to support.
The lieutenant in segregation liked my work ethic. He wanted me in seg and seg was my preference. I liked the officers there, the sergeant and the lieutenant. That is the biggest plus in this place if you can find it. The lieutenant spoke to the sergeant in the visiting room and requested that she keep me out of shakedown as much as possible, so I wouldn't quit before he had a chance to get me in his unit. She did what she could, but any time in shakedown was repulsive to me.
I had to do the visiting room for two weeks with Monday's and Tuesday's off.
An opening came up on 1st watch, so I bid on it in order to try to get out of visiting. I got it, so I went to 1st watch with my days off being Wednesday's and Thursday's which is Tuesday's starting at 10pm & Wednesday's starting at 10pm. My first day on First Watch was March 14, 2001.
Second watch was my preference. It ran from 6am to 2:30pm. I knew that was a long shot at this time because I had very low seniority.
Third Watch ran from 2:10pm until 10:10pm.
Convincing myself that being on first watch was my best move was necessary, so I made up a list of what I perceived to be the pros and cons.
It gave me the best shot at getting overtime, which I needed badly.
It was easier to get people to switch shifts with me than if I was working in the visiting room, but I rarely did switches anyway.
First watch made it so I could get workout times in the gym when the gym wasn't very busy, which I really didn't take advantage of very well.
It made it so my day hours were available for appointments, running errands, making phone calls, doing yard work and doing comedy gigs around town. This one actually did pan out a bit.
It was a shift where there was lower stress, because the inmates were locked in and most were asleep.
It made it possible to do things with friends, but rarely.
What I found out was that it cuts your evenings short. Just when things are getting rolling around town, you have to leave and get ready to go to work.
Getting to sleep was impossible. Trying to sleep during the day is tough. My toughest job in life has always been trying to get some sleep. Now I'm trying to get to sleep with it being light out and with many more noises that are much louder than at night. I found it difficult to shut my mind off. I had the urge to get up and make my daylight time productive. The cycle that evolved was that I spent all night trying to stay awake, all day trying to go to sleep and the only time I could actually doze off easily was when I was driving home from work. Luckily, I never crashed into anyone. Hitting the gravel on the side of the road would wake me up enough to go a little further, then conk out, then hit the ditch, and on and on. By the time I got home, I was so rattled that I couldn't get to sleep. Working this shift, I was always way too tired to accomplish anything needing energy or brain power.
On this watch I had to work with some wienie snitches, not my favorite type of person. I'm fine with anything they tell a boss about me that is accurate, but don't make things up.
By bidding, I was frozen for 3 months.
After being on 1st watch for 4 months, two opportunities came up in the same week. Both of them were on 2nd watch. One was a position in segregation and the other was in B-West. The seg position was my preference, but getting to 2nd watch at this point was critical. My health was going down and my weight was going up. The position in seg had better days off, so I lost out on that one, but I was lucky enough to get the B-West position with the low seniority that I had.
Starting on July 18, 2001, B-West became my home with Tuesdays and Wednesdays off. I was in this block until February 21, 2006. This block had a reputation from the past. It was called "The Wild Wild West." Little did I know at this time that while I was there, changes would be made that would make it wilder than it ever was before.
One year after graduating from the academy the rate of pay was increased from $13.86 to $14.26. This was the step 2 classification.
NUMBSKULL
My time in B-West was near an end. One reason for leaving was that for some time, my head would gradually go numb. This day, by the time I left, my head was totally numb again.
I had been to doctors to try to find out what was wrong. The doctors ran me through a lot of tests.
One day they gave me a brain scan. The doctor said, "We couldn't find anything."
I said, "I'm paying you to tell me that? My mother told me that for years."
Once I got out of B-West, the numbness went away.
BASHAM ERA ENDS IN B-WEST
The morning started off with Officer Cutter creating problems again. She caught two guys taking sugar packets. They weren't hooch makers. They wanted some flavor for their coffee.
If we caught it, the best way of handling it was to give them a verbal warning and document it in their file.
She started yelling at them and told them she was locking them up. She was spazzing out again. Her physical antics and yelling created a huge scene and was escalating the situation. I had to step in. First I had to get her to chill out. Then I had to calm one guy down that was tired of putting up with her superiority trip.
Before the morning had ended, we had to send four inmates to segregation for making hooch.
MOVIN' ON OUT
Later in the day, I emptied my locker and moved the items to a locker in A-East. Officers were like vultures waiting for me to evacuate. Two officers took shelves that I had in my locker and another moved his things into what was no longer my locker.
When I stepped into A-East, one of the swampers already wanted a favor. He wanted me to appoint him to the laundry job. I told him I'd decide once I found out what was actually going on in the block. I didn't want to step on anyone's toes.
Three block officers and two sergeants were working in B-West on my last day in that block. They gave me a going away party at the Crab House in Stillwater after work. They picked up a card and signed it. I didn't expect anything like that. It was a very nice gesture. I appreciated it.
And so the "Basham Era" ended in B-West.
BASHAM ERA BEGINS IN A-EAST
My first day in A-East was February 22, 2006. I was there until I retired with my last day being May 24, 2008.
I was on a round with another officer. An inmate, who didn't know who I was because he was new to the institution, asked what was going on.
I said, "He's training in the rookie".
An inmate on the flag said, "You ain't no rookie. Far from it."
An inmate in his cell on gallery three heard what was going on. He stepped out of his cell to see what was up. When he saw me he froze. He just stood there with a shocked look on his face. I could hear him say, "Oh shit!"
He turned around and went back in his cell. Obviously, my reputation came with me.
There was a barber in A-East that I had worked with in B-West. We had knocked heads many times before. When he saw me, he gave me a lot of attitude. I could guarantee that he would not comply with the job standards that I required. That means that I could guarantee that he would not be a barber in A-East much longer. Before I went to A-East, I was informed that the lieutenant wanted me to take over the swamper crew and get this block squared away. Those inmates that would cooperate and assist me in that endeavor would be around. Those that resisted and created problems would either leave on their own, be fired or leave by way of segregation.
I could tell that the other officers were feeling a little bit of pressure from me being there as they were