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Authors: Herman Martin
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since he could not have metal objects in his cell.
The inmates, known as “swampers,” clean the facility. I had a friend who was a swamper in the area near Dahmer’s cell. He would often overhear security officers talking about our resident prison celebrity. My swamper friend said Dahmer’s favorite meal was chicken and grits. He said when Dahmer was through eating chicken, the officers always searched his entire cell to make sure they got all the bones back from the chicken. They had to make sure nothing remained in his cell that could be used as a weapon or a suicide tool. A chicken bone may seem innocuous to normal people, but prisoners can be some of the most creative individuals you’ve ever met.
Every time Dahmer left his cell for any reason, all movement anywhere in the prison temporarily stopped. All inmates, regardless of whether they were at school or jobs, coming and going to or from visits with friends and family, or out for recreation time, were not allowed to walk in the prison hallways while Dahmer was out of his cell. Once we figured out why all movement stopped, movement that was very limited to begin with, the prisoner resentment against Dahmer grew.
On September 10, 1991, Dahmer had his arraignment in the MilwaukeeCircuit Court. With handcuffs attached to a belt and feet in shackles, he was transported to Milwaukee. During the arraignment, the judge or court magistrate explains to the accused the exact nature of the charges brought against him and explains his constitutional rights, including his right to a trial by jury.
Dahmer pleaded not guilty “by reason of mental disease or defect.” A trial by jury was scheduled for January 27, 1992, before Judge Laurence C. Gram Jr. at the Milwaukee Circuit Court.
Dahmer returned to Columbia.
During the months before trial, Dahmer’s family never visited him, nor did his attorney. Two of Boyle’s assistants did visit for information sharing; Wendy Patrickus and Ellen Ryan discussed the proceedings. During their visits, guards handcuffed and shackled Dahmer and posted armed officers outside one of the two visiting areas used by the desegregation unit.
Various court-appointed psychologists and psychiatrists also came in waves to evaluate Dahmer. Security was such a big deal that any visits were more difficult than usual.
That fall I was living in Unit 6. One of my prisoner friends, “Shug,” had a job in maintenance. One day he was outside painting the prison’s window frames and screens, which included Dahmer’s cell window. Shug, who is an African American, said that when Dahmer saw him at the window, he hollered, “Get away from my window, nigger.”
One of the inmates painting with Shug told Dahmer, “If you weren’t locked in there, you wouldn’t say that.”
They said that Dahmer walked away and didn’t say another word. Again, whether this actually transpired or not is known only to those involved.
At the end of December, Dahmer returned to Milwaukee County Jail for his trial.
In general, the prison population wasn’t sad to see him go. At least for awhile, during the trial, life returned to normal at Columbia.
Six
Life Goes on Without Dahmer
Through you I am saying to the prisoners of darkness, “Come out! I am giving you your freedom!” (Isaiah 49:9
, TLB)
Some people think prison life is a dreary, boring existence where inmates sit in their cells day after day, awaiting the next meal or nightfall so they can sleep away their sentence. It’s not like that at all.
Inmates at a maximum-security prison in the ‘90s and beyond were not “prisoners of darkness,” like it says in Isaiah. Today’s prisoners are, for the most part, in modern, well-organized mini-community. Various evaluations of prisoners provide information about them and great efforts are made to rehabilitate them, usually through educational opportunities.
When I first arrived at Columbia Correctional Institution in 1991, the Program Review Committee
The inmates, known as “swampers,” clean the facility. I had a friend who was a swamper in the area near Dahmer’s cell. He would often overhear security officers talking about our resident prison celebrity. My swamper friend said Dahmer’s favorite meal was chicken and grits. He said when Dahmer was through eating chicken, the officers always searched his entire cell to make sure they got all the bones back from the chicken. They had to make sure nothing remained in his cell that could be used as a weapon or a suicide tool. A chicken bone may seem innocuous to normal people, but prisoners can be some of the most creative individuals you’ve ever met.
Every time Dahmer left his cell for any reason, all movement anywhere in the prison temporarily stopped. All inmates, regardless of whether they were at school or jobs, coming and going to or from visits with friends and family, or out for recreation time, were not allowed to walk in the prison hallways while Dahmer was out of his cell. Once we figured out why all movement stopped, movement that was very limited to begin with, the prisoner resentment against Dahmer grew.
On September 10, 1991, Dahmer had his arraignment in the MilwaukeeCircuit Court. With handcuffs attached to a belt and feet in shackles, he was transported to Milwaukee. During the arraignment, the judge or court magistrate explains to the accused the exact nature of the charges brought against him and explains his constitutional rights, including his right to a trial by jury.
Dahmer pleaded not guilty “by reason of mental disease or defect.” A trial by jury was scheduled for January 27, 1992, before Judge Laurence C. Gram Jr. at the Milwaukee Circuit Court.
Dahmer returned to Columbia.
During the months before trial, Dahmer’s family never visited him, nor did his attorney. Two of Boyle’s assistants did visit for information sharing; Wendy Patrickus and Ellen Ryan discussed the proceedings. During their visits, guards handcuffed and shackled Dahmer and posted armed officers outside one of the two visiting areas used by the desegregation unit.
Various court-appointed psychologists and psychiatrists also came in waves to evaluate Dahmer. Security was such a big deal that any visits were more difficult than usual.
That fall I was living in Unit 6. One of my prisoner friends, “Shug,” had a job in maintenance. One day he was outside painting the prison’s window frames and screens, which included Dahmer’s cell window. Shug, who is an African American, said that when Dahmer saw him at the window, he hollered, “Get away from my window, nigger.”
One of the inmates painting with Shug told Dahmer, “If you weren’t locked in there, you wouldn’t say that.”
They said that Dahmer walked away and didn’t say another word. Again, whether this actually transpired or not is known only to those involved.
At the end of December, Dahmer returned to Milwaukee County Jail for his trial.
In general, the prison population wasn’t sad to see him go. At least for awhile, during the trial, life returned to normal at Columbia.
Six
Life Goes on Without Dahmer
Through you I am saying to the prisoners of darkness, “Come out! I am giving you your freedom!” (Isaiah 49:9
, TLB)
Some people think prison life is a dreary, boring existence where inmates sit in their cells day after day, awaiting the next meal or nightfall so they can sleep away their sentence. It’s not like that at all.
Inmates at a maximum-security prison in the ‘90s and beyond were not “prisoners of darkness,” like it says in Isaiah. Today’s prisoners are, for the most part, in modern, well-organized mini-community. Various evaluations of prisoners provide information about them and great efforts are made to rehabilitate them, usually through educational opportunities.
When I first arrived at Columbia Correctional Institution in 1991, the Program Review Committee
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