Prison guards

"Dog Star Desperado" was the beginning to a novel by William Orlando. He recalled the degrading journey from a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, to another federal prison in Lompoc, California. After they traveled by bus, he described his new guards and his prideful feelings. "These guards all matched: boots, mirrored sunglasses, guns. They were many, and they deployed themselves around us. Such overkill made you feel at once hopeless and proud at being considered so fierce a beast. For the nonce you weren't some tame and humble inmate. Hell, no. You were a barbarian being whipped to the imperial gates, straining your bonds and snarling defiance at your captors." (8) The prisoners made jokes with each other until they were being processed and received new drawers, which were not the type they were used to having. The drawers presented a dilemma in which superior guards were called...