Killing The Blood Cleaner (15 page)

TWENTY-TWO

In a few minutes a tall, middle aged, white officer arrived. In his hand was a six inch stainless steel hoop which had about thirty keys of various types attached.

“Captain Jamison, this is Dr. Randolph, our new doctor,” Nurse Crandall said to the officer. “I would like to start the tour from the courtyard and end up back in medical. I would like him to see how the inmates live and work and how they get up here to medical from different parts of the prison. I would also like to show him that it isn’t all stabbings every day,” Nurse Crandall said as she smiled at Jack. “Captain Jamison is our Senior Security Officer. He has access to all areas of the prison. He also has all the keys,” she continued.

“That would be me, Nurse Tacy. I will give you the full tour,” the officer said with a sheepish smile as he shook the massive key ring.

Jack took a few seconds as he thought back to his public health days at Grady Hospital and the CDC. “I am interested in the entire layout of the prison. I’m interested in how sick call is conducted and how an injured or sick inmate gets to medical on a daily basis and also in an emergency. I also want to understand how we get to the inmates in an emergency, and how we get to them if they are in a remote part of the prison. I want to see the food areas and see how special diets are dealt with. I want to see how we handle inmates with chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure. I also want to understand how you deal with sexually active inmates with infectious diseases like HIV,” Jack responded thoughtfully.

In a few minutes, after passing through numerous gates and sally ports they arrived at a large grassed courtyard in the center of the prison. It was boxed in by numerous three-story concrete block buildings each of which was freshly painted with a shiny coat of whitewash. Captain Jamison speeded their movement with the judicious use of his key ring and numerous directions on his walkie-talkie to various Control Officers to electronically unlock gates. Jack marveled at how quickly they moved through the prison with the guidance of this officer.

The three of them stood at the top of the concrete steps to one of the buildings. Around the courtyard were several officers watching the passing inmates and surrounding buildings. There were at least thirty inmates in clean, white uniforms, each with a blue stripe on each pant leg, moving around the courtyard at any given time. Occasionally, an inmate would stop to talk to an officer or to another inmate. Jack noticed two inmates playing catch with baseball gloves and a yellow tennis ball. To Jack, it seemed almost like school with the continuous movement of people, the occasional ringing of a bell, and the frequent public address announcements.

“I see you let them play baseball out here,” Jack said.

“We do have a baseball field outside the fence and some teams for those inmates with the lowest security. We don’t allow any bats or baseballs inside the prison, but they can keep their gloves and practice with tennis balls,” Captain Jamison replied.

“What are all these buildings?” Jack asked.

“These three buildings are the cellblocks. Most of the inmates at G-MAX are maximum-security, but the ones in these buildings live in dorms and are generally considered to be lower security. Over there are the L and M buildings which house High Max security inmates. We don’t have any death penalty inmates anymore, but those guys are as bad as any on Death Row. They will kill you if you give them a chance,” Captain Jamison stated, looking over at L and M buildings.

“Where are the death penalty inmates?” Jack asked.

“They are over at Jackson Correctional Institution. That is where Death Row is now. They use lethal injection now but they had the electric chair until a few years ago. We have Lester’s old electric chair in a museum for the prison, out back,” he continued.

“Does anyone ever escape? It looks like it would be pretty hard,” Jack asked, surveying the scene with its imposing fences, topped with razor wire, under the watch of several guard towers.

“They do get loose from time to time, usually because somebody makes a mistake. Nobody gets out over the fence. The ladies in the guard towers will shoot them. After a verbal warning as required by the Court Order, of course. The inmates know that. We did have two boys make some clever bulletproof vests in the machine shop and take a run at the fence a while ago,” the officer replied.

“What happened to them?” Jack asked.

“They forgot about their legs and that they needed some padding in the vests when the shotgun pellets hit. When the ladies blasted them, it didn’t kill them. But they were off the fence and on the ground in a hurry,” Captain Jamison said.

“So how do they get out?” Jack asked.

“Lots of ways. They make or steal a correctional officer uniform and trick someone into letting them through the gates. Or they intimidate a trusty to swap places with them and then they escape from the trusty dorm which is outside the walls. Sometimes they hide in a load of something going out of the prison,” the Captain continued.

“Don’t forget to tell him about faking illness to get to the hospital,” Tacy reminded the officer.

“You’re right Tacy. That is a favorite. You medical folks are warm and wonderful and are trying to help them. The inmate will hurt himself just enough so he needs to go to the hospital or a specialist. Once he gets there it is a lot easier to escape. A long while back we had one that got sent to a specialist doctor in Savannah. The inmate had tossed a shank over the fence near the transport van. When nobody was looking he picked it up before he got in the van. Then when he got to the doctor’s office he pulled it out and kidnapped the doctor and took his car. But he wasn’t such a bad guy. He just tied the doctor to a tree a few miles up the road. They picked up the inmate at his mother’s house the next day,” the officer said.

“I imagine that doctor has dropped out of the specialty consulting program,” Jack said with a laugh.

“Yes, he is no longer with us. These days we take them over to the medical prison in Augusta,” Tacy said. “That was way before my time,” she continued, looking directly at Jack.

Again, Jack had to take a breath as her blonde hair tossed in the light breeze and he admired the fit of her nurse’s uniform on her beauty queen figure.

“Let’s take a look inside one of these dorms,” Captain Jamison said, noting the interaction between the two and smiling slightly. With a quick call on his walkie-talkie they entered the nearest building. Inside was a glassed Control Room staffed by two officers which overlooked a large dormitory with numerous double bunks. Captain Jamison signaled the Control Officers and with a few clicks of the locks they were inside the Control Room.

Jack looked around and noticed that two of the inmates were waving at him. A tall, white inmate, with his head wrapped in a towel, turban fashion, was blowing him an extended kiss. Each of the inmates’ uniforms was crisp and neatly pressed with the white cuffs of the pants carefully rolled up. Jack noticed that several inmates were wearing sandals. The turbaned inmate’s sandals were gold and shiny.

“As you may have guessed, this is the Sissy Dorm. These guys are active and aggressive homosexuals. We keep them segregated in here. If these ladies were mixed in with the general population they would be causing all kinds of fights and trouble,” the Captain explained.

“Just like real women,” Jack said with a smile aimed at Tacy as he peered out from the Control Room window. The inmate in the turban had now stripped down to his jockstrap and sandals and was swaying back and forth with his hands in the air. His athletic and ripped body glistened with sweat. The other inmates watched with delight and clapped.

“I think he likes you,” Tacy said to Jack, nudging him slightly.

“All right Harris, that is enough striptease for you today,” the Control Officer announced over the loudspeaker. The inmate sulkily put back on his pants and shirt.

“We try to keep an extra watch on them to cut down on sexual activity and to keep them from being victimized. But as you can see, they present a little bit of a management problem,” Captain Jamison explained.

Another inmate approached the Control Room with a piece of paper in his hand. He placed it in a metal slot and then looked up at the Control Officer.

“I need to go to medical. Ask Nurse Tacy to let me go back with her. My foot is swelling up,” he said, holding his uncovered foot up to the window for Tacy’s examination.

“Thomas, you were just in yesterday for your foot. It looks about the same. You need to keep putting that antibiotic salve I gave you on it and we will see you tomorrow,” Tacy said as she peered through the glass and spoke through the microphone. The inmate frowned and walked back toward his bunk. Tacy picked up the paper the inmate had provided and handed it to Jack.

“This is a Sick Call Request Form. Blank forms are in the dormitories. The inmates can turn one in at any time to any officer. The officers collect them every day and give them to medical. We look at the forms and make a sick call list for the next day. We send the list every day to the Warden’s office. The Warden then sends an order that the inmates on the list be brought to the Medical Unit that day,” Tacy said.

“What about emergencies and chronic care for things like diabetes and high blood pressure? And how do they get their medicines?” Jack asked, as he looked at the form.

“Sick call is for day-to-day problems. Colds, flu, migraine headaches, small cuts and bruises, stomach aches, whatever. We deliver the prescriptions with a Pill Call run by a nurse every day. She takes the pill cart into the dorm with an officer and gives out the pills. Sometimes, we make the inmates swallow the pill in front of us and then stick out their tongues if the medicine is something they could sell, like pain pills. The Pill Call nurse then notes that they got their medicine on the Medicine Administration Chart for each inmate. That chart is part of the Court Order. That way, if an inmate writes the Judge and says he is not getting his medicine, we can pull the chart and show that he has gotten it,” Tacy replied.

“Or show that he hasn’t gotten it,” Jack said, thinking back to his days at Grady where sometimes everything did not always go as planned.

“That is probably why we are still under the Court Order,” Captain Jamison added. “It is one thing to write this stuff in Atlanta for the Judge to sign, and another to get it done behind six locked gates.”

“I’m sure that is right,” Jack said as the Captain escorted them back into the courtyard.

“Let’s take a look at the law library,” Captain Jamison suggested, pointing at another building. Again, with his assistance, it only took a few minutes for the group to enter the building. Jack commented on the metal garage door type device at the top of the doors, similar to protective metal curtains on liquor stores in tough neighborhoods. “That is to give officers in the courtyard a safe haven if something kicks off in the courtyard. They can get inside the law library and it will take the inmates a while to bust through that metal curtain which can only be let down from the inside,” Captain Jamison explained. Once inside the building, the room appeared much like an ordinary library in a school, with rows of bookshelves and several tables. There were also two wooden desks. Behind one desk was a large, powerfully built, white man with thinning gray hair, wearing a rumpled plaid sport coat over a wrinkled white shirt. He appeared to be in his sixties and his tanned skin with red splotches had the appearance of a man who had spent his entire life working outdoors. A pair of inexpensive reading glasses perched on the end of his nose. His massive hands cradled a book which he was reading intently. Jack noticed the title, which was
The Count of Monte Cristo
. The man looked up as he noticed the group’s arrival.

“Folks, this here is Chester Thomas, our librarian. He retired from farming and has been with us for ten years. He has probably read every book in this library,” Captain Jamison said as the big man stood up behind the desk and smiled, taking the time to push back the few gray hairs on his forehead to ensure his maximum best appearance. He held out his huge hand to Jack.

“You must be the new doctor. I’m pleased to meet you. We usually have a few medical books down here. Usually anatomy or internal medicine text books which have been donated. But we mostly have the classics in the regular library along with a bunch of westerns and mysteries. Of course, under the Court Order, we also have a first-rate law library. When lawyers come through, they often say it is better than the one at the County Courthouse. And that may be true, as we have a lot more Federal books than they do,” he said proudly.

“Do the medical books get used much? And does anybody understand these law books?” Jack said, pulling a Federal Reporter off the shelf and perusing its intense, jargon filled contents.

“We have quite a few that understand these law books very well,” the librarian said, pointing over to the two inmates at the desk on the other side of the room and also to one inmate seated at a table with a stack of papers and law books. “On the medical books, we don’t get quite as many takers, but sometimes legal cases have medical issues and there are also those inmates that like to try to diagnose themselves when they are sick,” he said as he led the group over to the other desk. As they walked across the room Jack noticed that the inmate at the table appeared to be working on some type of government forms. When they arrived at the other desk, the two inmates stood and smiled pleasantly. The inmates had a similar look as each was black, slightly built and equipped with thick wire rimmed glasses. Each had a stack of law books before him and each was working on some type of handwritten pleading.

“Jimmy Richards and Albert Sams are some of our law library clerks. They help the inmates find the law books they are interested in and keep up with the procedures for the Court Order on the law library,” Chester stated with a smile. The two inmates beamed in response.

“How did you learn about law books? I don’t think I would have a clue,” Jack asked the inmates as he looked at the rows of similar looking law books.