Saturday Morning
By: George Feigley
Cofounder
On a recent Saturday morning the pathetic and apparently deranged
"Ringtown Mike" blustered to my cell
door. He's a prison guard with significant personality problems.
He'd been at my door just a few days earlier. "George," he
whispered in his most husky pseudo-sexual tone (I think he's got
some sexual identity issues), "the Devil wants your soul. The
Devil wants your soul. The Devil wants your soul." Having very
few original thoughts, Mike repeats himself a lot. On this
occasion I happened to be standing at the toilet as he chanted
his insanity. I was taking a leak. Maybe he just wanted to watch,
who can say?
Earlier he'd he been at the door and said, "the heat will be on when the devil comes." Then too, he repeated himself several times. There are quite a few insane folks in the Frackville state prison, but you'd think they'd give the staff tests before employing them. On that particular Saturday morning mostly-mad-Mike was in company with the canine (or K9) drug searching team. Along with a beautiful black Labrador retriever there were two guards. Both wore silly dark T-shirts and baggy bloused trousers. Guards in Pennsylvania like to play dressing up. They wish they were paramilitary or anybody important. It makes them feel more powerful. This illustrious team was misusing the handsome Lab to trot through the cells. They were pretending to look for dope. There's nothing unusual in any of that. "Bulls" and hounds frequently root through the cells making the best mess possible. The remarkable thing was that one of the guards, the one we'll call "Sergeant JJ," was carrying dope! Sergeant JJ admitted that a small packet he planted under my cell door was drugs! He'd carried the controlled substance into the prison. He admitted that he had no permit to carry or possess so-called "scheduled" drugs. Apparently the dog was fresh from narcotics-nosing school. Sergeant JJ claimed that he was training the animal. Apparently the sergeant thought that carrying illegal drugs into the prison and planting them beneath my door was a perfectly dandy thing to do. Personally, I think it was a serious crime. We'll write to the State Police and the Secretary of Imprisonment about the incident. After being pointed at the planted stash, the gullible dog dutifully crouched down indicating that he's located the plant. The guards then hooted and hollered. They rewarded the animal by playing with him. It was all VERY bizarre! I'm certainly not interested in drugs and have no expertise with them or with the drug laws. I'm fairly sure, however, that it's as illegal for a prison guard to carry drugs into a prison as for a visitor to carry drugs into a prison. I'm sure that a guard needs a license or permit to possess drugs as much as a pharmacist or doctor does. What puts a prison guard above the law except his own ego? Where did Sergeant JJ get the dope? Is he selling it? This incident makes it perfectly clear that a Pennsylvania prison guard has no difficulty bringing drugs into a prison, Obviously he could plant drugs on anyone he pleased for any reason he pleased. It would be equally easy for a guard to plant drugs on visitors or in their cars. Adding to the alarming nature of the incident was the fact that a person as obviously disturbed as Michael Conti was involved in the search. Unstable persons should certainly not be put in possession of illegal drugs of any kind. They need therapy. Sergeant JJ may not be much more sane than Ringtown Mike. As he was leaving the sergeant told me to "have a blessed day!" What, he's a preacher as well as a drug smuggler? Dope and Christian mythology are a dangerous mixture.
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