DannyBoyinExile

Last night a friend of mine, who lives a few cells down the run, got into a fight with his cellie. I was asleep at the time – but not for long, because even if the commotion wouldn’t have woke me up, the tear gas certainly did. In a matter of minutes (maybe even seconds!) our entire wing sounded like a virtual symphony of coughing. And within seconds, we’d all looked through the bars with our mirrors and figured out exactly what was going on.
Since 2000 (Y2K!), each guard in TDCJ has been issued a can of tear gas to wear on his or her belt, along with their radio. There are specific procedures regarding its use, compiled in a Use of Force Plan that all TDCJ employees are subject to. But it’s basically a matter of common sense. Any act of violence (towards inmates OR staff), which includes self-inflicted violence, in the form of suicide attempts, is justification for a proverbial can of whip-ass being sprayed on them.
This gas is basically capsaicin, which is the chemical that gives peppers their hotness. It will definitely put some heat on an inmate too, but its effects are more painful than fatal. It won’t cause long-term damage – but in the short term, its effects are immediate. Your eyes will burn and tear up profusely, along with your nose producing copious amounts of snot. Breathing is painful, resulting in bouts of sneezing (and did I mention burning?), and many people vomit after being hit with it directly. In fact, anywhere it touches you will be on fire in a short amount of time.
Some people develop a resistance to it. Or at least, through an act of sheer will they decide that they are STILL going to carry on with whatever got them gassed, and worry about the gas later. In seg, I’ve seen several dudes wire each other up to “fade the gas” by promising that if one of them goes through it – the others will too, right behind him. What can I say? They may not be America’s dumbest criminals – but they’re certainly not the smartest, either.
Tear gas is definitely an equal opportunity chemical agent. It does not discriminate. You may just happen to be in the dayroom, chow hall, or rec yard – and you will get it just as thoroughly as the people who deserve to be gassed. I’ve even seen guards (who can’t help but be a little nervous, as whatever violent episode transpires) miss the guy they were aiming at completely, and spray an innocent bystander by mistake! And some of them get so trigger-happy that they don’t STOP spraying it until the whole can is empty.
It is an aerosol as well as a liquid, so some of it becomes a mist – which then settles onto everything in its vicinity. I’ve learned the hard way about neglecting to wipe everything down – then inadvertently gassing MYSELF, as I touched my eyes after having my hands/arms through the bars! But that’s not near as bad as the guy who… ahem… masturbated after touching the residue! (Did you hear the one about the guy who went to the doctor because his penis was burning? )haha
I’ll confess that I HAVE been gassed a time or two, but far more often I was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, and got it along with everyone else. It’s nothing to brag about, like some people do, nor is it anything to particularly WORRY about. This is prison, after all, and that is something that I’ll see every now and then, whether I want to or not.
Like car wrecks or airplane crashes, it’s going to happen to someone, eventually. But if I stay away from people or things that INVITE trouble, I can minimize the likelihood of its happening to me. Being in prison, I can’t help but be around stupid people sometimes – but it’s my responsibility to make sure that I’m not ONE of them! That’s something I CAN control. So says DannyBoy.