Prison Puzzle Pieces 2. Dave Basham
is the email.
Please post the attached document on offender accessible bulletin boards. This memo advises offenders that the practice of providing bread in the evenings will be discontinued effective August 1, 2005. We have been talking this up in rep groups so the information should not be a surprise.
Here is the memo.
Effective August, 1, 2005, the practice of delivering bread to the cell halls will be discontinued. For well over two decades, this facility has delivered several containers of loaves of white bread to the cell halls on a daily basis in the evening. Anecdotal information indicates this practice started in the early or mid 1970's, perhaps beginning after canteen began selling condiments which could be used on the bread. Other information indicates that the bread was provided specifically as a required supplement for in between meals.
Regardless of the reasons why MCF-Stillwater initiated the practice, there are several reasons that this facility has decided to discontinue providing the bread to the cell halls.
First, the facility menu provides all the nutritional requirements needed on a daily basis. According to the DOC dietician, the bread in the cell halls contains extra carbohydrates and sodium, but very little vitamins, minerals or fiber. Mostly, the bread is empty and unneeded calories. Furthermore, the bread is the vehicle for additional calories or fat to be ingested when eaten with toppings.
MCF-Stillwater is also the only correctional facility engaging in the practice.
The cost to provide the bread is over $55,000 per year. These funds will instead be used to provide healthier alternatives in the dining hall.
In summary, the elimination of the bread in the cell halls will contribute to a healthier diet and will result in making additional dollars available for food items in the dining hall.
This will be an adjustment for all of us but we believe the change will be offset by improved food service in the dining hall. Thank you for your cooperation.
Here is my take on it.
There was no fair way to distribute this bread. When it came into the cell halls, an announcement was made. It was first come, first served. It was like pigs at a feeding trough. This instigated assaults on those that nabbed a lot verses those that got none.
The main reason this bread should've never been brought into the cell blocks is that it was one of the main ingredients in making hooch. We don't want them making hooch, because drunk criminals are dangerous to everyone, and here they were being assisted by the institution in being able to make hooch.
STAND UP CON
An inmate decided to have a little fun with an officer. As officers were passing by his cell, he said, “I have a pass.” He thought an officer would pop his door open without checking.
“For what programming?”
“Just kidding.”
The officers felt something was up, so they decided to shake down the cell.
As the one officer began to open a footlocker, the joker said, “Call the squad now.”
“Why?”
“I have a footlocker full of hooch.”
The officer finished opening the footlocker and found about 15 gallons of orange hooch.
He stated that it was his and that his cellmate had nothing to do with it.
He went to seg and his cellmate went back into his cell with no charges against him.
You can guess about this one. Was it really his and was he a stand up con? Would he be in trouble with his cellmate for causing officers to find it, so he took the blame rather than a beating?
Was he being forced to hold it and found this as an out to not be put in that situation again? If you get caught once, the odds are that you will get checked more often than most.
TRIFECTA
At four o’clock in the morning, while an officer was doing count, an inmate handed him a note.
The note stated that he had been assaulted by his cellmate and that his cellmate was drunk and high.
The officer called for the A-Team. The victim was taken to the security center and the assailant was taken to seg.
When they shook down the cell, they found marijuana in a shirt pocket and a homemade marijuana smoking device made from a playing card.
They found hooch in a large jug wedged between the bottom mattress and the wall. They also found three plastic Folgers coffee containers wedged underneath the sink with all of them smelling like hooch. Inmates received coffee from canteen in these red plastic Folgers containers. As anyone buying these containers from their local grocery store knows, these containers are excellent for many uses. Now you know of another use for them.
Assault, hooch and marijuana would keep this guy in seg for a while.
SOME GUYS WILL SWALLOW ANYTHING
Pill popper, pill popper give it a whirl. There are some guys in this place that will take any pill they can get a hold of, whether they know what it is or not. They will get pills from guys that are getting released. They will buy pills from any one that will sell them their prescribed medication. They will buy them from guys that get them smuggled into the prison. They like testing pills out to see what will happen. They like to try different combinations to see what the experience will be. Some people like going out to restaurants and trying different kinds of food. These guys do that with pills. Whether it’s a hobby or a life style, it’s their thing that they enjoy.
However, some of these guys really know their pills. They can look at a pill and be able to tell you exactly what it is.
An inmate stated that he was lightheaded and dizzy. He had to be taken to Health Services in a wheelchair.
When he got there, he said couldn’t stop staring at the floor or his shirt sleeve. He admitted to taking 5 peach colored pills the night before and that they were not his. The nurse showed him some pills that matched what he described. He pointed to the one he took. They were 5mg tablets of Haloperidol; a typical antipsychotic medication used in the treatment of schizophrenia.
He was treated and taken back to his cell and locked in for disorderly conduct and possession of contraband.
KNOWLEDGE CAN BE DANGEROUS
Knowing how to make methamphetamine is not necessarily a good thing in prison, especially if you won’t share the knowledge.
An inmate named five inmates that had threatened to kill him if he didn’t teach them how to make methamphetamine. He stated that these guys were not the ring leaders but he refused to name the big shots.
He was to be interviewed by a psychologist and then possibly be admitted to the chemical dependency program.
He was not permitted to have a swamper job that gave him access to the chemicals in the supply closet.
PARTY ON DUDES
The inmates in a cell had lost all of their inhibitions by the middle of the night.
Earlier they had been given a warning to either turn their radio off or use their headphones because they were disturbing the unit.
Later, two officers were on a security check. Those two inmates were talking loudly. The officers could smell what they believed to be hooch. The officers returned to that cell after completing their security round to determine if they had been drinking.
“Could you guys quiet down?”
One inmate kept repeating, “Stop giving me the blues. I’m not giving you the blues.”
“Have