Real World

(From Part One)

Easter Sunday - a memorable day!

The hail was short-handed of personnel on duty.  

So we jailers were blessed in the fact of assistance.  A Jewish contingent were assisting in desk jobs, as volunteers in desk jobs, enabling police and jailers to fortify other positions, which entailed contact with those accused of breaking laws.

When I saw some of the volunteers that day, I thought on the fact that, of all the varied racial, ethnic, and religious groups filling jails and prisons, the one that was almost non-existent in California, as far as the inmate population was concerned seemed to be the Jewish segment!  It certainly was not because they were not a violent people.  Biblical history is one record of turmoil!  No, that was not an answer to representation as far as incarceration was concerned.  It seemed to me that many did not seem to waste time getting involved in crimes prevalent with other groups.  Or, an ironical twist, maybe it was simply that they did not get 'caught' as often!

Strong family ties, a sense of identity and allegiance to God, those facts seemed to inflict many of the Jewish faith with an intensity of purpose and religious fervor, that the time consumed left little space spent to reflect on stealing, drugs, over zealousness in sexual activity, and sometimes seemingly accompanying violence, and murder, and other passions of so called family and loved ones in other segments of society!

America is privileged, compared to many other nations, to be blessed with such a degree of freedom, that idle time exists for other pursuits!  And that time is often used by Satan, to help fill minds with desires that assist him in causing many souls to fall!  

In the taking of freedom for granted, one danger that exists is the fact that 'other-powers' will take advantage of it.  Make no mistake, dear reader, even as I write this down, there are always others who would wish this nation to 'collapse', so that they could simply move in, pick up the pieces, and start over with occupation!  If you think that far-fetched, remember that if the Axis Powers had won World War Two, Planet Earth would have been enslaved.  Then Satan would have really been in control, and I would not even be writing this down!  

As an aftermath of the war I mentioned, a book was written in 1948 about Eurasia.  All the author had to do was reverse the last two numbers and come up with predictions for: 1984!  Remember?

Well now, it is 1982, and an outside power is trying to cause disruption, as the Jewish volunteers were put to work in areas like the front lobby, release desk etc., that enabled other more crucial sections to be taken care of by paid professionals, which entailed actual prisoner contact! Of course, those are spots wherein danger is forever present.

As various needs arose, I joined other jailers working different locations, according to particular priorities of given time periods.

At 1100 hours (11 a.m.), my immediate supervisor had to go to the mess hall, to assist with the handling of feeding inmates scheduled for feeding.  As it was also the week-end, the jail was of  course full to capacity!  Left over court cases (since Friday), had to be held over until Monday!

In the meantime, of course, there were the usual intake of week-end drunk drivers, rapists, murderers, plain drunks from skidrow, wife-beaters, drag-queens, burglars, grand theft autos (G. T. As) and this particular Sunday's round up of political prisoners!

When a jail is over-full, that is when the total number of prisoners exceeds what it was originally designed to house from safety factors.  Sheer weight in numbers often adds incentives to prisoners for possible disturbances.  Unlike some jails in the world that allocate one prisoner to every jailer, Parker Center did not offer such a luxury of distribution!  It was, that Sunday, more like a ratio of 300 prisoners to 20 jailers!  I can tell you, from experience, that numbers like that always offer potentials for danger!

The clock in the misdemeanor hallway, and another in a mess hall, seemed to me to be ticking louder that day, as if some sort of signal of dangers, more than usual.  And sure enough, while I thought the ticking got louder, danger struck the first blow that day!

With my supervisor away handling the feeding of some prisoners in the mess hall, I was temporarily in charge of the misdemeanor section.  That handling the I.D. Control Desk (Identification Division).  From that spot, the assigned jailer is in charge of who is allowed to enter or leave the premises.  One handles all the controls that it takes to operate any request, for entrance or departure from any sport within immediate eye range!  That meant electric buttons for all cells within eye range, and immediate doors to the building. Without television monitors, I personally found the coverage area limited.  As far as television monitoring was concerned, that was handled in other areas, the Watch Commander's Office for example.  From there one could get a more accurate 'overview.'

Being short handed in prisoner maintenance that day, there were at that time only two other jailers to assist in the eventuality of possible emergencies!

While I was working the I.D. Control Desk, a 'B' wagon brought in some drunks for booking purposes.  Apparently, several businesses did not want them around on - 'Easter Sunday!'

One of the drunks gave trouble in the searching area.  He became aggressive, and had to be restrained.  Two jailers took him to tank (cell) number 108.  As no one else was available at that time, I somehow sensed danger near tank #102.  One sometimes develops a sort of intuition about those things!  The door to the outer compound was secure.  I went to the search area.  There was not supposed to be anyone there, but there was!  Sensing a presence behind me, I spun around.  A drunk was about to strike.  I ducked, got behind the man, grabbed an arm from the rear, and simply propelled him in to tank #102.  I returned to the I.D. Desk.  Fortunately no one had phoned in the meantime, and no one had rung any buttons.  It is at times like that I believe I was being watched by a guardian angel.

The two jailers returned from putting away their prisoner in #108.  The misdemeanor section was quiet again!

Meanwhile, up on the second floor, prisoners from tank #201 had been taken from there to the mess hall for lunch.  Among those inmates was one called Winston.  He had been harboring a grudge for a while. Originally his booking had been for A.D.W. (Assault with Deadly Weapon).

At about 12:10 hours (a little after mid-day), the following happened: -

Two jailers removed a disruptive prisoner; Winston #6578026; from the mess hall during the noon feeding.  While being taken away, he called out 'you guys better touch me, I'm not going to take any crap from anyone.'  He was put back in tank #201.  Even then, he became more abusive as far as verbal confrontation was concerned.  He even demanded to see a jailer with whom he had had a beef with the day before.  The tone of his aggressiveness, even while being held in restraint, puzzled the officers.  Why did the prisoner feel he was in a position to challenge anyone?  Acting on intuition, like with me earlier, they decided on a strip-search, right there.  The result of that action?  The finding of two metal objects, each roughly nine inches long, and very sharp!  Oh yes, weapons indeed.  But how were they made, in the jail that is?  As an investigation revealed later on, they had been constructed twelve hours previously, about mid-night!

Through a strange medium of communication known simply as 'the