Beards Turn Opportunity By Scott Boden |
| Beards Turn Opportunity Major James now compliant with the Lance Corporal, orders again to stand down. Lance Corporal Hall said "Sir, I am following orders that no one will approach headquarters without clearance and approval from Captain Miles." Again he repeats, "freeze!, don't move. With your right hand remove your identification." The Captain shouts to Hall to stand down, and gestures for the Major to get up and come into the tent. Rioting has put everyone on edge the captain says quietly to Gus as Gus brushes off. Gus who is normally soft spoken and keeps to himself, speaking only when necessary, to keep any confusion or misunderstandings to his subordinates to a minimum, simply asks the name of the soldier who had knocked him down. Gus now seated, takes control of headquarters and orders many things one right after the other to the Captain, who is silent taking notes. Relief on his brow, Miles walks out of the tent and begins his tasks. The Major shouts "HALL!" the soldier runs into the tent and stands at attention and said "reporting as ordered sir!". Gus stands up and walks to the soldier, looking up and down at his uniform. Walks behind him, around to the other side of him and then directly in front of him. "Hall, you are now transferred to me. You will report directly to me, and your first order is to cross this compound and get me every file on every inmate! Move!" Hall says "yes sir" as he is running out the door. Gus looks out at the compound, one building burned to the ground which was the chow hall, piles of bricks and debris are what is in place of the building. The dorms are damaged but reparable and only 30 or 40 feet of the wall has been damaged. Hall returns with every inmate's jacket and Gus starts reading. Gus does not look at how or what the prisoners actions were at the prison but only at the crime committed that brought them here. Gus learns that there are two gangs in the prison, one ran by a guy called Elko who runs a gang called The Faith and Fatman who runs the Rangers. Both gangs are mean and both have killed inside the walls of Beards Turn Correctional Facility. Beards Turn is not a military prison but the governor has ordered the military to take charge and turn the prison into a functional rehabilitation program that will not follow regular prison rules and replace any and all guards that have a problem with not having a union. Any military personnel are on a volunteer basis with extra pay and take orders only from Gus and anyone who works there will have to have a top secret clearance and be sworn to silence. What happens there, stays there! Gus starts interviewing all the guards that worked before the riot and fires most of them, with the exception of Hall, the other 52 military men volunteer to transfer to his new unit. Hall will be the only soldier who is ordered to be there. With a team of 60 guards, 53 new military and the 7 who stayed on who weren't fired, Gus orders all other personnel to leave the compound and orders the new team that they are now restricted to Beards Turn. The 7 non-military men are allowed two hours to go to their homes and make arrangements with family and what not and to gather personal effects. "If you are late" Gus bellows, "do not return" to the seven men. Lance corporal Hall is in the sights of Gus. Gus would never let Hall get away. After all, Gus owes Hall. There are three dorms each hold 120 beds, and there are 299 prisoners. 43 were killed in the riot, and 12 were transferred to a military hospital ship far away from reporters. Gus orders all inmates to a formation in the yard, but few inmates come out of the dorms. The prisoners who were captured during the riot were brought out by guards with loaded weapons. The Rangers did not come out and some of The Faith stood in formation. Gus sent in 15 guards with weapons and ordered the men to fire on any man starting with the highest ranking prisoner in any confrontation who will not follow orders. First man killed was Fatman and while killing a murderer is not that bizarre, the remaining Rangers quickly got into formation. Elko, because news travels fast in prison, ordered what he believed to be his men to follow Gus' orders. Elko's dorm, of course, has his gang plus prisoners who are not members of his gang and the Rangers gang was in dorm # 3. Gus ordered Elko and his gang to empty their dorm. Gus walked up to Elko in the middle of the formation with no weapon and ordered him into his dorm. Elko smiled and started to take a swing at Gus, and 40 rifles put a round in the chamber and Elko stopped his swing. Gus reached up with a fast punch and broke his nose, took an arm behind his back and pushed him toward the dorm. Everyone got out of his way as he pushed Elko to the dorm. Once inside, Gus ordered everyone from that dorm to remove all belongings including the beds into the yard. Elko and his dorm mates', belongings, beds and clothing are in the yard. Gus stands on a foot locker and faces the inmates and announces: "My name is Gus James, and you will call me sir. I am the new warden and you will call me sir. I will not argue with you, I will not tell you twice and you will follow my orders or you will be shot. You belong to me, I am your mom, your dad and your only salvation to the real world. You have burned down your chow hall, so you will not get hot food. If you want cooked food you will build a chow hall. You will get no visitors until you have a chow hall. You will get no phone use or mail privileges until you have a chow hall! You have no rights. If you want rights, you have to earn them. We are taking Dorm building one and inmates get the other two dorm houses. You have no gangs, there will be no fighting among you. If you fight, we will shoot. You have one hour to set up your dorms! MOVE!" Gus steps off the locker and walks toward the tent. The inmates are talking among themselves and becoming angry. 30 guards have their weapons drawn and are watching the inmates. Elko sends a man after Gus, to kill him, and orders a group of men to fight the guards. The guards take aim on the inmates and Gus turns around and orders the man to stop. Gus said "Hall, if that inmate takes one more step kill him". The man stops. The group of men start running toward the guards and the guards fire into the crowd. Men are falling. 17 men took 64 rounds. 17 dead. Gus orders Elko to lay on the ground. Elko hesitated but complied. Gus orders a guard to take Elko to the hole and Elko stood up and resisted the guard. Gus takes Elko down to the ground with one blow, picks Elko up, throws him into the door way. Elko pleads for Gus to stop. Gus didn't say a word while he beat that man. Gus beat him every step to the hole. Tossed him into the room and locked it. Gus steps back into the yard and sees that Hall is still pointing his rifle at the inmate who wanted to kill Gus. The inmate still in a walking stance, but not moving a muscle is shaking, sweating profusely,, ready to collapse. Gus orders Hall to stand down and Hall lowers his weapon. The inmate falls to the ground and throws up. He looks up at Hall and said "I'm sorry sir, I will never do that again, I will never! " Gus looks at Hall and smiles and says "prisoner, get up and join your comrades, Hall, come with me!" Gus walks to the tent thinking about Hall. "Get in here Hall" "Yes sir" Hall replied and entered the tent. Gus tears the stripes off of Hall's uniform. "What in the hell were you doing?" Gus said. "What makes you think you can just hold a weapon on someone or knock down a Major using the butt of your rifle soldier? Hall replies "Sir, I was following orders sir, orders have no rank". Gus looks at him, he is silent. Gus gets into Hall's face and said "You are hereby promoted to Sergeant, you will work for me as company gunny, You are in charge after the captain! " Gus knows that Hall will follow every order to the last detail, and Hall's comment that orders know no rank impressed Gus. Gus feels the same way. Hall is the only man who hit Gus that did not go to the infirmary. Hall should be commissioned Gus thought. Night is falling on the compound and the inmates only have 15 minutes left to prepare their quarters. Gus does not remind them. The inmates are dumbfounded and seem not to know what to do. Some go into the dorm and some sit around talking. Gus orders Hall to fire one round into the air. This brings all the inmates up into the yard and Gus stands on the same foot locker. Hall yells "Fall In", the inmates just stand around, Hall repeats "FALL IN!" The men gather in rows simulating a military formation. Gus begins speaking. "I have ordered you men to set up your dorms, you have failed to follow my order, Everyone sit down." Gus continues "This is where you will sleep tonight. If you even as much as stand up, you will be shot!" Gus stands down from the foot locker, and walks to the headquarters tent. Gus orders his guards to clean and prepare Dorm One for sleeping quarters and a temporary chow hall for just the guards. Gus also puts 5 guards on the inmates and have a change over on the hour for tonight. The inmates are just watching the movement of the guards and most do not sleep at all. After all, they have no blankets or pillows and the sky is clouding up. Mosquitoes are thick and you can hear the inmates slapping at them for most of the night. At sun rise, Gus orders reveille, all inmates are ordered up and the guards hand out meals ready to eat, one for each inmate and the guards have hot food brought in from a caterer. The inmates welcome this food but wish they were eating hot food. After breakfast, Gus again stands on the same foot locker. "Good Morning men" Gus says, "You have one hour to set up your dorm room". The men are ready. They are ready for the chance to prove to Gus they will try to please him. They want to please him. Gus says "MOVE!" and the men scramble towards the dorms. Within one hour, the dorms were livable and the inmates want a shower and a cot. But Gus has other plans for the men today. Hall yells "Fall In" and the men run to formation. They are in rows and ready for any announcement. Gus addresses the inmates. " I need volunteers" the men are raising their hands. "I need construction workers, cooks, laundry, and plumbers" The men quickly sign up for duties. A semi truck arrives with lumber and other materials and the inmates take over the unloading and preparing a holding area. Gus has to say nothing. Guards pass out tools and plans for a chow hall building with phones and a recreation area. Inmate 270301 Bill Wallace who owned a construction company in the real world offered to take responsibility for the building project and Gus was pleased. Wallace turned to and Gus got him a crew of 30 men to work for him. Wallace never asked for a thing in return. He just wanted the opportunity. Gus got volunteers for everything, planting crops, maintenance, domestic duties, and a group of cooks wanted permission to set up an outdoor kitchen. Gus approved their request and the men went to work. It took 3 months for the building to be completed and Gus ordered the equipment that the inmates wanted to have in the cookery delivered. All was going good. Elko stayed in the hole for 3 weeks the first time, and was returned the next day for 6 weeks. Elko has no pull among the inmates, and the inmates don't want him around. When Elko was not in the hole, he was the toilet cleaner. There are always 30 guards on duty and 30 guards off. Gus allows mail and phone to the inmates and a rotation for the guards to leave the compound and go home or they can have their families with them. This experience has had a great effect on the inmates and the guards alike. It is a home like atmosphere and there is respect for everyone by everyone. The guards' families in some instances are on a first name basis with some of the inmates, and there is laughter among the inmates. They have achieved respect for themselves and the warden. They are glad they are at Beards Turn. Gus has an open door policy for every inmate, and visitation for the inmates is every weekend. As long as there is camaraderie and mutual respect between the guards and inmates, the guards do not mind organizing and volunteering for inmate visitation. At Beards Turn, inmates set the pace. Inmates determine what their needs are and inmates are required to fulfill these needs. Gus will provide the materials. Beards Turn is self sufficient. It costs the tax payers nothing for this prison of opportunity. The End
Written by Scott Boden |