Monster Nation(9)

They passed through the main gate of the prison and into a well-lit series of rooms painted and repainted so many times the light switches and doorknobs had taken on a softened, rounded look. Glynne lead him through a series of tight passages with heavy iron doors that had to be unlocked manually and which snapped shut and locked with an electronic buzz once they were through. 'There are ten thousand doors in this facility, Captain. In an emergency lockdown all of them close and lock automatically. Nobody ever gets in or out unless we know about it. We've got eyes everywhere, even in the CO areas. That's the good news.'

'All I see here is bad news,'Clark said, glancing around in distaste at the dusty corridors.

'This is a supermax prison, Captain Clark, where the real dead-enders go. Violent inmates who can't be allowed to mingle in a normal prison environment. We impose twenty-three hour per day solitary confinement. Prisoners have to wear leg and wrist shackles when they go to eat. They get one four-inch-wide window in their cells and the toilets had to be designed so you couldn't fit a human head in them. They do that, you know. If you give them an opportunity to do something, no matter how sick or perverse, they'll do it. Just to f*ck with you.'

Clarkmade a grunt of understanding. Beyond one last door lay a control center, a red-lit claustrophobic space filled with computer monitors and desks and half-empty coffee cups. A dozen men and women in Corrections uniforms sat slumped in uncomfortable chairs, most of them gathered around one dimly flickering monitor. Two other men stood before what looked toClark 's eyes like a black wall until his vision adjusted and he saw it was a slab of transparent polycarbonate (more bullet-and impact-resistant than glass). The men wore image enhancement optics'AN-PVS 7B night optic devices'and were rapt by what they saw on the other side of the window.

When Glynne spoke again it was in a whisper as if he were afraid something on the other side might hear him. 'This is where the real bad guys go, one of our special housing units. The inmates call it the Black Hole. There are a hundred and forty-eight punishment cells down there which we keep darkened and sound-dampened at all times. Nobody can stay violent for long in an environment like that. It's been psychologically proven.'

Clarkpicked up a set of optics from a desk and strapped it onto his head and chin. He switched on the unit and looked down into the SHU. It took his brain a moment to make sense of the false-color images the goggles created but quickly enough he saw what was happening. In the cells prisoners lay motionless on their beds or paced endlessly around their tiny rooms. Some stood at their doors patiently as if waiting for them to open while others smashed at their walls with arms and heads and shoulders. He looked straight down at the center of the unit and had to gasp in disgust. Two dozen inmates were milling about in a central open area, many of them naked and clearly injured. He saw arms and legs that hung limp, faces contorted by lacerations, fingers and eyes missing. Another ten or so inmates lay in a pile in one corner, their bodies wriggling like fat worms. 'What are they doing?'Clark demanded.

'They're eating each other,' Glynne said, his voice flat. 'Some of them' some of them eat, and some get eaten.' The energy had gone right out of the CO.

'Good God! Where is your staff? Where are your guards? You need to get them in there and stop this at once!'Clark demanded.

'You don't understand, Captain. The inmates are never allowed out of their cells in this unit. The men in that open area you're looking at? Those are my guards.'





Monster Nation





Chapter Six


'The chickens are coming home to roost, everybody. Coming home to roost. You see all this violence'what? No, the chickens is what I said. This violence in the western states, just out of control, which is what happens when your prison system is like, it's like, it's a country club, you know, it's the cotillion ball for felons. They've got cable, they've got porn. Porn! I want to go to prison! Somebody arrest me! They have swimming'no, no, no! I said Chickens! The chickens are coming home to roost!' [Ted Thiokol, 'Ted and Andy's Morning Zoo' radio show, WNCI 97.9 (Columbus,OH), 3/18/05]

One whole wall of the mountain house had been converted into a mural painted in bright almost psychedelic colors. It showed a girl, perhaps thirteen years old with blonde hair exploding outward from her head. She had a pair of butterfly wings and she was hovering over a swirling galaxy of bursting stars. The colors had faded over a period of decades but someone had tried to touch it up periodically.