that’d give us jurisdiction while he was on furlough. There probably was something, but he got away with it if he did it. It’s what I figure he’ll do if he gets out for good.”
“Just what is that?” Mayes said.
“All in good time, Doctor Mayes,” Riordan said. “I could be wrong on this and I don’t want to do a lot of talking about it until I’m pretty sure I’m right.”
“Would you feel more comfortable if Doctor Mayes and I stepped out?” Dietz said.
“You overestimate yourself as usual, Oscar,” Riordan said. “You don’t have the talent to make me uncomfortable. Not by your lonesome and not with Mayes for reinforcements.” Mayes’s and Dietz’s faces flushed immediately.
“Let’s get on with it, shall we?” Walker said. “Whaddaya want, Pete?”
“Information,” Riordan said. “First of all, how come a convicted killer, no crime of passion, knocks off an informer, gets caught with the gun, finally admits it was a contract job, is getting out? And on a pardon yet. Early release I can understand. But a pardon? Is the Commonwealth gonna pretend Dave Holby didn’t get shot twice behind the left ear because he was getting ready to put on a one-man opera for the grand jury and take out some guys that were prettyimportant then and that’re pretty important now? Doesn’t make sense to me.”
Mayes cleared his throat. “This is a new program, Doctor Riordan,” he said. “One of the worst problems we have in crowded penal institutions like this is with the men doing long terms with no hope of an early release date. They’re a continuing disciplinary problem. They flare up into violent reaction at the slightest provocation.”
“Sure they do,” Riordan said. “That’s how they got their tickets in here. When they were out on the street, they flared up into violence at the slightest provocation, and killed somebody. What’re you doing, admitting that you can’t control these birds? You can’t keep order in your own institution, which was built to keep guys like this from wandering around loose and shooting people any time it crosses their minds or somebody else offers them a commission to pull a trigger on some fellow that was making himself inconvenient?”
“Of course we’re admitting that, Pete,” Walker said. “We’ve got no threat with these men except Block Ten isolation. That’s it. And a lot of them’d rather be in isolation when the weather gets hot. Gets them out of the shop. So that doesn’t frighten them much either. We can’t beat the shit out of them the way we used to, which I’m not saying we should’ve been doing but it did tend to calm a fellow down when he took a good drubbing that put him in the hospital for a couple weeks. And it kept his buddies docile for a month or so afterwards. We do that now and the word takes about twenty-four hours to hit the papers. Because the same judges that said we couldn’t smack the lads around a little also said the lads’ve got a right to chat with the reporters. So then it’s in the papers, and we barely finish reading the stories before there’s lawyers in battalion strength banging on the gate and starting lawsuits, and every goddamned liberal legislatorbetween here and Hartford’s yelling his guts out about official brutality and what animals we are.
“No,” Walker said, leaning back in the chair, “we can’t control them. Not all the time anyway. Hell’s bells, we’ve got them stacked like cordwood in here anyway. We’re about two hundred bodies over capacity on any given day, and they don’t like each other any better than they like us. You know what I do this time of year: I pray for thunderstorms. We get about a week of days as hot and muggy as this one, and I can virtually guarantee you, we’re going to have trouble. And somehow I don’t think the taxpayers’d be all that eager to pay for air-conditioning the shops and the cellblocks. Somehow I don’t think I can put that one across with
“Just what is that?” Mayes said.
“All in good time, Doctor Mayes,” Riordan said. “I could be wrong on this and I don’t want to do a lot of talking about it until I’m pretty sure I’m right.”
“Would you feel more comfortable if Doctor Mayes and I stepped out?” Dietz said.
“You overestimate yourself as usual, Oscar,” Riordan said. “You don’t have the talent to make me uncomfortable. Not by your lonesome and not with Mayes for reinforcements.” Mayes’s and Dietz’s faces flushed immediately.
“Let’s get on with it, shall we?” Walker said. “Whaddaya want, Pete?”
“Information,” Riordan said. “First of all, how come a convicted killer, no crime of passion, knocks off an informer, gets caught with the gun, finally admits it was a contract job, is getting out? And on a pardon yet. Early release I can understand. But a pardon? Is the Commonwealth gonna pretend Dave Holby didn’t get shot twice behind the left ear because he was getting ready to put on a one-man opera for the grand jury and take out some guys that were prettyimportant then and that’re pretty important now? Doesn’t make sense to me.”
Mayes cleared his throat. “This is a new program, Doctor Riordan,” he said. “One of the worst problems we have in crowded penal institutions like this is with the men doing long terms with no hope of an early release date. They’re a continuing disciplinary problem. They flare up into violent reaction at the slightest provocation.”
“Sure they do,” Riordan said. “That’s how they got their tickets in here. When they were out on the street, they flared up into violence at the slightest provocation, and killed somebody. What’re you doing, admitting that you can’t control these birds? You can’t keep order in your own institution, which was built to keep guys like this from wandering around loose and shooting people any time it crosses their minds or somebody else offers them a commission to pull a trigger on some fellow that was making himself inconvenient?”
“Of course we’re admitting that, Pete,” Walker said. “We’ve got no threat with these men except Block Ten isolation. That’s it. And a lot of them’d rather be in isolation when the weather gets hot. Gets them out of the shop. So that doesn’t frighten them much either. We can’t beat the shit out of them the way we used to, which I’m not saying we should’ve been doing but it did tend to calm a fellow down when he took a good drubbing that put him in the hospital for a couple weeks. And it kept his buddies docile for a month or so afterwards. We do that now and the word takes about twenty-four hours to hit the papers. Because the same judges that said we couldn’t smack the lads around a little also said the lads’ve got a right to chat with the reporters. So then it’s in the papers, and we barely finish reading the stories before there’s lawyers in battalion strength banging on the gate and starting lawsuits, and every goddamned liberal legislatorbetween here and Hartford’s yelling his guts out about official brutality and what animals we are.
“No,” Walker said, leaning back in the chair, “we can’t control them. Not all the time anyway. Hell’s bells, we’ve got them stacked like cordwood in here anyway. We’re about two hundred bodies over capacity on any given day, and they don’t like each other any better than they like us. You know what I do this time of year: I pray for thunderstorms. We get about a week of days as hot and muggy as this one, and I can virtually guarantee you, we’re going to have trouble. And somehow I don’t think the taxpayers’d be all that eager to pay for air-conditioning the shops and the cellblocks. Somehow I don’t think I can put that one across with
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