Prison Puzzle Pieces 2. Dave Basham
could get a shank or something from someone in a cell that had not been searched yet and pass it off to someone in a cell that had been searched, so it would not be found.
The officers are given a list of that inmate’s property. They then go through the cell looking for any weapons, contraband or other violations. Any property that is not on their list is taken and turned into evidence. A list of anything removed is left for the inmate.
Once the officers are finished, they bring the inmate back to his cell, report their findings to him and have him sign off on his property sheet. Some of these guys get satisfaction in refusing to sign their sheet. It makes them feel like they are creating a problem for us and that they are getting away with being defiant. We don’t care. We just have to offer them the opportunity. If they won’t sign, we just write on the sheet that they refused to sign.
FEEDING
One thing that really slows down the search is feeding these guys three times a day. That takes up a lot of time and a lot of officers. We have to wrap up what we were doing.
The kitchen workers had to prepare the meals and put them in cabinets. Fruit, bread and milk were put on carts. We had to get officers to go get it and push it all to the cell hall. We had to either haul it all up the stairs to the upper tiers or if it were available, we got a lift and raised it up to the upper tiers that way. Getting the food to them was one thing; we had to pick up their trays and trash afterwards. We had to get it all out of the unit and return carts to the kitchen.
At times we were able to serve them a meal in a bag. This was a great meal and would save an immense amount of time. Better yet, give them a bag meal for every meal. If they didn’t like that, we could threaten them by telling them it was either that or I would cook for them.
NO MOVES UNTIL WE ARE DONE
When I first started working here, nobody would be transferred in or out of the block until the entire block had been searched. Later, they would move people in and out during the shakedown. This was a real nuisance and slowed down the search considerably. Whoever came up with this must have worked for Ford and thought they had a better idea. Moving guys in and out of the block during a shakedown could easily corrupt the integrity of the search.
CLUTTERED CELLS
The filthy unorganized cluttered cells slowed things down. It takes a lot more time to go through a cell like this than it does a clean orderly cell with only what the institution allows in it.
An inmate that kept his cell in good shape was generally happy with me after shaking down his cell. I was able to leave it in the exact condition that it was in when I entered it. They could not even tell that I had been in there. It would take only a few minutes to shake down a cell like this. I appreciated it and the inmate appreciated how fast I finished with his cell and that nothing was disrupted or tossed around. After some officers went through cells, it looked like a tornado hit.
A cell in bad shape could take 30 to 45 minutes to shake down. This would upset the bosses, but if anything was missed, it would be my tail on the line and not theirs. Often we were told to speed up. This meant that they wanted a less efficient job done. I never saw a block shaken down as thoroughly as what I had been told it was to be done.
There were messy cells with a lot of items that the inmates were not allowed to have in their possession. At times, if the bosses were pressing for a faster shakedown, I would try to pass off cells like this to officers that didn’t really give a damn and would let a lot of things slide. This was for the benefit of all involved. I needed to be consistent. If I did a schlocky job, I would not be doing my job as it was expected of me. An inmate with a lot of violations that were not security related would hate to see me come to his cell. I even had some guys with cells like this that saw me come to their cells that said, “Oh no! Not you!” These guys knew I was only doing my job properly. Most knew that I didn’t find a lot of the things they had as being a problem, but they knew I would follow policy. They would thank me when I was able to get someone else to take their cell.
In my defense, there were more guys appreciative of the way I shook down their cell than those who weren’t. These were the guys that followed policy.
STUCK WITH A SLACKER
At times, I would get stuck with an officer that was a slacker. They would watch television while I did the job. They would spend time reading the inmates love letters or a book they found interesting. I found officers like this totally inappropriate. In addition to that, they would really slow down the process. I would try to get partnered up with an officer that saw the job as I saw it. Get in, get the job done thoroughly and as quickly as possible and get out.
If they really wanted to get these shakedowns done properly, they could have assigned a lieutenant to be there with us. They could supervise, keep officers on task and be able to make decisions that would keep the process consistent and according to the main objective. They could say to just address security issues or they could say to address all policy issues. Without this, I just did every cell thoroughly in order to stay out of trouble.
TRASH RETALIATION
During lockdowns, a lot of these guys will throw things out of their cells. If they feel we are going to be searching their cells, they will throw out things they don’t want to get caught with. Sometimes they just want to trash the place.
A real tough one to catch is someone throwing trash out of their cell. The problem with catching this is you have to see it when it first pops through those bars. Once it’s just a little ways out, you cannot say for certain which cell it came out of. Of course, nobody knows who did it when they are asked. Even if you see it come out and you are a little ways away at an angle, all you can see is a line of bars. It’s extremely difficult to keep in sight and distinguish the exact point it came flying out from.
One guy I caught started yelling, trying to incite other the others locked up in the unit. I directed him to settle down. He continued yelling and told me to get away from his cell. I left him be with his anger and went to write the report.
Part of his anger was that now everyone would know who tossed this trash out onto the flag. There are guys in here that don’t appreciate their home being disrespected. The only thing that will happen to this guy from my side of the fence is a talking to by the lieutenant.
His problem would be from those inmates that didn’t appreciate what he did.
During one lockdown, there was a guy that threw out a carton of milk; actually several over this extended lockdown. The milk landed on the flag in front of a guy’s cell that could take care of himself quite well. The milk soured on the floor in front of his cell creating quite the foul odor.
Sometimes these guys let their milk sour and then mixed in urine and feces. They will throw these “shit bombs” at an officer when possible. During this lockdown, this inmate tried to nail me with it. He missed and it burst open on the floor in front of this guy’s cell that was already frustrated with the sour milk smell. When he smelled the foul smell of the “shit bomb;” he yelled out, “I know who you are. When we get out, I’ll be getting you for this.”
Prison justice controls this place much more than we officers ever could.
D HALL DIVA
Early in doing my time in this place, I was sent to D-Hall, to assist in shaking down cells during a lockdown.
The inmate of a cell I had been shaking down took offence to how thorough I was doing my job. He started yelling at me to leave his property alone, that nobody had ever gone through his stuff to the degree that I was going through it and that he had been around a long time. I informed him that I was doing as I was instructed and trained to do.
The way I looked at these shakedowns was that if I missed anything, like a shank, and this guy caused a problem with it later, it was my fault