The Art of Smuggling by Francis Morland & Jo Boothby

Author:Francis Morland & Jo Boothby [Morland, Francis & Boothby, Jo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781908479853
Goodreads: 28448825
Publisher: Milo Books
Published: 2015-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

PART THREE

1971–2015

9

Lewisburg

SLABS OF ICE floated down the Hudson as our bus crossed the George Washington Bridge. The New Jersey turnpike was fringed with two feet of grimy snow as we headed west. My whole family had come over, including my mother, to see me off. Huge numbers of dollars had been given to lawyers to achieve not very much. And here I was, on my way to prison.

There were about thirty of us, handcuffed in pairs. We had been collected at the break of day from the holding pen in the West Street detention centre in the Bronx, where we had lived and slept in groups of thirty bunks in huge cages that dotted a large warehouse. I’d been held there since my arrest the previous August and now it was January. I was looking forward to some privacy. I didn’t know any of the people on the bus, and gleaned only that we were going to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, a five-hour journey with one handcuffed pee break.

“It ain’t so bad,” a character called Johnny “the Trick” Manolo told me on the way. “You’ll be with the crème de la. Take it slow. Don’t make any pals you might regret. Like, take your time, watch, remember. Most important thing, get on the right wing. With people you can get on with. Don’t do nothing in the first week. Guy asks you a question, you answer polite. But brief. You won’t be asking him no questions. Why would ya? You’re not short of time. There’ll be guys say they can get you jobs in the kitchen or the stores. Just say you’ll take your time. You need to get your bearings.”

The bus’s windows had grilles over them, like police buses at demos. Each time we crossed a district line we were joined by a fresh police car with its home town named on it. Like that, we knew where we’d got to.

A guard stood at the front of the bus facing back towards us. This being America, he had some kind of shotgun across his chest.

“That’s good advice you’re getting, Hamilton,” he called out to me. “Now listen up.”

He then gave us the welcome lecture to “the federal correctional facility of Lewisburg”, like he was proud of it and wanted all of us to have a good time as his guests. He talked like we were one big happy family, with maybe a trace of sarcasm.

“There’s fourteen hundred of us in eight blocks. There are two floors and four wings on each block. When you leave reception, you’ll be in one of these wings. Some of the wings are freer than others. Depends on your conduct and why you’re here. Some of us are kidnappers with homicide, some are traitors, some obscenity artists, some revolutionaries, some are drug smugglers like Hamilton here. He’s English in case any of you wanna learn to speak good.”

I gave a little nod and there was a round of sarcastic clapping.

“Each wing has its cells, the good guys get one to themselves generally and they’re open most times to the rest of the wing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.