Scenes of Prison
11. Dwayne and the End of Upholstered Furniture
W hen the inmates got off the buses and were led to their new housing units at the new prison, an amazing sight greeted them. It was just outside their new rooms.
The units were arranged so that every tier of eight rooms had a small day area large enough for inmates to sit down and socialize, and in every day area in the whole prison, we had placed cushioned, upholstered furniture, including low tables where coffee cups, tumblers, soda cans, cards, dominos, and game boards could be placed. Furniture! and a place to sit and play games!
Inmates at the old Reformatory might see furniture with real cushions in the administrative area, but not in any area where they could actually sit down. Now, inmates could sit and socialize and play games just like normal people. There was even indoor-outdoor carpeting on the floors.
But there was more.
In the lower area of each unit, below the tiers of rooms, on the level of the outside yard door, was another day area, larger than the day areas on each tier. This area was also carpeted, and in this day area, there was a large TV with chairs for sitting and watching. A TV! Just outside their rooms!
One more surprise.
Just outside the yard exit door, on every unit, was a vending machine that dispensed a variety of flavors and brands of soda pop. Inmates could purchase tokens from the Inmate Canteen that the machines would accept, and then they could take their soda pop inside the housing unit, sit in a cushioned, upholstered chair, and watch their favorite teams play sporting events on the unit TV in a carpeted and air-conditioned day area.
The old Reformatory was never like this.
Everyone held their breath. How long could this last? Surely, something would happen to spoil it. You can’t treat inmates this well without someone, somehow, screwing it all up.
Unfortunately, they were right.
Sexual acts between inmates are prohibited. One day, two inmates took advantage of the privacy afforded by our new private rooms to indulge themselves. Unfortunately (for them) they were caught. Both inmates received misconduct reports and served some appropriate sanction which probably included room restriction. However, the real penalty occurred when we separated them. We moved one of them to another unit. Dwayne, the inmate who remained on our Unit, was now separated from his special friend.
An old politician whose name few young people today would recognize, had some advice for people like Dwayne: “Don’t get mad, get even.”
And that’s exactly what Dwayne did.
The upholstered furniture was his first target. Mysteriously, the backs and seats of our new furniture began to suffer damage. Long slits began to appear stretching diagonally across them, cut through with an altered razor blade. (The Inmate Canteen sold disposable safety razors inmates used to shave their whiskers.) One by one, each damaged piece of furniture was removed.
What now?! Would the damaged furniture be repaired and returned to the Unit? Inmates often asked this question, but we didn’t know the answer.
The vandalism continued. One chair after another, one couch after another, was damaged and removed. As the destruction continued, inmates came to us daily to complain, and to tell us exactly who was doing the damage, and why he was doing it. We watched, but Dwayne was smart, and when he planned to carry out a destructive act, he watched us, and he knew when we would be occupied and our attention would be diverted. He was smart, and he was right. We never caught him.
One day, he ran out of upholstered furniture. He had ruined them all, and we had removed them all, so he next turned his attention to the TVs in the lower day areas. He had to plan this attack more carefully. At most times of the day, inmates were watching the TVs, but one quiet morning, when I was in the pantry and nearly all the inmates in the Unit were either in their rooms, busy in other areas of the Unit, or off the Unit in other areas of the prison, Dwayne struck again. Suddenly, I heard a gigantic crash from the center day area. Rushing to the scene, I found the tall bookcase which held books, and also held the Unit TV, lying on its face. Someone had pushed the bookcase over, and the TV now lay in a pile of wreckage on the floor. No one was anywhere nearby.
For management, this was the deciding factor. The ruined furniture would not be returned. But what about the TV?
When the management in a prison is unable to act to correct a problem, inmates sometimes take it upon themselves to act, and so it was with Dwayne.
Early one evening, when it was just about dark, the inmates spotted Dwayne coming across the compound heading toward the gate that led into our Unit. There was a narrow point at the gate that separates the large compound yard from the Unit yard, and that was where they met him. I was watching this sudden, unexpected gathering of inmates, and I was wondering why they were standing so close together. That’s when I noticed them part into two groups. Dwayne had reached one end of the group, and they had parted to allow him to pass.
Except that he didn’t pass. He never got close to the gate.
Someone tripped Dwayne as he began to pass between the two groups, and he started to fall to the ground. He didn’t make it to the ground. Before he had fallen very far, the inmates on both sides of him unleashed a barrage of upward kicks that hit him so fast and so hard that his body was lifted into the air and stayed there absorbing kick after kick until the inmates tired from the exertion and let him drop to the ground. Then, they all quickly scattered.
I witnessed the attack, but because of the gathering darkness, I couldn't identify a single one of his attackers. Dwayne was conscious when I got to him. I helped him into the unit, and I arranged medical help for him. Unfortunately for Dwayne, however, management now had the basis to act. Dwayne wasn’t safe at our prison any longer, so they moved him to another prison.
The destroyed TV was replaced, but the new TV, and all the remaining TVs in all the other units, were secured to the walls. The bookcases would now hold only books, and the TVs would no longer be vulnerable to attack. There would be no more TVs crashing to the floor. But the cushioned, upholstered furniture was gone forever.
This good thing that many believed was too good to be true, and many predicted wouldn’t last, was indeed too good to be true, and it didn't last. It was not a good omen for the future. If living in a cage brings out the animal in a person, then how long must a person live outside the cage before the animal comes out of the person?
Some days, I thought about all that damaged furniture, and I wondered what had become of it. Most likely, it was taken to our local municipal landfill, and it occupies a layer somewhere deep in the collected trash of our community, a silent testimony of good intentions that were disappointed. Was the fate of the Unit Management system predicted by the destroyed furniture? Would this good thing also prove to be too good to be true? Would it also be abandoned? Was our faith in treating inmates with compassion foolish and destined to fail?
If the answers would come at all, it would be years in the future before we would know. However, for that day, we would not be giving up, not just yet.
Discussion
- Is it foolish to treat criminals with compassion? Are they likely to take advantage of it? What is the alternative?
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