Bulk Property

We had an older officer in his early 50's who came to us from Russia. He was really a good guy, but it seems he was always screwing up. It was never intentional, I'm sure. Maybe it was just a culture thing. I always got a he haw when I worked with this guy. If it was not a funny story he shared, it was something he did during the shift that cracked me up. He wore every conceivable calamity possible in his hip pocket. If something happened in the jail, he always seemed to be a part of it somehow or another. He was the only officer in the jail who ever caught a male and a female inmate in the act of having intercourse. He just stood there and told them to "stop it". Unbelievably, they did. Both were codefendants in a murder case.

After I retired, one of my friends who still works at the jail told me something that he did while working in the clothing room. His duty for the night was to stock shelves, process the bulk property bags, and issue clothing to the new arrivals. The job is not that difficult, but it can be demanding and hectic at times. Most of it depended upon the officer's organizational skills.

When a person is booked into jail, any property they have that does not fit in a clear 6 x 9 inch tamper proof plastic bag is put into a sealed paper grocery bag. It is labeled "bulk property" and then transferred to the clothing room to be put in the inmate's larger clothing bag, providing it will fit. If not, it is stored on shelves in the back of the clothing room. Items in bulk property ranged from backpacks holding all the person's worldly possessions to filled purses to desktop computers.

Since the arresting officer is the one who packages everything into the paper bag, we don't have a clue as to what is inside the bag as it is sealed with evidence tape before they are even booked into jail. The inmate is handed this bag as he is leaving our custody just prior to walking out of the door.

This night was particularly busy in the clothing room. One of the meal relief officers finished his duties a little early and was told to go help our Russian friend. As he walked into the clothing room, he witnessed what looked like the aftermath of a small Midwest tornado in the dress-in area. There on the floor were the scattered and shredded remnants of brown paper and evidence tape.

The officer asked him what the mess was from. He calmly replied that it was from the 15 paper bags of bulk property and he was trying to get caught up so he could clean it up. The next question for him was, "What happened to the bulk property?"

With the calmness of Yoga instructor, he said that he gave it back to the inmates at the same time as he provided them their jail-issued clothing. "Where are these inmates now?", asked the officer. "Oh, I already sent them to their floors."

Oh boy!