ABSTRACT
A man I know is a cook in the State Prison of Southern Michigan, one of the largest walled prisons in the world. When one compares his work to that of most others, it is clear that he is in substantially greater danger of assault, and possibly even death, than is true of others of his occupation. And yet he reports, I believe accurately, that should an uprising come down, his life would be protected although he is unarmed, because he has befriended a “natural lifer” who is a man both of large physical stature and of considerable political power in the prison social structure. He notes as well that his life would probably be in less jeopardy than that of one of the armed but disliked guards in the prison.
