"If they complete their behavior modifi cation plan all week, they get a Scooby snack, just like second graders."
Caribbean Catapult
Danny Mason, the D-gallery resident fl amer, was
outside sitting above the sidewalk, leaning on a cable that
was designed to appear as a barrier between the sidewalk
and the grass. It would not really stop an inmate, but they
were forbidden to cross it. They were not supposed to lean
on it either, but few guards enforced the rule. Mason was
a foreigner, and he was not well liked. Few other inmates
even spoke to him, unless they were desperate for a dicksucking.
A large, young black inmate, who liked to play pranks,
by the moniker of "Big Papa," decided to experiment with
physics and the physical attributes of the cable. The cable
was divided into sections by wooden poles. Each pole was
not terribly unlike a telephone pole in diameter, but they
only stuck out of the ground about three feet. There was a
hole drilled through each pole, where the cable ran through.
Moving the cable in one section of the barrier had the effect
of moving the entire length of the cable. Big Papa watched
while he jumped on the cable just one section down from
where Mason was napping, leaning on the cable. The force
of Big Papa's weight coming down on the cable caused all the
slack to be taken up in Mason's section. The forced applied
by the cable to the center of Mason's back got his attention
immediately, snapping him out of la-la land, and almost
snapping his back. The cable threw him forward quickly,
fl ipping him over into a forward somersault, whacking his
forehead on the wall facing him. He got up instantly, looking
for the guilty party. Big Papa and his accomplice, Bird,
were pointing at him and laughing, along with many other
inmates. Mason was just sure that Bird was the guilty party.
Bird's only involvement was by association. He had not
participated but was aware of Big Papa's intentions all along.
Mason started in with his accented berating of Bird, until
it appeared that he would accept no more. Mason slipped
one more disrespectful term into his set, and entered the
housing unit, where he thought he could continue behind the
door of relative safety. Bird is all about respect. If you have
respect for him, you will never have a problem with him. It
was apparent that he would have to solve the problem with
Mason immediately. The chase ended in the unit manager's
offi ce, where the case manager and I had been observing
the entire episode.
"I am going to kick your ass!"
"You failed to recognize the 'G' in me!"