Behind the Razor Wire

It was on a busy day when we were swamped with work, four truck loads of furniture had been delivered to us from ADECA who is charged with acquisition from the federal government in the purchase of used office furniture usually at a ten cents on the dollar value. It is eventually destined for the Attorney Generals office when it moves into its new building in Montgomery Alabama. I am charged with the task of overseeing inmates restoring these items to as close to original as possible. My job is made more difficult by the fact that my supervisor, who knows little about cabinetwork or furniture restoration does all quotes and I often have no idea what he has included in the process, so we have our clashes. The 63 year old guy struggling in an already volatile environment with a condescending control freak can make for an interesting day. The one thing I have going for me is no one else in the state can do what I do or as well, so he needs me, he desperately needs me. So he gives me some room when I throw a fit as the inmates call it. Recently I cleared my tool room of some clutter, wore out tools scraps of metal etc. I had them sent to our maintenance supervisor for processing. When My supervisor discovered this he dusted off some old admin regs requiring me to change my tool inventory when any activity involving tool counts, a reg never before used on anyone else, so after a day of updating my tool inventory and creating an up dated inventory sheet he left me alone after I flooded his office with item by item changes like; drill 3/8 yellow in color thought to be suffering from switch damage was sent to maintenance for evaluation at 9:03 am Tuesday Feb 19, 2008, please update your files to reflect this change. Seven flat head screwdrivers, various lengths, suffering from years of grinding and misuse was also sent to maintenance on that day at 12:21 pm for evaluation and or disposal, please update your records to reflect those adjustments. He has never mentioned the incident again.

Occasionally inmates will talk to me about their case, whether its being appealed or sometimes the facts of the case, they never read like their jacket does but now and again I find one who has been railroaded with the three time looser law. I think the original intent was to remove violent habitual offenders from society, however some judges went a step further and threw the book at non-violent offenders also. I have several inmates working for me who have LWOP for strong arm robbery with no weapons charges. I have known cases of this sentencing abuse used on petty criminals with planted evidence, using past crimes including those crimes time was served for up to and including traffic stops. The United States has more people in prison then all of the rest of the world combined. Seems ironic, lie to America or congress and people can die, write a book about it and all is forgiven. Miss a child support payment, stumble into the wrong place at the wrong time, its hammer time. Moral of the story is-- White collar crime pays great benefits so get an education elevate your criminal behavior and you stand a good chance of being treated like you have some rights...and so it goes behind the razor wire...