I was offered the job as a caseworker at the Nebraska State Penitentiary and would soon be moving. The delay was attributable to a couple things. Number one, NSP would not take me if it meant leaving the Diagnostic and Evaluation Center (DEC) short-handed on staff. Number two, the department did not want to change someone’s pay rate in the middle of a pay period. I guess the math was just too challenging.
One clever inmate who also knew he was leaving the DEC soon spoke with five new inmates. He acted like he was doing them a solid with the straight scoop on things. He told them if they wanted to be included when the unit went to the Lincoln Correctional Center (LCC was attached via tunnel) to use their pool (there is no pool), they needed to send a “kite” or an Inmate Interview Request, stating such to the recreation specialist. A couple days later, I was working HU # 2 as the floor corporal when Kelly Turner showed up with the stack. He was not very happy about it.
“Why the fuck do you let these guys do this? I’m not asking you to juggle B-Bs under water or stand on your head and gargle peanut butter.”
“Hey K-T, if that’s the worst thing that happens to you all day, you’ve got it made.”
The incident provoked Officer Gary Anderson to disguise his voice and call a new female officer to let her know to tell her inmates to kite the recreation specialist if they wanted to sign up for the four man golf scramble. Like we are going to give them golf clubs.
It was not a secret that I was leaving soon. Staff as well as inmates were collecting information. I informed two of my co-shirkers that my new unit manager at NSP would be Robin Lyons. I did not know Lyons from Adam.
One of my co-workers, Marvin Ostwald told me to say, “Ostwald says to fuck off.”
The other, Kelly Turner (K-T) told me to say, “You’re a non-hitting fuck.”
After I got to know Lyons, I realized that I could have said anything to him and he would not have cared. One time, after I had worked for him over a month, when he was eating his lunch, I farted at him across the desk so hard that it parted his hair. I practically shit on his desk. What we had in common was a lack of maturity. It really was not our fault. We were born that way.
NSP and the DEC were so different; I soon found it hard to believe that the two institutions actually belonged to the same department. That said, kites were used for similar purposes in both locations.
Recently, an inmate came up with a solid scheme to be transferred from the Nebraska State Penitentiary, north, to the Omaha Correctional Center. He wrote in his appeal, that his aging parents both had failing health, and that the shorter trip would make it possible for them to visit him. To the outsider, this does not sound like an issue. To those familiar with both facilities, our instant reaction is to assume it is a scheme to move to a cushier environment. OCC has better living arrangements, a better canteen, better health services, a better gym, etc... When the first appeal was approved, it did not take long for word to spread. The stack of Inmate Interview Requests (Kites) could have filled the entire file cabinet. The quality of life amongst all living parents of inmates suddenly went drastically downhill. Why, there must have been an epidemic. All of a sudden, every out-of-town inmates’ folks were aging and in poor health, to the point where they could not travel to Lincoln.
The best one was inmate Roger Winkler. His mother, bless her heart, came down with a serious problem. Yes, she was aging, and of course, she had failing health. I really feel sorry for the poor woman. She was so sick she could not come to Lincoln at all. Omaha was the obvious choice. It was a much shorter drive…from Milwaukee…
“They are not in here for missing Sunday school.”
One clever inmate who also knew he was leaving the DEC soon spoke with five new inmates. He acted like he was doing them a solid with the straight scoop on things. He told them if they wanted to be included when the unit went to the Lincoln Correctional Center (LCC was attached via tunnel) to use their pool (there is no pool), they needed to send a “kite” or an Inmate Interview Request, stating such to the recreation specialist. A couple days later, I was working HU # 2 as the floor corporal when Kelly Turner showed up with the stack. He was not very happy about it.
“Why the fuck do you let these guys do this? I’m not asking you to juggle B-Bs under water or stand on your head and gargle peanut butter.”
“Hey K-T, if that’s the worst thing that happens to you all day, you’ve got it made.”
The incident provoked Officer Gary Anderson to disguise his voice and call a new female officer to let her know to tell her inmates to kite the recreation specialist if they wanted to sign up for the four man golf scramble. Like we are going to give them golf clubs.
It was not a secret that I was leaving soon. Staff as well as inmates were collecting information. I informed two of my co-shirkers that my new unit manager at NSP would be Robin Lyons. I did not know Lyons from Adam.
One of my co-workers, Marvin Ostwald told me to say, “Ostwald says to fuck off.”
The other, Kelly Turner (K-T) told me to say, “You’re a non-hitting fuck.”
After I got to know Lyons, I realized that I could have said anything to him and he would not have cared. One time, after I had worked for him over a month, when he was eating his lunch, I farted at him across the desk so hard that it parted his hair. I practically shit on his desk. What we had in common was a lack of maturity. It really was not our fault. We were born that way.
NSP and the DEC were so different; I soon found it hard to believe that the two institutions actually belonged to the same department. That said, kites were used for similar purposes in both locations.
Recently, an inmate came up with a solid scheme to be transferred from the Nebraska State Penitentiary, north, to the Omaha Correctional Center. He wrote in his appeal, that his aging parents both had failing health, and that the shorter trip would make it possible for them to visit him. To the outsider, this does not sound like an issue. To those familiar with both facilities, our instant reaction is to assume it is a scheme to move to a cushier environment. OCC has better living arrangements, a better canteen, better health services, a better gym, etc... When the first appeal was approved, it did not take long for word to spread. The stack of Inmate Interview Requests (Kites) could have filled the entire file cabinet. The quality of life amongst all living parents of inmates suddenly went drastically downhill. Why, there must have been an epidemic. All of a sudden, every out-of-town inmates’ folks were aging and in poor health, to the point where they could not travel to Lincoln.
The best one was inmate Roger Winkler. His mother, bless her heart, came down with a serious problem. Yes, she was aging, and of course, she had failing health. I really feel sorry for the poor woman. She was so sick she could not come to Lincoln at all. Omaha was the obvious choice. It was a much shorter drive…from Milwaukee…
“They are not in here for missing Sunday school.”
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