The LID Protocol -- Part One
This is Part One of a Four-Part story. All characters are fictional. It is set at Lancet Point Reformatory for Boys. Copyright 2000 by Jason A. Andresen.
Richard was awoken by the sound of his room's door being unlocked. It was more of a cell than a room, really, but the staff -- especially the members of the Rehabilitation Staff -- wanted them called 'rooms'. It was eighteen feet, six inches from door to outside wall and twelve feet wide. There was a desk, a chair, a bookcase, a small, free-standing clothes closet, a bed, a lavatory and a toilet. The desk, chair, bookcase and bed were all bolted to the floor. The toilet was one of the new low-profile, stainless steel types. Nowhere did it touch the floor. Its plumbing was directly attached to the wall. The lavatory was next to the toilet and above it, screwed to the wall, was a black rectangular plate about one foot square that was polished enough to serve as a mirror. A narrow, but tall window was set into the wall between the bed and toilet. It had two thick panes of heavy glass. The desk, bed, toilet and lavatory were all visible from the small window set into the room's door. No bars anywhere, so the preference for the term 'room' was justified, perhaps. Richard's room was exactly like the other five rooms in this newly constructed wing of the reformatory.
As required by reformatory rules, there were two guards at the door -- the Rehab Staff insisted upon calling them 'Attendants' -- one to unlock and open the door and enter for whatever reason, the second to remain at the door to cover the first. Standard procedure since the boys in this wing all new arrivals and scheduled for a short stay and in most cases still considered 'non-compliant'. Both 'Attendants' carried the new "tickler sticks" but no other weapons. Tickler sticks were mini-stun guns that rendered the victims immobile for a minute or so -- long enough to put restraints on them. They were alert and responsive to verbal orders but unable to move their arms or legs.
Richard had spent a restless night, knowing what this day would bring. He had not fallen asleep until just a couple of hours before. It was now six-thirty a. m. This was his third morning waking at Lancet Point Reformatory. He raised his head from the pillow to watch the 'Attendant' insert his key into the light switch by the door and turn the bright recessed ceiling light on. Richard shielded his eyes from the glare. He noted that the red light of the recessed TV camera was still lit, taping his every move.
"Sorry, Richard," the Attendant said in a not unfriendly tone. "A little earlier than usual this morning." He walked to the keyed light switches on the wall next to the lavatory and inserted a key to turn the small night light light off. This light provided just enough illumination to allow the night shift Attendants to see the room's interior as they made their hourly checks through the night. Richard was slowly casting his sheet and light blanket off and beginning to sit up. The Attendant, whose name tag identified his name as Stoney, looked into the toilet. "Only urinated again I see, Richard," he said seeing the light yellow water but nothing else.
"Yes, sir," Richard said in as respectful a voice as he could muster. On the first morning when Stoney had come in to turn the lights on and check the room, he had checked the toilet and made the same comment. Richard had on that occasion made some flip, smart-ass remark about the toilet paper being not to his liking. Stoney had let the comment slide. He knew Richard's attitude would change. Almost all LID participants were smart-asses the first day.
"No bowel movement," Stoney said over his shoulder to the Attendant standing at the door. The Attendant, whose name was Bloodworth, lifted a clipboard and made a notation on the form it held. He flipped back through the pages of reports from Richard's previous two days.
"Three days running," he said. "That should tie a record."
Stoney said nothing. He inserted a large, L-shaped, wrench-like device into a slot on the back of the toilet and with some effort turned it. The toilet noisily flushed.
"Don't I ever get one of those left in here," Richard said referring to the toilet key-wrench.
"'Fraid, not, Richard," Stoney said. Against the Protocol. You must really be stopped up by now, son. You should use the pot when you need to."
Richard had not used the pot -- any pot -- since his arrival at Lancet point three days ago. He had started to once but as he lowered his pants and sat, the window in his room door and the red light of the security camera caught his attention. He was very bashful and private about using the toilet, always had been, and the thought of someone watching him through that window or on a TV screen made him get up again. Even pissing in the bowl made him nervous but at least he could turn with his back to the door and camera. Besides he couldn't postpone pissing. So far, he had been able to delay his bowel movements though. But Stoney was correct, he was pretty well "stopped up".
"The sooner you get used to having an non-private toilet -- and using it -- the better, son." Stoney said. "You still got two days left."
Attendant Bloodworth chuckled out loud. "Your eyes will turn brown after a week, son."
Stoney turned and gave Bloodworth a hard look. "Won't make much difference in a few minutes, anyway," Stoney said turning back to Richard. "They give you an enema before the paddling."
"An enema?!" Richard said, pretty much awake now. He didn't like the sound of this. Either the stories he had heard about what he was about to go through had failed to include the enema part or it was a new addition to the program -- or these two guards were just pulling his chain.
"Clean you right out, son," Bloodworth said. "Don't want you messin' up the floor during your switching."
"Couldn't I just...do it in here...now?"
"Sure," Stoney said. "But they'll give you one anyway. Protocol calls for it. It's the procedure they follow."
"You'll enjoy it," Bloodworth said and chuckled again.
"Speaking of procedure, son, you've got fifteen minutes, starting now, to get your bed made, put on a clean uniform -- including underwear -- and brush your teeth if you want. Understand?"
"Yes, sir," Richard said standing in only a pair of briefs. Stoney noted the drastic change in Richard's attitude. He was adding 'sir' to his responses, was doing as he was told and no longer had the thinly disguised 'attitude' that was evident on his first and even his second day in the program.
"Lot's to do today," Stoney said. "Attendant Bloodworth and I will be back in ten to fifteen minutes. No shower down the hall or breakfast today either."
"No shower??," Richard asked.
"Later. But not here," was all Stoney said.
Stoney looked at Richard with a practiced, critical eye for a moment. "Check the A-R-C box," he said to Bloodworth. Bloodworth lifted his clipboard again and put a check mark in the box next to the line that read "Alert, Responsive, Cooperative".
Richard was a fairly early participant in a new juvenile "adjustment" program called the Late Intervention and Deterrence -- or LID -- program. The state legislature had passed the program into law just the year before in response to growing dissatisfaction with the increasing juvenile crime rate and the general feeling in the public at large that boys between the ages of sixteen and nineteen were "getting out of hand". The LID program re-instated corporal punishment in a very controlled and monitored manner for boys in this age group who hadn't responded to other, more conventional methods of punishment. Under the provisions of the LID program, boys were sent to the state reformatory for a short period -- five days -- and among other things were given intensive counseling sessions by trained professionals in an attempt to "turn them around" before they were sentenced to "hard time" at the facility.
They key provision of LID, however, was corporal punishment. Specifically, boys under LID were paddled and switched. Paddled first then switched. This occurred on their fourth day. They then remained one additional day and were released. Thus far, the program had shown promising results with only one of the predceding twelve LID participants returning into the juvenile justice system and now scheduled for second exposure to LID. It was hoped that as word spread throughout the teenage population about the relative severity of the LID program, juvenile crime would drop in the target age group. To date -- with the statistics so far available -- LID was showing itself to be successful. Almost everyone concerned agreed that sentencing juveniles to a five day period with corporal punishment administered was much preferable to a longer sentence with little hope of any true reform being accomplished. It was hoped that with a wide-scale adoption of a program similar to LID, reformatories would house only the relatively few hardened juvenile cases. Perhaps in the near future Lancet Point would contain mainly LID-type inmates, there for a short period of counseling, a severe paddling and then back to society with a desire to never go through the LID Program again.
Richard was seventeen and had been in and out of the juvenile justice system three times. The first time, age 15, for Possession of Alcoholic Beverage. Suspended sentence and a warning. Second time, age 16: Creation of Public Disturbance and Destruction of Property. Thirteen weeks Public Service. His parents were worried. Next stop would be Lancet Point Reformatory where he would learn to disdain all authority, probably be raped repeatedly and be discharged a trained criminal. They were glad the court had offered the LID program when Richard was again arrested for Creating a Public Disturbance Destruction of Property and Driving on Suspended License.
Away from his buddies, Richard was not a bad kid, although quickly becoming one. He was growing a large chip on his shoulder. This, then, was his last chance before being sentenced to Lancet Point for a period much longer than a week. He was a perfect LID candidate.
Fifteen minutes later Stoney and Bloodworth were leading Richard, handcuffed, down the hall to where the heart of the LID program would be carried out over the next two hours. They had to cross a small courtyard to the next building. A group of four inmates -- all a year or so older than Richard -- and two guards were formed into a work detail, raking leaves, painting the curb in a No Parking zone. The inmates all stopped their work and stared as Richard, Stoney and Bloodworth passed. Richard's obviously new reformatory trousers and shirt advertised him as a new inmate and since Attendant Stoney was in the lead this newbie was no doubt a LID participant. Richard tried not to look at the inmates.
"What a sweet looking boy you are," said one voice.
"Oh my, oh my," said another, "my prayers are answered. What cell you in sweety."
"Hims gonna get its cute little butt spanked, ain't him? Ummm-umm, spank, spank, spank."
It was the fourth inmate of the group -- a boy who strongly resembled Richard -- that made Richard's skin crawl. This inmate stared intensely at Richard from only a few feet away as they passed. "Just bring him up to cell 43-C when he's done, Bloodworth. "I want him. Just leave his handcuffs on."
None of the four guard/attendants even attempted to stop these comments. In fact, the unofficial word was to let the LID participants hear what was ahead for them should they ever be sentenced to a more conventional term at Lancet Point. Deterrence. For a young, boyish looking inmate such as Richard, life at Lancet Point was not pleasant -- especially for the first few months. Anal intercourse and oral _s_e_x_ were so common that condoms were routinely issued to inmates. Better that than to have six hundred _s_e_x_-starved older teenagers on the prowl doing what they would do in any event and spreading _s_e_x_ually transmitted disease in the process.
The comments from the "hard-time" inmates sent chills up Richard's spine. He, of course, was aware of the rampant _s_e_x_ at Lancet Point. He'd heard the stories and even a couple of first-hand accounts. But to have himself the object of these inmates' stares and their lust...well, it frightened him. Which was exactly what it was supposed to do. A large portion of his second day had been spent on a "tour" of Lancet Point and everywhere he was taken, he heard suggestive comments from the long-term inmates. Knowing what happened to "newbies" was an effective deterrent in itself.
The three now entered another building. It appeared to Richard to be a newer building, small, one story, barred windows. Bloodworth jabbed Richard in the back to hustle him down the hallway, following Stoney. They entered a small room. A man dressed in the uniform of a male nurse stood in front of a wheeled table -- a hospital-like gurney. It had a thick pad covered with a clean sheet the same light blue "reformatory color" as Richard's bed sheets. After quickly looking around the room, Richard decided that it resembled a hospital room of some type, an X-ray room, perhaps. It even had the "smell" of a hospital. The gurney, the spotless floor, the steel cabinets along the wall, the curtained shower stall in the corner, the bright lights in the ceiling were all very medical-like.
TO BE CONTINUED