#inmate 01

[blondebrainpowered]

Johnny Cash settles in to perform during his famous Folsom Prison concert on January 13, 1968.

[solitarysixty]

He didn’t BEAT THE BUZZER - so after losing his hair, Inmate I-01 now loses an hour of freedom chained up in solitary confinement!

Watch in full 👉SolitarySixty.com

[silverview]

⚠️ stage/fright notes + audio below the cut ⚠️ spoilers obviously ⚠️

do not look if you have any intention of seeing the show. this is for those who are not going to see it (or if you've already seen it & want to compare notes). i'm only sharing this because the run is sold out.

if you don't want full spoilers but just want to know about something specific (like a trigger warning etc) feel free to ask :)

first off, you can listen to my full recordings here [edit 20-01-2025: removed the link]. all i've done to these is snipped out some audience chat. they're not great quality but i think you can hear everything alright. if you want clarification on what was happening at any point, just let me know & i'll try to remember!

this ⬇ is just an overview with some personal highlights, so i'm sorry for everything i've missed out or gotten wrong.

i'm mostly refraining from commentary or analysis here, but needless to say i am shrieking and writhing on the ground about it.

the first act is a medley of bits & pieces:

it opens with a sketch set in the audience at a production of hamlet. a man (toby manley) sits down alone & fondly places a woman's scarf on the empty seat next to him. three disruptive audience members sit down near him, including one who describes the play aloud:

[edit 20-01-2025: removed the audio]

one of them's rather pudgy... the other one looks like a homosexual 👁👁

anyway, toby gets up and leaves, & reece takes his place. reece proceeds to murder the three disruptive audience members, then addresses the real audience with a polite request not to misbehave during the show.

from the audio you can't appreciate the way reece looks when he's about to finish off his last victim – towering over her, weapon in hand, while she's slumped down and staring up at him in terror, yay

the theme tune is performed live by two fantastically intense women with violins, up in the boxes, staring at each other throughout.

next, steve & reece address the audience as themselves. they explain that the theatre is supposed to be haunted by a ghost called bloody belle. reece believes in ghosts, steve doesn't, and proves it by having the crowd shout "bloody belle" three times to "summon" her

[edit 20-01-2025: removed the audio]

then bcdr is performed more or less as it appeared on tv. on "does it not tickle," len – passing behind tommy – goes for the arse instead of the arms. :|

part way through, tommy discovers a new sketch among len's things, "the kidnapping sketch" –

we see this performed sort-of by len and tommy, using their own names, (working through their own issues,) only in costume as the characters from a quiet night in. (complete with rachmaninoff.) in this segment steve (or rather len) speaks and acts like barry baggs from tlog.

instead of stealing a painting, the quiet night in guys are on a kidnapping job. they kidnap the wrong person, & we're given to understand this will be different celebrity guests depending on the night. tonight it was jim howick!

[edit 20-01-2025: removed the audio]

they make a bunch of gags about jim's work. reece's (or rather tommy's) character accidentally shoots and kills him.

then we get the end of bcdr but WITHOUT tears of laughter. (crucially.) bloody belle appears onstage & screams. end of the first act!

the second act is mostly one long piece, essentially a brand new episode about actors rehearsing a horror play.

in the horror play, reece plays an inmate at an asylum, who performs a comedy song and then gets dragged back to his cell. the song didn't record very well i'm afraid but his deranged laughter is good:

[edit 20-01-2025: removed the audio]

steve (having spent the first act in low status town) gets to play a fantastic hammy sadistic brain surgeon and rapist :) he has reece's character brought back in and strapped to a chair (obviously). then he hypnotises him and forces him to mutilate himself. it's great. normal length clip for normal reasons

[edit 20-01-2025: removed the audio]

then we spend time with the actor characters who are performing the horror play. on this level of reality, reece's character is conspiring to scare an actress away from the production using the bloody belle legend. in this section there are some fun references to the 9th circle tv show :)

at one point in this section, steve's demeanour shifts dramatically. he emotionally talks about actors seeing ghosts of loved ones onstage. he walks over and hugs reece, then exits.

reece's character's scheme is successful, but he belittles & sexually harasses his co-conspirator, who snaps his neck. fin.

when the curtain rises, reece's "corpse" has been replaced by toby manley, who gets up and joins the rest of the cast in the bows. steve addresses the audience about reece's recent death, and explains why he chose to go ahead with the play, with toby playing reece's part. he admits that during the performance, he was seeing reece, not toby.

[edit 20-01-2025: removed the audio]

this is the bit where you're gonna think i'm making it up. steve is hit on the head and killed by a falling light.

he wakes up to see reece in a beautiful white tailcoat, offering him coffee, welcoming him to the afterlife, and gloating about how ghosts are real. they bicker gently, but confess to having missed each other, and agree to haunt the theatre together. "every ghost story is really just a love story." [extremely long pause that must be heard to be believed]

[edit 20-01-2025: removed the audio]

reece points out the bcdr performance was incomplete; steve says he couldn't bear to do the song without reece. steve has a costume change to match reece (plus white top hats) so they look like they're getting married, and they perform a big heavenly afterlife version of tears of laughter with the whole cast. FIN FOR REAL. FOR REAL. IT'S REAL.

[edit 20-01-2025: removed the audio]

very VERY brief & incomplete thoughts:

len very clearly putting his real feelings about tommy into the kidnapping sketch. what that implies about reece & steve. screeching and howling

i don't think it's really implied that ghost!reece is responsible for steve's death, but it's a possibility we can't discount. "we're both here now, and that's the main thing." that's true love. maureen & david style

tumblr user bluvlet said something like "grief in this show is like the hare or the number 9." i have a half-finished vid about that idea that i'm impatient to get back to. definitely obsessing over it tonight.

they are obsessed with each other and with rehearsing their own (each other's) deaths.

[luigislady]

Idk how popular a Lulu blog you are (hopefully very!!) but they need to stop spreading this thing with the turtle suit... it ONLY happened in PA when he was there because it is literally protocol with high profile inmates when they're first put into custody. He isn't going to be Epstein'd- it isn't like he knows all the secrets of the elite like he did. They won't let anything happen to him as they want to make an example out of him. I'm sorry but people on TikTok spun it out of control, he's in NY where I doubt he's ever even worn the suicide vest. Here's the OG article. Please share this because the misinformation is ridiculous. If y'all want the most up to date and accurate/verified info, check out the Reddit /freeluigi

https://prisonjournalismproject.org/2025/01/23/luigi-mangione-prison/

thank you for this anon!!!

[firewirecompatible]

if you need some good news today here's this. people will fight for us. we are not doomed.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-judge-blocks-transgender-inmates-prison-transfer-under-trump-order-2025-01-30/

[venusandsaturnsrings]

★彡 masterlist!

all of my significant works packed into one pretty package! <3

 *✧incel au masterlist!

 *✧ mondstadt!

international! - foxboy childe vs wolf boy diluc! double edged - diluc isn't always the nicest...

 *✧ liyue!

prof. li - professor zhongli bits second place - prof. li cucking childe eggs - dragon zhongli full form - dragon zhongli full dragon mode

 *✧ snezhnaya!

foul legacy thoughts! simpy.05 - foxboy childe! international! - foxboy childe vs wolf boy diluc! sorry isn't my forte - childe is sweet when he apologizes drink up - fratboy childe and his dubious methods simpy.06 - fratboy childe thoughts! on the hunt! - foxboy childe and lamb reader chop chop chop - slasher childe thoughts sinning in the house of god. - priest childe and sacrilege electric! - childe using his delusion on you cor.03 - werewolf childe bits fungus - childe violates a shroom with you!! so mean!! dilf - dilf childe bits <3shotgunning - smoking with childe simpy.07 - slasher childe thoughts!water - childe and watersports... second place - prof. li cucking childe vulnerability in bed! - trans childe first time with you roulette - childe loves russian roulette frat sister - fratboy childe and zhonglis little sister... cor.03 - foxboy childe babbling! pathetic - soggy, sopping wet foxboy childe :( dichotomy - the two ways you have of foxboy childe canon skull fuck - canon childe bj! yeehaw! - cowboy childe thoughts harness - childe and that damn harness... change of plans! - foxtaru april fools fic :pcannibal - childe noms you cda.04 - doberman childe! kennal - when puppy childe misbehaves instincts - puppy childe wants to breed you cat.01 - puppy childe and a rival! cda.05 - sweet fluff with puppy childe cat.02 - foxboy childe and his lamb darling spider.01 - childe when his girl is in pain mantis.01 - puppy childe punishments confetti! - childes birthday celebrations frat - fratboy childe babbling spider.03 - foxboy childe as a dad! slash - slasher childe bit trapped - stuck trope with foxboy childe prisoner - childe is the inmate, you're the guard a slight indulgence - soft vampire childe raspberry sorbet - vampire childe blood sucking and sex

that time - foxboy childe with his darling is on their period potent - childe ramblings about how he handles you reminders - childe ramblings about how he misses you denial - no sex for puppyboy childe :( yuzu - childe ramblings involving food and smells sharing - foxboy childe and wolfboy wrio... fight! - foxboy childe and wolfboy wrio fighting over you

*✧ sumeru!

sinner - priest alhaitham bit enemies to lovers? - tensions with alhaitham are high devoted little lamb! - priest alhaitham and his sacrifice

 *✧ fontaine!

sharing - foxboy childe and wolfboy wrio... fight! - foxboy childe and wolfboy wrio fighting over you

[movingonexceptnot]

Death Note except Light is actually smart not just lucky and he doesn't kill the first person to get on tv saying they are going to catch him, but instead, he searches in his dad's computer on the police's database for that name and realizes it's a death row inmate

he sees it's a trick and kills every other death row inmate, except for the one that showed up on tv, to show he isn't scared/intimidate them

maybe even kills them at the same time, except for the minutes which he uses as a code for the alphabet (think 1 is A so 12:01 is A and 12:02 is B)

[docgold13]

I hate Trump with a burning passion, too, but let's not pretend Kamala was EVER a good person.

Kamala Harris intentionally withheld information that would have proven a man on Death Row innocent, she refused to support making police wear bodycams, regularly violated the rights of defendants, knowingly allowed a corrupt technician to alter evidence, and more!

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/opinion/kamala-harris-criminal-justice.html

Worst of all:

"And then there’s Kevin Cooper, the death row inmate whose trial was infected by racism and corruption. He sought advanced DNA testing to prove his innocence, but Ms. Harris opposed it. (After The New York Times’s exposé of the case went viral, she reversed her position.)"

Batman and Superman would just see her as another corrupt politician, even if Trump is worse.

We're just stuck with two horrible options where we have to choose the lesser of two evils. Plain and simple.

a valid take. respectfully, I disagree.

No prosecutor's full body of work can be judged effectively based on the simplified accounts from a handful of high-profile cases.

Posing the November election as a choice between the lessor of two evils is a losing strategy for the good guys. It saps enthusiasm and runs the risk of diminishing voter turn-out. Low turn out always benefits republican candidates.

November is not going to be a choice between two horrible options... it will be a decision between a decent albeit imperfect politician and a fucking monster.

put on some rose colored glasses and get excited for the prospect of a Harris presidency. The stakes are too high to be pragmatic.

[raindrop-on-a-spiderweb]

hi! i loved yeller feller and was delighted to see it was inspired by a real-life event (or multiple). i read that the moundsville riot (assuming it was the 1973 one?) was a big source of inspiration. i cannot seem to find a lot of information about it, could you give me some pointers/recommendations? i am very curious about the way you took inspiration for the characters as well :) thanks!

Hiya! Glad to see you're interested! The #1 way to learn about the Moundsville riot is, of course, to tour the old prison, which is an amazing experience, as a lot of the old prison guards give tours there.

I'm having trouble finding whether it was the 1973 or 1986 prison riot, as Google results seem to conflate them and both were purportedly started by desire for better living conditions. I believe it is the 1986 riot. Several guards were taken hostage and an inmate was brutally dismembered in the cafeteria, in which his heart was ripped out.

The part about the Warden is based on former WV governor and Moundsville Warden Arch Moore. Jesse is based on riot leader Danny Lehman, both short, cunning men with German last names. This newspaper article is the best and fullest record I can find:

https://www.newspapers.com/article/pittsburgh-post-gazette-jan-1-1986-moun/36885798/?locale=en-CA

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/03/us/2-dead-at-west-virginia-prison-inmates-agree-to-yield-after-riot.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/22/archives/west-virginia-jail-revolt-ends-hostages-safe-no-threats-on-my-life.html

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/244188701/danny-lee-lehman

https://law.justia.com/cases/west-virginia/supreme-court/1985/16571-5.html

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YTQyNMFscws

https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-herald-moundsville-riot-inma/158063292/

The New Mexico State Prison riot (in which a nurse narrowly escaped when the riot started, inspiration for Rhoda who wasn't so lucky) is a much more well-documented event; I recommend the book Devil's Butcher Shop, as well as this documentary.

https://youtu.be/3M-hPpuAqwQ?si=ybkH-8dxQIpoQoKm

[offender42085]

Post 0613

Edward Saucier, Florida inmate W91579, born 1999, incarceration intake June 2022, at age 23, released December 2022, returned to incarceration March 2023, released November 2023

Burglary

Saucier was sentenced to two years in prison for committing multiple burglaries in Indian River County.

He was initially received into the Department of Corrections on 06/30/2022, and housed in Kissimmee.

While on work release, Edward Saucier reportedly cut his ankle monitor on 12/01/2022.

On 12/04/2022; The Indian County Sheriff's Office said they received information that Saucier was possibly near the area of 6400 48th Avenue. 

A resident in that area reported that someone burglarized their home — taking clothing and food.  Several police units responded and Saucier was found hiding in a nearby wooded area where he was arrested, and then transported to the Indian River County Jail.

He remained in the Indian County Jail until 03/23/2023 when he was returned to the control of the State Department of Corrections.

3l

Last reviewed November 2024

[beardedmrbean]

Haiti's government declared a 72-hour state of emergency on Sunday after armed gangs stormed a major prison. At least 12 people were killed and about 3,700 inmates escaped in the jailbreak.

Gang leaders are demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, whose whereabouts are unknown since he travelled to Kenya.

Gangs control around 80% of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Gang violence has plagued Haiti for years.

A government statement said two prisons - one in Port-au-Prince and the other in nearby Croix des Bouquets - were stormed over the weekend.

It said the acts of "disobedience" were a threat to national security and said it was instituting an immediate night-time curfew in response, which started at 20:00 local time (01:00 GMT on Monday).

How gangs came to dominate Haiti

Haitian media reported that police stations were attacked, distracting authorities before the coordinated assault on the jails.

Among those detained in Port-au-Prince were suspects charged in connection with the 2021 killing of President Jovenel Moïse.

In the capital, gangs have erected barricades to prevent security forces from encroaching on their territory, while their strongholds in Port-au-Prince's vast shantytowns are still largely on lockdown.

Schools and many businesses are closed, and there are reports of looting in some neighbourhoods.

Police have set up roadblocks and there is much uncertainty on the streets.

The latest upsurge in violence began on Thursday, when the prime minister travelled to Nairobi to discuss sending a Kenya-led multinational security force to Haiti.

Gang leader Jimmy Chérizier (nicknamed Barbecue) declared a co-ordinated attack to remove him.

"All of us, the armed groups in the provincial towns and the armed groups in the capital, are united," said the former police officer, who is accused of being behind several massacres in Port-au-Prince.

Haiti's police union had asked the military to help reinforce the capital's main prison, but the compound was stormed late on Saturday.

On Sunday the doors of the prison were still open and there were no signs of officers, Reuters news agency reported. Three inmates who tried to flee lay dead in the courtyard, the report said.

A journalist for the AFP news agency who visited the prison saw around 10 bodies, some with signs of injuries caused by bullets.

One volunteer prison worker told the Reuters news agency that 99 prisoners - including former Colombian soldiers jailed over President Moïse's murder - had chosen to remain in their cells for fear of being killed in crossfire.

They have now been transferred to a different prison.

The US embassy in Port-au-Prince on Sunday urged its citizens to leave Haiti "as soon as possible". The French embassy said it was closing visa services as a "precaution".

While Haiti has been plagued by gangs for years, the violence has further escalated since President Moïse's assassination at his home in 2021. He has not been replaced and presidential elections have not been held since 2016.

Under a political deal, Mr Henry was due to stand down by 7 February. But planned elections were not held and he remains in post.

A spokesperson for the White House's National Security Council said it was "monitoring the rapidly deteriorating security situation" with "grave concern".

They said the path forward "lies with free and fair elections" and violence serves "only to delay a democratic transition while... upending the lives of thousands".

Speaking to the BBC's Newsday, Claude Joseph - who was serving as acting prime minister when President Moïse was assassinated and who is now head of the opposition party called Those Committed to Development - said Haiti was living through a "nightmare".

Mr Joseph said Prime Minister Henry wanted "to stay as long as possible in charge".

"He agreed to step down on 7 February. Now he decides to stay, despite the fact that there are huge protests throughout the country asking him to step down - but it's unfortunate that now those criminals are using violent means to force him to step down."

In January, the UN said more than 8,400 people were victims of Haiti's gang violence last year, including killings, injuries and kidnappings - more than double the numbers seen in 2022.

Many health facilities have stopped operating because of the bloodshed.

Anger at the shocking levels of violence, on top of the political vacuum, have led to several demonstrations against the government, with protesters demanding the resignation of the prime minister.

[hackernewsrobot]

Sweden eyes sending inmates abroad as prisons full due to gang crime wave

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sweden-eyes-sending-inmates-abroad-prisons-full-due-gang-crime-wave-2025-01-29/

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The Bezzle excerpt (Part IV)

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT in SALT LAKE CITY (Feb 21, Weller Book Works) and TOMORROW in SAN DIEGO (Feb 22, Mysterious Galaxy). After that, it's LA, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix and more!

This week marks the publication of my latest novel, The Bezzle, and to celebrate, I'm serializing an excerpt from Chapter 14 in six parts:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

The Bezzle is a revenge story, a crime novel, and a technothriller. It stars Martin Hench, a hard-fighting forensic accountant who specializes in unwinding high-tech scams. Hench made his debt in last year's Red Team Blues (now in paperback!); The Bezzle is a standalone followup:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865854/redteamblues

The serial tells the tale of Stefon Magner, AKA Steve Soul, a once-famous R&B frontman whose disintegrating career turned to tragedy when his crooked manager forged his signature on a rights assignment contract that let him steal all of Stefon's royalties, which ballooned after modern hiphop artists discovered his grooves and started buying licenses to sample them. The first three installments related the sad circumstances of Stefon's life, and the real-world analogues (like Leonard Cohen and George Clinton, both of whom were pauperized by sticky-fingered managers) as well as one real-world countermeasure, copyright termination, a thing that more artists should know about and use:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/09/26/take-it-back/

Today's installment weaves in a major subplot for the first time in the serial: Los Angeles's notorious, murderous Sheriff's Deputy gangs. These are another unbelievable true tale: for decades, the LASD's deputies have formed themselves into criminal gangs, some of which require that initiates murder someone to be inducted:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LASD_deputy_gangs

They sport gang tattoos, have secret signs, and run vast criminal enterprises. This has been the subject of numerous investigative press reports, and one extensive official report that called the gangs "a cancer":

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/deputy-gangs-cancer-los-angeles-county-sheriffs-department-scathing-re-rcna73367

The sordid tales of the LASD gangs beggar belief. For example, deputies in charge of LA County jails forced inmates to pit-fight and took bets on the outcomes:

https://www.aclu.org/publications/report-cruel-and-usual-punishment-how-savage-gang-deputies-controls-la-county-jails

The taxpayers of LA have shelled out tens of millions of dollars to settle claims against LA's criminals with badges:

https://news.yahoo.com/deputies-accused-being-secret-societies-230851807.html

Periodically, LA judges and officials will insist that they are tackling the problem:

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-17/dozens-of-lasd-deputies-ordered-to-show-suspected-gang-tattoos-reveal-others-who-have-them

But at every turn, the LA police "unions" manage to crush these investigations:

https://abc7.com/los-angeles-county-lasd-deputy-gangs-cliques/13492081/

And top cops are right there with them, insisting that these aren't "gangs" – they're just "subgroups":

https://lapublicpress.org/2024/01/former-la-sheriff-villanueva-sheriffs-gangs-are-just-subgroups/

It's very weird being an Angeleno and knowing that one of the largest, most militarized, best funded police departments in the world has been openly captured by a hyperviolent crime syndicate. When I was in the Skyboat Media studios last December with Wil Wheaton recording the audiobook for The Bezzle, Wil broke off from reading to say, "You know, someone's going to read this and google it and have their mind blown when they discover that it's real":

https://sowl.co/8nyGh

That's one of my favorite ways to turn literature into something more than entertainment. It's why I filled the Little Brother books with real-world surveillance, cryptography and security tech, giving enough detail to advance the plot and give readers an idea of what search terms would let them understand and use the concepts in the novel. That's something I'm happy to keep up with the Hench novels, unpicking the inner workings of scams and corruption. The more of us who are wise to this, the sooner we'll be able to get rid of it.

Here's part one of the serial:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/17/the-steve-soul-caper/#lead-singer-disease

Part two:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/19/crad-kilodney-was-an-outlier/#copyright-termination

Part three:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/20/fore/#lawyer-up

And now, onto part four!

The last of the boxes had been shelved.

Benedetto rose from his chair. “Thank you, gentlemen,” he said to the movers, and dug a roll of twenties out of his pocket and handed each of them two of their own. He turned to me as they filed out. “You wanna get sushi? The place next door is great.”

The empty storefront was in a down-­at-­heels strip mall in Eagle Rock. On one side, there was a Brazilian jujitsu studio that never seemed to have any students training in it. On the other side was Sushi Jiro, name on a faded sign with half its lightbulbs gone. Beyond that was a vaping store.

“The place next door is good?”

He laughed. “You San Francisco motherfuckers got terrible LA restaurant radar. Put Sushi Jiro in the Mission and it’d have a Michelin star and a six-­month waiting list. Here it’s in a strip mall and only the locals know how good it is. Bet you never had a decent meal in this town, am I right?”

“I’ve had a few,” I said, “but I admit my track record isn’t great.”

“Let’s improve it.”

The sushi was amazing.

#

Inglewood Jams had the kind of books that were performatively bad, designed to foil any attempt at human comprehension.

But whoever cooked them was an amateur, someone who mistook complexity for obfuscation. Like cross-­referencing was a species of transcendentally esoteric sorcery. I don’t mind cross-referencing. It’s meditative, like playing solitaire. I had Bene­detto send over some colored post-­it tabs and a big photocopier with an automatic feeder and I started making piles.

One night, I worked later than I planned. Sushi Jiro was becoming a serious hazard to my waistline and my sleep-­debt, because when your dinner break is ten yards and two doors away from your desk, it’s just too damned easy to get back to work after dinner.

That night, I’d fallen into a cross-­referencing reverie, and before I knew it, it was 2 a.m., my lower back was groaning, and my eyes were stinging.

I straightened, groaned, and slid my laptop into my bag. I found my keys and unlocked the door. The storefront was covered with brown butcher’s paper, but it didn’t go all the way to the edge. I had just a moment to sleepily note that there was some movement visible through the crack in the paper over the glass door when it came flying back toward me, bouncing off my toe, mostly, and my nose, a little. I put my one hand to my face as I instinctively threw myself into the door to close it again.

I was too late and too tired. A strong shoulder on the other side of the doorframe pushed it open and I stumbled back, and then the guy was on me, the door sighing shut behind him on its gas lift as he bore me to the ground and straddled my chest, a move he undertook with the ease of much practice. He pinned my arms under his knees and then gave me a couple of hard hits, one to the jaw, one to the nose.

My lip and nose were bleeding freely and my head was ringing from the hits and from getting smacked into the carpet tiles over concrete when I went down backward. I struggled—­to free my arms, to buck off my attacker, to focus on him.

He was a beefy white guy in his late fifties, with watery dark eyes and a patchy shave that showed gray mixed in with his dark stubble. As he raised his fist for another blow, I saw that he was wearing a big class ring. A minute later, that ring opened my cheek, just under the orbit of my eye.

Apart from some involuntary animal grunts, I hadn’t made a sound. Now I did. “Ow!” I shouted. “Shit!” I shouted. “Stop!” I shouted.

He split my lip again. I bucked hard but I couldn’t budge him. He had a double chin, a gut, and he was strong, and used that bulk to back up his strength. It was like trying to free myself from under a boulder. That kept punching me in the face.

The strip mall would be deserted. Everything was closed, even the vaping store.

Shouting wouldn’t help. I did it anyway. He shut my mouth for me with a left. I gagged on blood.

He took a break from punching me in the face, then. I think he was tired. His chest heaved, and he wiped sweat off his lip with the back of his hand, leaving behind a streaky mustache of my blood.

He contemplated me, weighing me up. I thought maybe he was trying to decide if I had any fight left in me, or perhaps whether I had any valuables he could help himself to.

He cleared his throat and looked at me again. “Goddammit, I messed your face up so bad I can’t tell for sure. I hope to fuck that you’re Martin Hench, though.”

Even with my addled wits, this was an important piece of intelligence: he came here for me. This wasn’t a random act of senseless Los Angeles street violence. This was aimed at me.

I was briefly angry at Benedetto for not warning me that Chuy Flores was such a tough son of a bitch. Then I had the presence of mind to lie.

“I don’t know who the fuck this Mark Hendricks is.” My voice was thick with gargled blood, but I was proud of Mark Hendricks. Pretty fast thinking for a guy with a probable concussion. The guy slapped me open-­handed across the face, and as I lay dazed for a moment, he shifted, reached into my back pocket for my wallet, and yanked it—­and the seat of my pants—­free. Before I could react, his knees were back on my biceps, pinning my arms and shoulders. It was a very neat move, and fast for an old guy like him.

He flipped my wallet open and squinted at it, then held it at arm’s length, then smiled broadly. He had bleach-­white teeth, a row of perfectly uniform caps. Los fucking Angeles, where even the thugs have a million-­dollar smile.

“Shoulda sprung for botox,” I slurred.

His grin got wider. “Maybe someday I will. Got these in trade from a cosmetic dentist I did some work for.” He dropped my wallet. “Listen, Martin Hench, you stay the fuck away from Thames Estuary and Lawrence Coleman.”

“It’s Lionel Coleman,” I said.

“What the fuck ever,” he said. He labored to his feet. I stayed still. He looked at me from a great height, and I stared up his nostrils. Without warning, he kicked my ribs hard enough that I heard one of them crack.

“You’ve been told,” he said to my writhing body, and let himself out.

ETA: Here's part five!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#poacher-turned-keeper

[bighermie]

Share Link

Department of Justice Files Statement of Interest in Lawsuit from Transgender Inmate https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/01/09/department-justice-files-statement-interest-lawsuit-transgender-inmate/

Biden's DOJ at work

[bunny-lou]

Trigger warning for pictures of a prison, brief mentions of inhumane conditions, starvation, death and violent crimes.

I got to visit the Mansfield Reformatory in Mansfield, OH over the weekend. This place originally began as a 'midway' point for young men who had committed crimes that were too serious for juvie, but not serious enough for prison.

In 1896, the Reformatory welcomed 150 inmates and was entirely self sufficient. Any repairs needed were done by inmates, food was grown on the property, livestock were raised by inmates. Not only did this keep costs low, but it helped inmates gain skills to work after their release. In its early years, the Reformatory had an 85% success rate, meaning that 85% of inmates were not re-admitted within 5 years of their release.

April 1930 saw one of the deadliest fires in U.S. history, the Ohio Penitentiary Fire in Columbus. It's believed the fire began when a rag was left too close to a candle. Some guards left the prison without unlocking any cells. More than 300 men perished in the fire.

Of those that survived, some were transferred to the Reformatory. Again, the Reformatory wasn't meant to hold inmates with violent crimes and the administration argued against taking in these inmates, protesting that they didn't have the room or the staff and that this could be detrimental to their current reform program, but the Reformatory was forced to house inmates from the Penitentiary.

The Reformatory saw state funding being cut a few decades later. Those put into solitary were given 1 meal once per day and it was often stacked that one meal would be given at 12:01 am on one day, then not again until 11:59 pm the second day, meaning inmates would go 47 hours without food. The Reformatory had such a severe cockroach problem that inmates would sleep with toilet paper stuffed in their ears to prevent anything from crawling in. Guards were so unused to handling violent inmates that they often did not interfere with any fights or step in unless absolutely necessary. The Reformatory became a maximum security prison in the 70s and would remain as such until its closing.

In the 1980's, former inmates sued the Reformatory for its inhumane conditions. The state ruled that the Reformatory was to be closed and another facility, the Mansfield Correctional Institution, was to be built to replace it. The state pulled ALL funding from the Reformatory to put into the MCI, meaning the Reformatory had absolutely no money the last ten years it was open. More than 200 people died in the Reformatory and, unless they were claimed by family, they were buried on the property, where they still remain.

Visit mrps.org to learn more. If you are ever in the Mansfield area, I can not recommend this tour enough. Those who are working to preserve and restore the Reformatory rely entirely on donations and those who pay for tours, so please check them out!

[sanctamater]

sleep meme / headcanons.

01. type of bed. amelia, given her position as columbia's matriarch, sleeps on the finest bed that money can buy - a mahogany four poster bed with a velveteen headboard (blue, of course); atop two feather mattresses. the bed curtains are a heavy, deep blue taffeta with velvet patterning in a darker blue; held back with gold curtain ties; tasseled and tacked with fringe to boot. her sheets are white silk, her comforter a sky blue silk - changed out for flannel and wool (respectively) in the winter months. 

02. number of blankets. amelia runs hot in the night! in the winter she'll opt for just her sheet and comforter but in the summer she won't have any sheets/blankets at all. with that in mind, she'll usually forgo nightdresses in the summer as well. 

03. number of pillows. just one - not too firm and not too soft; fluffed to perfection.

04. type of clothing. again, this depends on the season. in the winter she'll tend to wear longer nightdresses that button at her beck and her wrists; stopping just short of her ankles. they're usually threaded through with blue ribbons and decorated with lace, ruffles, and pintucks - and she'll wear a velvet, open dressing gown around her rooms. in the summer, she opts for lighter, near transparent linen nightgowns - short sleeves, lower necklines, hems that come up to her knees and silk dressing gowns. 

05. does it matter where they sleep. amelia is not easily put at ease in the night hours. she will only attempt to sleep in the safety of her own room and in her own bed - nowhere else.

06. what do they do if they cannot fall asleep? on nights when things are easier for her, amelia will just lie in bed until she passes out or dawn comes - whichever is first. on nights when her ptsd is bad and her paranoia high, she walks. amelia has a set routine when she does this - she will double, then triple check to make sure the door that adjoins her room with zachary's is locked - always locked from her side, and that the key is safe in her nightstand. she will pace her rooms - 5, 6 times - before taking a candle and wandering the halls of comstock house. she does not linger on the upper floors, but tends to pick her way through the main floors - the library, the music room, her study, the ballroom, the grand hall - she'll linger outside the prophet's study - it's locked, but it won't stop her from trying to open the door. she'll wander like this until she's exhausted and cannot keep moving; usually stopping near dawn. 

07. frequent dreams, nightmares. amelia usually has nightmares/ptsd flashbacks that wake her up and leave her unable to sleep. the most common ptsd nightmares she has are flashes of abuse suffered at the hands of zachary. most often, it will end with him attempting to strangle her, and she will wake up gasping for breath. sometimes, she dreams of elizabeth - either searching for her aimlessly in halls and rooms; hearing her laugh, but never quite reaching her - or always running after her daughter. sometimes, she dreams of the luteces. sometimes, the inmates below rise up and tear her and the rest of the house to pieces. sometimes, she is drowning, and it is the prophet holding her underwater. a good night is when she has no dreams to disturb her - or simply does not remember them. 

08. when do they sleep. as a creature of habit, amelia turns in to bed at 9pm on the dot every evening without fail - unless she is hosting or attending a party; in which case she will be up until dawn anyway, and simply take a nap until 9 am. she was taught to always be early to rise - and to not waste time in bed; a sentiment that still holds true even now, 38 years in to her life. 

09. what could wake them. anything? her ptsd and paranoia makes her a light sleeper - she's constantly primed for noises that are out of the ordinary. a touch of any sort could also wake her up; regardless of if she has a lover warming her bed.

tagged by: @wrench-jackie why did u do this to me tagging: @afraidofchange @thomasrainier @timeloooop @miscelliany @fauxcette