The Prison Minyan by Jonathan Stone

Author:Jonathan Stone
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eye Books
Published: 2021-09-22T14:08:30+00:00

shalom

suleiman

The new warden is Suleiman Singh.

Bachelor of Science, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Honors in Incarcerative Sciences.

Honors in Rehabilitation Sciences.

Distinction in the Major in Data Analytics.

He comes from a medium-security assignment in Fort Collins, Colorado. Fifteen years there.

Hasn’t moved around the prison system much, so not much of a paper trail.

Has given heavily to the Republican Party, which explains his selection for promotion. Explains it enough to Warden Armstrong, anyway.

The minyan likes everything about this Suleiman Singh.

Especially since they’ve created everything about him. The plan was briefly jeopardized when they couldn’t agree on his heritage. Half of them wanted him to be Jewish. ‘Come on. A Jewish warden. Marshall Liebowitz. What could make more sense than assigning a Jewish warden here? This is our chance to have one! One who’ll understand and empathize!’

‘This is a fictional, temporary warden, right? Everybody still knows that, right?’

‘All the more reason to choose a Jewish one!’

But the others argued it was too obvious. Too on-point. Too suspicious. They hadn’t had one before…maybe there was some reason the minyan wasn’t aware of. Maybe, for instance, there were none.

‘He’ll come aboard in another two months. His start date will be in mid-October. The fact that he’s coming, but not actually in place yet, can work for us,’ says Nadler. ‘Warden Singh is a presence, he’s a factor that the current staff has to deal with, but it’s natural that since he’s not on duty yet, they don’t know anything about him.’

‘But we do. We know everything about him.’

‘Like the fact that he’s gonna be a great warden.’

* * *

In outfitting Warden Singh’s new office in preparation for his ‘arrival’, they are able to requisition, under the new requisition system, most of what Warden Singh is asking for.

Specifically, a brand new PC with a very fast processor, and a high-end printer, providing Nadler much more flexibility and privacy in creating credible new paperwork.

They print a convincing quantity of the new requisition forms. They destroy all the old ones so that there’s no question from guards or anyone about new versus old – these are the requisition forms; there are no others. Simple as that; case closed. Disappearing the forms. Creating a warden. If they have to live in a Kafka world, they’ll at least try to out-Kafka the other side.

‘What would Kafka say? Would he be horrified or impressed?’ they ask Rabbi Meyerson quietly. But not in the minyan. Not where Big Willie can overhear.

They quickly come to a realization that simplifies things. It occurs to them that the actual new warden, Armstrong, doesn’t actually need to know anything about the high-ranking official they’re creating. As long as the guards and the Otisville staff know about and believe in the pending arrival of Warden Singh, his orders will supercede those of the actual new warden, Armstrong, who, after all, is still off-site. The guards, the entire Otisville staff, have an inherent, unquestioning respect for the chain of command.

Minimum-security prison, thinks Nadler. Despite the privileges being slowly stripped away from them, there is still a lot of freedom.

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