PRI Chapter 13: Three Damaged Door Locks

Ten minutes later, the Texas Department of Corrections special operations team took complete control of the prison's security and surveillance systems.

Lind stood in the central monitoring area, watching their various weapons and equipment hanging all over their bodies, as well as their clean and efficient search operations, and couldn't help feeling envious.

If he had such a force, would he still fear being unable to suppress the prisoners?

Even Al Capone would have to work obediently on the assembly line in prison, and if he wanted to rest? He'd have to pay!

The prisoners were also very afraid when they saw these guys and didn't dare make any aggressive moves.

Except for that Jell Flake, that gang gunman.

When the special team searched his cell, he was taking a shit.

When the team members tried to pull him off the toilet, he instinctively resisted.

As a result, several special team members immediately sprayed pepper spray at him, then knocked him down and pressed him to the ground.

Watching Flake being dragged out of his cell in a disheveled state, Lind twitched the corner of his mouth and couldn't bear to look directly.

Then he looked at Inspector Avery standing nearby and asked, "Inspector Avery, if everything goes smoothly with the inspection, how long will you stay here?"

Avery didn't turn around, continuing to watch the monitors while saying, "If everything goes smoothly, we'll leave tomorrow."

"Do you need me to arrange accommodation for you? After all, it's quite a distance from town."

Avery turned around, but instead of following Lind's conversation, he asked instead, "Warden Edward, I heard you only recently took over this prison, is that correct?"

"That's right, my father hanged himself in the office, and I only took over a few days ago."

"My condolences." After a moment of silence, Avery said, "But I've seen the prison atmosphere and those guards, I must say, you manage very well... at least better than CCA."

"Really?" Lind smiled and accepted his praise, "Maybe it's because CCA is too big."

Although CCA's prison scale and numbers were the largest among private prisons in the United States.

But perhaps because they focused too much on profits, every CCA prison had guards in short supply.

In fact, according to later undercover investigations by reporters.

In CCA prisons, prison areas with over 300 prisoners often had only two guards on duty.

They rotated every 12 hours and had to patrol every three hours.

That meant each guard was responsible for managing an average of 176 criminals.

Even so, guards' salaries were consistently below the American average.

Under such exploitation, sudden incidents frequently occurred in prisons.

For example, prisoners beating each other to disability, or prisoners suddenly dying of illness in their cells, or guards being bribed by prisoners to commit crimes.

Correspondingly, violent riot incidents were particularly frequent in CCA prisons.

Inspector Avery must have cleaned up after CCA quite often.

"Perhaps, so I'm curious why such a prison would have violent incidents." Avery kept observing the special team's operations.

Beyond his expectations, nothing was found in the prison cells.

They were as clean as if people had just moved in.

And those guards were very responsible too. Although they weren't exactly experienced, they were dutiful.

Especially supervisor James, you could tell he understood the Department of Corrections's inspection procedures well, constantly guiding the special team into various areas.

Such a scene wouldn't typically occur in a private prison, rather, this place was more like a public prison.

However, the report about Border Prison didn't describe it this way.

Lax discipline, lack of experience, contraband hidden in cells, prisoners using drugs.

Basically every possible problem had occurred.

This was why Avery had been so serious initially.

He had been prepared to reorganize the prison.

But now everything was different from what he had imagined, Avery couldn't help being curious, and his expression softened.

"Actually, that day was when my father died, my first day taking over the prison."

Lind's tone was quite heavy, "At the time I was immersed in the pain of losing my father and didn't properly arrange the prison's daily procedures, causing many prisoners to quarrel over small issues, which led to chaos."

"Fortunately, not too many people were hurt in that incident."

"After I woke up, I felt very guilty."

"Not for anything else, just... this is the only inheritance my father left me, I can't disappoint him again."

Speaking of this, Lind sighed at just the right moment.

Without needing to say more, the image of a prodigal son returning formed in Avery's mind.

"I see." He didn't inquire further.

After all, having seen it with his own eyes, Avery believed this prison had no major problems.

Just then, the technicians also completed their inspection of the prison systems and door locks.

"There are 3 door locks with minor damage, and the prison area gate has a 0.5-second response delay."

"Mm, got it." Avery took the photos the technicians had taken and handed them to Lind.

"There are actually broken door locks." Lind looked puzzled, he truly didn't know about this.

Looking carefully at the photos, he first frowned, then recovered his expression, "Will this affect the inspection results?"

"Yes, but not much." Avery said honestly, "You need to repair the door locks as soon as possible and adjust the prison area gate system."

"No problem, I'll have someone come fix them right now."

Lind immediately turned to have HR arrange the matter.

After waiting another hour, the search within the prison area finally neared its end.

The prisoners were locked back in their cells.

And the special team members came to the cafeteria to eat.

Lind took the opportunity to return to his office, taking out the prison area floor plan from the cabinet and matching it with those door locks one by one.

He discovered he indeed remembered correctly.

"Hallway, rooftop, office." Using the prison area gate as the starting point, Lind traced his finger along the path, following the damaged door locks forward. When his finger reached the third lock, it was exactly at the barred iron gate outside his office.

"Damn!" Lind furrowed his brows tightly, his tone grim.

He had always suspected something fishy about Old Edward's death, and now, the evidence had come.

Someone had damaged the prison's door locks and guided criminals all the way from the prison area to the office.

As for what they wanted to do?

It was probably related to Old Edward's cause of death.

"Could it be George and Casas?" Lind tapped the table with his finger, not out of anger for Old Edward, but out of concern for his own safety.

"Whether it's them or not, I need to find an opportunity to eliminate them quickly."

With these two incompetent accomplices around, he couldn't sleep peacefully.

However, after thinking for a moment, Lind's expression returned to calm.

After all, now that he knew about the damaged door locks, he was prepared.

If George still planned to pull this trick, he would let this guy know what it meant to try to steal a chicken only to lose the rice.

Thinking of this, Lind stood up, put away his things, walked out of the office, and went to find Avery to build rapport.

He still had some important matters to discuss with this inspector.

For example, technical support for the Y2K bug from the Department of Corrections, future prisoner detention arrangements, and federal prison inmate funding for this year.

For this, he didn't mind spending some Franklins to move this inspector.

And as night fell.

George, driving fast, finally returned to Border Prison.

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