of fire power and they don't show up. What are they thinking?
Once, when I got outside after 16 hours in this tower, I couldn’t get my car started. They don’t plow in this area, so it took me a while to get my car out once I did get it going. Then when I got inside the prison to turn in my equipment, they asked me what took me so long. Yes, you are right; they did not get a pleasant response. They must've asked me that question after I turned in my weapons as I never wound up locked up in prison.
TRIP WIRES & RAZOR RIBBON
The prison has the wall around it with a fence around the wall. The fence varies in its distance from the wall. We had to keep a close eye on the area between the fence and the wall. A technique used to smuggle drugs or whatever else into the prison was to have someone put the drugs in a tennis ball and toss it over the wall. If items didn’t make it over the wall, they could land in this area. Officers would search the yard before releasing inmates out there for recreation. This would be to recover items like this before inmates could get to them.
Some time ago a trip wire was added to the top of the wall. While working the towers, I found that the least little thing touching it could set off the alarm inside the prison. There was a Peregrine Falcon nest on the Northern States Power Plants smoke stack between the prison and the river. One day I saw one of these falcons knock some snow onto a trip wire and that caused the alarm to go off. I saw other small birds land on the wire and set it off. I also saw snow pile up on top of the wall, fall on the wire and set off the alarm. Any time that happened, an officer would be dispatched to that area outside of the prison walls and another one inside of the prison walls. Nothing could be left to chance, even if all inmates were in their cells and accounted for.
Later while I was working there, razor ribbon was installed at the top of the wall close to the trip wire. You can never have too much security in a place like this. One day my job was to provide security in the area where two men were installing the razor ribbon. Many officers looked at this as a good assignment. I was bored out of my gourd. It was a nice day, but just watching these guys install this stuff all day was tough. I preferred being busy. It was necessary to have an officer supervise people that came into the prison. They have no idea of the things to do or not do to maintain security. Leaving a tool, a piece of wire, a piece of steel or many other things lying around could be an opportunity for an inmate to create a weapon. I had to keep inmates away from the area. They could easily over power someone and use the workers equipment to get over the wall.
While I was observing the goings on in this area, I saw a large tree relatively close to the wall. Years ago when it was planted, it was too small to be a problem. With how large it was now, it could be a way of escaping over the wall. Granted the inmate would have to be in good shape, but it was possible. I knew of one guy in particular that could’ve made it out this way. He was a gymnast in high school before he wound up in here.
I was a gymnast in high school before I came in here. Back then I could’ve made it over that wall by tying some sheets together, climbing the tree, tying one end of the sheet rope in the tree and swinging over the wall.
Creating the opportunity would’ve been the hard part. But more difficult challenges have been accomplished here.
Dropping to the ground on the other side of the wall would’ve been the painful part.
I notified my superior of what I saw. He brushed it off and didn’t want to be bothered. Nothing was done with that tree, not even a trimming, until it had to be removed years later to make room for the new segregation unit.
UNITED NATIONS
Trying to decipher what is being said on our radios is another story. You have the mumblers, you have the ones that sound like they are drunk, and then you have the ones that sound like they are saying something, but you can’t figure out what it is.
This is a place where good communication skills are essential for maintaining safety and security. Then why are they hiring Africans and other people from foreign countries that can’t speak English. By the time I retired, one African had even been promoted to lieutenant. I could NEVER understand anything he said. By the things he did, it was obvious that he wasn’t qualified to do the job. Even if you had to fill quotas of minorities and women, there were much better choices than this guy. Instead of hiring someone that can speak the language that the people of the United States chose when this country was formed, we are given an idiot that we can't understand. Maybe they figured that if we couldn’t understand him, we wouldn’t discover that they had promoted somebody that was not competent to do the job. Well, if so, they were wrong.
With all of these different people calling on the radio, it sounded like the United Nations, and we had no interpreter.
PERFECT ENDING TO A TOWER SHIFT
It is not permissible to have the light on in the tower at night.
When you’re out in the towers late at night, it’s dark and quiet; you step out on the catwalk, let out a huge belch and it doesn’t even echo, it just dissipates in the night air. Ah the ambiance of a prison night. Who says you can’t find pleasant moments working in a prison?
UNIONS
THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY
Once before, I had been in a union. I had to join it because I was an engineer in a bakery. This union was crap. We paid dues and received nothing in return. When the plant closed down, the way we found out was by an old timer that had started at 46½ cents per hour. He found a crumpled up memo in an office waste basket.
During academy, a union guy came in giving us the pitch of how great the union was and how much it did for us. This guy was a pushy jerk. By him coming in and trying to ram this thing down our throats, most of us were turned off. He flat out told us that we better vote for Gore for president. What a fool, yes both this union guy and Gore. Nobody tells me how to vote much less to vote for a liar. Granted most of the politicians are probably liars, but most are not dumb enough to get caught at it and then deny it when everything is taped in this day and age.
The only reason I joined the union was that even if I didn’t, I would still have to pay the same amount. It only seemed logical that if I had to pay the same, I may as well get potential representation and protection along with it.
It’s not that I’m anti union. I am just anti crap unions. This union was another crap union. However, in this place, even a crap union seemed to be a necessity.
During the time I worked at the prison, we lost more than we gained. When I left, the book stating the agreement between Unit 208 and the State of Minnesota was a quarter of an inch thick. When I started the book was about ¾ inch thick.
The original agreement, when I started, I saw as ridiculous. It should’ve been trimmed back. Before my time, the union had succeeded in getting a lot of benefits for those working here. The problem was that they got more approved than was realistic for an employer to bear.
A good agreement should work well for both sides. The employer must remain solvent. Just because it is a state run entity doesn’t mean you can give away the farm. On the contrary, every penny should be thought of as tax payer money. Don’t spend what you don’t have to spend, but spend what is necessary to get the job done right. Don’t waste one cent. It is not your money to waste.
I don’t know what all was in the contract when I started and I have no idea what
