sitting on the side of his bed. I kept looking for Boomer. I thought that I was at the wrong cell. He recognized me and cracked a big smile. That's when I recognized him. We were only allowed to see each other a minute or so. He wasn't giving in to the cancer, even though he knew he was losing the battle. The officer that brought me to see Boomer said we had to go. Boomer used all of his energy to stand up. Being close to an inmate is not acceptable. He reached out to give me a hug. Now, I've never been much of a hugger; generally a handshake at most. Over the years we had developed this bond that would not be considered acceptable with him being an inmate and me being an officer. We both knew the boundaries though and never crossed them. Now, I figured to heck with what's acceptable, this is right. We did the inmate hug where you put your arms around someone and bump your fists on each others backs. We both knew this was the last time we would see each other.
Less than two weeks later, on June 21, 2005, an officer friend of mine at Oak Park Heights, emailed me that Boomer passed away that morning at 9:30am. I've always found it difficult to admit, even to myself, that an inmate was a friend of mine. But I have to admit, this man was my friend.
DA GANGSTA
"I'm down wit 'cha bein' da gangsta cause you was right wit da G." Decipher that one, why don't you.
On 11-22-05, I observed an inmate in an unauthorized area. He had not been in the block long, but I had spoken to him several times about policy violations already. He had never done anything really bad, but he was pushing the limits and becoming a problem child. I hadn't written him up for anything, I just had to speak to him too often about his minor violations. He wasn't even being sneaky about it.
When I spoke to him this day about being in an unauthorized area that is when he said, "I'm down wit cha bein' da gangsta, cause you was right wit da G."
Huh? What's that you say? I didn't want to let on that I didn't understand him. His manner was that he was accepting my directive. I wrote down what he said, so I could figure it out later.
When I had time, I broke his statement down. G was a nickname of Boomers. Fixing up the broken English helped.
The statement now was, "I am down with you being the gangster, because you were right with Boomer."
"Down with" meant that he was alright with, could accept or handle me being the gangster.
"The gangster" was how he perceived me. I enforced policies consistently when others were too intimidated or lazy to enforce them.
"Right with G" was that I had helped Boomer out. I treated him decent. I helped him as I would've anyone, but never crossed the line. While other officers were trying to find a way to write him up and put a notch on their belt, I was trying to assist him in functioning without being harassed; encouraging him to play it straight.
So, what I came up with from this guy's statement was that I wasn't going to have any problems with him because he respected what I had done for Boomer.
He was a player and a nuisance, but he knew when not to push the limits. If he was going to do anything major, it would be when I wasn't around. This was one guy that I never had to write up; due to my friendship with Boomer.
INTRODUCTION – STOP READING NOW! YOUR MIND IS AT RISK!
THIS MONSTER
These books are about what I experienced during my 7 years 8 months and 26 days (2825 days) as a corrections officer. When you are employed or incarcerated in a place like this, you are always aware of the time.
Corrections officers' job responsibilities are:
1.The safety of the public
2.The safety of ourselves, the officers
3.The safety of the offenders
4.The preservation of public property
The things we deal with most are trying to correct problems or problem people. It is best if you can take action to prevent problems in the first place. Most jobs I have had involved trying to fix or prevent problems both with inanimate objects and people. My life outside of work has been that way, but that's a whole other story. It just seems like most things in life have to do with preventing and correcting.
TITLE EVOLUTION
So, my first problem was what to name these books.
My first idea was to call it "Dingle Berries on a Black Man's Ass." This title would've made perfect sense by the time you finished reading the book, but friends told me it sounded racist. Racism is a subject that will be addressed, but it is not who I am, nor is it my perspective.
Another title was "Stillwater Prison." This could be confusing as there is a prison in Stillwater, Oklahoma too. Also, people from other parts of the country would probably care less about that title. Most people have probably never heard of Stillwater, Minnesota. Those who have heard of it would probably know of it from its' early days of housing members of the James-Younger Gang; Cole, Bob and Jim Younger. I will address some of the history of this institution and some of the stories that get passed around from one generation of officer to another.
Nicknames people called me were possibilities.
An early nickname was "Totally Basham" or just "Totally." It was derived from "totally awesome." This came from my style of being alert to what was going on and not being afraid to do my job.
During my time in the B-West cell block, after it was double bunked, a huge percentage of the offenders that were in segregation were there because of reports that I wrote. An inmate said that I always sent at least one inmate a day to the hole. He said it never failed. That's how "One a Day Basham" came about.
Many knew me as "The Terminator." Some inmates didn't even know me as Basham; they only knew me as the Terminator. This was a top contender, but I believe that title had already been used.
It was later, after I was no longer in double bunking hell that the less sinister nickname of "DaBash" began to evolve. That is how the inmates and officers who knew me well referred to me the last few years. That one almost got the nod.
I was called many other things that would've been totally inappropriate for little kids to see on a book shelf; however now-a-days it's common to hear those words come out of some of our youngster's mouths.
"I Stand Alone" was a strong contender. Considering my propensity for accuracy and telling it exactly like it is, this seemed to be a good fit. No matter what battle I was fighting, whether it was versus an inmate, officer or superior, I could only count on myself. Due to the politics of the place, it would be rare for anyone to go to the mat for anyone other than themselves. By the time you have finished this book, you will understand why. Also, I knew I could never count on certain people backing me up. This is why it was important to always know who was around. What inmate or officer was near and whether they were friend or foe.
In the process of writing these books, when I got to 1000 pages and still had a lot to write, I realized that there were so many little pieces to this puzzling prison environment that "Prison Puzzle Pieces" evolved.
PLACEMENT OF PIECES
In order to try to eliminate some redundancy, some pieces to this puzzle may not be categorized where you would think. An example is a lockdown that occurred during B-West double bunking. It is in the double bunked section rather than the lockdown section, as it seemed more pertinent to be there. B-West incidents are scattered throughout the book, as they seemed more pertinent to those sections. However, at times, I do mention some items off and on as reinforcements to certain sections. When you have read it all, all of the pieces will come together.
CONFLICT
While I was doing standup comedy, I took improve classes. I performed, taught and created several improv groups. One thing improv taught me was that you need some sort of conflict to drive a scene