An unusual incident happened today while I was at my work assignment at the Intermediate Care Program’s Housing area (the ICP Unit)...
A recently arrived inmate of about sixty years of age was obviously experiencing some kind of mental disturbance. For reasons not known, he took a bowel movement in his plastic 2-gallon wash pail instead of using his toilet. He then began to smear his body and clothing with his feces. Within minutes, the smell got everyone’s attention. The odor was unmistakable. At first whiff I thought a sewer pipe had burst.
The guards who were on duty in the area got a good whiff of it too. Immediately, they set off to investigate its source. But it was Benny, my co-worker, and I, who were the first to locate the source of the smell because we happened to be the closest. We waved the guards over to where we were.
It was a sad and disgusting sight, and something I had never seen before. The man had covered himself with his excrement from the top of his head, down his face, and almost to his shoes. Meanwhile, one of the ICP officers called for a supervising sergeant as well as for a team of additional officers to serve as backups.
Within minutes, the backups arrived with their special lime green protective gear that looks like heavy-duty raincoats. They had their protective gloves with them, as well as an array of other extraction related gear. It was their job to open this man’s cell and convince him to come out and walk with them to the shower area. I certainly didn’t envy them.
But when they finally got him to the shower area, the guards ordered Mister Stinky, who within minutes after he first smeared himself with his waste, the other sixty or so inmates had already tagged with this nickname, was ordered to take off his soiled clothes. He was then handed a bar of soap and told to use it. Then the hot water was turned on.
Afterwards, several of the officers, including the supervising sergeant, marched Mister Stinky across facility grounds where he was promptly placed in an observation cell. He’ll probably stay in observation for at least several days as a psychologist from the Mental Health Unit examines him. What the outcome will be, I don’t know. But what I do know is that his nickname will be Mister Stinky for the remainder of his time at Sullivan Correctional Facility and wherever he goes thereafter.
D.B.
The guards who were on duty in the area got a good whiff of it too. Immediately, they set off to investigate its source. But it was Benny, my co-worker, and I, who were the first to locate the source of the smell because we happened to be the closest. We waved the guards over to where we were.
It was a sad and disgusting sight, and something I had never seen before. The man had covered himself with his excrement from the top of his head, down his face, and almost to his shoes. Meanwhile, one of the ICP officers called for a supervising sergeant as well as for a team of additional officers to serve as backups.
Within minutes, the backups arrived with their special lime green protective gear that looks like heavy-duty raincoats. They had their protective gloves with them, as well as an array of other extraction related gear. It was their job to open this man’s cell and convince him to come out and walk with them to the shower area. I certainly didn’t envy them.
But when they finally got him to the shower area, the guards ordered Mister Stinky, who within minutes after he first smeared himself with his waste, the other sixty or so inmates had already tagged with this nickname, was ordered to take off his soiled clothes. He was then handed a bar of soap and told to use it. Then the hot water was turned on.
Afterwards, several of the officers, including the supervising sergeant, marched Mister Stinky across facility grounds where he was promptly placed in an observation cell. He’ll probably stay in observation for at least several days as a psychologist from the Mental Health Unit examines him. What the outcome will be, I don’t know. But what I do know is that his nickname will be Mister Stinky for the remainder of his time at Sullivan Correctional Facility and wherever he goes thereafter.
D.B.
