Scenes of Prison
20. Necktie or Noose?
W hen correctional officers are hired, they are outfitted in a uniform: dark blue pants, lighter blue shirts (both long sleeve and short sleeve), coat, badge, ball cap, break-away necktie, and duty belt. They also receive chemical agents and restraints to carry on their duty belts. At first, caseworkers had none of this. Management imagined that caseworkers would dress a lot like them. They’d appear “professional,” and at first, we did. However, over time, caseworkers began to let their appearance diminish, and management noticed.
One day, they issued a new rule. Going forward, male caseworkers would be required to wear a necktie and a dress shirt.
Oh, my! You should have heard the complaints. You would have thought we were being required to wear clown shoes!
Chief among the objections was that inmates would view the neckties as ropes wrapped around our necks, and they would take the opportunity we were giving them to strangle us with our own neckties!
It must have amused both managers and correctional officers that caseworkers were raising such a fuss. We had the solution to our objections walking around right in front of us every day: the break-away neckties that all correctional officers wore every day as part of their uniforms.
A break-away necktie is merely a necktie that doesn't wrap around one’s neck. It’s usually secured to the collar by a small clip or clasp. If you grab it and pull, it comes off in your hand.
Caseworkers that I talked with were blind to this, including me. We grumbled and swore, but the date to implement the new policy had been set, and management wasn’t budging.
On the appointed day, I wrapped a necktie around my neck, tied the knot at the front of my throat, and set off to work.
Our first stop when we arrived at work that day was to gather in a meeting room where attendance would be taken. The shift Lieutenant checked off our names and assigned people to specific posts, so the prison could be fully staffed. We called this attendance taking “roll call,” and we also called it “guard mount,” so the room where this takes place was called our “guard mount room.”
In the guard mount room early that morning, I settled into my chair with my necktie securely tied at my throat, and all the other male caseworkers in the room also had their neckties wrapped around their necks, and all of us were in a surly mood. When guard mount ended, and we were sent off to our various units, grumbling all the way, we wondered if the day would bring any unpleasant surprises.
We didn’t have to wait very long.
I was working in a special needs setting at the time, and some of the “special needs” inmates were mentally challenged. One of these, a chubby young inmate named Franklin, was easily suggestable. If another inmate told him to do something, he would trust the inmate and go do it.
Right away, the inmates noticed my necktie. It was the hot topic of conversation that morning, and before the day was even half over, one of the brighter, more mischievous inmates in the Unit pulled Franklin aside.
“Hey Franklin,” he said. “Go up to Mister Larsen and grab his tie. See what he does.”
Franklin was not one to think over instructions. He walked right up to me and extended his right hand, and he grabbed my necktie right at my throat. Then, he did nothing. He didn’t pull my tie or move in any direction. He didn’t follow up with a fist to my face with his free hand. He just stood there with his right hand clutching my tie at my throat.
If you open your right hand, palm up, and look at it, you will notice that your thumb stands out to the right, opposing your four outstretched fingers. By themselves, your fingers can’t grasp very much or hold onto anything very securely. You need the thumb to close around an object opposite your fingers and tighten a grip. Without the thumb, the hand is pretty useless for grasping, and that’s the principle that guided my tactic in response to Franklin’s fist at my throat grasping my necktie.
I used my right hand to firmly grasp Franklin’s thumb as it encircled my tie and to pull it away from his fingers. Next, I folded his thumb inward as it naturally flexed, and I began to apply pressure. In elementary school, we called this a thumb buster. Immediately, his fingers uncoiled, and my necktie fell from his grasp. Next, I used both of my hands to get complete control of Franklin’s right hand and arm, and I twisted it and led him face down to the floor in front of us – not fast enough to hurt him, but fast enough for him to remember it. Getting control of his left arm came next, and with him face down on the floor with both arms behind his back, I knelt next to him and made sure he stayed motionless while we waited for security to arrive. When they did, they applied handcuffs to his wrists, and very soon, Franklin was on his way to the Control Unit. I would not see Franklin again for a week.
I was shaken, but unhurt. I was lucky. Another caseworker in another unit that morning was not so lucky. His assailant grabbed his necktie with two hands and used this grip to swing the caseworker, first striking one wall, then another. Our Emergency Response Team came quickly and rescued the caseworker from serious injury, but he was hurt, and his injuries persisted through many months of treatment. He also nursed a resentment that lasted much longer.
Back in my Unit, when the excitement had died down, I took off my own necktie and looked at it. Then, I took a pair of scissors and cut through the tie where it stretched across the back of my neck. Next, I attached the two freshly cut ends together with a few staples. Finally, I retied the necktie around my neck. Now, if anyone grabbed it, it would break free as the staples in the back would fail, and the necktie would come off in their hands. I had made a break-away necktie for myself, and I felt pretty foolish that I hadn’t thought of it sooner. Other caseworkers also quickly discovered the break-away necktie, and we all quickly adopted it.
We didn’t talk much about the necktie fiasco in the following days. I felt pretty silly, and I wasn’t anxious to broadcast my foolishness. I guess other male caseworkers shared my feelings. There were no more incidents involving inmates grabbing caseworkers’ neckties, and no more neck injuries because of them.
Discussion
- Why do you suppose the prison administrators did not point out the breakaway tie to the caseworkers who complained about wearing neckties?
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