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CIA, CO, commissary, cop, fear, gossip, hurt, inmate, Prison, rumor, speech, staff, truth, words
“The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; they go down into the inner parts of the body.” Proverbs 19:8
Heard any good rumors lately? Take over 2000 inmates with not much to talk about besides the prison and each other, and it’s like a scene out of “The Music Man ;” pick a little, talk a little, cheep, cheep, cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more.
Two months ago the rumor was that they were changing the way our evening yard time works. When the days have enough sunlight to allow for yard after dinner, we alternate our evenings between block out (staying inside on the block to play cards or watch TV) and going outside for yard. When it gets dark earlier, we switch to only block out time; evening yard is eliminated between September and April. So the rumor was that the alternating inside/outside pattern was going to be changed to only outside yard time from April to September. The guys who liked to be able to stay inside and play cards or watch TV were not happy. The guys who liked extra yard time were happy. People argued about which was better. People said it’s changing on this day or that day. People wrote grievance forms expressing their opinions. Nothing ever changed, and nobody talks about it any longer.
Back at the beginning of the year the rumor was that the state was changing the law to allow for time off for good behavior. Some states have “good time” laws. Ours does not. Rumors went on for all of December and January. People said they heard it on the news, or that a family member read it on the web. I went to the law library and asked about it. Apparently this rumor happens at the beginning of every year. The law librarian said, “Believe me, if this ever happens we’ll have a big banner strung up in here that lets you know that it’s approved as a law.”
Other rumors of late included one that said our facility was being turned into a mental health facility and the bulk of “regular” (non-mental health) inmates would be moving to another facility. Another was that laundry detergent was being eliminated from commissary. There may have been some truth to that one, because the commissary staff posted a memo that said the detergent was being discontinued. So lots of people, including me, ordered as much Tide and All as we could before the supply ran out. People wrote grievances talking about how the laundry service here turned all whites into greyish-browns, and how we needed the detergent. Three weeks later another memo was posted stating that detergent would remain on the commissary list.
Some rumors are more personal, getting down from the institutional level to the staff or inmate level. At county there was a rumor about a CO who had supposedly been attacked in the Camp Hill riot of the 1990’s and been beaten to within an inch of his life by a broomstick, so his nickname used by inmates outside of the CO’s range of hearing was “broomstick.”
Inmate rumors range from the number of people that someone supposedly killed, to who is going to kick whose butt in the yard. Another common rumor is that some inmate is a rat, turning in other inmates for contraband or illegal activities.
Last week I was walking to pill line when a friend came up to me and asked me if he could ask me a question. “Something kind of personal,” he said. I answered, “sure,” not knowing where this was going. “Were you a cop on the street?” he asked. Apparently someone in yard had seen him lifting weights with me and said, ”Why are you working out with that guy? He’s a cop.” I laughed and said I had never been a cop.
Later that day two more people asked me if I’d been a cop before coming to prison. Nobody knew where the rumor had started. It was just something that someone had heard.
That’s when I remembered the words of my father-in-law, Frank. Frank always says, “Well, if people are talking about me that means they’re leaving someone else alone.” I knew that eventually people would move on to another rumor about another inmate soon enough.
I was asked only a couple of additional times if I’d been a cop. The funny thing is, if you say “No,” people really don’t believe you. So I started responding, “No. Not a cop. There were those years in the CIA, but they wiped my memory when I left the agency.” That leaves the rumor sharers with a blank expression as they walk away scratching their heads. Now we’ll see how long it takes for people to ask me if I was in the CIA.
We all deal with rumors – in here and out where you are. Proverbs says they are like delicious morsels, like a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie, very hard to resist. But rumors can also hurt and tear down. May God guard our tongues from rumors and gossip, keeping our words and speech positive and upbuilding.