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With time, toilet paper, prisoners create
folk art
May 11, 2009
By James D. Wolf Jr. Post-Tribune
correspondent
Sheriff David Lain likes to hand people the
softball-sized model of a skull wearing a
cowboy hat, and ask people what they think
it's made of. About half guess it's
made of toilet paper, he says. He
usually has to quickly tell them then that
the brown tint came from coffee. The
red in the eye sockets might be ink from a
pen, although he doesn't know where the
orange there came from. The eyeballs were
carefully torn from magazines. Lain
also has another such skull in his office,
this one pure white. He also has a bouquet
of intricate toilet paper roses, a toilet
paper model of a horseman being hung from a
tree, plus numerous crosses on chains,
elaborately woven from threads from bedding
and prison uniforms. It's all
contraband confiscated from prisoners since
the Porter County Jail opened almost seven
years ago. Lain can appreciate the
talents of prisoners who use whatever is on
hand to make art, but there is a down side
to their handiwork. The problem is
prisoners use their rationed toilet paper or
destroy jail property for material.
"It harms the issued equipment. It shortens
the life span. That's why when something
like this is found, we can appreciate the
talent, but we have to discourage it," Lain
said. It's a consequence of having a
lot of time, said Warden Joe Widup, who's
run the prison for the last 10 years.
The inmates get up at 6 a.m. and go to bed
at 10 p.m. Those who don't take Bible study
or classes in anger management or chemical
abuse, or study for their GED, have a lot of
free time. "The busier we can keep
them, the better not only for us but for
them," Lain said. There have been
craft classes and there's a lending library,
but any movement of prisoners uses limited
staff time. Not all the projects have
been discouraged, however. Lain's
collection includes a series of PCJ Daily
newspapers written with blue pen on single
sheets of notebook paper, a few times on
toilet paper and eventually on a 3x5 inch
notecard that proclaimed "paper shortage
ends production of Daily." The
headline of one of the toilet paper issues
stated, ironically, "toilet paper in short
supply." The newspaper was created by
prisoner Mike Kaufman during his 2004 stay,
usually using his own materials. "We
found it a little humorous, so we let him go
one with it and gave it to the sheriff (Dave
Reynolds)," Widup said. The issues,
handwritten with drawings and sometimes
crosswords, circulated around Kaufman's cell
block and addressed whatever was on his mind
– diet, staff, a "neighborhood watch" for
police or "Olympic garbage can sliding
trials banned at PCJ." Some also
insult staff in crude terms. "If the
guy's doing it just for his own
entertainment, that's one thing. When the
guy's being disrespectful towards staff, we
have to draw the line," Lain said.
They've seen fewer of these projects over
the years, Lain said. Widup said
there's also much less graffiti than at the
previous jail. Those who break the rule can
face sanctions, from a 23-hour confinement
to their cell to solitary confinement.
Three violations in 30 days could end up
before a hearing officer and lead to the
loss of "good time" behavior credits. |
