MJ-Way

The Acting Deputy Warden would leave his legacy on this prison. He was a man of action. He had brought order to a prison in the city where ten inmates had escaped with help from the immediate community. The changes in security he made there insured the prison would not be in the news again. The inmates hated him and he did not care. He was photographed with our then governor for being one of the best correctional managers in the state of Michigan and his career was getting him some notoriety. One of the first things he did as the Housing Assistant Deputy Warden at our prison was eliminate the small yard in front of all the housing units, and then had all the basketball poles removed there as well. There would be no recreation in front of the housing units. That was reserved for their yard time, when they had yard time, in the yard behind the school, and it would be monitored.

When our new Acting Deputy Warden was making rounds he was often approached by inmates. Some had general concerns and he would address them. Still others, would end in bitch sessions which usually got the inmate handcuffed and led to segregation. One of the weirdest things I saw was an inmate rolling up to him in a wheel chair while he was walking towards the school. The inmate was cussing him out the whole time, and when he finally reached him, he was met by two officers who wheeled the cussing inmate to segregation. He was still cussing the Acting Deputy Warden out as he was being wheeled to the segregation unit. However, what I remembered most was the way he handled a potential prison riot. I was working with my tutor in the greenhouse getting ready for our afternoon class session. It was hot all morning, and it seemed to be getting hotter. A few of the level four prisoners had a very brief exchange of words with my tutor as they were headed back to their housing unit from the chow hall.

He felt they had just given him a warning about something bad getting ready to go down in the big yard where the level four prisoners were now congregating behind the school. We both walked to the edge of the barbwire fence and could see they were not returning to their housing unit. My tutor looked at me and told me do not bring out any tools for the afternoon class, and he informed me he was going to lock himself down in his cell. He believed the level four prisoners, not going back to their cells, was an indication they were getting ready to riot. He advised me to lock everything up and to go home. With that he left for his housing unit. I have to say. I was a little unnerved, and felt very uneasy. However, I did make sure that all the tools were locked up. Then the announcement was made on the over head yard speakers.: “All prisoners are to return to their housing units.” The yards were quickly cleared of all level two prisoners but about fifteen level four prisoners were not returning to their housing units from chow. It is beginning I thought, as I said a quick prayer, and watched the yard officers lock the gates to the yard where the level four prisoners were congregating ..Prison Chronicles To Be Continued…

When the Truth Matters. Well said Douglas Murray.

Mr. Dandy was in trouble. He had the highest GED completion rate in the MDOC prison school system which he used to berate the other school principals who could not even come close to his GED completion numbers. Even though he was the only prison school that had both day and night shifts of teachers teaching, he was held in high regard by the prison education administration because of his GED success rate. Now, his numbers were in question. I never heard about him again. I figured he retired and our training was being completed through the GED testing service. At the same time that happened, our prison had a new Acting Deputy Warden. He had been the Assistant Deputy Warden of Housing when I first met him, and then he became the Assistant Deputy of Programs over our school. From there he was promoted to Acting Deputy Warden. Our current Deputy Warden was on medical leave.

He was an interesting person. I met him for the first time when we were assigned to a prison housing unit during an emergency lockdown. I had heard from some of the officers that he was actually an ex-inmate. He had been assaulted during the prison riots in Jackson. Once he served his time for the crime he committed, he was hired by the MDOC and eventually promoted through the ranks The prisoners hated him. Most of the officers liked him because he knew the games prisoners played, and sided with the officers when prisoners became disruptive. During a lock down prisoners were not to leave their cells. The Acting Deputy Warden explained that over the loudspeaker in the unit, and the prisoners in unison started calling him names I had never heard men call other men on this side of the Mississippi River. I learned a whole new vulgar vocabulary. It was hard to figure out what they meant, and you just didn’t want to ask your colleagues, “hey what did they mean when they said they were going to split his wig and feed him the pig?”

At the time I figured it was some kind of an insult, but I didn’t want to ask anybody for clarification. I was just stunned by the amount of vocal outrage being showered on him. He surprised me when he stepped back up to the microphone an announced, ” I know what you want to do to me but it’s not going to happen!” Again, the housing unit irrupted into a vocal sea of vulgarity aimed precisely at him. Words and statements it would take years for me to decipher, but left an indelible mark on my psyche. Damn, you could feel the hatred. With that he left, after smiling at me and seeing that I looked to be in state of shock. As he was leaving he gave instructions to the housing unit manager and pointing at me he instructed her” to make sure I get some water. I looked like I’m going to pass out.” It surprised me, but all I could think of was “damn, what the hell is this?” This was my first time being called to a housing unit to work during an emergency mobilization. and it would not be my last. ..Prison Stories To Be Continued…

I passed the examination and was now the official GED Proctor at our prison school. Our new principal made sure that I had all of the support I needed to make it successful. We went over how the exams were to be administered, how often they were to be given, and the security needed to protect them from being stolen. They would be kept in a safe in her office, and only her and I would have the combination. There was a certain combinations of stops and starts that would always mix me up, and it would take me awhile to get it right to open. It was a gun safe but had been converted to our new GED Test safe. Our staff Lock Smith new how the combination was to be entered but he didn’t know the numbers. I would call him often in the beginning to get it right. He was always helpful and would just say, ” how long have you been teaching?” My reply was always, “obviously too long.”

We had a staff meeting which included all of our teachers, our secretaries, and the school officers. Our principal was very thorough on what was expected by everyone involved in this process. They all played a key role in the success of our program. The school officers were instructed to shake the prisoners down (frisk them) before they entered the exam room. They had to be dressed in their state blues (prison uniform) and were to be sent back if they were not. The prisoners could not take anything in with them, including jewelry and watches. The officers would enforce the rules of testing. They would also make regular rounds, and observe the testing process. If they felt anything was not right, they would address it with me, and if need be I would have the issue corrected if it needed to be. The school principal also wanted the officers to report any issues to her. She stayed totally connected. I had heard she was very thorough, and she demonstrated it in this meeting.

Her final instructions were to the academic teachers. They were in no way to enter the testing area, under any circumstances. It just wasn’t permitted by the GED testing service, and we could lose our license to give the exams if it was reported they were in the room while the exams were being given. The school officers had an open channel to our school principal and the warden if they felt the exam process had been compromised. A suspected serious compromise could shut the testing down until it was resolved. The prisons emergency response system was also addressed by her. In the event the system was activated while testing, a protocol was established that I had to implement, and secure the exams. The school officers would help in the process of securing the exams.

Before the meeting ended our school principal announced that all the GED testing was halted at our upper peninsula prison schools. The officers found answers to the exams in Mr. Dandy’s school. I couldn’t help but smile. I thought of my old boss Jesse and how he felt about Mr. Dandy. She shook her head and said with a smirk, ” A good guess, he’s no longer the apple of their eye.!” I thought, just like the MDOC, to go from hero to zero in a heart beat. Full circle karma for him…. Prison Stories To Be Continued..

The truth matters. Thank you Mosab Yousef.

I was surprised to find out about our new principals’ credentials. She didn’t share that with me when she asked to see how I ran my Horticulture program a few years earlier. However, she took that information and developed a very successful program at another prison. I was concerned now that she wished to speak with me after our school meeting. After our staff meeting, when everyone had left, she walked over to me, and began talking about the Horticulture program. She was amazed by our landscape and gardens. She knew I wasn’t satisfied with the status quo, as I kept expanding the number of plantings, and our landscape was best described as a floridly abundance. She informed me that she wanted me to be the GED examiner at this prison. I would have to go through a training process in Lansing, (Mr. Dandy the instructor), and after that was completed , she would help me get started giving the exams at our prison. She was also the Chief examiner and principal at another prison in Lapeer. She left it up to me to decide.

Not rushing the decision, I spoke with other trades instructors about the GED testing process. They informed me that only the vocational instructors could give the exams. The academic teachers were not allowed to handle the exams. The GED testing service required a regular annual training for all of the authorized exam proctors and that was usually held in Lansing. I was informed that those training in-services were interesting. It was a way for the exam proctors to talk about what was happening at their prisons and what works best for administering the exams in a prison school. My interest was piqued. I began calling the vocational instructors asking them how they were able to keep their class loads, and still give the exams? They informed me that their students were allowed to take their books back to their housing units and the tutors were allowed to keep the greenhouse and gardens producing. The arrangements were made with the help of the GED administrators (school principals) at the individual prisons, and the Wardens.

I wanted to be a part of this positive process, and I accepted. Everything she promised me in terms of support was made available. My class was reorganized so I could give the exams, and the testing would take place in a larger classroom across from my current classroom. It could hold up to 20 students. The training in Lansing was better than I had expected, and I was surprised to see it included vocational instructors from all of the trades, and not just Horticulture. Mr. Dandy had to leave our class half way through the training, and my new principal completed it. We had to pass an exam to get our certification, and once that was completed satisfactorily, we could give the GED exams at our prison schools. That schedule would be determined by the school principals.

The night before our examinations, at around 3:00am in the morning, I was awakened by someone pounding on my room door. I looked out the peephole but no-one was there. I opened the door to look down the corridor both ways. My room was in the middle of a long corridor but no one was there. I shrugged my shoulders and went back to bed. At breakfast my instructor told me that she had been informed that my past principal had passed away last night. I was stunned. Jesse was one of the best bosses I had ever worked for, and all I could think of was him saying why he didn’t want to retire. I also thought of the time Jesse would open the back door to the principal suite and yell my name down the corridor towards my classroom. Everyone thought it was so rude and crude, but that was Jesse. A bull in a china shop. Always a Coach. Then I also thought of the the time at the Detroit Medical Center were the surgeon was documenting his patient’s near death experiences, and I wondered if the pounding on my door was Jesse saying goodbye? .. Prison Stories To Be Continued….

The madness continues

Our new ADW was not liking that Jesse was absent from our staff meetings. He began to intimidate some of the teachers, but I found him to be quite interesting. The prisoners hated him and I didn’t think that was all that bad. He had been one of them at one time and was assaulted during the riots of the 1980’s. In our meetings he did say that our school was one of the best, and he thought it was the only thing running well in the MDOC. However, he had what he thought was a better idea on how it should be run. I got the feeling from talking with our school secretary that Jesse didn’t think his new boss would last much longer in his new assignment, and as usual Jesse was right. He received a temporary promotion as he became the Acting Deputy Warden. It seems our Deputy Warden was on medical leave, and he was promoted temporarily to do that job. He still had some influence over the school but was prevented from putting his stamp on it with his new temporary duties.

I don’t think Jesse cared one way or the other about our new acting Deputy Warden. We saw little of him in what would be his final year as our School Principal. It did not surprise me when our school secretary had informed us that Jesse would be retiring at the end of the month. She said that they were planning to give him a send off at the Green Tavern, and we were all invited to attend. Jesse had liked the Green Tavern and we had many a school meetings there. Jesse paid for the food consumed. I was surprised that he was going to retire, and he informed us that it was only a partial retirement. He had told me earlier that all of his friends who had retired passed away right after they retired. He didn’t want to be another statistic. His plan was only a partial retirement. He planned on coaching part-time for a private school. He thanked all of us as we gave him our parting gifts. I felt I was losing a good friend and mentor. Time moves on regardless, we said our goodbyes, and I wondered who our new principal would be.

Our academic teacher who had retired from the military as a captain in the United States Air Force would be the acting principal until a new principal was selected. I had hoped he would be selected for the position and was stunned to find out that a Horticulture Teacher I had trained for her current position was selected to be our new principal instead. Our acting principal had informed me she was not only a Horticulture Instructor, but was also a Special Education licensed teacher, a Master Degreed Education Administrator, and a GED Administrator. I did not know this when I trained her for the Horticulture Instructor position a couplie of years prior. Jesse never mentioned her back ground. We met her a few weeks later, after her appointment to be our School Principal was announced, and after our meeting she asked me to stay behind. She wanted to speak with me. Now I was concerned. Prison Stories to be Continued

               1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18

 Once the GED testing service identified the jail and school district servicing them as the culprits for the security breach, all GED testing was stopped for South East Michigan, and exams were turned back into the GED testing service. This put our prison school into a state of flux. It was good that our school district was not the cause of the breach but all school districts with adult education centers, including ours, were not able to give exams until new exams were issued. This meant that our GED’s completion data would be null. A big zero. Our GED coordinator, (Mr. Dandy) would have a field day pointing this out to the Lansing Education Administration. Especially, since his prison school in the upper peninsula was turning GED completions out at a rather elevated pace. Mr. Dandy became the apple of their eye, and Jesse not so much. (Not that he ever was or cared to be)

 Our special education teacher pointed out some facts that Jesse wasn’t aware of: The first, Mr. Dandy was receiving student inmates who were only needing to complete one or two years of high school from our reception area in Jackson. With the new law in place the inmates had to get a GED before being released from prison. They were very motivated to get their GED. Secondly, Mr. Dandy ran two shifts in his school. He had an AM shift and a PM shift. Jesse was not made aware of this by his colleagues. Finally, one would expect him to have more GED graduates given he ran his school for sixteen hours a day. No other prison school was being run sixteen hours a day. When Jesse found this to be true, he was livid. He of course had to make sure this was correct because he didn’t always believe our Special Education teacher whom he thought had an axe to grind with the prison education administration. He would get to the facts soon enough.

 His one loyal connection was a matronly principal in the UP whom he could trust and often shared information with. She let him know that all of what our Special Education teacher had said about Mr. Dandy was true. It seemed that it was a concerted effort, between the Education Administration, and Mr. Dandy. The goal was to get inmates who were close to completing high school before they were incarcerated, sent to the UP prison school, so they could get their GED. The problem was that the data was being used to show the other prison schools were not pulling their weight when in fact their completion rates were as good or even better. The cost of running two shifts of teachers was never mentioned in the statistics. The only data collected was the amount of GED certifications issued.

She pointed out that Mr. Dandy was in fact running two schools. One during the day and one at night. His data was skewed. No other prison school was run 16 hours a day. I think that about did it for Jesse. He had enough. Our new Assistant Deputy Warden, being a prisoner at one time himself, was Jesse’s new boss. I could see Jesse wasn’t a big fan of this new reporting arrangement. Our new ADW had requested Jesses schedule. Jesse obliged him but was always sure to have a reason to change it. Something always seem to preoccupy his time at the Thumb Correctional facility , and he couldn’t make the scheduled meetings at Macomb. That drove our new ADW absolutely bonkers and I believe Jesse enjoyed frustrating him. Our school secretary (rest her soul) was one of Jesses biggest fans, and I believe she played a role in perpetrating his frustration.  ..Prison Stories to Be Continued..       

              2 Corinthians 5: 14-21

  Jesse’s plans to retire were unknown to anyone except Jesse. We would get to work with him for another three years and it would be memorable. It started with a staff meeting where the academic teachers had decided it would be way too difficult for the school to complete the process of being NCA accredited. Jesse had the schools academic teachers working with the representatives from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. He wanted our school to be accredited and it would be one of only 42 prison schools to be accredited. The teachers felt the reporting mechanisms the NCA wanted from the school were too encumber some. They were still going to have to do the monthly reports the MDOC school administration required and the new reporting mechanisms the NCA mandated as part of accrediting the school. They felt Jesse was wanting too much from them. The teachers wanted the NCA accreditation but they wanted to stop having to produce Lansing’s reporting requirements. They felt it was a useless duplication of data.

  However, Jesse did not want to fight that battle with the MDOC school administration in Lansing and wanted them to do both. Interesting enough, the NCA agreed with the teachers. The reporting duplication seemed senseless they wrote in their final e-mail to Jesse. As a result, Jesse dropped wanting the NCA accreditation for the school. I could see for the first time he looked tired. Our school would have been the first and only prison school NCA accredited. In the scheme of things, it would have been a big accomplishment, and could have brought more funding for prison education. However, Lansing was more concerned with how many GED’s were being issued by the prison schools, and viewed the schools as successful only by the amounts of GEDs granted to their students. In the midst of this discussion we were interrupted by one of the Program Office secretaries. She had informed Jesse that he needed to contact Lansing immediately over a security breach in the GED testing process here at Macomb. Our school meeting was adjourned immediately.

 The lead GED coordinator in the state, a principal at one of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula prison schools, who would latter have his own prison school embroiled in controversy, had been informed of a breach in the GED testing process. Someone at Macomb had answers to the exams and was selling them. I knew from experience our exam process was being handled by a school district and they would have to be notified as well. However, it didn’t take Jesse long to figure out that it was our county jail and not us responsible for the breach. The county jail used a different school district to administer their exams, not the one we used, and that school district was responsible for the breach at the county jail. After that fact was established, Jesse had no problem calling our state GED coordinator, and telling him off. He questioned his competency, and said that if he “payed attention to details as well as he dressed himself everyday (he did wear the newest in business attire- a real dandy) he would have known it was the jail prison school and not Macomb Correctional Facility.” Jesse winked at me, hung up the phone, and informed me it wasn’t us. I believed he enjoyed that.      ..Prison Stories To Be Continued..

This is Black History Month and on Fridays in my classroom I would usually show something related to our African American Community. My students enjoyed the diversion and we could have some discussions which weren’t always cordial. My universal antidote: If we don’t acknowledge our past mistakes we are destined to repeat them. This message didn’t always sit well with my student’s who were repeat offenders.

They didn’t listen then, and they won’t listen now. Israel knows what has to be done to protect their country. Godspeed. Am Yisrael Chai

              Psalm 25:16-22

  Jesse had other plans. Speaking with him, he felt that all of his friends who had retired died shortly there after, and he wasn’t going to do that anytime soon. When I first met him he smoked and drank without a care in the world, and he reminded me of the proverbial ”bull in a china shop.” I had the chance to be with him at a conference in Lansing and I saw first hand how he was being treated by the current education administration. It was obvious they did not like him. He was too crude. However, they had to deal with him because of his intellect. He also had a lot of energy for his age, and while they were debating the latest things happening in prison education, Jesse was looking for the free doughnuts. Another one of our special education teachers, who was also at some of these conferences Jesse attended, made sure to call out his unsavory doughnut eating behavior, and pointed out that’s all Jesse did. Eating doughnuts and saying the prison teachers needed more class time was Jesses sole contribution at these conferences. This contradiction was voiced by the same teacher who witnessed it when Jesse professed he had the teachers backs at our staff meetings.

  Jesse always redirected such attacks on his character. The MDOC had some teachers who used what should have been their preparation time between classes to go golfing. They were actually caught by the departments new administrator who immediately had them fired. She also wanted to see classroom schedules and to her chagrin, 42 prison schools had different inmate student schedules. They were all tailored for the prisons they operated in. The inconsistencies in the school schedules, led some teachers to take advantage of the down time, and unfortunately they didn’t use it for class preparation. Jesse made sure to announce this fact when his motive for expanding class time was questioned. However, he never defended his eating free doughnuts. That was something everyone got to do at the conferences if they could beat him to the table. Jesse wasn’t the fastest person in the room but once he established position, he was hard to be moved.

 Eating doughnuts did not prevent him from contributing to the discussions, and I had to admit that as crude as he could be at times, they looked forward to hear what he thought. Especially, if it had to do with prisoner movement, and classroom management. Jesse had a lot of corrections education experience. He spoke of working at the Jolliet Correctional Facility in Illinois. He had me laughing when he informed me the administration would lock the prison down for security checks, and confiscate all the spud juice. Spud juice was the inmates alcohol that could be made from anything that would ferment and be vented. Jesse swore that some of the inmates there could make better whiskey and vodka than the known distilleries. When questioned how he knew this, he smiled and replied that once confiscated the administration would taste test it. “Yikes,” I thought out loud. “How much taste testing was done, ” I inquired. The answer, “if it was good, the prison stayed locked down until it was finished.” I shook my head in disbelief, and he started laughing, “those were the good ole days.” He was definitely a character and his legacy would continue for at least a few more years at Macomb. ..prison stories to be continued..

 Jesse said what ever he wanted. He had no filter. He was beholding to know one. I couldn’t help but like him. When I interviewed for the trades instructor position at the prison he told me as I was leaving that they had over 240 applicants for the position at this prison. However, he wanted me. “What would it take to steal me from EDS/General Motors?” With a graduate degree I expected to be paid at that level, and he agreed. That would put me in the middle of the civil service pay range at the trades instructor master degree level, and I could accept that. He informed me he could make that happen. We agreed on a start date. He was all business. We shook hands and he informed me civil service would be contacting me. That was my introduction to school principal Jesse Vail. Over the years I worked for him he, was one of the best. His honesty in this environment was his number one quality. You could always depend on his word. So two weeks after starting and receiving my first official paycheck I was pissed to see I wasn’t being payed at what we had agreed on.

 I immediately brought this to his attention, and he responded by calling our personnel manager. I thought it could be taken care of immediately, but it took over a year and Jesse’s unwavering assistance made it happen eventually. He even made sure I received back pay. He encouraged me throughout my career, and was glad I had agreed to bring a horticulture program to Macomb Correctional. During his tenure as a School Principal I couldn’t believe the things he would say to both staff and inmates on a regular basis. I heard an inmate student complain that “Jesse can’t talk to him like that because he’s a grown man.” Jesse’s response was memorable, ” your a grown man alright, G-R-O-A-N, GROAN, that’s all you do! Go back to class and learn something.” With that said, he kicked him out of his office groaning the whole time. The inmate couldn’t leave fast before Jesse added, “come back to see me when you get your GED. You won’t be released from prison until you do”

  I actually had heard that Jesse had an inmates probation pulled because they hadn’t completed their GED requirement. He referred to that inmate as “Billy Madison.” When talking to my colleague about his student, (who our school principal called, “Billy Madison,”) He informed me that Jesse had the inmates parole pulled, and the inmate was mad as hell. Jesse would come by my colleagues class room and ask him out loud, “how is Billy Madison doing?” My colleague said the inmate would get totally pissed off but kept working on getting his GED. I don’t know how well the departments policy was working on inmates needing to get their GED’s, if they didn’t graduate from high school, before being released, but it seemed to be motivating that young man to get his. Jesse was well known in the education profession and I remember an incident when the current education administration was looking to thin out the number of principals in the prison schools. They decided that principals with an administrative certification were the only ones they would retain. I believe they thought at the time that Jesse would be let go. However, he was one of a few administrative principals who had that certification. Once they found out he was one of the few credentialed principals, I was told they changed their plans, and a reduction in principal administrative staff wasn’t being implemented. I had a feeling they didn’t like him that much, and wanted him to retire. But,  … PRISON STORIES TO BE CONTINUED...

              HEBREWS 12: 1-3

 I have seen some evil in my time but nothing compared to what evil this inmate brought to this world, and his community. He was a serial murderer and rapist. The trail of bodies he left behind would eventually get him caught. I had to take three classes of Psychology as an under graduate student to fill my liberal arts requirement. Working at the Detroit Medical Center I saw the interaction between staff on the psyche units with patients and I was determined not to pursue a career in Psychology. The icing on the cake for me with that decision was a professor who taught my last psychology class. It was called, “Abnormal Psychology,” and the professor was a Psychiatrist from the Department of Corrections. I never thought at that time that I would be teaching for the same department. Life can be funny that way, but looking back, he was a great teacher as well. I never saw him with a book. He came into the classroom, hung his coat on the back of a chair and began writing on the board. He explained that we were required to follow the syllabus and take notes in the classroom. The exams would be from both.

 On the first day of class he explained that he didn’t want any students coming up to him on break and saying they feel they have the symptoms of the disorders he’s been covering. He further explained, if we had any of these disorders, we would not be in this classroom. That instantly got my attention, and he kept it the entire semester. He started the class with Socrates’ and three months later it ended with current cases, beliefs and practices. When I spoke with him on a break one day, I was amazed on how knowledgeable he was on the subject, and his experience. He looked to be about fifty years old. His hair was gray, almost silver, and the facial stress wrinkles were plenty. I was shocked when he told another student he had just turned thirty seven years old, and he’d been in practice for four years. That did it for me and I swore an oath not to make psychology a career goal. However, I did end up teaching for the department of corrections, and ten years into my teaching at the prison, they had opened a housing unit dedicated for the treatment of inmates with psychological disorders. The officers told me things were about to get bad.

 What got bad immediately was the number of assaults. They seemed to be coming from our level four high security unit and not the new psyche unit. The officers informed me the new psyche inmates were already making deals for their medications. Some of them would hold on to their medications and not take them but sell them at a later date. This issue would force the Corrections Medical Administration to make sure the inmates were observed swallowing the pills after they were dispensed by the medical team. The prison gangs wanting new customers, (and drugs so they thought), started fighting with each other over the new territory. The officers knew who the gang enforcers were. They would always find a way to be on the walk when the psyche inmates would be going to chow. The enforcers knew how to manipulate the system. The real astute officers would make them wait, or escort them so that contact with the psyche inmates was prevented from happening. This would totally piss off the inmate. The officer covering the walk today sent this particular inmate enforcer back to his housing unit.

 I was in a small Cole frame inspecting plants when I heard him threaten the officer. I stepped out of the structure and let the officer know I heard what the inmate said and would write a statement if he needed it. The inmate was livid and said in no uncertain terms , “they would destroy me. I was just another punk ass bitch.” Then he laughed as he walked back to his unit. The officer thanked me and then informed me that the inmate was a known rapist and serial killer. He was pure evil, the worse of the worst. He was never going to be released from prison. He’s one of the gang enforcers. He threatens everyone , and sometimes he makes good on his threats. The officer said he was going to speak with the yard sergeant about his open threat to me.

 He thought the inmate had a well documented propensity for violence against other inmates and staff. He wanted him moved to a higher security level prison, and appreciated my help. Later in the day I saw the inmate on the walk handcuffed and being led to our segregation unit by two officers. The yard sergeant informed me this known enforcer was being sent to a maximum security prison. He didn’t get his way on the walkway today, and ended up assaulting his cellmate. Now the real fun was about to begin. I was puzzled by his statement. He clarified, “there will be an investigation and the state police have asked us to preserve the evidence .This means their cell is a crime scene It’s a mess. A bloody mess.” I didn’t envy the job the officers had to do, but they were the real heroes in my book. They had to sort out the chaos these inmates brought on a daily basis. The officers all had to be on guard because most of the time, the unpredictable inmate violence would be directed at them.       ..Prison Stories To Be Continued..       

                MATTHEW 8:28-34