The building I work in is four stories tall. The research labs are on the forth floor. The third floor is under construction to create more lab space. The construction is almost done. The last phase is installing the furniture: benches, desks, etc. The University is required to buy all furnishings from the corrections department. Yep, inmates made the chair I’m sitting in now and the desk I’m using.
For the past several days the “Correctional Industries” truck has been at our loading dock.
Every morning, Rob the Aussie, Doc K (our post-doc friend) and I leave the building to walk over to the coffee cart at the hospital. (Lots of people moaned when we moved to this new campus because there was no Starbucks nearby. :rolleyes: ) We took the freight elevator because its closest to the hospital and its freakin’ cold out.
The elevator stopped on the third floor. A man wearing a “Correctional Industries” shirt joined us.
“Oh, you’re with the prison furniture guys?” I ask.
“Yep,” he replied.
“Do you drive the truck?”
“Nope. I just haul the stuff.”
“Ah … So, you’re a trustee?”
“Nope. They’re from county.”
“You’re an inmate?”
“Yep.”
The elevator opened on the ground floor. Our illicit companion walked toward the truck and we left for coffee.
“Oh my god! That was a real felon,” said Doc K. “I wonder what he was in for?”
Hopefully, it wasn’t for killing someone who asked stupid questions. :smack:
While a number of the Township Trustees I have known should have probably been jailed at one time or another, the older and more common spelling of an inmate with walking around privileges is trusty.
We call them “Brown Shirts” because of the clothing they wear. I’ve never seen any at our establishment…delivering furniture they make is something they do in Arkansas, too…without escort. Sometime this year one of them driving a van of trust/y/ees used the vehicle to escape.
What bureaucat decided to send convicted criminals to a building full of controlled substances, radiation and other nasty stuff without an escort? :dubious:
We call them “Brown Shirts” because of the clothing they wear. I’ve never seen any at our establishment without escort. Delivering furniture they make is something they do in Arkansas, too. Sometime this year one of them driving a van of trust/y/ees used the vehicle to escape.
The driver of the above vehicle is the only I’ve heard of being without the above Big ol’ fat cop escort. Obviously, some unbeknowst to me had no BOFC escort and used it to their advantage to effect escape.
I don’t know about other areas, but in my state, the only inmates who work outside the fences are ones who have been convicted of minor, non-violent crimes. (Like check kiting and that sort of thing.) They also have to have a good behavior record on the inside. They don’t let sex offenders or murderers in work programs no matter how good their behavior.
So, if your state is anything like mine, you were at very little risk of being harmed.
I’m not worried about being hurt. Hell, the water here will do more damage to me.
We have anesthesia in the lab for our mouse surgeries. I just don’t want any of this to go “missing.” (You need badge access to take the elevator to the lab floor. No badge is needed for the stairs. :dubious: ) Our controlled substances are - supposed to be - locked up. I’ll just keep an eye out. The Stepford Students will be annoyed, but that’s nothing new.
This is a minor hijack hopefully Mouse_Maven won’t mind. We had two convicted violent criminals escape in the past little while.
I say convicted but both were committed to a mental health institution instead of jail. One had raped his step-mother, cut her throat and then tried to burn the house down. The other was randomly attacking people on the street.
Both were known as violent and considered dangerous.
Both ran away from their “guards” while on day trips for treatment. Their guards were orderlys from the hospital and were not able to keep up on foot.
:eek:
AHHH I feel safe.
My dad was telling me a story about being at a Habitat for Humanity house project and seeing an inmate he knew doing 13 years on something or other on the roof with a nailgun. Something strange about saying a person has to be locked away from the rest of humanity and then putting him on the roof of a house with a potentially deadly weapon.
Yeah. Years ago I worked at an animal shelter. We’d get people that were assigned “community serivce.” We’d get all sorts of people. Most of them had first time DUI/DWI convictions. Once we had a bunch of juvenile drug dealers! :eek: The local pound may sound harmless, but we had medications (espeically ketamine ), some surgical tools and lots and lots of pinch-chain collars.
