Prison Tours, Sing Sing
Last season we had a gig repointing the stone coping joints on a high-security
dormitory, currently actively occupied, at Sing Sing, Ossining, NY, north of
NYC, on the east side of the Hudson.
On my initial walk-thru I showed up early in the morning wearing a forest
green shirt. It turns out all the inmates wear forest green, and my host was
colorblind. I was fortunate I had another shirt in the trunk of my car as the
guards were not going to let me in otherwise. There was a paranoia that if any
visitors resembled inmates that they might get killed in an escape attempt.
The first day the crew arrived at the site at 6:00 am and were not able to get
past security clearance and access to the work area until 1:30 pm, and then
they had to leave the premises at 2:30 pm. An entire day wasted simply to get
into the place. The guards run their file system out of milk crates, no
computer, no high-tech stuff, simple milk crates with beat up file folders.
Everyone in the prison, including the guards, are doing time, nothing moves
very fast.
During the work it was hot, no rain, no shade. If anyone wanted to leave the
roof they had an armed guard escort them. The toilet was in the middle of the
excercise yard, out in the open. The guys were not too comfortable being
watched by the inmates. Tool boxes, lunch boxes, and personnel were searched
constantly. At one point they had a Code Blue, late on a Friday when the crew
really wanted to go home. Code Blue means EVERYTHING is locked down until all
bodies are acocunted for.
We were told that the standard policy for a contractor is to do a regular work
estimate and then multiply times three.
Beautiful view of the Palisades across the Hudson. The place is wasted for
beauty on the inmates, seriously, they should turn the place into a heritage
stop for burnt out Wall Street executives for them to spend some recombinant
solitary.
At about the same time I was also told some interesting stories from an
architect who did work at Angola. I was told that women are chosen there as
sharpshooters as it had been determined they are less hesitant to shoot
escaping prisoners.
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