In Maricopa County jail, there is a group called SRT. They are the Specialized Response Team, and they are basically a SWAT team for jail. They are on call for riots, fights, and they also do contraband sweeps routine and on call. They are equipped with pepper cannons, not guns, and are basically given the same training as the regular police. I've seen someone get hit with one of those guns, and it is not pleasant. These huge capsasian launchers will make the biggest, toughest guys weep like a starving baby.
I remember one specific contraband search in detail. Each "house" in Durango holds about 50 people in 4 separate pods. At the time, I was in the B pod in D7. Someone was caught with drugs in the C pod, so SRT came in to turn the whole house. The reason for this is because, while we are in separate pods, inmates from the 4 pods in one house CAN interact in person at REC and in the various church services. We could see through our glass window SRT sweeping the D and C pods first. They brought all the inmates out into the bubble area, and took EVERYTHING that was not allowed including any commissary people did not have a receipt for, any books of their choosing that were over the allowed limit of 3, any extra linens, the long sleeve shirts smuggled from the working pods, tattoo kits, cigarettes, lighters, hooch and hooch making kits, etc. When they got to our pod (this particular pod I was in was kind of known for being compliant and good for the most part) they came in and told us "we are going to give you guys 5 minutes to bring out anything you're not supposed to have, put it on the chow table, and then we will do 3 random cell searches. If all is well at that point we will let you guys be"... We did it, and they ended up leaving our big pile of extra books we weren't supposed to have to be "nice".
Today I'm grateful that I don't have to have any interaction with SRT. I'm grateful that I'm allowed to have as many books, as much food WITHOUT a receipt, long and short sleeve clothes, as many extra blankets and sheets as I want with no fear of them being taken from me.
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