Praedial Larceny

“Stop right now!” I gave a direct order to two prisoners, one in a wheel chair the other pushing, as they struggled to move out of the prison school garden and roll back to their housing unit. It was not the first time, and would not be the last time I would catch prisoners stealing produce from the garden. The disability didn’t prevent his thieving. Instead, he lashed out at his pusher to go faster. Unfortunately for him, two officers were waiting for them on the sidewalk next to the garden. This latest team of produce thieves were now caught. The officers wanted to know if they were my students and I informed them they were not. They were stealing produce in an area clearly marked “out of bounds.” They were then asked to produce identification and they claimed they needed to go back to the housing unit to get it. The officers laughed. The yard sergeant came over and identified them. The vegetables were bagged. They informed me they would take care of this. The culprits were pissed, and the wheel bound chair inmate claimed he would put a hit on me. The officers laughed again and informed him he didn’t know who he was threatening. “This instructor is nicknamed by the current education administration ” Godfather.” They were quite sure I didn’t get that nickname because I was a nice guy.

In all honesty, I don’t know when I was given that nick name but I had heard our new school principal call me that most recently in a staff meeting. When I questioned her about why she called me that, she informed me it came from my exploits in Lansing, and the current education administration new all about the way I interviewed for promotional opportunities. I did go on quite a number of employment interviews. I was graded into the first ring, 95th percentile, through the civil service administrative exam process. By civil service standards at the time, I had the right to interview for all open administrative positions grade 16 and above. I did take advantage of this and interviewed at least twice a month (if not more) for over two years. It was all futile. (The stories of the state’s interview process I’ll write for another time.) The disabled inmate, after hearing what the officer said about me, just huffed and asked if he could leave. At the same time the Housing Unit Manager came over and identified the inmates. She told them they were in big trouble and began speaking with the officers. All assured me that this situation would be corrected, and the officers took the evidence to the control center to be photographed. I went back to my classroom.

My academic colleague was in my room before lunch to go over the GED testing schedule. I was entering student names into the computer when my phone rang in the classroom. I put it on speaker phone and the captain told me the inmates are claiming the confiscated vegetables were not the ones taken by them. My colleague spoke up and asked, “there were more?” The captain laughed, “must have been.” I assured him the vegetables confiscated from the inmates by the officers came from the garden where they had been caught pilfering by me. They both were identified by the Resident Unit Manager and yard sergeant. They claimed they did not have their ID badges on them, and asked to go back to the housing unit to get them. A day or two had passed and while giving the GED exams in my classroom I received a call from the Resident Unit Manager. She informed me that both inmates had been transferred to another facility. She had found a large amount of produce hidden in their rooms and it appeared they were operating a market. Selling produce to other inmates. I thought, if the disabled are finding it easy to steal from the garden, the more capable (two legged deer as noted by my colleague) are having a field day. I requested a camera to be installed over looking the garden to our new school principal that same day. She informed me she would request one from our warden.

To BE CONTINUED…