Earlier in my teaching career I had a run in with a deputy and her assistant. She and her assistant had tried to stop the warden from approving my plans for landscaping the prison grounds to no avail. What I didn’t realize then was that they viewed me as a threat. This was told to me by the maintenance mechanic who installed our greenhouse. He had to do some work in the deputy suite and all he heard was our deputy complaining about the prison looking “too soft” with all the flower gardens, and “what more would I create given card blanche from our warden.” It was a sobering revelation because I thought this all had been resolved in the first year of our greenhouse being constructed, and my plans being accepted by our warden. Three years forward and I was still hearing about pushback from the upper prison echelons who believed the horticulture class was not good for prison security. It was a tough group to convince and I didn’t have the time or energy to school them. However, they had some schooling for me and when the warden or my principal was at another facility they became master disrupters of the program.
The siren was blown and the school was emptied of all students and tutors. We were on lockdown. The school closed. This meant that custody became our immediate supervisors and our new assignments were based on what ever prison administration thought the need was. That meant we could be assigned to search prisoner cells in the housing units, help run the prisoner housing units, giving a break to custody officers so they could get lunch, or do other tasks, like helping out in the mess hall, serving lunches or delivering lunches depending on the severity of the lock down. It always depended on what caused the lockdown as to where we would be assigned. Sometimes it was just a regular monthly drill where all non custody employees were gathered in one area of the school and accounted for. Once accounted for they would be delivered to the Administration building’s visitor room for further assignment. That assignment would depend on the current administrations feelings toward you. If they loved you, or feared you, you got to sit in the think tank and do absolutely nothing in the wardens conference room. I heard the donuts and coffee were to die for.
If they hated, or feared you but not enough to be afraid of how they treated you, you can rest assured your assignment would be one for the record books. I had quite a few of the record breaking assignments and my colleagues often shook their heads when I informed them of where I was assigned. So on this historical day I was the only non custody employee who got assigned to do strip searches of prisoners. With the help of our school officers I was trained in the proper way of conducting the searches referred to as “nuts and butts.” Our school officer couldn’t help but notice I was the only non custody employee assigned here. “It’s obvious”, he chirped. ” Our deputy hates the flowers and you keep expanding the gardens.” I had to inform him that I don’t consider them gardens. They are my laboratories, and with the help of God we have been very successful with our classroom/greenhouse experiments. The landscape spoke of that success. ” Well than, Welcome to our circus,” he said laughing. “With your continued success it looks like you’ll be joining us on a regular basis!” That was understated and he was absolutely correct. I was going to have to figure this out quickly or I would begin being assigned to some very difficult areas every time the siren blew. Being singled out for some” Special High Intensity Training,” by our current prison administration gave me even more motivation to continue expanding our gardens. So I did just that, and I also developed a plan for the next time the siren was blown and I was reassigned. TO BE CONTINUED…
Isaiah 9:6, John 3:16
MJ-Way 