In-and Out (not the burgers...)

Here's another story of mind-bending logic form behind prison walls. This unit has recently started doing in-and-outs (no, not the burgers). The cell doors in each dorm are now supposed to be closed at all times, except for two short intervals near the top of each hour. During those intervals we are to get anything we want to take to the dayroom with us and to use the restroom. Or we can stay in our cells for the hour. This doesn't work well here because we don't have restrooms outside the cells like other units and we don't have panic buttons in the cell if something happens. Anyway, on with the story.

West's morning routine involves brushing his teeth in the shower each morning so he doesn't wake his cellmate. This morning the officer did in-and-outs while West was brushing his teeth in his boxers. After West finished brushing, he asked if his door could be opened so he could get his clothes and stuff for work.

Most of the time officers don't really care if a door is opened. They are usually accommodating and practice common sense. If someone needs in, the door is generally opened, then closed after the inmate is finished. Because the policy is so new, however, the practice is far from consistent; even the length of intervals is different depending on the officer on the floor.

This morning the officer denied West's request. Even though West needed to go to work fifteen minutes later, the officer would not open the door for him. West asked the officer to call a sergeant to come resolve the situation, but the officer said no again. The officer encouraged West to go to the security office himself but West protested that he was only wearing his boxers. The officer told him to go anyway and opened the door to the hallway. When West stepped into the hallway, the officer called him back and said would call a sergeant.

When the sergeant arrived she told the officer to immediately open West's door and instructed West to get clothed and come to the security office before going to work.
While West got ready, the sergeant told a lieutenant, who just happens to have had a target on West for years, what had happened. As soon as he arrived in the security office, West was handcuffed and taken to segregation because he had "caused a disturbance." Crazy.

Hopefully, he will be let out of segregation soon, but in any case, the situation defies logic and shows the complete lack of power inmates have, even when they are right.