Book Report: Line Screw

Memoir of a poet/executive whose migraines force him out of such intense-thinking pursuits and into prison guarding. He was guarding Canadian prisons back when there was a higher ratio of guards to prisoners. Not so many stories of being overwhelmed; a sprinkling of stories in which guards had enough time and were sufficiently bored… such that they played elaborate pranks on each other. It's not all wacky hijinx, though. There are plenty of sad stories here.

He makes an interesting point that most guards and most prisoners just want the time to pass without incident. Thus, the prisoners and the guards are often working together against disruptive forces. He put this insight to use during a prison riot—instead of sending in SWAT with teargas, assume that many of the "rioters" don't especially want to be rioting. Instead of sending in SWAT, send in some guards the prisoners know and trust(!) to strike a deal. It doesn't match what you see in the movies, but it's not surprising to hear that movies don't try to get this right.