movies.
the intake process does not help to assuage the ShawshankOzAmericanHistoryX visions that may be dancing in their heads. until a few months ago, we had a K-9 unit that consisted of 2 dobermans & a German Sheperd that where quite sweet & cuddly but could be worked into frothy snarling toothy rage in a blink. it was general practice to have an officer barely holding back one of the aforementioned cuddly killing machines snapping, snarling, spraying gobbets of diseased saliva, & straining at its chain when the train pulled in & passengers disembarked. (sort of set the mood, like the overture to an opera, that did.)
following this is the unofficial protocol of "inserting the Fear of God". this involves a lot of yelling.
anyway, the overnighters were being strip-searched in the property hallway when a fight broke out in the chow hall. the officer shot the shotgun (the first round is always a blank, & is usually all that's required, as a rifle pointed in one's general direction & fired tends to distract one, as I can attest)
shortly after, one of the overnighters had a heart-attack & collapsed.
life can be weird sometimes.
the post that I've been assigned to over the past few months provides gun coverage for one of the chow halls & the property hallway (since there are very few inmates in either area during my shift, my presence is mostly symbolic)
once a week we have what's called "train"--actually a bus that transfers inmates from one institution to another in the state. roughly half stay for a spell to enjoy the hospitality, the rest--the "overnighters"--stay, well, overnight (hence the name) & then mosey along.
after being disgorged by the train, both overnighters & new neighbors file into the property hallway, are strip searched & photographed (if they have tatoos that haven't been documented yet)
the difference I've noticed between the stay-overs & the lay-overs is that the ones who are coming to stay have been thru this before--they usually know a few of the officers & other inmates, are a bit cockier, talk & joke a bit more.
the lay-overs are generally non-violent offenders--drunk drivers, dead-beat dads, guys caught during a traffic stop with an ounce of weed under the seat (thus a threat to society who must be locked away for several years) & they are generally scared shitless. most are new to the penal system & it's strange ways, but have no doubt seen the movies.
the intake process does not help to assuage the ShawshankOzAmericanHistoryX visions that may be dancing in their heads. until a few months ago, we had a K-9 unit that consisted of 2 dobermans & a German Sheperd that where quite sweet & cuddly but could be worked into frothy snarling toothy rage in a blink. it was general practice to have an officer barely holding back one of the aforementioned cuddly killing machines snapping, snarling, spraying gobbets of diseased saliva, & straining at its chain when the train pulled in & passengers disembarked. (sort of set the mood, like the overture to an opera, that did.)
following this is the unofficial protocol of "inserting the Fear of God". this involves a lot of yelling.
anyway, the overnighters were being strip-searched in the property hallway when a fight broke out in the chow hall. the officer shot the shotgun (the first round is always a blank, & is usually all that's required, as a rifle pointed in one's general direction & fired tends to distract one, as I can attest)
shortly after, one of the overnighters had a heart-attack & collapsed.
life can be weird sometimes.