Scenes of Prison
43. Working for a Living
“I' m sorry, Mister Franklin,” I said, “but that’s not good enough. You’ll have to do it again.” I was speaking to an inmate named Jerome who had been assigned to mop the pantry floor. It was his job.
“What?” he said. “No way! That’s bullshit. I ain’t doin nothin again.”
“I’m sorry,” I continued, “but if you refuse, I can’t mark your job as complete, and you won’t get paid. You’ll also be in violation of the Inmate Code of Offenses for refusing to work, and I may have to write you up in a misconduct report. Better just do it again, and this time do it right.”
This was my parting comment. When I finished speaking, I turned and walked away leaving Jerome holding a mop handle with his right hand and no one to argue with.
It may surprise you, but I knew many, many Jerome Franklins over the years. Sometimes, it seemed like I encountered a few every day.
When free people living in the community get up in the morning, they eat their breakfasts, make their beds, go to work, and work all day. At the end of the day, there’s dinner to eat and chores to do, and by the time those are finished, people are usually too tired to go out and commit crimes.
Criminals don’t get worn out. They sleep late, and when they need money, they steal it, or they rob others of their money. This is the common lifestyle of people just before they find themselves behind bars and on their way to prison.
At the prison, we use a simple set of incentives to mold inmates' lives into a daily pattern that we know will help them lead normal, productive lives when they are released, but sometimes, it’s a struggle.
All inmates living in general population units are required to work at a job. We have hundreds of inmates,
and we can’t put any inmate in a position of authority over another inmate. Therefore, all of our inmates have entry-level jobs of some sort, and many of them involve custodial tasks, so we have an army of custodians!
Work call comes twice a day, once in the morning after breakfast, and once in the early afternoon after the noon meal. We struggle to come up with work assignments for everyone. We want tasks to be clear and to produce results anyone can see. Cleaning a dirty window is work, and when the window is clean, everyone can agree that it is clean, but how many windows do you have, and how many times a day do they really need to be washed?
It isn’t unusual to have thirty inmates all reporting for work at the same time to clean the unit. We break tasks down into small units, and inmates often finish their morning assignments in less than thirty minutes. When tasks are completed, inmates come to the caseworker and ask to be marked off on the work roster. It is this request that often prompts inspections, and inspections sometimes lead to disappointing results as they did for Jerome. For Jerome, this was a teaching moment.
With this army of inmate custodians cleaning the prison every day, you’d think that the prison would be sparkling clean, but remember, these are reluctant custodians who aren't accustomed to any manual work, especially custodial work. This is a crucial insight because it provides an onlooker with a window into the balance of control the prison staff have of their facility. All you need to do is check for cleanliness.
If the prison is dirty, you should not stay long. Staff have lost control, and anything can happen. If the prison is sparkling clean, it’s because the staff are in control and are successfully managing the inmate population in areas besides just cleaning the prison.
Cleanliness is a barometer of the balance of power between the inmate population and the management. When a prison is sparkling clean, things are probably going pretty well. If it is dirty, it’s a dangerous place, and the warden will soon be replaced.
Once a month, inmates are paid. Unit porter jobs start at 97 cents a day. More skilled jobs pay more. When the month’s pay is calculated, it appears on their accounts, and they can fill out canteen store sheets and spend their money.
Inmates don’t have many expenses. Healthcare, housing, clothing, and three meals a day are all free. There are no gas, electric, or water bills. But some things are not free. Soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes are given to indigent inmates who can’t work and have no money, but they’re the only ones who get such items free of charge. Everyone else must buy these items. This gives us an economy, and inmates fit their labors into it. Their reward comes when they open their store sacks and unload hygiene items plus all the extra snacks and goodies they can afford that they’ve purchased at the Canteen. However, these must last a month (until the next pay store).
Most people would be surprised at the wide variety of items which inmates may purchase that are available in our Inmate Canteen, but by far the most coveted item is a TV.
Our Canteen sells a small TV that has a clear, see-through exterior, so inmates can’t hide forbidden items inside. It plugs into a TV cable jack on the wall of every room. The television has no speakers. To listen, inmates must connect headphones to a jack located on the front.
The TV cables that go to the rooms come from Central Control. At Central Control the cables that come from the rooms meet another cable coming down from the roof. Profits from canteen sales and soda pop sales have allowed the Department to purchase three large satellite dishes, which was positioned directly on top of Central Control.
The satellite dish was able to bring in a multitude of channels, and from time to time, the inmates would vote from a list of available channels to select the ones that would be channeled into their rooms.
As I recall, the inmates preferred sports channels and reality television programs, especially ones that presented domestic situations like marital difficulties. Court TV programs where a snappy judge would offer both a ruling and a scolding were also very popular. Inmates especially delighted in the scoldings which were usually delivered to young men, just like them. It was great fun for them.
Inmates beg family members to send them enough money to enable them to buy a TV, and they save as much money as they can from their monthly earnings.
The TV’s arrival is a joyous day for inmates. It will help them pass the long hours of confinement in their rooms, especially at night when inmates are deadlocked inside.
Discussion
- The author discovered that one of his job duties was to supervise a team of reluctant custodians. Do you have any tips for others who find themselves in this role?
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