Blog 20

The Phoenix Magazines coverage of the hostage crisis at Lewis Prison in 2004 shows the harsh truth regarding the dangerous conditions and circumstances that prison guards face. Lois Fraley recalls and shares with us those 15 terrifying days where she was raped and humiliated, contemplated taking her own life while at the same time having no certainty as to whether she was going to make it out of this alive. Britton’s study discussed how inmates are trained in depth on how to deal with inmates in different situations. Fraley’s personal account of her ordeal mirrors a lot of the techniques talked about in Britton’s study. The other officer in the tower at the time was a male and so the first instinct of prisoners seemed to be was to take out the initial threat which they saw as the male guard. Wassenaar swung at Officer Auld with a metal object “hitting him as though he were hitting a home run knocking Auld unconscious.” Fraley they tied up immediately and began taking turns raping her repeatedly. Now we have two Officers who have gone through the same training and are both equally qualified to wear the title of Prison Guard and yet the typical male response of the prisoners was to see the male guard as their primary threat and there for chose to incapacitate him. Fraley on the other hand being a female they chose to use her for the one thing they felt that they could get from her and that was sexual pleasure on their part. Although both guards could have been victims of rape they chose the female as the one to abuse and violate. One thing that Fraley did that works along with the idea’s shared in Britton’s study was she found away to associate with the inmates. By suggesting that they speak to Schriro (the prison director) she was showing them that she was trying to help them. Fraley also did a smart thing but talking about her family and her children she was able to let the inmates see her as a person; a mother, daughter and granddaughter rather than just a prison guard. At one point during the hostage interviews they stated that there was no way for Fraley to make it out of this situation alive and yet when the time came for this stand off to end they both calmly walked out with Fraley. She also like the prison guard who made the inmate aware that her ketchup packet was considered contraband Fraley also by attending the court hearings not only allowed herself a chance to heal but also showed these prisoners that you hurt me but you did not break me. She sat in that court room and faced those men as they were handed down their punishment.
I found the description of Dora Schriro very amusing when they said that she resembled an actor not a prison chief. A Prison Chief was a cowboy type man who wore large belt buckles. I mean give me a break did they just pull that stereo type out of some John Wayne movie. This goes to show the perception that the media has given to certain stereo types.