venal
[ veen-l ]
adjective
willing to sell one's influence, especially in return for a bribe; open to bribery; mercenary: a venal judge.
able to be purchased, as by a bribe: venal acquittals.
associated with or characterized by bribery: a venal administration; venal agreements.
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Jack
forced himself to not wring his hands nervously. He should not be there. He did not belong in jail. He was a good, law abiding man. And yet, he was behind bars talking to his
very large cell mate.
“First
time here?” The big, bald man asked.
“Uh, yeah,
yeah it is. Hopefully the last too.”
The man
laughed. “Yeah, that’s what everyone
says. What’re you in for?”
“Grand
theft auto.”
“Nice. Assault and battery here. Beat a man who looked at my woman the wrong
way half to death. Would’ve gotten the
other half too, but the cops showed up before I could.”
“Oh, I,
uh, I see.”
“Oh, don’t
get nervous. I only did that cause of my
girl. I’m not in the habit of just
hitting guys for no reason.”
Jack was
not reassured. But at least he was not
imprisoned with some mass murderer who would gut him for snoring too loud. He hoped.
This guy might even be useful.
“So, um…”
“Dan.”
“So,
Dan, any advice for a newbie?”
“Oh,
yeah, tons. First of all, you know that
whole don’t drop the soap stuff?”
“Yeah?”
“Not
true. Nobody’s gonna be doing that stuff
in the shower.”
That was a relief. Jack let out a breath he had not been aware he had been holding.
That was a relief. Jack let out a breath he had not been aware he had been holding.
“Next,
butter up to the guys in charge.”
“You
mean the warden?”
“The
warden? Hell no. He’s a figurehead at best. No, you gotta get in close to the real
leaders of this prison. That’d be Marcus
over in block D, Juan in A and Georgie in C.
Pick one of ‘em and buddy up real close.
I mean, yeah, you could stay solo and just keep your head down, but that’s
a lot harder than you think it is.
Me? I’m with Georgie. Not a big guy, but damn smart, which goes a
lot farther than most people think it will, even in here.”
Jack
nodded. “Got it. Uh, if I do that, will I have to, you know,
shank someone?”
“Nah. You’re small.
Unassuming. You’ll probably be
lookout or spy or something.”
“I can
do that. I think.”
“Right. Well, doing that will see you through to the
end, but the most important thing you can know is which guards are open to a
bribe, and which to steer clear of.”
“B-bribe?”
“Yup. Enough grease, and lots of wheels can turn
that would otherwise be stuck. Bribing
the right guard can get you a lot of contraband. That’s the real key to surviving here. Find a way to get money and use that money to
bribe a few guards. They’ll either look
away from some things you’d rather not be seen, or get you stuff you shouldn’t
have. Keep your money stored away, and at
best it’ll just sit there gathering dust.
At worst, having cash will get you killed. But if you use it to get the guards on your
side, well, not only will you be living large, but you’ll be less likely to get
harassed, both by guards and inmates. It’s
not foolproof, but it’s always good to have a little leeway.”
“So do
all the guards take bribes?”
“Nope. Some of them actually give a damn about doing
their jobs right. Keep your nose clean
and they can be your best friends. But
if you want to live like a human being, you gotta cozy up to the guys who work
for nothing but money.”
Jack
nodded. He had no idea how he was going
to get enough money to matter. And even
if he did, would he really use it on the guards? He did need to survive prison, but he still
had standards. Still, knowing which
guards were corrupt could be very useful to an undercover cop.
****************************
I have never been to prison. I never want to go to prison. All I know about being behind bars comes from movies and TV. I probably made some mistakes because of that.
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