ADC SECURITY 101 - HOW NOT TO RUN A PRISON SYSTEM - Government - http://www.maxpagesplus.com/darkevilworld/ADC_Security

On August 1, 1999, Correctional Officer I, Briana Reynolds, was assigned to duty in the armed guard tower overseeing the west quadrant of the Cummins Unit prison compound. It is the same tower where, not long ago, another correctional officer decided to end his life by splattering his brains all over the place by a shot to the head from one of the high-powered rifles kept there. Fortunately, no prisoners were present in the recreation yard over which that tower has an unobstructed field of view and whom he might otherwise have decided to take with him.

The west fence tower also overlooks the rear quarters of the Cummins Unit School, Gym, and the Substance Treatment Program building, which formerly housed the now infamous Plasma Center whose HIV and hepatitis-contaminated blood plasma has infected untold numbers of free citizens throughout the world, including 80,000 thus far documented in Canada. This west perimeter is a particularly vulnerable security area since at least two successful escapes of groups of two, and three prisoners respectively, has occurred there in recent years.

Officer Reynolds had been assigned to the West Tower as part of a disciplinary action because while she was stationed inside the prison proper, she was discovered to have had a private relationship and apparent sexual interaction with one or more prisoners there.

It is typical for an officer who is accused of wrongdoing inside the building to be stationed in one of the guard towers - the assignment to which is considered the local equivalent of banishment to Siberia. And, it is also typical that the guards stationed there have not been psychologically or otherwise tested or trained in the type of security expertise required to be able to responsibly engage deadly fire from the towers in case of riot or escape. Like most of the tower guards before her, Reynolds was not qualified to be given that kind of responsibility.

During her duty at the West Tower, Briana Reynolds often carried on hours-long conversations with prisoners in the recreation yard. On July 24, 1999, she had a long and heated argument with one of the inmates with whom she apparently had had an affair inside the compound. During that one-and-one-half hour "spat", she repeatedly cursed, degraded, and threatened the prisoner standing immediately beneath the tower within the hearing of everyone on the recreation yard. She detailed how she was going to get even with him and others for having betrayed her, and to make them hurt as they had made her hurt.

On several occasions that day, men across the several acre recreational yard yelled at the officer to hold down the noise and the cursing because they could not even concentrate on their softball game with her making such a racket. She was screaming so loudly that she could literally be plainly heard even some 200 yards or more away, at the opposite end of the yard.

Finally, a supervisor on a nearby construction crew had had enough of her screaming and harangue and drove to the tower in his state vehicle and ran the inmate off.

On August 1, 1999, Inmate Carl Curry, #84737 who had recently been made a trustee on the Front Lawn Crew proceeded to the West Perimeter tower. Normally, the Front Lawn trustees are responsible for transporting meals to the officers in the towers (even though drugging the food or otherwise nullifying security there is an obvious potential security threat). According to Reynolds, when he arrived at the tower, Curry asked to be allowed inside under the excuse that he needed to clean the tower area.

Reynolds unequivocally knew that under no circumstances was an inmate to be permitted inside the tower except under armed supervision by another officer, and then only if the other arms had been secured. However, she later stated that she let him in because she had seen him near the other towers, and although she had not seen him go inside then, she thought it was okay to let him into hers. So, she subsequently lowered the tower keys down to Curry to permit him to let himself inside.

Curry had entered and allegedly had made some sounds like he was in fact cleaning up (according to Reynolds's version). However, before she allegedly realized it, Curry had climbed up the narrow ladder to the tower platform proper, and immediately accosted her from behind by fondling her breasts and forcefully pulling her to him. According to her statement, the more she struggled, the more tightly he grabbed her.

At some point Curry allegedly pulled out $40.00 to give her (although inmates are not allowed to possess currency of any kind). She said she told him she did not want the money, but then took it from him and threw it down the stairwell.

According to Reynolds, Curry then accosted her again with more determination, and as he attempted to force her to the floor to have his way with her, she was able to escape.

She fled down the tower stairs leaving the inmate inside the tower with the unsecured weapons. However, since Curry apparently had no intention to escape or to allow other prisoners to escape once there was no longer armed security on the West perimeter, he then allegedly hurried after her and immediately became apologetic and expressed concern over the fact that she might now get fired for her breach of security.

The status of both Briana Reynolds and Inmate Curry are unknown.

This is a shining example of the wonderful competence and professionalism of the staff at the Cummins Unit and the remainder of the ADC. It is also one TINY example why the public really should no longer delude itself with a belief that inmates of the Arkansas prison system are being contained because of the wonderful security mindedness and competence of its staff. Inmates of the ADC remain contained solely because of the last threads of decency within them, and because of a weird psychological disturbance present here like nowhere else, that in another time and place in history would also have compelled them to proceed obediently to the ovens and the firing squads. Arkansas is fortunate indeed that there are but a tiny handful of real and desperate criminals confined within the ADC, because the ADC is not capable of containing anyone determined to escape. I can imagine a few hundred thousand criminals in prisons around the nation that would give virtually anything to be confined by the security of the ADC.

Really, what is going on in this place is indeed a joke, albeit a bad one, and would be pitiable were it not so dangerous and often tragic. Inmates laugh all the time over the fact that up to 60% of the guards here are women so young they are really just snot-nosed girls, and feminists with axes to grind against the male sex who relish their virtual totalitarian power over human lives. Another large body are grandmothers, welfare rejects, gang whores and others unable to get jobs anywhere else. Indeed, the hiring criteria is so lax that most of the inmate "undesirables" nowadays just get their girlfriends and kinfolk to apply for a job and come to work for the ADC. It's hilarious.

Please don't misunderstand - there are decent, competent, well-trained and professional officers and staff in the ADC as well. But, they are so few and far between that one really would have to look hard to find one. And, in an ever growing numbers, they themselves are resigning because of the hazard to their own lives and safety posed by the majority of their co-workers.

You might want to consider this when deciding if you want to support the building of the proposed new prison unit in YOUR back yard.

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LINDA TANT MILLER

WASHINGTON

USA

tantsy1@msn.com

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