THE NEW GUY

Silk was transferred yesterday. He was this old head who played cards, ran laps, and sipped endless cups of coffee. His presence will be missed. Now we're waiting on who'll move into his former cell.

When a new arrival comes into any housing unit, all eyes are on him. It's just part of the treatment of entering new territory. Our housing unit has a cohesion, one that I have never been a part of before. We are respectful to each other, quiet while others sleep, we clean up our messes, and best of all, we keep everything in-house. So a new person coming in, we watch, and see if he's compatible with our way of life.

Honestly, the last time we had somebody rock the boat, we stepped to him. He was doing a lot of criminal activity, and before he could make our housing unit hot (bringing in the investigators), he moved. We don't need the added stress of being shakedown for contraband, nor having to go on lockdown over a fight that could've been handled diplomatically. That's the way of our housing unit, and it works.

Well, hours later, we had our new arrival stroll in. He's an old head, which automatically made everybody relax. Why? Young men coming into prison nowadays are gang-affiliated, loud, and not understanding our way of life: work on getting free. Some desire reputations, "to be that guy" because they listened to way too much Lil' Durk; thinking a shank solves everything. It doesn't, and never will. So having an old head walk in is cool...sometimes.

Most old heads are groomed to complain--and I mean complain about their housing, celly, food, this, that, and so on. Shoot, no matter what, prison brings in all types of men. Old, young, gay, deranged, lost, angry, scared--the list is endless. Even as it is, you'd rather deal with an old head who complains.

The new guy lived up to being a complainer the moment he recognized he had to sleep on a top bunk. His celly, another old head, ambles around with a cane. So he's not moving anywhere. That became problematic, but as I mentioned, our housing unit is different. I live among men.

A conversation was had by the two old heads. The current occupant said, "I'm Muslim, I stay out of the way and desire peace in my cell. You can stay if you're with that. If not, head somewhere else and see that you're leaving a good spot." His new celly walked around, checking out his new home.

The housing unit is very clean from the floors to the showers. It's even quiet at 8:00 PM, with a large number of men talking sports. Phones were open for him to get on. Plus, the energy in the housing unit was upbeat. He took it all in and climbed on the top bunk.

Now what was wild was that another old head strolled in with a laundry bag of new clothing and blankets. He headed to the same cell that was occupied by two men, then stood there, confused. One of the men in the day room shared that there were no cells open. A downcast expression appeared on his face, then the COs were informed, and he was taken to RHU (Restrictive Housing Unit) because there were no more beds open in general population.

Everybody shook their heads as he departed, but once he was gone, we fell back into the normal workings of prison life. We had a new member join our ranks, and a complainer or not, he was welcomed with open arms...until they moved him out of the housing unit the next day for a bottom bunk downstairs. They replaced him with the other guy that they placed in RHU. We too welcomed him into our unit, and he hasn't complained once.

Have you ever had someone new come into your life at work, school, or a social setting; how did you go about making them comfortable, and vice versa?