Prison Puzzle Pieces 2. Dave Basham
at times. I hit this often. I would get on an inmate for a policy violation. He would tell me an officer on third watch said it was alright. I would ask the name of the officer. If they wouldn’t tell me, it never happened and the inmate was in trouble.
If they gave me a name, I’d contact that officer and ask them. If they confirmed that they told the inmate it was alright, the inmate was off the hook.
If the officer stated that they never said it, I’d weigh out the credibility of the inmate verses the credibility of the officer. If I determined the officer to be more credible than the inmate, I’d get the inmate for the policy violation and for misrepresentation. Rarely would any inmate ever lie to me about something like this. If they knew me, they would know that I would be checking out their story.
Once in a while, I would find the inmate to be more credible. In a case like this, I would not write up the violation.
The DOC did a good thing with that misrepresentation word. People get angry when you call them a liar. When you say that they misrepresented the facts, they will more readily admit to that, even though it’s the same thing.
EXCEPTIONS TO POLICY
There are times that officers would give an inmate the OK to violate a policy. We don’t like to do it, but at times it’s the right thing to do. You have to be extremely careful though because doing this makes you responsible for anything that might go wrong. That is the big reason to go with NO EXCEPTIONS to any policy. I tried to apply some common sense, at least my kind of common sense.
At times an inmate would oversleep and a friend would ask permission to go wake their friend up. This was if they were housed on different tiers requiring them to go to an unauthorized area. At times, depending on the circumstances and the knowledge I had about those inmates, I would give him the nod. I never had anyone cross me on making exceptions like this, at least that I was aware of.
You have to be very careful with making exceptions. What you do for one, you have to do for all. If I wouldn’t do the same thing for anyone in that situation, I wouldn’t allow it.
As you can see, enforcing policies are helpful and make your job easier if you look at them as being black and white, no racial connotation intended. If you attempt to be more realistic to the multitude of situations that can occur, you will make your life in this place more difficult.
When I taught academies, I would explain all kinds of situations and give them examples of things I experienced and heard. I would flat out tell them that the way I do things is only right for me and who I am. I told them that they would have to make decisions based on who they were and how they felt they could best handle the job and be able to deal with the decisions they made. There are a huge number of policies and there are an endless number of situations that will occur. They will be held responsible for any decision they make. If they make a decision and some idiot superior officer doesn’t like it, their decision will be deemed a mistake.
When an inmate would complain about there being too many policies, I would tell them that they would never want to be an officer then. There are more policies dictating what officers can and can’t do, say, wear or anything else than there are for them.
ENFORCING POLICIES THAT I HATED
There were a lot of policies that I didn’t agree with. It was not my place to pick and choose. If it was a policy, it was my responsibility to enforce it.
Take the headboard policy for instance. Inmates would take the lid off their footlocker and set it against the angle iron on the end of their bunk that holds their bunk on the wall. They would put their pillow up against it. The lid would hold the pillow in place so they could lean against it for comfort while they read a book, watched TV or whatever else.
It would keep their pillow from falling off the end of the bed at night. I know that without a headboard at home, I would be losing my pillow to the floor many times during the night.
Keep in mind too that these pillows are nothing you would ever qualify as a pillow. They were flat and firm. They were plastic with a little bit of cottony type filling. They were about 3 inches thick.
These guys would stuff blankets, coats, clothes any soft thing they could find into the pillow case with their pillow to try to make it comfortable. Some would steal another pillow or two to help out. Some would rip the pillow open and stuff other items in it. By stealing another pillow or altering the one they had, they could face charges.
Granted, these people are not put in this place to have all the comforts of those outside these walls, but I saw no benefit to how this situation was handled.
If we are trying to keep things chilled out in this place, having an inmate not get a good night sleep is not the way to achieve this. They are not happy to be here. A tired inmate is a cranky inmate; more than usual anyway.
I enforced these policies. The inmates will tell you that nobody enforced them more aggressively than I did. It was a priority for the big shots. If the big shots came through and saw headboards up and extra pillows in cells, we would get heat. It was better for the inmates and the officers if the big shots did not see these things when they came into the unit.
The best I could do to keep the bosses off our case was to enforce policies, especially those that stuck out to them easily when they came in the cell block.
I believe that the reason for this policy was for better vision into the cell. However, I only had one instance where anyone tried to hide behind a headboard. It didn’t work. His afro protruded above it. It was actually laughable.
Have I stated that I flat out hated enforcing this policy; that I found it one of the most counterproductive policies to keeping peace in the institution? If I were locked up in this place, this would be a policy that I would violate; however, I would violate it after the big shots had left for the day.
NOT ON MY WATCH
When I found policy violations, I would frequently say, “Not on my watch.” I couldn’t control what they did when I wasn’t around, but I needed the bosses to find everything in order when I was around. I worked second watch. I worked from 6am to 2pm. This was prime time for bosses to come inspecting. If you want to violate a policy, violate it when the bosses have gone home. Violate it when officers that are working are not going to do their job. If you violate the headboard policy, do it at the end of third watch, through first watch and correct it when you wake up on second watch. If you are going to violate a policy, do it wisely.
Third watch is working on getting the block secured, so they can get out of this hell hole. Officers on first watch are not going to wake anyone up to have them take down a headboard. They want everyone sleeping and quiet so they can ride out a peaceful night. Even I am not going to hassle anyone about a headboard unless it isn’t down when they leave for breakfast.
Well, I can’t say that 100%. There was a time that the bosses were pushing us on this policy real hard. You read about it when B-West got double bunked.
As I’ve stated, I enforced a lot of things I didn’t agree with because it was my job.
DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO USE A SPOTTER?
While on a security round, I found a couple of guys in a cell tattooing. They were surprised to see me. I was surprised to see them doing this. They were even more surprised with my reaction. I said, “Don’t you guys know how to use a spotter?”
There is no way anyone should get caught in the act of tattooing. You have a couple of other inmates stand outside your cell chatting and maybe drinking a cup of coffee. It appears to be two guys just hanging out.
These spotters have several responsibilities:
1. If other inmates walk by, spotters make sure everyone walks by without pausing or even glancing into the cell. People walking by looking in a cell, draws our attention, so that we have to go take a look too.
2.