From Cuffs to Christ by Kevin Zeiger

Author:Kevin Zeiger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Trilogy Christian Publishing, Inc.
Published: 2022-01-18T22:20:45+00:00

Hinge cuffs Chain cuffs

One of my friends had just made lieutenant, and he was a big guy. One day, he made a comment that he did not think I could do much to him if I only had one cuff on him. I said, “Oh yeah? Let’s try it!”

I placed one wrist in the hinge cuff, twisted it slightly, and said, “Now give me your other arm.” He complied instantly and said, “Yeah. You’re right. Thanks. I know what you mean now.”

I feel sorry for inner-city law enforcement officers today. Inner-city police officers and correctional officers have a lot in common, dealing with the exact same dangerous offenders. However, police officers deal with them on the offenders’ turf and while they are packing guns, unlike in the prison where we control the environment, and inmates have no weapons. Even the most well-trained and experienced officers struggle with day-to-day danger in their jobs.

Incidents were not always simple, small altercations. Sometimes larger disturbances took place in the yard, at dietary, or in other areas. Inmates committed murders and suicides inside the facility. WICC was the first medium-security prison in the state to have a murder within our walls. Conflicts took place all the time. The turnover rate of prison employees is the highest of all state jobs, yet the rate of pay is also one of the highest.

During the eighties and nineties, before prison reform set more limits, prisoners kept far too much property in their cells. This enabled them to hide shanks and other weapons. They also could hide their hootch, a crude form of alcohol that the system officially labeled “homemade intoxicant.”

Prisoners would make hootch using anything that would ferment, anything they could get their hands on, and it was disgusting. In the summertime, their cells were warm enough for the mixture to ferment fairly quickly. Though fresh foods of any kind were prohibited from leaving dietary, and we were supposed to shake them down, these prisoners were expert thieves, and it was virtually impossible to stop it all. If they wanted to sneak out food, they could somehow slip it by. All they had to do was get a staff member occupied, sometimes by getting him angry, and this small diversion was all they needed. They were experts at passing items off to one another or hiding items outside to be picked up and taken back to the housing unit later. They could find any number of ways to beat the system. Items would regularly disappear, some of which were hootch ingredients, such as fruit, sugar, etc. One of the ingredients that was easier to get their hands on was tomato puree or tomato juice. They would often add raisins. Yeast was hard to come by, so they often threw in bread. Any available food item was dumped into a garbage bag, and many times, tomato juice was added. The mixture sat tied up in the bag long enough for it to rot. Often the bag was placed behind a dryer for the heat to accelerate the fermentation.

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