ratsonjulia

going around with the nurse the other day for "pill call" (distribution of medicine in the Housing Unit) I heard muffled thumps coming from a cell next door. the cell was completely dark & when I shone in my flashlight a bloody face was pressed up against the window, then slammed up against it a couple of times.

a cell fight.

generally, when two men become cellmates they have to get along because (especially in this unit) they're together in a tiny little room 24 hours a day, & any squabbles that go beyond verbal usually escalate to either the cell being tear-gassed & both men staggering out puking their guts out (if someone hears the fight in time) or with one of the men beaten or stabbed to death by the other (if not)

in this case, it was the former.

this was my first experience with teargas since going thru the Academy (when we had to put our heads into a paper bag that'd been treated with a little squirt.)

nasty nasty NASTY shit. I was standing about 3 feet from the cell when it was sprayed in, & it almost floored me--my eyes, my lungs, my sinuses were on fire.

the two youngsters (early 20's Hispanic gangbangers) tottered out barely conscious.

---one of the really shitty things about this job--when that sort of thing is required--& it was indeed required.

the intensely unpleasant effects of teargas are generally gone within an hour (& both got immediate medical attention) whereas the dead remain dead. given that the fight occured while I was out on the tier, chances are more than likely that it was a gang "hit", but one or both wanted it to end with a gassing & hole-time as opposed to, well, death.

(& both have automatic juice for having gone thru the gassing, with the benefit of getting out of the prison eventually.)

it's fucked up, but there you go.