The emphasis of daily prison life for medium and close security inmates would be on work and production, manufacturing goods to help make the prison self-sufficient. I got experts to design metal and wood-working shops, a shoe factory, commercial laundry, sewing shop and of course a factory to make state license plates.
After much thought and legal review, I made hair styles one of the cornerstones of discipline for the prison. Upon arrival, every inmate would be given “prison haircuts", in one of the three styles depending upon their security classification . They would wear one of the three “hairstyles" (or “lack of hair" styles) for the duration on their confinement.
Construction moved right along, and within 6 months it was completed. 50 foot walls with guard towers surrounded the perimeter, and they enclosed the buildings and agriculture fields. One thing I didn’t provide for was an exercise yard…..the activities at the old reformatory taught me that was a bad concept. Exercise would come in the form of work and group calisthenics in the open area of the dorms, or in the case of super-max, the tiny private outside area attached to each cell the inmates would be allowed in for ½ hour per day.
I started to select staff. No one from the old reformatory would be retained, this being a “right-to-work" state. I chose all females, mostly recently discharged military veterans, who could handle themselves. But perhaps my most important hire wasn’t even an employee, but a family friend who volunteered to help me. Shelly Ambrose had just been released after serving four years in the reformatory for a drunk-driving accident that severely injured a passenger in her car. She said she had been severely abused in prison by other inmates,wanted to see the system changed, and agreed with my ideas. She had been sexually assaulted almost daily in prison, and would have much preferred to serve her sentence under my idea of control and discipline.
She told me the “queen bee" was none other than Corrine McManus, Ms. Jones’ assistant. She ran a lucrative drug and black market merchandise trade between the convicts inside with the help of recently released inmates, and would leave prison a wealthy woman. Currency was cigarettes. She explained the gang situation, segregated between white, black and Latina inmates, with violent fights erupting daily on the yard. Our daily chats gave me knowledge that would be invaluable in running the new State Prison for Women.
She told me McManus’s lover and business partner was Bettina Johanssen, an art burglar. McManus and Johanssen were ruthless businesswomen and predatory rapists, and to Shelly, the two biggest problem inmates in the prison.
I knew I would have to put them in their places quickly when I assumed control.
