Inmates Saved Collapsing Guard

June 25, 2017 6:50 AM

Six convicts are getting their sentences shortened after saving a guard who collapsed on duty last Monday in Polk County, Georgia. "As soon as the officer dropped, the six inmates he was overseeing came to his aid. They removed the officer's outer bulletproof vest to help cool him off and took his phone to call 911, according to a statement released by the Polk County Sheriff's Office on Friday"
posted by grobertson (24 comments total)

It's odd to me that the framing of this story as I've seen it in several places is "Instead of escaping, you'll never believe what these prisoners do when the guard collapses!" I would assume that most people, even criminal types, would try to help? Especially in a larger group than say, two. Sort of a backwards bystander effect--two guys MIGHT run, but six are not gonna risk one of the others stopping them. I have seen stories of opportunistic escapes, but I would figure most prisoners would have enough sense to know that they wouldn't have a chance in hell, being unprepared.
posted by thebrokedown at 7:16 AM on June 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

Oddly enough, it appears that incarcerated people are, in fact, also human beings. Many American minds are blown.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:31 AM on June 25, 2017 [126 favorites]

Yeah, the reporting on this is bizarre. Inmates in county jails are typically serving short sentences for low-level crimes. It would be beyond moronic for them to try to escape: instead of spending a couple of months in jail, they'd spend the rest of their lives on the run, and eventually they'd get caught and given a longer sentence in a more-restrictive facility. Most people in jail are not monsters, and this is pretty much what you would expect a rational human being to do in this situation.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 7:38 AM on June 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

It's almost like most inmates just want to pay their debt to society and get on with their lives. Strange!

The article also doesn't talk about the inmate's sentences at all. Even if the initial escape is easy and you could survive under the radar, it's probably easier to just serve out your sentence.

I'm just glad that the inmates knew what to do and had access to the tools they needed to do it.
posted by VTX at 7:41 AM on June 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

In addition to the celebratory meal, Polk County Sheriff Johnny Moats told the station that he will shorten the inmates' sentences by about 25 percent.

I guess they shouldn't have tried quite so hard to help the guy... maybe 75% less effort would have been more appropriate.
posted by Huck500 at 7:49 AM on June 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

There's something that really bothers me about the national promotion of local stories about the oppressed saving their oppressors but I don't have the framework to articulate it more clearly.
posted by indubitable at 7:51 AM on June 25, 2017 [47 favorites]

I mean there are components here like, it's in the South, they were on a work detail, prison labor is basically slave labor and this is explicitly made legal in the Constitution, this makes me very uncomfortable but I can't put everything together.
posted by indubitable at 7:55 AM on June 25, 2017 [18 favorites]

Can I also say it's completely insane that there's a prison in 2017 that really dresses their inmates in old-timey striped uniforms?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 8:07 AM on June 25, 2017 [7 favorites]

This is a nice story and I am glad it worked out well. Imagine what could have happened if some other guards had misinterpreted basic first aid as "six inmates overpower their guard, strip off his bulletproof vest, grab his phone."
posted by chavenet at 8:15 AM on June 25, 2017 [16 favorites]

old-timey striped uniforms

all the cool kids wear pink
posted by flabdablet at 8:16 AM on June 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

I mean, if this story were framed realistically, I think it would be something like:

"You'll never believe what these inmates - who are systematically disenfranchised and trapped in a system that favors dehumanization and brutality over rehabilitation and humanity - did when faced with the remote prospect of temporary reprieve from a system that maximizes profit and extended incarceration over trying to keep them from cycling out of, and subsequently back into prison! They chose to show compassion to their captors in a manner that is never afforded them, for which were bestowed a meager reward which will do nothing to improve their chances of living a normal life or earning a living wage once they're beyond the prison walls!"

But that kind of saps it of the feel good aspect, huh?
posted by to sir with millipedes at 8:17 AM on June 25, 2017 [76 favorites]

I mean, if this story were framed realistically, I think it would be something like:

Slaves save the life of their overseer.
posted by srboisvert at 8:34 AM on June 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

Fewer than 10 years ago I was driving through Pine Bluff, Arkansas where I witnessed a literal chain gang--they were chained together at the waist--cleaning a convenience store parking lot guarded by an officer ON A HORSE WITH A SHOTGUN AT THE READY. One of the most disturbing things I have ever seen out of the all-too-many disturbing things I have seen here in the Deep South.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:43 AM on June 25, 2017 [14 favorites]

that really blows my mind - i used to clean the parking lot of the convenience store i worked at every night and it took me 15-30 minutes - but they need a chain gang and a guy with a horse and a shotgun to get the job done?

there's no way the point of that is to get a parking lot clean
posted by pyramid termite at 8:49 AM on June 25, 2017 [12 favorites]

Nope. Solely to demean and throw power around.
posted by thebrokedown at 8:55 AM on June 25, 2017

pt. You cleaned every day. They probably do it once a week. Also. I suspect the owners would prefer their employees do it every day/evening. But are often times coerced into making cash contributions for the service provided.
posted by notreally at 9:00 AM on June 25, 2017

The US economy runs on slave labor still-- whether it's literally slave labor in the form of prisoners, or effectively slave labor in the form of illegal immigrants, or legal migrants chained to companies because of visa conditions, or overseas slave labor in sweatshops in developing countries.

If we shut down all forms of coerced labor in this country, the economy would grind to a halt.
posted by empath at 9:04 AM on June 25, 2017 [11 favorites]

There's something that really bothers me about the national promotion of local stories about the oppressed saving their oppressors but I don't have the framework to articulate it more clearly.

I think it fits into the same narrative spectrum as the whole Undercover Boss experience, I think. Where the wealthy, upon realizing their minions are actual people who work hard, bestow shiny trinkets and small bags of money upon them for their efforts in keeping the wealthy wealthy.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:08 AM on June 25, 2017 [6 favorites]

Or maybe once people had to be paid a fair wage for their work, more people would have more disposable income creating demand for more jobs and new jobs in new sectors creating a ton of prosperity in the process.

Some things, like produce, would get more expensive but others things would get cheaper. It's also possible that wage growth would mean that something like produce ends up costing more in absolute terms but costs less relative to most people's incomes.


There's something that really bothers me about the national promotion of local stories about the oppressed saving their oppressors but I don't have the framework to articulate it more clearly.

I think there are two ways to frame this story:

1. Lower class people save their betters instead of being selfish. They are good little peasants who understand their place in the world. They are justly and generously rewarded. All is well.

2. Victims of oppressive system refuse opportunity to escape that system (obviously) and instead choose do save their oppressor. They are given meager rewards. Unjust and predictable.
posted by VTX at 9:21 AM on June 25, 2017

as an alternative, imagine what the story would have been if they had simply stood around and done nothing for the guy

the happy person in me would like to think that they did what they did out of basic decency - the cynic in me thinks they did it because they were afraid of what would happen if they didn't
posted by pyramid termite at 9:27 AM on June 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

The truth is probably some of everything.

I could totally imagine one those guys saying to one of his friends, "I mean, I didn't really think about it, guy needed help so I helped but I did also think that we'd be in a world of shit if we just stood there and watch him die."

Land of contrasts and so on. :)
posted by VTX at 9:41 AM on June 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

There's no way that unconscious guard => hey, I can just leave and be free now. That's not really the choice here. Even if a prisoner were able to leave a job site...then what?
posted by amtho at 12:36 PM on June 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wait until the people who reported this as some kind of an amazing story find out that prisoners are routinely transferred by handing them a Greyhound bus ticket and asking nicely that they turn up where they're supposed to on the other side (most are going to halfway houses, where, sure you can escape from the bus, but you're going to be going around town once you get there too, so not really a difference from a security perspective, but some are going to minimum security facilities). And the vast majority do.

Turns out that most people in prison have no particular desire to live the rest of their lives as fugitives.
posted by zachlipton at 1:18 PM on June 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

The framing is weird, but it's also I think a response to the other recent prisoner/guard-related news coming out of Georgia - those prisoners who killed two guards were still on the lam when this other story happened.
posted by sockermom at 3:03 PM on June 26, 2017 [1 favorite]