My very first night on suicide watch at MCC federal prison in downtown New York. If you didn't want to kill yourself before you entered the BOP's most in-the-news prison, you just might after a month or two. I was the watcher - not the observed.
As an "inmate companion," it was my job to monitor a prisoner about whom I knew nothing - except his reg number and his name: Bahnasawy. He was young with curly hair and a beard. Nothing about him seemed amiss. I started the conversation. "You ok?" He nodded his head.
"What did you do to get here?" Asking other inmates about their charge was commonplace. What better way to begin a conversation? "Terror," he responded.
"Terror!" I exclaimed. What did you do? "I tried to set off a bomb at a Beyonce concert."
"Really? How much they give you?" I continued matter-of-factly. "Forty years. I'm going to Leavenworth. You know anything about Leavenworth?"
I was in shock! Forty years! At Leavenworth! I wanted to hand him a gun so he could get the job done right then and there. I got why he wanted to kill himself.
Yesterday, Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years behind bars. He's 67 years old and in poor health. Plus, he's facing more charges in California. What would you do if you were Harvey Weinstein? I know what I'd do. I've been to prison. I'd kill myself.
It's a hard fall for anybody who goes to prison. And it's harder for rich men of influence. No wonder the authorities are worried that like Epstein, Weinstein might seek the same fate.
So what does society do with guys like Weinstein and Epstein? Is it appropriate to effectively end their lives for the crime of coercing women (or teenagers in Epstein's case) into sexual encounters?
And should we as a society make prison so horrible that inmates would rather die than live under those conditions? These are tough questions to answer. I call it the retribution versus rehabilitation quotient. From where I sat, the former outweighed the latter where I served. Or as one of my kitchen worker friends once observed "Prison isn't supposed to be comfortable." The discomfort prisoners experience is part of the reason I had a job on suicide watch. Inmates felt all too often they had nothing to live for. And the BOP didn't do much to dissuade them.
Clearly, the judge made an example of Harvey Weinstein. Murderers get shorter sentences than did Harvey. Knowing prison as I do, I'm of the opinion that his sentence was a bit harsh. But I don't know what it's like to live inside the bodies and minds of the women he abused.
Maybe the sentence is justified. From the reactions of those women, it certainly seemed so. But whatever your perspective, the entire spectacle is awful. All I can think is thank God the government didn't do to me what they did to Harvey. But then again, I didn't coerce women into having sex with me. A good thing I think we can all agree.
Nice article. I had a friend who was in a similar situation. It's rather insane the BIZARRO WORLD of beliefs that exist inside that situation. To think that you are sitting across from a person that tried to kill hundreds, if not thousands. No judgment - but, like you said - one 20 something year old guy gets 40 years for trying to kill a bunch of people that listen to awful music, another 73 year old gets 23 years for being a rather agressive lady's man, (or whatever Weinstein's age is), and then you have gangbangers that get 90 days.
ReplyDeleteAnd then you have people trading fish for chicken, soda for honey buns and snickers for blankets, and salads for IC shifts (saw one of your other posts about that)
My friend also said that he got some great stock advice from the Epster (no idea what that means) - my point is that, it seems as if you've taken this as a great learning experience, and think you're doing a great service to those who have 1) been through it 2) want to avoid Bizzaro world.
Looking forward to your book! I'm sure it'll be Miles of fun. :-)
Yeah, I got investment advice from Epstein. He told me not to be afraid to buy into a bull market. That advice currently has me suffering a paper loss equal to three brand new BMW's! What a guy! Btw...I figured out who your friend is after the first comment.
DeleteGlad you figured it out. And glad, like him, you went back to living a normal life - as best you can. 11 South just had their first case of Corona...imagine how crazy that place/unit/bizzaro land is right now! Anyway, with the NYC 'lockdown', I'm sure you'd think you'd never hear the word "lockdown" again, ha!
DeleteAnd well, the Epster's advice, from what I was told, actually was spot on for him. But my friend should've sold before the Corona crash. But it's all going back up anyway, maybe after a few months.
btw, who took over your IC post anyway? I'm just curious. Reading this is like a novel - and it seems like the only people who could've succeeded that IC coordinator thing were gangbangers, communists, or random celebrities...Seems like such a tedious job, but an amazing way to pass time in a place where time drags slower than a $100 laundry bag of macs.
The IC job was deleted after one of the employees threatened to kick my ass for scheduling him incorrectly - a direct result of the girls not keeping the schedule current. It was a total shit show. After Epstein killed himself, all the suicide cells were filled and I didn't have enough guys to fill all the shifts. So I started double-scheduling guys to add to my problems. When the girls decided to do the scheduling themselves, I quit the bookkeeping job - and signed off the whole fucking mess. Rodriguez apologized to me for being a dick down in the kitchen. So I went back to food service. Imeri was not happy that I quit. She knew I thought both she and Miller were incompetent. Chan took the job.
DeleteBtw...I went to Rikers for 18 days behind a state idiot who didn't understand the meaning of the word "concurrent." My $1300 commissary money was supposed to follow me there but as of yet, I still don't have that money, and it's not looking like I ever will. MC fucking C. What a shithole!
MOST IMPORTANT: Where did you hear about the corona case? Gotta know. I'm pursuing this for the Daily Beast. I know Plorde is not going to answer my calls or emails.
I heard about the Corona case from one of my brown-suit wearing colleagues, who's phone doesn't dial out. Ever since I learned that the laundry cop is one of the people guards are blaming the suicide on, I've taken to do random checkup on how bizzaro land is doing. It's on 11south. Crazy. How weird to see pictures of them on like yahoo news walking out as....DEFENDANTS!
ReplyDeleteCrazy, too, that you were "threatened by an employee". Well, I guess it's just bizarre - par for the course, right? My friend told me that they (the girls) flat out told him that the IC program wouldn't run without the IC coordinator. You proved them right. As you probably know, my friend had to do alot of juggling, maneuvering, communicating with the brown-suit wearing folk whilst at his "other job", to make it work. Bookkeeping, indeed. Therapy for time passage, indeed. He remembers just telling the head of the library dept "yo! be right back! gonna run through this corridor of a federal detention to get at one of my inmate companion cats out there in the back Keep the door unlocked, bro!" Well, maybe not in those exact words....
One more question. Speaking of the library - what was that like after that coordinator left? I heard that coordinator and the IC coordinator were the same person.
Anyway, regardless - the whole situation - Hey, better last year, than this year - eh?