Dan’s Papers September 23, 2011 danshamptons.com Page 24
Guldi
(continued from page 22)
To check, from time to time, they come by our rooms and go through all of our things to make sure we have not accidently acquired any. I am touched by the level of caring. It’s a great convenience, because it gives a great head start on spring-cleaning The Dark Side Some of the residents here seem to have a great deal of trouble accepting and appreciating the accommodations. And the fact is that they have earned the right to be here, or have to wait here until the Appellate Courts, or trial Courts determine otherwise. They cannot accept that the officers here have nothing to do with the resident and guest selection process, and vent their frustrations upon the officers or other residents in antisocial ways. On my wing there is one gentleman who has been sent here from one of the other housing units, where the sleeping accommodations are in a different style. He is in my wing to recover from injuries he received from a beating. It seems that one day he objected to a bully taking the bread ration from a young resident, and urged him to relent. He is a large and persuasive individual and they relented. At approximately 2 a.m., he was attacked in his sleep by three individuals using part of a bunk bed that they had loosened as a weapon. He was beaten into unconsciousness and beyond. The officers, probably by design of the attackers, had been drawn away to the far end of the facility while the beating continued. He was partially blinded in his left eye, suffered brain and nerve damage, partial paralysis of one leg and wakes most nights with nightmares, re-living the attack. It Is Clear That Life for the Correction
Officers is Worse Than for the Residents I have been told that the Officers in the tiers (bunk housing) and pods (individual cells) cannot show any compassion or kindness without becoming targets for attack by the residents. They must always be on their guard against attack upon themselves but also for attack of resident upon resident. At the same time, they are conducting the constant search for contraband of every order. They must fight the boredom of the repetition of [head] counts and repeated routine punctuated by the occasional moments of horror, terror, or utterly inhuman behavior. [They must] act robotic in self-defense, but still gain intelligence so that they can protect the compliant [inmates] from attack by the predatory [inmates]. Not to mention the threat of [contracting] communicable diseases (from tuberculosis, hepatitis C and HIV) and injury. All of this with more rules than resources or support. But whenever anything goes wrong, or anyone gets injured, they are always the ones who take the blame all the way up and down the chain of command. For this they are underpaid, work nights, weekends, holidays and rotating shifts. This means you can look forward to having Christmas and the Fourth of July off four times in 20 years, six weekends a year that occur on Saturday and Sunday (which is 20 fewer than a non-Correction Officer), and they all have to commute [to get here], which none of the residents or guests ever have to do. In fact, whenever the guests and residents have an outside appointment, the Officers work as chauffeurs or tour bus operators. Guests and Residents
Guests are those here because they didn’t make bail. Residents are here because they’ve been convicted or have pled. My bail has been set to make me capitulate to confess to things I did not do in order to avoid work by the District Attorney and Judge. If I plead guilty they need not prove anything. If I go to trial they must try, through demonizing words, fake evidence, lying rats and finger pointing that things were crimes. All about transactions that they don’t understand but they want to call fraud. Why would I want to go back to a constantly ringing cellphone, the constant demands of clients who want everything except to pay bills—and not taking care of my health and getting no exercise? Capitulation to crimes that do not exist, I don’t think so.
Royal
(continued from page 20)
for a fisherman to get ill and for a helicopter to be called in to medevac him off to Stony Brook Hospital. The landing and takeoff would be, as indicated in the script, somewhere in the center of town by Fort Pond. The Town seemed amenable to the script, until it got to the part about the helicopter. One of the Town Board members said there was great sensitivity to helicopter noise in the town and they were not so sure they could allow that. Michael Fucci, Location Manager for USA, said, “It’s our goal to be invited back wherever we go.” “The one red flag is the helicopter,” said Councilwoman Theresa Quigley. Councilwoman (continued on page 38)
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