Prison Puzzle Pieces 2. Dave Basham
detectors and securing them in their cells in B-West started at 1220 and had concluded by 1249.
Just as the inmates were lining up at the side door to return to the unit, officers heard inmates yelling, “Fight! Fight!” Luckily, officers got to them, separated them, cuffed them up and removed them before it could turn into a riot.
A lot of the time, there were construction workers inside the prison walls working on updating or doing maintenance repairs on the facility. This was the case now. They were allowed to come back in and resume their work at 1250.
The B-Level response remained in effect for some time afterwards. It was necessary to make sure everything was 100% back in order before resuming normal operations.
As far as the non bomb, the inmate told me that he made the device to try to amplify the sound on his radio. He wound up in the hole.
LOCKDOWN / SHAKEDOWN
WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE
A lockdown is when every inmate in the cellblock is locked in their cell. A count is done to make sure everyone is accounted for. This is done for any variety of reasons. Examples are: An inmate is not accounted for, a fight broke out, not enough staff were available to maintain security and when securing the facility at the end of every day.
Shakedown is when every inmate is locked in their cell until every cell has been thoroughly searched, supposedly. It is necessary to lockdown the block before it can be shaken down.
These searches are not announced. We generally come in one day and are told that it is happening.
INMATE CLEANLINESS
Every block would get shaken down at least once a year, generally in late winter or early spring. The kind hearted souls of the DOC felt it was best to not have everyone locked in their cells for long periods of time during the hot summer months. I strongly agreed with them.
Having hundreds of felons locked in their cells when the temperature is in the 80’s and 90’s outside is not a good idea. People under these conditions can get ripe real fast. They can get cranky and raise hell, which would be appropriate for how hot it can get in those cells. There was no need to motivate them to retaliate on us when they were released from the shakedown.
Some of these guys seem to think that the only way you can get cleaned up is by taking a shower. They don’t seem to be able to comprehend the use of their sink with a wash cloth and a bar of soap.
It gets even hotter inside the prison. The brick walls heat up during the day. They are “HOT” to the touch. The cell blocks work like brick ovens. The hot bricks continue to heat up the place after the sun goes down. The walls are still hot in the morning whenever we have an extended hot spell.
Having these guys locked up in their cells when it is that hot creates a higher degree of people with bad attitudes, especially with those who are not happy to be here in the first place; which is all of them and some of us officers.
REASONS THEY WANT TO KNOW
If we had not shaken down the unit by spring time, inmates would always be asking when we were going to get locked down. I’d just tell them that they would know at the same time I knew. Some didn’t believe this. I would explain to these doubters that if I did know, I would be under orders not to say when it would be, so it wouldn’t do any good to ask me anyway. Most of them would understand this. There were always a few that would keep pushing.
There were a lot of reasons they would want to know. They would want to stock up on ice. They would want to call friends, relatives or lovers and let them know why they wouldn’t be calling for awhile. They might want to hide something, get rid of or return something that didn’t belong to them or something they weren’t allowed to have. In some cases, this would be a lot of items. If they were doing their laundry, they would want to get it before getting locked in their cell for a week or more.
After they were locked in, if anyone had laundry in a washer or dryer, I would finish it up for them and get it to them. If someone wanted ice, I would not do that. What you do for one, you have to do for all and getting ice for all of them would not be possible.
PREPARATIONS
We got locked down so often in B-West after we were double bunked, that they should have just made it part of our programming.
We had to get supplies for shaking down the cells. Buckets containing shakedown slips for anything we confiscated were needed. Flashlights for looking in dark areas, containers for dumping boxes of laundry soap (or other such products) in to see if anything was hidden in them, plastic bags for confiscated items or trash, rubber gloves for our protection, markers and pens were all necessary items. We needed to check out extra handcuffs and keys that the bubble officer had to keep track of.
Large bins needed to be rolled in for all of the contraband we seized; televisions, radios, fans, hot pots, clothes and linen were the bulk of it.
Distribution of toilet paper was a must.
We would place trash bags on the bars of every cell as they would not be able to leave their cell to dispose of their trash.
Enough officers needed to be accumulated from around the institution in order to get the job done in about a week. The least number of officers you would want would be ten.
Mail needed to be delivered.
When the shakedown was over, officers had to get all of the equipment back in order and make sure everything was locked down properly.
Swampers got released before the rest of the inmates to clean up the mess that the inmates made by throwing their trash and contraband out of their cells so they wouldn’t get caught with it.
During a long lockdown or at the end of it, we had to get all of the inmates out for showers a few at a time. Then we had to ease back into our regular programming schedule.
It was such fun! Yes, that is sarcasm.
CONTRABAND
The first thing that happens is that any items the inmates don't want to get caught with start flying out of the cells. The flag gets covered with these items. Those that don’t anticipate their cell getting shaken down on this first day will toss the items out during the night time when we would be less likely to be able to identify who threw what out of their cell. In reality, there is little chance of us identifying what flew out of any cell. We are just happy for it to hit the floor instead of us and to have it out of circulation.
Some common items found in cells that belong to other inmates are televisions, radios and fans. Some reasons these inmates have possession of these items are that they stole them, punked someone out for them, borrowed them, won them gambling and a very common reason is that the inmate that the item belonged to got released and gave it to them when he left.
The reason we find these items in their cell is that they didn’t know the lockdown was coming and by the time they were locked in, they found those items to be too big to fit through their cell bars to get rid of them. There is little consequence for having these items, so some hang on to them hoping the officers shaking down their cell will not be thorough.
PROCEDURE
Any officer that can be pulled from their assigned area without creating a security issue is sent to the cell block that is on lockdown in order to help shake it down.
Officers are divided up into teams of two. Each team goes to a cell. They start with an unclothed body search of the inmate in that cell. The inmate is then taken to the end of the gallery and handcuffed to a railing. This is so they cannot interfere with the search of their cell. If they had something hidden that they did not want us to find and they saw us finding it, they needed to be restrained to prevent us from getting attacked. They also can’t be wandering