In the Big House

A look inside the Indiana State Prison courtesy of an MSNBC interview with a documentary producer:

Contraband is a big problem at ISP.   It's amazing the things these guys in IA manage to uncover; everything from weapons to drugs, cell phones and even a home-rigged power drill that was apparently made by an inmate preparing an escape.  His plan was to drill through his cell wall.

They're pretty good at making knives, too. When I was a reporter at The News-Dispatch in Michigan City, a handful of inmates armed with knives took a couple of guards hostage and demanded to be able to air their grievances with the press about conditions at the prison. "The press" meant The News-Dispatch and, since I was the only one in the office at the time (it was late Friday afternoon), that meant me. I sat with the inmates and guards around a table for about 45 minutes, listening and asking questions and taking notes. Didn't think a thing about it.

While I was back at the office writing up the story, this crusty old former editor named Al Spiers showed up. He asked me what had happened, and I told him. Al immediately got on the phone with the warden and proceeded to read him the riot act, with a few expletives thrown in, about the idiocy of putting a young reporter in a room with armed men. "Don't you realize what could have happened to him?"

THEN I got scared.