I saw one of those programs a while back, and there was an inmate who said that the most important thing he had learned inside was “the avoidance of unnecessary bullshit”.
He had been transferred to the supermax (23 1/2 hr lockdown, etc.) prison because he had killed four other inmates (in one sitting) at the maximum security prison he had previously been incarcerated in.
You gotta wonder what constitutes necessary bullshit for somebody like that.
My husband used to work in one of those prisons.
I think what the inmate is referring to is stirring up touble with the staff members. A guy with 23 1/2 hours a day with nothing to do but think up mischief can be a real pain in the ass.
They would flood their cells, refuse to give back their meal trays, refuse to come out when they were supposed to-- whatever they could think of to cause a ruckus. One, er . . . *interesting * character even stuck his penis through the cuffport and urinated on a female guard.
Policy in a situation like that calls for an inmate to be removed from his cell and placed in what’s called a “stip cage.” (Since the inmates have no privledges, there’s no way to punish them for their misbehavior except for removal from their cell to another one.) Sometimes, they would fight the guards, necessitating the use of “chemical munitions” which is a fancy term pepper-spay-like chemicals-- not pleasant for anyone who has to be in the area.
It’s extraordinarily frustrating for the guards to work in such an environment. Constant verbal assaults, added to the possibility for physical ones make this for an extremely tough work environment, even more so than a regular prison. In a regular prison, threats of removal of privledges, or being locked up in the “hole” away from general population are enough to keep them in line. SuperMax prisons don’t have that.
Inmates were especially adept at just edging up to breaking a rule, and then quickly backing down before punishment. (For example, refusing to return the meal tray until the extraction team is called and suited up outside their door.) They “tease” the staff in this manner. It takes very strong-natured people not to get violently angry.
For those of you who are reading this thinking, “What’s the big deal about letting them just keep the damn tray?”: You’d be astonished at what an inmate can use to make a weapon. I’ve heard of inmates breaking “unbreakable” items in order to stab staff members.
Since an inmate cannot be parrolled from a SuperMax, the only way they can leave is to have a certain ammount of time without any rule infractions, and then be sent back to regular prison. That’s what I think the inmate in that post was talking about. He was smart enough to realize that his misbehavior would harm no one but himself.
I think most of them will eventually tell plenty of what they did.
Seems that’s the whole idea of the squealer system - get a small time crook to give up details a hardtimer has told him about something and get a break in return.
My father in law is a psychologist at the prision where Charles Manson WAS held. He said that most of the time the inmates either already know who you are and what you did, or don’t know and don’t really care. He said that it was almost worse to be the guy that came in there famous for committing some horrible act (Charles Manson) then to be some no-name shlub who just fuckt up and caught a bid. In Charlies case, every one of those people knew him and what he’d done, and he had to be in protective coustody 24hrs per day because any one of the other prisioners would have taken him out just so they could be the guy that hawked Charles Manson. Being some in insane murdering psycho was worse than being some dude off the street.
PS. Even 24hr protective custody couldn’t save him. One of the inmates threw a bag of Ronsonol (the fluid you use to fill Zippos) on him, and lit him on fire while he was sleeping.
What, he didn’t get any mayo?