Category Crime
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Respect, and I’m not talking about the Aretha Franklin classic, but something just as deadly. Outside of drug deals, there are more stabbings in prison over respect, or more precisely the lack of respect, than nearly any other motivation. This very unscientific finding is based upon years of “picking up the pieces” after a stabbing […]
Where Have All The Convicts Gone?
I grew up in a time of convicts. These days, a convict is hard to find. Convicts lived by a code that governed their conduct on the streets and in prison. Not that convicts weren’t dangerous criminals — they were, and their numbers included notorious murders, robbers and thieves. And they played by the rules. Rules? The […]
How Do Drugs Get Into Prison?
Getting prohibited items inside a prison is more than a game, it’s business. Every so often, a naive junior legislator will leave a fundraising lunch long enough to pop their head into a committee hearing and express their handwringing shock and dismay over drugs and other contraband appearing inside prison walls. Contraband is any item prohibited by […]
Prison Lingo
Every culture has a language unto itself, phrases or words that mean something completely different because of where they are spoken. Prison is one of those places. The world on the inside has a culture and language driven by life in confined spaces, honed by decades of control and restricted freedoms. I’ve mentioned before that time […]
Want to Time Travel? Go To Prison
I’ve been playing with an idea for a new book and it involves – wait for it – time travel. Not like the H. G. Wells, Time Machine kind of time travel. There is not fanciful device to dial up the year and zap you to the exact time and place of your choosing. The story I’m noodling […]
50 Shades of Grey Matter
Have you been around that person, the one with the brain that operates on an entirely different level than the rest of us? This guy (or gal) is the one doing their sudoku puzzles in ink along with their morning herbal tea. They are the ones who do math equations for the fun of it and […]
Prison and Politics – Part III
The success of any criminal justice initiative is judged on outcome. You and I think in terms of safer communities and prisons. That seems reasonable, doesn’t it? Policies, programs and sentencing strategies all woven together to reduce crime and allow for safe prison operations. The problem with this idea is that politicians aren’t normal folk, […]
Prison and Politics – Part II
All societies operate within the rules, boundaries and limitations of a political framework, a culture. The prison culture is no different. There are rules on the inside and the keepers as well as the kept know them. These rules dictate how the prison will run, or how it will fall apart. The typical State Trooper […]
Prison and Politics – Part I
Prison and politics makes for strange bedfellows. I know what you’re thinking, more politicians should be in prison. I will not disagree with that notion, especially as we head into the election season. Pick your poison here, lying, backstabbing, socialist, fascist, egomaniac, there are politicians of every stripe to choose from. While I have my […]
Life or Death
Hot button issues… They are everywhere, it seems. You can’t swing a cat without knocking over someone’s hot button issue. And, nine times out of ten it involves, religion, economics, race or politics. I tend to avoid conversations about any of these social land mines because they are so deep in the fabric who we are, […]
James L'Etoile 