U is for Use of Force

Use of Force is a big, big deal Behind Bars.  If it is done strictly by policy, all is well.  But the problem with Use of Force is the subjectivity of the human condition.  The officers, supervisors and staff members are trained, re-trained, browbeat and brainwashed at every opportunity and inopportunity with the extensive agency policy covering proper procedures for Use of Force situation.

Perons unfamiliar with the term may be wondering what it is exactly and that is a problem, too, because Use of Force is never an exact science; it is more like a set of guidelines used to determine how much force is necessary to control potentially dangerous situations encountered Behind Bars such as riots, escapes (attempted), fights, disobedience, sit-downs, failures to follow orders, ect.  Now, there are many, many situations arising Behind Bars that can become dangerous to offenders, staff and/or the institution itself.

Once the determination has been made that a situation is in danger of escalating, there are specific steps, which must be taken by the staff members in order to make sure proper procedure is followed before offenders are made to physically comply with instructions of any kind.  Simply touching an offender’s elbow and guiding him/her from one place to another is considered a Use of Force.  At the other end of the spectrum, shooting an offender with a shotgun because he/she has just climbed the perimeter fence and hi-jacked a car is also considered a Use of Force.

Somewhere along the line, an entire universe of various personalities must make snap decisions based on their understanding of the Use of Force Policy and Procedures.  Where one officer might be calm and cool in a potentially deadly situation, another officer might not be quite as tolerant.  And this is where the subjectivity of human nature and infinite possibilities come into play.  The outcome of any particular Use of Force depends upon many variables, such as weather, location, number of persons involved, temperaments of those people, training of those people, criminal history of the offender(s), motivation of the offender(s), visibility of additional staff members, whether or not weapons are involved, so on and so forth.  Thus Use of Force situations are always unpredictable, unappreciated and definitely unsafe for all involved.

T is for Trafficking n Trading

This is a term given to the common bartering that goes on Behind Bars.  Offenders rarely have everything they need, much less everything they want and thus, a huge blackmarket of goods and services goes on in the prison setting.  Trafficking and Trading is a disciplinary infraction and depending on what is being traded or trafficked can pull down various degrees of punishment for a conviction.

You would think that this would be just a minor nuisance and perhaps a good way for things to get distributed among the Offenders Haves and the Offender HaveNots.  Unfortunately, like almost everything else that goes on behind bars, things are not so simple or cut and dried.  The problem arises because this sort of trading goes on in dark corners, vaults, showers, rec yards and work sites and is not like a Flea Market or a Yard Sale where money or other items are traded for things of like value.  No, these dealings are more like Mastercard and Visa and BankAmerica.  The HaveNot doesn’t have what he/she wants or needs.  The Haves have it and they offer it like a carrot on a stick to the HaveNots.  The HaveNots, generally speaking not persons who generally make wise decisions in life, take the carrot on account.  On account of they want it right now and they cannot avoid temptation.  Eventually, the HaveNots owe the Haves a lot of cash, goods or promised services for things that have already been used, eaten or used up some other way.

That is where the problem arises.  The Have’s then demand payment.  The Haves must pay… or else.

The “Or Else” is usually not good.  You can use your own imagination what “Or Else” might be, but be aware of the fact that much of what goes bad Behind Bars is a direct result of Traffick and Trading.

S is for Shakedown

Shakedown is something both staff and offenders alike abhor.  This is an operation that completely disrupts every program, every activity and every job within a prison unit.  When you work or live Behind Bars, you dread hearing the word “Shakedown”.

There are several different types of shakedowns carried out in the prison setting and, unfortunately, all of them are necessary to maintain security and control of the prison environment.  Some might call them ‘necessary evils’, but they are probably ‘necessary goods’.

Shakedown refers to searches.  Searches can be personal or impersonal, small or large, planned or random.  Small shakedowns might be pat searches of individuals coming or going from place to place on the unit such as from the housing area (cells) to the rec yard or from the rec yard to the visitation area.  The offenders are normally searched for contraband items carried on their persons in these cases.  The staffmembers might find money, cigarettes, drugs or any number of items not allowed in the possession of offenders.  In some cases, weapons are sometimes found sewn into the seams of clothing and/or hidden in very ticklish areas on the body of the offender.  These small shakedowns may also include the removal of clothing, called a stripsearch and are normally conducted by same sex staffmembers in private/shielded areas.  But these are normal occurrences and do not generally disrupt operations.

Larger, unit-wide shakedowns require locking the offenders in their cells for two or three or more days while the entire unit is physically searched from top to bottom.  These are usually planned ahead of time, but not generally known to most staff and offenders.  This is the one most offenders and staff do not enjoy.  I say MOST staff and offenders.  Some offenders do not mind because they don’t have to go to work or school and get to simply lay around their bunks all day.  Likewise, with some staff members, if the offenders are locked up, they may have very little to do or may be able to use the time to catch up on work backlogs.  Some staffers use this time to practice what is known as ‘ghosting’ (disappearing off the radar whenever there is work to be done).  Some staff members are experts at ‘ghosting’, others are not so fortunate…

R is for Ride

I’ve gotten a little behind in my Behind Bars themed A-Z Blog Challenge, so I’m trying to catch up a bit (pardon the pun).

Ride is a popular word.  Some people call their cars ‘Rides’.  And this has definitely become very popular in recent years.  You can hear phrases like “How do you like my ride?” or “Stay away from my ride!” or “Where’d you get that ride?” referring to cars.  Some people have used the word in a more sexually oriented manner and I don’t think I have to explain that one to anyone.  But when you are stuck Behind Bars, you don’t have a ‘Ride’ any more, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ‘Catch a ride’ or ‘Ride with someone’ in their invisible cars.

If you hear someone say, for instance, “Hey, you wanna ride with us?” Behind Bars, it really means “Hey, you wanna go along with us?”  This could be construed as meaning anything from going down to the gym to planning an escape.  Very versatile word.  It’s normally used to friends or work buddies to ‘ride’ out a shift with them or a long line at commissary or something a little out of the ordinary.

In my particular case, whenever we had emergencies or lockdowns, the essential departments were allowed only as few offender workers as necessary to get through the day.  That meant a certain group of ‘good’ workers would be called to work in the laundry, the kitchen, the trash crew, etc. until operations returned to normal.  It also meant that these workers would work extra long, extra hard shifts just for the simple pleasure of getting out of their cells instead of staying cooped up all day long.  If we knew something might be happening soon, some of the offenders who worked for me would ask if they could ‘ride with me’ during the storm or whatever.

But sometimes the word might be the harbinger of something else about to happen.  If you heard someone say “WTF you doing riding in my car?!”, it usually meant someone was getting into someone else’s business and then ‘it’ would be ‘on’.  Whatever ‘it’ was and wherever ‘on’ might be.

Q is for Quiet

Q is a hard letter.  An ominous letter and most of the words used Behind Bars that start with a Q because they are not good topics in any company.  One of the most ominous words or conditions Behind Bars is the word Quiet.

When things become Quiet, two things are possible and only two things:

Lockdown: a condition where all the offenders are kept locked in their cells twenty-four hours a day and only taken out under escort for essential services or emergencies.  These are usually short-term conditions implemented for emergency situations such as severe weather conditions (we’re talking hurricanes), immediately after escapes or offender uprisings (riots, work sit-downs, etc.) or other situations less exciting like full unit shakedowns (searches of the premises for contraband) or perhaps visits by government officials or VIP’s who cannot be bothered by being exposed to the regular day-to-day bull sh**t that goes on Behind Bars.

The other condition that causes Quiet to descend over the prison setting is worse than any of the conditions listed above.  If the sound/noise level drops suddenly and without warning, it means the offenders know something the staff doesn’t.  This is not a good thing. It’s like the calm before the storm, the evacuation of the animals before an earthquake or that moment of complete silence just before police officer says “Freeze!!!”  This Quiet usually signifies something is coming and it’s not a good thing.  Could be a strike, could be a riot, could be ‘hit’ by one offender on another.  Whatever the reason for this sort of Quiet, staff members should be ready for almost anything.

And now I, unfortunately, will have to be quiet for a day since I will have to post R tomorrow night instead of tomorrow morning.  Adieu for now and remember:  Shhhhhhhhhhh!!!

P is for Perimeter Patrol

Behind Bars, Perimeter Patrol is something that is pretty self-explanatory: Prisons have perimeter roads (normally) and various forms of patrol take place twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.  Some of these are walking patrols inside the fence and outside the fence.  These poor, unfortunate officers are chosen at the beginning of the shift and depending on a number of environmental issues, can be one of the best or worse assignments an officer can pull.

For example, as Fate would have it, whenever an officer arrives at what is known as the shift meeting or turn-out where he/she receives his/her assignment for the day without a raincoat and rain-boots, he/she will inevitably draw the perimeter patrol assignment IF and only IF it is raining, sleeting, snowing or hailing.  If an officer arrives at the shift meeting prepared for rain, but without a jacket or other arctic wear in the winter, fall or spring, he/she will ONLY draw the perimeter patrol assignment IF a Blue Norther is expected half-way through or earlier during the shift.  (NOTE: Temperature drops must be no less than 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the shift).  If the officer shows up without a bottle of insect repellent during a mosquito outbreak, he/she will not only be assigned to the Perimeter Patrol, but will also be required to stand duty on the recreation yard whenever he/she is not patrolling the perimeter.

There is a special kind of Perimeter Patrol found at some of the Texas Prisons that take place after dark.  These are special in that the officer is required to drive one of the most dilapidated trucks, cars or vans in the state for a full eight hour shift, circling the prison unit at idle speed.  This not only requires jackets when it is cold, water when it is hot, rain-gear when it is raining and insect repellant at any given time, it also requires a sleep-deprived officer to drive an extremely monotonous course in the dead of night during all kinds of weather in a vehicle that sometimes has no actual seat, no free-world (regular) radio, no heater, no a/c, no working windshield wipers and sometimes has doors held closed with lengths of twine.  The windshield on these vehicles always have a mysteriously meandering, annoying crack precisely bisecting the driver’s field of vision no matter his/her height. This special Perimeter Patrol is normally assigned to the older, sleepier officers or, if none are available, to the younger, hyperest officers in order to achieve the best security possible.

One more type of Perimeter Patrol that I always found particularly interesting, was the “FOG PATROL”.  The prison units, which have Field Officers (these are work party supervisors that ride horses… yes, horses) located in fog prone areas (we are talking can’t see the end of your hood fog like that found near the Grand Banks off the coast of Nova Scotia, where there probably no prisons, and in Texas on particularly nasty spring and fall mornings/evenings/nights) will send out these Field Officers in the early morning hours on their horses and have them sit at strategic points along the perimeter road.  Again, this must be extremely boring duty, but apparently it is all worth the prestige of riding one of the states ornery beasts in the boiling Texas sun while a group of offenders hack haphazardly at weeds in a ditch or a planted field.

These are the most prevalent sorts of perimeter patrols I have personally witnessed, however there may be more heinous forms lurking out there, waiting for unsuspecting Correctional Officers.

Tax Day Free Fantasy

The following is a list of Free Ebooks, genre Fantasy that will be given away on the Tax Day Free Fantasy promotion.  Please feel free to click away on the links.  What do you have to lose but a few minutes?  You might find the next great fantasy read listed and become hopelessly addicted!!  What more could you ask?

Dave King: Betrovia

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Edward W. Robinson: The White Tree

http://www.amazon.com/The-White-Tree-ebook/dp/B004O0U8BI/

Cate Dean: Last Chance Jack

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007QEEBSA

Colin Taber: Fall of Ossard

http://www.amazon.com/The-Fall-Ossard-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B0045OUDSQ/

Matthew Musser: Jadeflies

http://www.amazon.com/Jadeflies-ebook/dp/B007KU50TY/

S. M. Reine: Death’s Hand

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005WZKJN6

Brendan Carroll: The Red Cross of Gold

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004O0U1II

E. Stoops: Corner of a Round Planet

http://www.amazon.com/Corner-Round-Planet-ebook/dp/B007PMNMR4

MeiLin Miranda: Lovers and Beloved

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Tristan J. Tarwater: Little Girl Lost

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J. R. Tomlin: Blood Duty

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Christopher Bunn: Ice and Fire

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Kate Danley: Maggie for Hire

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O is for Oh-Gee

You’ve probably heard the term “Oh, Gee” any number of times, usually referring to something that surprises or invokes some sort of emotional response from the speaker, such as “Oh, gee, that sux!” when someone drops their $7.00 Starbucks ® Latte in their lap or on their laptop keyboard.  Lots of times, we heard something a bit more colorful, but that depends on the speaker again and the cirucumstances.  Was it the Pastor’s latte and keyboard?  Or was it his/her own latte and keyboard?

But that is all beside the point when the term is heard Behind Bars.  If you hear someone referring to someone as an “Oh-Gee”, this is simply an anagram for OLD Gangster (Gangsta).  The term is applied freely to offenders who have have spent a number of years Behind Bars.  This can actually be a form of twisted respect for an “old-timer”, someone who has done a lot of time.  The younger offenders or those new to the system are sometimes overwhelmed (usually) by the completely alien world in which they suddenly find themselves.  The “O-Gees” are normally more resigned to their fates, more savvy about how to ‘get-by’ Behind Bars and, therefore, a wealth of information for the uninformed newer offenders.  Of course, everything Behind Bars comes with strings attached.

“Oh-Gees”, depending on their ingenuity, ambition and need and/or greed, can demand various forms of payment ranging from shots of coffee, soda, pastries or other luxuries bought from the Prison Store (Commissary) to much higher payments such as protection, real money, alcohol, tobacco, drugs and/or sexual favors.  Of course, it would behoove the uninformed offender to weigh the value of the information being offered against the price before making the purchase.  Everything listed above is illegal, of course, and may not only result in disciplinary action with varying levels of punishment to retaliation in the form of bodily harm up to and including death if the ‘bill’ is not paid.

“Oh-Gees” are often very friendly with staff, providing diversions or smokescreens for younger/stronger offenders, or oftentimes providing staff with information that may or may not be real or useful, but thereby endearing themselves to the powers that be, which again, depending on the skills of the “Oh-Gee”, can be very lucrative.

One thing for sure, such skills do not come easily, but must be developed over time with many trials, errors and failures.  “Oh-Gees” certainly may demand a certain level of respect from both staff and offenders if for nothing else other than having survived for 20-30 years Behind Bars.

N is for New Boot

This is one term I believe, that may have been brought into the prison system by Correctional Officers, especially those ex-military “Bosses” who found themselves home from the ‘wars’ with no place to work other than the prisons. New Boot refers to brand new, straight out of the academy, correctional officers. These new officers know absolutely everything there is to know about the prison system, offender management and security operations. If you don’t believe this to be true, just ask a New Boot, he or she will tell you it is so. The New Boot appellation, can stay with an officer anywhere from two weeks to twenty years, depending on his/her particular mindset. I’ve always thought there were four categories of people living in the state of Texas: 1. Those persons currently in prison. 2. Those persons just out of prison. 3. Those persons working in the prison. 4. Those persons not in prison… yet. Such an attitude might be hard to understand by persons not in prison… yet and persons not working in the prison, but for those Behind Bars (both staff and offenders) the prison becomes the world and it seems that everything in the world revolves around the prison system in one way or another. Persons working for the prison system are misunderstood by the General Public, their families and their friends. If they work for the system long enough, they make the transformation (silently and without grand aplomb) from New Boot to Old Hand. At any rate, by the time the New Boot makes it to Old Hand, he/she might find that friends and family no longer relate to them and some even lose former friends, making new ones from work and, unfortunately, they might lose wives and husbands as well. Though this is a terrible thing on the surface, it is not unusual for them to find solace in each other’s company and many, many persons working in the system also have spouses working in the system. These sorts of incestuous relationships lead to any number of problems. The staff and officers learn many things from the offender population and like babies, they pick up the worst habits first. Having wives, husbands, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles and cousins all working in the same business can lead to all sorts of nepotistic situations (if that is a word). Sometimes the nepotism (another N-word) worked positively for those involved, but oftentimes, it worked to their detriment, since the blurring of lines between blood and money can create extremely slippery slopes.

M is for Mule

A mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse.  Another word for donkey is ass.  Behind Bars, a hard-working Correctional Officer is known as a work-horse.  A mule, when referring to a human is someone who carries illegal items from one point to another.  A Correctional Officer or Prison Staff Member who carries contraband (illegal items) into the prison setting is also called a mule and is, by far, the most dangerous breed of horse’s ass.

The one thing that mos successful prisoners have in common is their skill at the art of persuasion, better known Behind Bars as playing Mind Games.  Even the ugliest of brutes, possessed of a silver tongue and a sad story is capable of swaying a sympathetic ear to his/her cause.  This uncanny ability to talk otherwise sensible people into bringing in dangerous items to convicted felons is something that serves the offenders well, providing cell phones, alcohol, tobacco, drugs, money and other unauthorized possessions which can all be used in less than friendly maneuvers.  Some employees have even been found helping offenders plan or execute escapes (AKA catching a rabbit), financing their Behind Bars illicit businesses such as drug trafficking, pornography and prostitution rings, child abuse, etc.  Though it is sometimes hard to believe, otherwise law-abiding citizens become so inured of the heinous crimes committed by the individuals they come into contact with on a daily basis, they see very little wrong with ‘helping them out’.

Certainly, when these Mules are caught, they give all sorts of excuses for their behavior, none of which are valid and oftentimes they are still wondering what the hell happened when they find themselves on the way to prison to join their unlikely ‘muleskinners’ Behind Bars.