Written By Ken Kinder
In my last newsletter, I said I would write about some of my past experiences working in a couple of the prisons in the California prison system. The first job was on the first and second phases of the new addition to the Vacaville State Prison mental facility. This was built in two stages, the first was a level three facility. This level houses some pretty bad inmates, who are a real serious threat to society. The second stage was a level one, and in this group of buildings, the inmates were housed in open quarters. This means they were completely surrounded by double fences with a razor type wire on top, and at various locations around the outer parameter there were elevated guard towers. All the buildings that are used for housing are two story.
The interior was the major difference between the construction of the two levels. In the level one when I refer to open quarters, I mean it is like living in an open dormitory with just a wall about three feet high for privacy. They don’t have any doors, only an open space about the width of a door serving as a passage way. In side these areas there were about five cots that served as beds for the inmates. Each building was constructed in three sections separated by stone walls, and steel doors. Each of these three sections had their own day room consisting of many stainless steel tables and benches, that are welded to the floor by means of plates of steel that were placed in with the cement, as the slabs of walls and flooring was being poured. They also had a large colored television set for the prisoners to watch. The level one was for people that had committed white collar type crimes, and offenses that were not considered to be a serious threat to society.
They all share a common kitchen and dining room. The control room is on the second level with bullet proof glass in front of you and some sections of the floor. The sections of the floor that contain glass is directly above a section called a sally-port. This term comes from the frontier days when they incorporated this double wall in a fort, that allowed you protection to fall back and reload when you were under fire. In the control rooms they also have rectangular narrow slots where you can place a rifle, and have the option of directing it’s barrel in many directions from this vantage point. They have these same narrow slots in the floor adjacent to the glass partitions. The control console is in three sections, A,B, and C that is formed in the shape of a v without the pointed bottom to allow good vision of all the cells that the prisoners occupy. I gave a short description of the level one unit, and the main difference between that and the four higher risk levels, are the fact that the inmates are locked into cells about 6 by 10 feet. In these cells they have two steel bunks welded to the wall, stacked one above the other. They also have a one piece stainless steel toilet and wash-basin combination.
This unit is hard to describe; but it is secured in such a way that all the plumbing connections are made in the mechanical chase on the other side of a 12 inch wall. All of the fixtures, both electrical, plumbing, and mechanical are secured either by means of welding, or tamper proof screws. This means that it will take a little longer for the in-mates to figure how to remove any of these items. These guy’s are so ingenious at figuring how to get around all the safe guards, that if they would harness this talent in a positive direction, they could all become top producers on the outside. The electrical light fixtures are 2 foot by 4 foot flourescent, made from a heavy gauge metal, and painted a stark white. They are anchored to the ceiling by means of 1/4 inch bolts installed with a rotor-hammer.
These men can take a piece of dental floss, wet it and place either salt or sugar on this material, and after it dries they can use it in place of a hack saw. I don’t know if this is the complete formula, but I do know that they can use this to remove a piece of this heavy gauge metal from a light fixture, sharpen it on the cement floor, and have a very deadly weapon. They then take toilet paper, wet it and stretch a few layers over the hole left in the light fixture. After the paper has dried, they take tooth paste and spread it across the paper blending it in so well you can’t tell where the metal ends and the paper begins. Another unbelievable weapon is when I saw a piece of newspaper rolled into the shape of a small funnel, wet and let dry several times until it could actually penetrate the skin like a dagger.
Their minds were constantly figuring new ways to fashion weapons from the strangest items, such as a mop. I forget how many different weapons could be made from something this basic. I noticed the guards right after they took over a new building, would go over it with a fine tooth comb, and start removing small things such as rain deflectors above the outside doors. I asked them why it was taken down and the reply was possible shivs. My next question was why the contractor installed them in the first place, and their reply was that they were on the bid and had to be installed to fulfill the contract.
They are also very clever at hiding contraband in the various crevices and cavities of their body. I was told they started with a small item and then gradually increased the size as their rectum would allow a foreign object to be introduced. You can’t believe how large an item can be hidden in the lower bowel and rectum. When I worked at Folsom Prison on the level four section, at that time in 1986 this was the highest level available. Since then the Pelican Bay Prison near Crescent City is the first level five in the system. Anyhow back to Folsom, prisoners were shipped here from all over the state of California, because of their ability to house and handle the very difficult inmate. The warden was aware of their talent at concealing things and he required all new prisoners be x-rayed, and you would be surprised at what showed up in these x-ray’s. Knifes, dynamite sticks, large bolts, rolls of money, narcotics etc.
My crew was the one that hooked up all the controls in the buildings, such as the switching devices to the cell doors, the fire and smoke alarms, all the monitor panels at the main buildings that checked for missing in-mates, open doors, coax cable for their cable system, in other words we were the last crew in and we put in alot of overtime. We were working in the buildings after the prisoners were moved into the cells, and on many occasions we witnessed what the guards called toilet watch. This happened when the x-ray’s showed some foreign objects in the prisoners body. They then turned off the water to the toilets so they could not be flushed, and after the in-mate evacuated his bowels the guard put on rubber gloves and searched through the feces until all the contraband was recovered. Talk about earning your money, what a way to go.
When we left the inner parameter of the prison, (we were still on prison property surrounded by tall fences and guard towers, but not in the immediate area that housed the in-mates) we were required to drive over these long pits like the ones used for installing mufflers or greasing trucks. At these points the guards would crawl under our vehicle and check for both escaping prisoners or contraband. I thought this was foolish until they found a man hiding between the fender weld and a tire. We were required to cross over this pit entering or leaving. We were also required to exit the vehicle only when leaving so the guard could be sure we were not taking some one out while they held us by gunpoint. It might sound a lot worse than it was most of the time, but there were a number of deaths that happened during the time I worked at Folsom.
Most were caused by one prisoner killing another. At times the guards on the roof or towers might have to wound someone, but it seldom results in death. I do remember an incident where a prisoner had to be killed in order to save another in-mates life that was being threatened by this particular person. They had excellent gymnasiums, libraries (law and regular), medical facilities, weights, hand ball courts, tracks for running, ball diamonds,etc. They also had nice two bedroom apartments that were used for conjugal visits. Talk about your cruel and inhuman punishment.
During the time that you work amongst the prison population you are required to have an escort at all times. This escort is a guard and it is very time consuming to get any work done under these circumstances where you are constantly waiting for permission to get access to various locations, being searched and trying to be isolated from the inmates. I finally asked if it would be possible to keep the in-mates locked in their cells with a sack lunch so we had free run for an extended period of time in order to expedite our work. Well this lasted about two weeks until the animals cried bloody murder about their loss of civil rights by having to eat a cold lunch. Sure enough the A.C.L.U. put a stop to this practice. These in-mates had a lot of rights that we don’t enjoy; but we always got to go home at the end of the day. I have worked on a lot of different jobs but this one was unique, it was also the last job before I retired, and I was glad to have that experience.
