Talking To Themselves

Finally got all of the windows open in the house the other day. That has been a weeks-long ordeal. All of the windows in the cells are locked from the inside. Which is just as ignorant as hell. We have to cuff the inmates and pull them out of the cell and go inside to open their windows. Then we have to repeat the process in a few months to close them again.

And I always dread having the windows open. It's bad enough to hear them scream at each other in the house, but we could always go outside for a little peace and quiet. Now they are screaming out the windows not only at each other, but at other offenders out on the hill. Usually, they are trying to get someone to bring them something. Cigarettes and coffee for the most part. Sometimes more.

I was sitting out on the rec yard the other day and listening to some guy in C-wing yelling at someone. He was pretty angry. The conversation went like this:

"Man, you don't bring me nothing to smoke, you don't bring me no coffee..... you won't even send me any f**king pictures like I want! And you just sit there and you won't even look me in the eye! Ni**a, just get the f*ck out of my room!"

I thought to myself "Uh-oh... somebody is snapping out. We will probably have to do a room move to separate those two!"

And he's moved on to incoherent raving and screaming "Get the f*ck out of my room, ni**a!" Over and over again. "I'll beat your a**, ni**a! Get the f*ck out of my room, ni**a!"

And then a light dawns and I think to myself, "Holy snap! He's in C-wing in a cell by himself!"

I nipped inside and around the corner to see the name on the door and a peek in the window. It's a name I don't recognize but I have stored in my brain for future reference. The offender is standing in the corner by the window and seemed to be yelling at someone seated on the toilet. I looked to make sure there wasn't anybody else in the cell. There wasn't.

Just shook my head and walked away. Made a mental note to myself to make sure this guy was taking his meds. And to keep a closer eye on him if the door is ever open.

It's bad enough having to deal with the fairly sane inmates. Sometimes dealing with these wobbleheads is an adventure all by itself. And when they get out of control writing them conduct violations usually does no good at all. They still get released back to the house when they want them. They sent Gumby back to the wobblehead house the day after I wrote him a violation for covering his cell window. He sat on the restraint bench and peed his pants on purpose and they still sent him back to the house.

Nice. They can have him. I'm tired of his crap (literally!) already.

Just like working the Hive, working the wobblehead house takes a different breed of cat. I've been down there a few times. Sometimes it's like walking down the hall in a horror movie about an insane asylum. Or the basement in the film Thirteen Ghosts. It's best to just walk through and make sure nobody is hurting themselves or anybody else and not listen to what is being said.

Just shake it off and move on.

Luckily, none of them seem to be H.P. Lovecraft fans. I think if I hear someone chanting "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" in the cell, I would run screaming from the building.

A man can only take so much......