DannyBoyinExile

From my experience in TDCJ, one thing I’ve learned is that you don’t have to smoke crack to be a crackhead. The term has become so commonplace that it can refer to ANY time you do something stupid. It can even be used affectionately at times. (Crackhead, I mean, not crack!)
For example, any time you see one of your associates doing something stupid and you want to scold him for it – calling them a crackhead is a good place to start. “Crackhead! Don’t dip your cup into the cooler! EVERYBODY has to drink out of that – but everybody doesn’t want to drink after YOU!”
Sadly, with so many inmates smoking so many chemicals throughout TDCJ, crackhead antics have become much more common. I mean, when you look at some of the antics people perform on drugs such as meth, fentanyl, or ketamine – crack seems almost tame by comparison! (Ahem… I mean that jokingly, not literally…)
A crackhead may “geek and tweak”, or spend an hour sifting through the carpet, looking for dropped pieces of dope. But I’ve never seen one of them fall completely off three row to land on the concrete two stories below, or fall unconscious on the stairs, blocking traffic just when everybody is trying to pass.
As inmates, we have tried to pass various self-imposed rules to restore a little order around here (such as no smoking on the run), but some people never seem to learn. (If all it took was an ass-whipping to learn a lesson, we never would’ve come to prison in the first place!) Besides – sometimes (and in some places) the people who do drugs and do stupid shit seem to outnumber the people who don’t!
We had an incident recently where a guy smoked his stick, and ran down the run to get some ice water before it kicked in. Of course, he didn’t even make it to the cooler before it hit him and he completely forgot what he was doing. (As if he ever knew in the first place!)
So he turns around and heads to the VICINITY of his cell, runs in, and slams the door, before he falls out on the run and earns an ass-whipping. I say “vicinity of his cell” because it wasn’t actually HIS cell he ran in. He ran into his neighbor’s cell by mistake, where he promptly slumped out.
Like the Three Little Bears, Papa Bear was shocked to come home and find that somebody had been sleeping in his bed – and he was still there! He was relieved that it was only a mistake, and not someone trying to steal his stuff (which also happens on occasion), but that’s still a serious transgression around here – and still had to be dealt with.
So the guy went in “the bowl” and got beat up, yet again. (The trespasser, I mean, not Papa Bear!) Chances are, he probably WON’T learn his lesson, but the teachers will appear, whether he’s ready or not, to put his dumb ass in the bowl again.
We may not be able to CURE everyone of their foolish antics around here, for sure. But if we can at least cause them to THINK before they do something stupid, or keep it under control a little better, our little slice of the world may become a better place. Even though we’re in prison, this is still our neighborhood, and our community – whether we like it or not. At least we’re TRYING to make it better, and that’s the first step towards progress. So says DannyBoy.