Shanks

Each morning inmates are given the opportunity to get a razor to shave their face. They are a cheap single bladed razor. They are given approximately one hour to use it then they are collected and checked to make sure the blade has not been removed or tampered with.

About a year ago one of the deputies was unable to account for one razor. Anytime this happens the entire crew of deputies enters the housing unit and searches the entire dayroom and all the cells. The dayroom is a large room with tables, a tv, showers and is connected to all the cells. This is were an inmate spends the majority of this time. As many as 64 inmates can be in a dayroom at a time. I was assigned to do strip searches in one of the showers. Before I started I searched the shower. I found not one but two shanks slid between the small gap in the divider of the two showers. One was made of plastic and appeared to be from the end of a toilet scrubber. The other was made of a brass handle. We believe it was made out of a drawer handle.

Inmates can be very clever in the ways of both making weapons and hiding them. After all they have all day to think about it and plan. This incident serves as a constant reminder to me that there are always weapons in the jail and that I need to be on guard at all times. Because I found these shanks in a common area no one got in trouble for it. This one of the reasons they hide these things in common areas.

The razor that we were looking for was never found. It may still be in there or it may have been flushed down a toilet.