A Day In The Life

I'm Standing Right Here

One evening at everyone's favorite women's prison camp, I was sitting in the office eating dinner. An inmate comes to the office and says she is having a problem with another inmate. Inmate M says she is being harassed by inmate H. She says inmate H follows her around, says rude things and acts like a giant bully. Then, to make matters worse, inmate H has been telling other staff members that it is inmate M who is causing the trouble.

OMG! DRAMA!

I advise the inmate to do her best to avoid the offending inmate and to leave me alone.

Later that night, another inmate mentions that inmate H is bullying inmate M and that inmate M was forced from her room in tears the previous week. And that inmate H danced around making fun of her for it. Several other inmates reported seeing the same thing.

I know inmate H. She is a bully. She is a huge woman. Probably close to 6 feet tall and about 300lbs. Up until this happened, I can't even remember inmate M. She was quiet and blended in. So I was starting to believe that she was being bullied.

But what could I do? These are grown women. I am not their mommy. And I had seen nothing for myself.

As the evening went on, I came across inmate M standing outside of education crying. So I stopped to ask her what was wrong.

She says that she and another inmate, inmate G, were in the restroom in education. She was chatting with inmate G as she washed her hands when inmate H stormed in. Not seeing inmate G, inmate H took that opportunity to give inmate M a shove.

Now it was on. Once an inmate reports that she has been assaulted, I have no choice but to take action. I return to the office and call the lieutenant. He asks me to call the two girls up so he can talk to them and informs me that he will be there shortly. I call the two of them. Inmate M arrives first and brings inmate G as her witness. Inmate H arrives right after and I send her to medical. In the event of an assault, no matter how minor, all involved parties are medically assessed.

So, here we are, inmate M is in my office crying. Inmate G is standing in the hallway just outside my office and inmate H is in medical.

Medical finishes with inmate H and she storms into the office and begins screaming at inmate M. Inmate M says nothing. I send her to medical and advise inmate H to stop yelling. I advise her to wait for the lieutenant.

She should have listened.

She begins yelling at me. She tells me that if I don't make this go away, she will tell eveyone, and get witnesses, that I bring in contraband for inmates in exchange for cups of coffee.

Really? Coffee? Who would risk their job over coffee? I don't even drink coffee. I don't even own a coffee pot.

She continues her tirade. Inmate G, the witness, is still standing right there. Inmate H begins accusing her of being the one who is bribing me with coffee. (Inmate G gets regular visits and I was the visiting officer at the time.) Inmate G denies that, but says no more. So inmate H, comes up behind her, grabs her by the shoulders and shoves her a few feet.

I am still standing right there.

Inmate G is stunned and I separate them just as the lieutenant arrives.

After sorting through all that had happened, it was decided that we couldn't prove inmate H's assault on inmate M, but we can prove that she assaulted inmate G and verbally threatened me. And because of that fact, she should be sent away to a more secure facility.

She was secured, and while she was waiting for someone to come transport her to another facility, she spent her time telling me God was on her side and the Devil was in me and I will be struck down for what I have done.

Drama.