Living with and without Hope

If you can, imagine parking your car in the parking lot of a maximum security prison. Quickly checking your pockets for pocketknives and any unnecessary change as there are no soda machines where you are going, no snack or candy machine and what you eat that day is what you carry in your hand. No cameras, guns, or cell phones allowed on state property. Walking towards the entrance you see a few people smoking under the portico before work, as all state buildings are smoke free, nods and greetings exchanged you proceed into the lobby, where you are met by a lady behind a counter to your left just in front of a glass wall exposing another area with offices with one being the warden's and his staff, decorated for the holidays with blinking lights and garland draped in celebration. Three steps and you are at a conveyor monitored by an officer that operates an x-ray machine that you must submit your carry-along to, along with emptying your pockets of any metal objects as pens keys etc. one step to your right is a metal detector you must walk through as many times as it takes, removing belts shoes with steel or anything else that might be picked up on the detector. Having done that you gather your belongings and use one of the two time clocks with numbers pads where you enter your six digit number along with a fingerprint ID and wait for the little beeping green light. To your left is a long hall at the end of which extends a flight of stairs ascending out of sight. After reaching the top of the stairs you are facing a bullet proof glass wall with a microphone hanging from one of those goose neck mounts on the ceiling. Usually there are two uniformed people in side operating the sliding doors that lead in three different directions, one from the way we came leading down the stairs, and the second door that leads to what is referred to as the visiting yard, but really isn't a yard at all, more like an indoor cafeteria with a small brick walled area just out side that's maybe eight wide and thirty feet long that used for smoking.
The third door leads to an area known as the breezeway with two gates, one leading to the segregation area and the other to the "G" yard which sits smack in the middle of everything on the population side. The blocks, the infirmary and kitchen all are accessible from the "G" yard. My job is just past the kitchen through a tunneled area where many stabbings have occurred towards the rear of the camp just inside the three fences facing the Sally port that handles most of the traffic necessary to running a prison. In this area we have six operations in five plants,Chemical plant that makes all of the chemicals used by the state agencies. The upholstery plant also doubles as a mattress plant along with turning out chairs and sofa's freshly re-finished and beautifully clothed. Our Restoration plant does anything from chairs and sofa's to the manufacturing from raw material several types of chairs. We have a re-working area where furniture is stripped and broken down refitted and reassembled for stain. We have a powder coating area for metal works like lounge chairs and beds. This area is shared with the assembly area that builds modular cubicles and furniture. And last is our fleet service area where some vehicle repair and restoration work is done. The inmates working in industries have been screened for sex crimes, since we have females working here, and there have been incidences where some females have been raped,gunned (a term used to describe inmates who will openly masturbate in front of females) or approached inappropriately. We pay $.15 per hour to start out and up to $.60. We employee between 140-160 inmates and one officer, all of who know me and I can call most of them by their first or last name and can tell something about each one's case and who is or is not life with out parole. My job is never dull always dangerous,and is run by Murphy's Law. My supervisor has never made a mistake, so he tells me, has selective memory,and more then a few double standards and one eye that looks in another direction. I work with one Jehovah's Wittiness who doesn't believe in Christmas, but has no problem excepting the yearly Christmas bonus. And always ask for annual leave that time of year. I have often been stuck with working the day before Christmas or the day after as our plants operate year round. And yes I am more afraid of the prison guards then most inmates because they can do the most harm by planting things and plotting against you if you have somehow crossed them,or they just don't like you. Inmates use language like hot rail, bling,and kicking it with the BoBo. They steal from each other, and you if they can and believe in degrees of guilt. Many are flaming homosexuals and some are closet ones. They pitch, and not catch, and pitch and catch,have few loyalties and always studying free world people like a fish bowl. If you ask one how much time they have they might say "I'm gonna be here a minuet" Some young black men whose pants seem to defy gravity are often referred to as "Gang bangers" because of their affiliation with one of the gangs. The most popular are Bloods, Crypts and a few others. White inmates who belong to anything its always associated by the blacks as racist. Tattoos of lighting bolts are called cracker bolts.Blacks out number the whites 70-75% and are the most likely to become gunners. Groups of blacks can be disbursed by bluff or Boo-games, where as white in a group are more frighting then blacks, The Boo-games doesn't work on them as they will call your hand. Anything can and has been used as a weapon, so plastic eating utensils is all that's used. Soap, locks, or rocks in a sock are common. Razorblades used in the right spot are lethal.

Crossing the yard after work you hear the jeering of inmates you have fired over the years along with pleas of those wanting a job as hundreds stand in an un-orderly line waiting for chow as we make our way to the Breezeway and our release.