Corruption Officer (17 page)

Then I am about to do it again when he takes a deep breath
and coughs.
 
I am stunned and don’t know
what to do so I stand there with my fist clinched and wait.
 
He begins to cough some more.
 
His eyes open and close and then he starts to
breathe normally.
 
I jump up and down and
pump my fist.
 
He opens his eyes and
looks around like where am I and without hesitation kicks off his shoes, pulls
his covers over himself and gets comfortable to go to sleep.

At this time the medical staff comes running in to get him
and he’s looking at them crazy as they put him on a gurney and roll him out.
 
Mind you, he has the mark around his neck from
the string.
 
I go sit in the Officer’s
station and tell the Officer what I had just done and guess what - she doesn’t
believe that I put my lips on this dirty inmate’s mouth!
 
At this point I don’t give a shit because I
rather fill out paperwork for an attempted suicide then an actual one.
 

Then our area Captain arrives and we fill her in on what
just happened and she too breathes a sigh of relief and tells me to walk with
her while she makes a tour of the area.
 
We
get to the day room and she starts barking at the inmates giving them orders to
do this and do that, and to clean this up and clean that up and she scolds me
for not having them do so myself.
 
Then
when she was about to leave an elderly inmate that was known for not talking to
anyone at all called out my name.
 
We
both turned around stunned to see what he had to say and he said with a stutter
while pointing to the Captain, “Tha, that thatbitchisaman!
 

Two
months later….

“Putcha
hans
on that fuck’n wall,” an
Officer, that I am cool with, is yelling at an inmate.

I am on my way to my post from roll call and as usual I am
dirty.
 
I am thinking to myself that I
don’t need this shit right now because this was a big load that I have on me
and I really needed to get to my post and to set up shop.
 
The money has been short and today is
Wednesday.
 
So the visiting floor is
going to be popping because, as I’ve stated before, there are no visits Monday
and Tuesday.
 
Now, I’m running into this
situation where I have to stop and stand there in order to show support to my
fellow Officer, in case he may need my assistance.
 
Technically, every Officer walking by is
supposed to stop and stand there as a show of force to the inmate because if he
acts up he can and will catch a beat down.
 

So now I am standing there and the Officer takes this
opportunity to lash into the inmate.
 
He calls
him a low life because he’s in jail.
 
He
tells him how much better he is than him because he’s an Officer, how much
money he’s making, etc., which in some cases those statements are probably
true.
 
I really wouldn’t have a problem
with what the Officer is saying to the inmate but I know this Officer.
 
He gets his drink on like me. He’s married and
is living with his wife’s family until they can get their own apartment.
 
At his wedding reception they served us ketchup
and syrup sandwiches.
 
So, it’s safe to
say, that he ain’t exactly ball-n’.
 

I really don’t have time for this shit, so I ask him what
are we doing, in other words, are we taking him down or what?
 
The Officer turns to me and says, “Nah, I
just wanted to show him that he can get it at any…”
 

I was on my way before he could finish his sentence and I
wasn’t looking back.
 
I got to post, took
my count and relieved the midnight Officer so that I could take care of
business.
 
Things had changed.
 
Gone was the scared-for-his-job Officer that
would never do anything to violate his sacred job.
 
Gone was the Officer that was nervous every
time he walked through those gates carrying contraband.
 
And gone was the man that stood idly by and
did nothing as Child Support sucked him dry and ruined his life.
 
In its place was a man that was no longer on
defense but on offense; a man that now ran an organization compiled of trustworthy
inmates and one female Officer; a man that was no longer fueled by need but by
greed.
 

I had gotten so used to making money every day that even
when the Child Support leveled out and I could probably survive off of what I
was making, I could not stop.
 
My life-style
had changed.
 
I had my own apartment now.
 
I had bought a late model used car that
didn’t look half bad and I had the shakes (gambling problem) like never before,
so stopping wasn’t an option.
 
Plus, now,
I enjoyed it.
 
I lived to come to work
and collect and run my day to day enterprise.
 

I let Flocko and Moe out.
 
I make the drop along with two bacon egg and
cheese sandwiches.
 
I learned from the
streets that you have to take care of your workers and they will take care of
you.
 
As Flocko was walking away with the
pouches I heard a door swing open and somebody screamed out, “Search!”
 

Shit!
 

I thought to myself it’s one of those surprise searches.
 
They came through the fire door and not the
front gate entrance to my housing area.
 
Damn,
they already had all of the inmates coming out of their cells lining up with
their hands on the wall!
 
Now I am
standing inside the Officer’s station watching them go one by one searching the
inmates and their cells.
 
I can see Flocko
from where I am standing peeking down the hall at me.
 
He has a lot of pouches on him and I know that
if he gets caught right now there is no way that I won’t be questioned or
looked at suspiciously.
 

I have to do something!
 

Now I am pacing back and forth and could see that they were
getting close to searching Flocko.
 
I get
an idea and spring into action.
 
It’s
risky but I have to try something.
 
I go
onto the floor where they’re searching and walk towards him and when I get
there I start to curse him out saying, “I got this one because he likes to run
his mouth!”
 
While I aggressively pat him
down.
 
I then yell at him and say, “If
you open your mouth I’m a’ bust yo’ ass!”
 
As always I played it right because I could
see the other Officers that were from other jails looking at me and praying
that I would not start shit with this inmate.
 
I knew that they knew better than to get into
a use of force in a jail other than their own.

We were always told not to do that because when it comes
down to writing and lying to cover your ass, you’d rather it be Officers from
your jail that you have a bond with, that you know will write with you and not
against you.
 
I then order Flocko to
stand across the hall as he witnesses me searching his cell.
 
The Captain and the other Officers just
assumed that Flocko was an asshole and while they were around I was taking
advantage of the situation to get back at him while I had major back up.
 
After I half-assed messed his cell up, I
ordered him to go sit on his bed and I locked his cell behind him just as the
other Officers were doing with the other inmates.
 

Mission accomplished.
 

The facial expressions on the other inmates who were a part
of my team, was a look of I can’t believe this nigga just took that risk and
saved Flocko’s ass.
 
It was also a look
of loyalty that “Big Hey” was real about his business.
 
I breathed easier as the search was over and
they left.
 
I thought to myself that I’m
glad that was over and we did not get busted because I need my money.
 
After the inmates cleaned up the housing post
search I went to Flocko’s cell to see why the money was coming up short as of
late.
 

As I walk, I take a peek into some other cells.
 
I notice Aak on his knee’s praying and in the
next cell is
Murder
putting up his
towel preparing for a massive beat down upon his penis.
 
As I continue to walk I have two relatively
young inmates standing in the corridor with no shirts on listening to the
radio.
 
They are sharing a clear plastic
radio that is sold at commissary and both are deep into reciting the words to
the song yelling out,
“I ain’t
no
killa’ but don’t push me!
 
Revenge is like the sweetest chore next to
getting pussy!”
 
I give them the hand
gesture like keep it down and they nod acknowledgement.

As I approach Flocko’s cell I hear voices coming out of it
letting me know that there was more than one inmate in his cell.
 
My thoughts were that they were probably
having a smoke session.

As I got close to his door, though, I heard a scuffle going
on inside and then I heard Flocko say, “Give it up!”
 
Then I took a peek to see what was going on
and was shocked at what I saw.
 
Flocko
and two other inmates had an inmate bent over the bed with the inmates pants
pulled down!
 
Two of them penned the
inmate down while Flocko was on his knees behind him!
 
I saw that Flocko was fully clothed and was
off to the side of the penned inmate.
 
Now
I have been working here awhile and I’ve caught inmates before in several
disgusting sex acts so that was no surprise.
 
The shock came from me never figuring Flocko
to be that type.
 
As I looked further in,
it appeared that Flocko had his fingers going inside this inmate’s ass!
 
I banged on the door and they all jumped!
 
The two inmates who were holding the inmate
down released him but Flocko did not let go until he pulled something out of
the inmates butt.
 
I opened the door and
they stood there wondering what was going to happen next.
 
I was heated and the only one I wanted to talk
to was Flocko.
 

“Everybody out!”
I yelled.

They all filed out one by one.
 
When the inmate who was being assaulted came
by me, I saw the shame and embarrassment on his face.
 
I asked him if he needed medical attention.
 
He shook his head indicating no as Flocko said,
“Hey, he knows what it is; that it wasn’t personal, but all business.”

“Business?”
I asked.

“Yeah, Hey, this is jail and if you want to survive you got
to always know what’s popping and be able to do what you got to do to survive,”
Flocko said.

I looked at him like he was crazy and said, “Floc’, I
understand all that and I know that you have been in here awhile.
 
It’s just that I never thought…”
 
He saw where I was going with this and cut me
off by bursting out laughing.
 
He said, “Gee,
this is me, Gee!
 
You think I am in here
fuckn nigga’s!?”
 
Again he laughs and
says, “No, Gee, seriously though, my man saw him boofing this on the visit.”
 
He
raises
up his hand
showing me a ball of something wrapped in plastic with a little shit on it.
 
His facial expression had no shame or remorse
about the fact that he has another man’s shit on his fingers.
 

Mental note
:
 
From now on, Flocko will definitely get the
closed fist bump when we greet, no more soul brother number five and shakes at
all…

“
Don’t nothing
come through 8 upper
without me knowing about it or getting my cut,” he said.

Then he pointed to the inmate that just had his colon
checked and said, “That fool knows that!
 
He’s just a fucking mule.
 
His
asshole is the size of Kansas.
 
That’s
what he does.
 
That’s his job!”
 

Since he was acting like the boss of all bosses, I took this
time to ask him why was the money, which I am supposed to be getting, coming up
short all of a sudden.
 
 

“I was going to talk to you about that,” he said, “This is
what that’s about.”
 

Then he held up the bundle and opened the shitty package so
I could see what was on the inside.
 
It
was cocaine.
 
He said to me with his
hands now up in the air as if I was sticking him up, “First I just want you to know
that somebody on the dorm side is cutting your throat.”

“What do you
mean,
another inmate?”
I asked with one of my eyebrows raised, letting him know that I was getting
pissed.

“Yep,” he said, “And he got better prices.
 
Every inmate that’s over on that side is
rocking with him now.
 
So that is why our
flow done slowed up.
 
And if he’s getting
it like I am getting it, ya’ know what that means right?”
 

I was in deep thought when he said that because I knew
exactly what he meant.
 
I was thinking to
myself that it was stupid of me to think that I would be the only one rocking
like this.
 
While I was in to my thoughts
he continued and said, “This is what’s popping right now, Gee,” while holding
up the coke, “This is where the money is at and everybody and their momma is
getting that paper up to get it.”
 
He
stood there looking at me knowing that I knew what he was getting at.
 

“That’s a whole new ball game,” I said staring at him.

“I am ready if you’re ready,” Flocko told me.

I told him that I am going to think about it.
 
As I was walking away, he said, “Scared money
don’t make
no
money.”