Don't be a Rat (#38)

Jeff just finished his first year at Taft Prison Camp on April 13th. He is sending a quarterly update soon. Here is his latest blog

I’m kind of jumping around a bit in my entries. In a previous blog, I wrote about how the little things matter. That principle pervades all of prison life. I want to comment on one aspect of that principle specifically as it applies to prison living (I guess among criminals in general). That is, don’t be a rat. Being stigmatized as a “rat” in prison is not the way you want to spend your time. In fact, whether justified or not, being labeled a rate is about the worst way to go through prison.

How does one define a rat, or get the label of rat? This starts with the details of your case. The assumption is that if you accepted a plea bargain, then you agreed to testify against someone or did actually provide information against someone to lessen your own sentence. This seems to be most true of drug cases, which are an extraordinarily high percentage of all the federal cases, well over 75%. In cases like mine, white collar crime, accepting a plea bargain does not necessarily mean you testified against someone, or volunteered information. In fact, the government would rather have a plea bargain in white collar crime because the cases are often far more complex than drug cases. The prosecutors don’t have time to delve into the intricacies of the general business transaction that led to the indictment much less proving that actions were criminal. It is much easier to have the indicted just accepted a plea bargain and save everyone a lengthy and complicated trial. Fortunately, at a prison camp, you can find many more white collar criminals than in higher levels of prison. So, a white collar criminal is not automatically assumed to be a rat because of accepting a plea offer (as I did).

At my camp (and I assume in all prisons), the inmates are watched closely by other inmates to see what kind of person the inmate is. The dumbest thing an inmate can do is write a negative note to the prison staff about another inmate or group of inmates. This is called writing a “cop out.” You write “cop outs” for all kinds of complaints, from food to lack of heat. However, if you write too many “cop outs” other inmates will assume that some are complaints about your inmate peers. One of the most frequent “cop out” complaints is when an inmate is offended by a movie and complains about it. Too many of these and the staff stops showing movies, which in turn, irritates the inmates.

Another example that hits me closely involves a group of inmates who live in bunks in the back corner of the dorm, also where I happen to bunk. These guys have decided to have all the lights out in this corner by 9 pm. This is fine, except that the prison does not require lights to be out until 10 pm. Technically the inmates have no authority to do this or enforce it. I could write a “cop out” complaining about it, but what would that accomplish? I would be labeled as a rat. I could leave my light on and get the ire of the other guys too. Not much better. The solution I arrived at was to be flexible and live with the early lights out. It’s not a big problem and there are worse things I could worry about. By not complaining, my reputation as a guy who can “get along” increases. Like I said, you are always being watched and evaluated. The other inmates want to know what kind of person you are, and because of the small living areas, it doesn’t take long for them to figure it out if you do something to earn their distrust.

There are legitimate “rats” here. Some guys do get benefits by helping the guards and counselors find contraband. In a situation where weapons are drugs are involved, I’m not sure I mind having an insider around. Those things can threaten my safety. Despite the constant accusations though, I cannot say for certain whether I know who is an insider. The most blatant thing I’ve seen that would cause concern is a guy who has been accused of being a rat by numerous people took cuts in line in plain view of 4 guards whose job was to watch for people taking cuts. They caught several people that day, at least 5 while I was waiting in line. They did nothing to this particular guy. There are probably numerous explanations for this and it doesn’t confirm that he’s a rat, but for the first time, I was suspicious of someone.

There is one situation where I have no problem being a rat. This is when one inmate is trying to cheat another inmate. In higher security institutions, you would still not be a rat in this situation. You would stick with your group. In a camp, you don’t really have a group. You just try to stay out of trouble. Well, if I know a guy who is getting cheated, and I know both parties, I generally bring it up. This might make me disliked by the guy trying to cheat the other, but the guy who was getting cheated feels like he can trust me. Again, you are always being evaluated. The guy trying to cheat people will establish a bad reputation. I don’t want to earn his trust by keeping quiet. I don’t want to be “in” with a cheater. I would rather establish a reputation as a guy who is fair. I think that my reputation has helped with guys that I don’t know. If someone thinks I’m trying to do something to them that is cheating, hustling or whatever, most of the time they will ask around. Most guys know that I give when I can, help out when I can, and repay what I borrow. They know I’m a Christian and that I try to live to those standards. When another inmate vouches for you and who your are, you have achieved a very noble compliment. I’m proud that I have established an honest and fair reputation in a place where everyone failed in these circumstances at some point.

Jeff

Working in Prison (#37)

I’ve gone over rules about living with other inmates and some rules that the institution imposes. There are even more rules for when you work with other inmates. Quite frankly, working with inmates stinks. It reminds me of the television show Survivor. I remember from watching Survivor that generally, in the first few episodes, anyone who tried to be a leader, or to organize the group was usually sent off quickly. Some comments would be, “who did he think he was telling me to do this or that”, or “she thinks she’s better than everyone”, etc. The players didn’t want leaders who were efficient and who would delegate tasks, mainly they didn’t want other people to tell them what to do, when to do it, or how to do it. The players wanted to do their own thing. This is what happens in prison with inmates and work. Very few inmates will actually listen to another inmate, much less do what he suggests when it comes to doing work. It’s an inmate rule. Never tell another inmate how to do his job. This makes working with inmates difficult. I currently work on an “out crew.” I go out to a church in the community and work at the church doing various odd tasks like gardening, cleaning, and set up and tear down for special events. We don’t have any guards with us when we work. Rather, we are supervised by someone from the church. On occasion our supervisor will not be prepared with work details, and instead just says find something to do. Well, there is always something that needs work, so it shouldn’t be a difficult task. However, an inmate cannot tell another inmate what to do, so the directive essentially becomes, sit around and do nothing until I catch you. I made the mistake once of telling an inmate what a good project would be, because I thought we were a team. The supervisor had told us some jobs that needed to be done, and I suggested that one inmate do one part, and I do the other. My suggestion bothered the other inmate. I later discovered that all the other guys on my crew didn’t want to be in a position to tell the other guys what to do. They all felt like that was the supervisor’s job. So much for the team. I’ll help the team out only if that’s what I’m told to do.

In order to adapt to this work environment, I have a couple of personal rules that I follow. First, I do my job, and I try to do it well. I can’t complain about how other people do their job (or don’t do it) if I don’t do my own job. Some inmates don’t do their jobs. I’m not saying that they just do poor work or don’t work hard, but really, some inmates don’t even show up for work. It’s and important rule for me not only to show up, but to do my job as best I can.

Another rule that I follow is “figure out who you work for.” This is different from figuring out why you work. Knowing who you work for is important. In one of my jobs at prison I was asked by an inmate, “do you work for us or for the guards?” Of course I said, “For us.” But, I had to think about that. I didn’t really know what he meant. I got paid by the prison and a guard supervised the department, but did that mean I worked for them? The inmates are the customers here, and my job was to issue recreational equipment to other inmates. To do this, had to collect their card and hold it until the inmate returned the equipment. I later learned that inmates are not supposed to give their cards to other inmates. This posed a problem. By following one directive, I would be disobeying another. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I was working for the customers. I had to find a way to not take their cards, but to track who took what equipment. That’s easy enough. I just made a list of people who used the equipment on my shift. This way I was doing my job and working for the people who needed the service.

This rule is a little different on my out crew. I still get paid by the prison, but I work for the church. Who is the customer? Since the church receives my services, then I work for the church. We have a supervisor at work, but she answers to the pastor. So, I ultimately work for the pastor. My supervisor is more like a part of the team. I work hard so that she and the rest of my team look good to the pastor.

Another rule I try to follow is to take pride in my work regardless of who is watching. I’m able to do this because I want to be faithful in the smallest things. I know that God is watching me and that I am pleasing him and obeying him when I work hard and do my best just because of who I am. I didn’t always view work this way. When I was an employee, I didn’t particularly care about the company for whom I worked, and I cut corners all the time. I wasn’t so concerned about the work I was producing. I was doing enough to get by. Some people will work hard to get noticed and when they don’t then they do just enough. That was me. I’ve learned in prison what you have to do your best work regardless of who notices. Nobody notices work in prison. You will never hear a guard say, “that’s excellent work.” In fact, most guys don’t do excellent work, or efficient work because they don’t want to be given harder or more work later. They view that as working too hard for nothing.

The guards, staff, and inmates don’t care about your work. There is no corporate ladder, or reward, or incentive. You either work hard and do a good job because you have integrity and you care about those around you or you don’t. If you are lucky you may find that someone does care. It’s rare, but a few people will notice and you will have earned their respect. The respect comes from the integrity and not the expectation of reward. As I said, if you work here expecting a reward, you won’t receive one, and will get frustrated. You don’t get rewarded in prison. You have to decide, do you work hard because you want to or do you work enough to just get by.

Jeff