Death By Guard

After A-Cellblock was locked down for the night, a sergeant of the guard (we'll call him Grunt because he's one of those ridiculous martinet marines) and a guard, the so-called "A-Man" on the cellblock went into a cell to drag a black man to the hole. It's been forgotten what infraction, if any, the prisoner had committed. Whatever it was, he died for it.

The prisoner was housed in a grim little cubical one story up in the stack of cells. The guards handcuffed his wrists behind his back and took him down the tier of cells. For Sergeant Grunt, handcuffing and humiliating a black prisoners wasn't nearly enough. Grunt was a sadistic, vindictive public servant. Most guards are or they would seek some respectable occupation.

Grunt grabbed the man's handcuffs, painfully forcing his arms up his back. The prisoner loudly complained. That's what Grunt liked best, to hear his victims suffer.

At the end of the tier of cells, narrow steel stairs descended to the concrete floor. The "A-Man," a decent enough man whom we'll call Crump, lead the way. Grunt waited until Crump was all the way to the bottom. Grunt was miffed that he would have to release his grip on his victim's handcuffs. Grunt was angry that he'd have to diminish the pain he was inflicting on the prisoner. He liked causing pain to prisoners, especially to black prisoners.

When Crump was out of the way, Grunt shoved the prisoner down the steps. He crashed into the concrete breaking his neck.

Loudly, Crump bitterly lamented that they had killed the prisoner. He was shocked with grief. Sergeant Grunt sneered.

It was the 1970's so there was a real investigation. It was the Department of Corrections, so there was a real cover-up. The guard, Crump, was devastated that the prisoner had died. He was never the same after that. Grunt, was arrogant, proud and even worse than he'd been before. The cover-up got him off without even a reprimand.

So, time passed. If rumors are to be credited, Grunt caused the death of at least one other prisoner. Again, of course, he got off. He slithered through the ranks until he was, for reasons understood only by the sadists of the Department of Corrections ("DOC">, appointed a captain. Maybe the logic of the promotion was to keep him away from prisoners.

Twenty years have passed and in 1998 a vicious racial attack occurred in the prison hole. There are a lot of Nazis in the Pennsylvania prisons. Some are right-wing religious crazies, some are just thugs who identify with Nazi brutality. Some call themselves Aryan Brotherhood. About half of them are prisoners. The rest are staff.

Prisoners in the prison hole get their "exercise" in cages. They are narrow dog-runs constructed of cyclone fencing, dozens of them lined up side by side. (There are always hundreds of men being tormented in the hole.) Prison life (and the hole in particular) makes men very angry and aggressive. Prison makes criminals worse. They can't strike out at their real enemies, the guards, so they attack one another. Two white prisoners of the Aryan Brotherhood concocted a scheme to murder a black prisoner. The intended victim was a nasty, aggressive man, disliked by many members of the staff and prisoners alike.

Early in the morning, the three prisoners were put out into their individual cages for "recreation." Gee, look at this! Somehow, the straps anchoring down the bottoms of the fencing got opened. Working together, the Aryans yanked up the bottom edge of the fencing. First they got together in the one pen and then they forced their way into the cage holding their victim.

Gee, look at this, the team of guards assigned to prowl along the bays of cages, were mysteriously missing. Somehow, in frisking the prisoners before recreation, other guards had "missed" a "shank" tucked into one of the Aryan's jumpsuit.

The Aryans fell on their victim, stabbing him repeatedly.

After a few minutes, a guard came out and stopped the onslaught. Either his timing was bad, or he wasn't in on the scheme. In any event, the victim wasn't killed, just punctured all over his body.

The point of this digression is Captain Grunt. The attack occurred in 1998, so the "investigation" was way different from anything in 1978. The cover-up and fix were all part of the "investigation," a built-in procedure. It's all part of the modern DOC's strategy of concealment. The thugs protect one another by keeping the wrist slapping in-house. It works pretty well.

For some reason, Captain Grunt was "investigated." What could a sweetheart like him have to do with attempted murder of a black prisoner? Whatever his involvement may have been, he was "punished" with 5 days off work. That amounts to a fine of about $750, about what he'd get for a traffic violation!

If you killed a handcuffed man by pushing him down a flight of steps, even if you didn't intend to kill the man, you'd get 20 years for third degree murder, but you aren't a vicious prison guard, are you? If you were an accessory to an attempted murder of a prisoner, you'd get life in prison for second degree murder, but you aren't a vicious guard, are you?

The prisoners who attacked the caged victim were criminally charged. The guards who made it possible, were scolded and given vacation.