"PRISON
PUZZLE
PIECES"
The realities, experiences and insights
of a corrections officer
doing his time in
Historic Stillwater Prison
By
Dave Basham
Volume 1
Copyright 2016 Dave Basham
All rights reserved
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2716-4
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
THE SHORTEST CHAPTER EVER
Hi!
DEDICATED TO
Dedicated to all of the good officers that did their time along with the inmates.
Dedicated to all of the people who were unjustly convicted.
Dedicated to those who were injured or lost their lives protecting others on the inside.
Dedicated to all of the people who were treated unjustly by corrupt prison guards.
Dedicated to those officers and inmates that could not keep sane in this environment.
Dedicated to all of the inmates who treated poorly trained officers decent.
Dedicate to those officers that refuse to kiss the asses of those in power above them.
Dedicated to those officers that stopped climbing that corrections ladder in order to maintain their integrity.
Dedicated to staff and inmates that assisted in educating me on how to perform my duties the best way possible and as humanely as possible.
NOT DEDICATED TO – PREFERABLY DEAD
Not dedicated to the small percentage of offenders, officers and supervisors that cause most of the problems.
Not dedicated to the people in power that treat good officers like criminals and coddle the trouble makers in the institution.
Not dedicated to those not having the stones to do their job in spite of the old boy network.
Not dedicated to the offenders who use technicalities in the law to get off and not dedicated to those that created and allowed those technicalities to set those offenders free to victimize others.
Not dedicated to those so ignorant and power hungry that they choose to believe the words of the criminal and the corrupt over the words of those trying to do good time and those trying to do their jobs fairly and consistently.
Not dedicated to those who create situations that caused good people to leave this job for jobs where such unfairness and frustrations does not exist.
Not dedicated to the politicians who don't know their ass from a hole in the ground, yet force knowledgeable experienced personnel to do as they dictate.
Not dedicated to the racists of any race that crate a negative culture within the system.
BOOMER
OUR FIRST ENCOUNTER
The first time I ever saw Boomer was when I was working in the visiting room. He was not allowed to have contact visits, so I saw him through the thick glass enclosure where they had to use phones to speak to their visitor. The officer I was with saw him there and started to tell me about him. Boomer saw us looking his way, got an angry look on his face and pointed at us. This was a large black man. He was tall, sturdy and had bulk that was more muscle than fat. Even from the distance we were from him, I could tell he was a force to be reckoned with.
The officer was telling me that Boomer had non contact visits because the last time he had a contact visit, he made it more than the allowable contact, if you get my drift. All hell broke loose when officers tried to get them apart.
There is a lot that I have no way to verify 100%. I never looked up Boomers records to see what he was in for or what he had done while being incarcerated. I found it easier to treat everyone the same if I didn't know their background. After working in this place awhile, I could generally tell just by looking at these guys the reason they got locked up.
Most things that people have told me about things that have gone on in this place, I was able to verify to a high level of accuracy.
One thing was for certain, this officer feared Boomer.
OUR SECOND ENCOUNTER
The next time I ran into Boomer, I was working in D Hall, which was where Boomer lived. I was working the door post which in this block was right by the desk. Boomer came down to the desk to speak to the sergeant. He had a loud low booming voice. Barry White had nothing on this guy. Standing next to him, I felt like a little guy. I felt like I was standing next to a bear that could take me out with one swipe of his paw. If I had to use one word to describe him at this point, I would say powerful.
Later, I had an opportunity to talk to him. I introduced myself and told him the first time I had seen him was in visiting. He clearly remembered. I told him he seemed angry at that time. He said that he thought we were talking about him and that he didn't like that other officer. I verified to him that we were talking about him; that the officer was filling me in on him. He said that officer had it out for him and made up stuff about him. I told him that I listen to what people tell me, but that I make up my own mind about people and their character. He seemed very cordial and had a good sense of humor. He also had a good sense of himself, oozed confidence and was extremely savvy about people and the goings on in this place.
BARBER BOOMER
Our next meeting was when he was transferred into B-West. He was unemployed at the time. Nobody wanted to hire him because of his reputation and most were afraid of him. Nobody wanted the headaches that came with having him around.
He talked one of our sergeants into hiring him as a barber. The problem was that he couldn't cut hair. He would get friends to come to him for haircuts and intimidate others into coming to him in order to get some business. I was in charge of the swampers, so I wasn't happy with having a barber that had no skills. Inmates were complaining to me that they wanted a qualified barber. I asked the sergeant why he had hired Boomer. He said he deserved a break. I had a lot of respect for both of the sergeants that were in this block at this time. I needed a solution. We are only allowed two barbers in each unit, but I needed two good barbers. Our other barber did a good job, but quit, leaving me with one unqualified barber. I wanted to hire the best barber in the institution and use him to train in Boomer properly.
The job posting went up and two really good barbers applied. After asking inmates and officers what they thought about these guys, the consensus was that they were both very good and that one was the best barber in the entire institution.
I wanted to hire both of them, that way the best guy could train in Boomer and we would have two qualified barbers while Boomer was learning. Problem was that we were only allowed two barbers per cellblock, but I had a plan. I could divide the utility position, miscellaneous jobs, up between all three barbers and still have the correct allotment of swampers. When I bounced my plan off the top sergeant, he liked the idea and told me to go ahead with it. The best guy was known to not be the most agreeable person in this world of many abrasive attitudes. The top sergeant