Carl from Chicago talks about his professional visit to a maximum security prison years ago, where he was performing an audit:
The first thing you noticed in the prison was how LOUD it was; everyone was screaming the word “motherf&cker” in about 250 variants. It was a cacophony of yelling and noise and very disconcerting. The prison cells were very small with 2 inmates each; one stood menacingly at the bars and one was usually on a bunkbed (there wasn’t really enough room for both of them to stand). If you walked too closely to the cell they might spit on you; if you walked below the high tiers they might throw urine down on you.
The prison was very hot and stifling. The prison was built in the 1860’s long before the concept of air conditioning even existed in practical terms. There was little air flow and the whole place stunk. This audit was conducted during a long, humid summer.
When you think of a jail you assume people are “locked up” all day; this wasn’t the case at the Joliet Correctional Center. During the day likely half the prisoners were walking around, either going to the yard or going from place to place for one reason or another. Guards and prisoners were intermixed and this was likely how they kept the whole place from exploding in the summer heat. I just walked around them intermixed too, in a suit. After a while they just checked me in and I would do my work independently without a guard escorting me as I found my way around the facility.
For me it was odd because everywhere I walked people would scream something unique in my direction which I couldn’t understand. It sounded something like “yoalwr” in one syllable. After a couple weeks I finally figured it out. The prisoners were very street smart; they knew I wasn’t a cop because the police strut in a certain confident manner and act like they own the place (which they do). They also figured I wasn’t a state employee (like an accountant or manager) because they didn’t wear suits and also acted with an air of quiet resignation. To them – I was someone else. A lawyer! That’s the only guy who would walk around the prison in their universe. After I thought about it a bit I realized they were asking “Are you a lawyer” which seemed like a positive thing to pretend to be because a lawyer could be seen as a friend to an inmate should they decide to take the place over and take everyone hostage which from my perspective could occur at any time (although it didn’t).
If you watch “Cool Hand Luke” or other movies you think that the guards own the facility and that they push around the prisoners. I didn’t get that vibe at all at the Joliet Correctional Center. The guards and the prisoners in a way were both serving their sentences in that ancient, broken down, hot hell. Both sides seemed to have a wary detente and likely the prison gangs kept the place in line, since an orderly confinement was best for their businesses. While I was there they busted a guard for drugs and assisting inmates and I wasn’t surprised; it seemed like many of them were from the same neighborhoods and being an entry level guard was a low paid, dangerous job that you probably didn’t want to make even more desperate by mixing it up with maximum security prisoners who are mostly gang members and hardened criminals many in for very long sentences.
I remember interviewing a middle-aged white ex-con from Chicago many years ago. He said that when he first started going to prison the guards enforced “the rule of silence.” He really missed those days.