#prison rat

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Prison Cruelty Shames Canada - Nickle," Toronto Globe. October 17, 1933. Page 1 & 2. ---- Stripped of Rights, Convict's Fate Left To Whim of Guards ---- DEPLORES "DISGRACE" ---- Grim Tales of Suffering Within Portsmouth's Walls Recounted by Ontario's Former Attorney-General in Heartfelt Protest at Montreal ---- MURDERERS FREED, THIEVES CONFINED --- (Special Despatch to The Globe.) MONTREAL, Oct. 16. - Branding the penal system of Canada under present administration as a disgrace to the nation, and a regime that should be swept out of existence, Hon. W. F. Nickle, К.С., former Attorney-General for Ontario, and Parliamentarian of long experience, unfolded before the Young Men's Canadian Club of Montreal tonight some of the facts in connection with penitentiary life that have come within his personal knowledge. He made it clear that the convict is deprived of even the few and minimum rights that society has conceded to the man behind the bars.

Must Recognize Rights. "The rights of convicts in our penitentiaries must be recognized," Mr. Nickle stated. "The code of rules by which Kingston Penitentiary was being operated at the time of the so-called riots, just one year ago, less one day from today, on Oct. 17, 1932, were the regulations laid down for the government of penitentiaries in 1899. In them, the only recognized rights of convicts were to be fed, clothed and housed. Beyond that, anything they were allowed to have was by virtue of privilege, without any question of right."

Mr. Nickle recounted harrowing tales of suffering undergone by convicts in Portsmouth Penitentiary prior to the outbreak last autumn. The lives of the convicts were dependent solely upon the will of the Warden, he pointed out, aside from the exercise of the meagre rights accorded them in the prison rules. The penitentiary last year was drastically overcrowded: cells were divided by wooden partitions, men were sleeping in the corridors, and the depression had cast in among hardened "repeaters" criminals who had served many terms - a tragic number of men who, for trifling offenses, found themselves ostracised from the society of which they would normally be respected and law-abiding members. These men had intelligence and initiative, the speaker said, and they resented the whimsical and consistent abuse of authority.

At Officials' Whim. "I use the term "whimsical' advisedly," Mr. Nickle remarked. "For one man was frequently punished while another escaped for infraction of the rules, which demanded complete silence while the men were in their cells at night, silence while they were together at work, and which for- bade them to speak to any visitors, or to receive anything from visitors or give anything to them. Out of the interpretation of this rule grew one of the greatest mistakes of penitentiary administration. Some guards, less strict than others, allowed prisoners to talk to each other. Some, however, severely punished any convicts whom they caught talking. Even if a convict looked with irritation at any guard when the latter was reprimanding him or reporting his disregard of a rule, he was liable to be insolence.'

The inconsistency of prison administration was the cause of much grievance. Mr. Nickle stated. Seven murderers were released on parole, while only one bank robber was given a reprieve, and the convicts could not understand why crime involving the profaning of property was apparently regarded as more serious than capital crime. Another sore spot was the administration of corporal punishment.

"The Old Paddle." The "old paddle" that was used on convicts consisted of a strap five and a quarter inches wide, a fifth of an inch thick, and anywhere up to twenty inches long, with thirty small holes in the end, and with a handle twelve inches long.

If application of the "paddle" was to be mare more painful it was dipped in water first, so that it would smart more, and cling. It was sworn to, not only by convicts, but also by guards, during the course of recent Investigations that if a guard wanted to "take it out of" a convict, particular application of the "paddle" could make a man black and blue, and by a peculiar twist cut his flesh and bring the blood.

Long confinement in the cells was another reason for complaint. Sixteen hours out of the twenty-four were spent in the cells, and, if a man were to complain, he always had a charge laid against him so it did him not the slightest good to make an official complaint of conditions under which he existed. There were also complaints of manhandling, and of lack of small essentials, such as cigaret papers. A major cause for complaint was solitary confinement in the "hole." in which a man might be incarcerated for any period of time, up to thirty days, possibly in total darkness all the time, and perhaps without a blanket. This Isolation were regarded as a punishment, and men were subjected to it for protracted periods.

Strapped at Cell Door. Sometimes convicts were strapped in their cells, during working hours, with their hands lashed at arm's length above their heads, so that their arms became paralyzed and numb through lack of circulation. The hospital cells were the occasion for considerable complaint, too. The dishes the men ate from were washed in the baths in which hospitalized convicts washed, and, although it was stated that no cases of disease had been communicated, the situation was, nevertheless, abhorrent to the majority of them.

"The convicts at Kingston Penitentiary existed under what they regarded as a 'reign of terror," declared Mr. Nickle. "They had been sent to prison because they were unsocial, but the whole place teemed with resentment against the administration. Fear of the unknown gripped them; the convicts felt that they were not making any progress socially, intellectually or educationally. Their life was one of boredom, they were rotting away the constructive years of their life. And so it was that they planned what they thought would be a peaceful demonstration.

"The Judges who tried the leaders in the 'riot' found that when the men began their demonstration they had no intention of hurting any one, and actually did not injure any one or destroy property to anything like the extent they might have done. Indeed, the man in charge of the acetylene torch took the precaution, before blowing the locks of the doors, through which they made their way Into the prison yard, to weld shut the door into workshops in which there were many thousands of dollars' worth of equipment, which, he feared, thoughtless younger men in the penitentiary might destroy."

Deprecates Jibes. Mr. Nickle scouted the idea that any political motives were behind the movement to reform penitentiary conditions. He deprecated as unworthy of notice the fallacious jibes, "sob-sisters" and "sentimentalists," which were leveled against those seeking prison reform, by those who did not see eye-to-eye with Mr. Nickle and other Canadians who saw the need for Improvement.

"Knowing Right Hon. R. B. Bennett and Hon. Hugh Guthrie as I do, I know that if they saw the situation as I do, they would see their duty, humanitarians, not merely to accept my word for it, or the word of the convicts, but to accept the spirit of the nation that cries out for an improvement in this regard, and appoint an Commission to investigate. I haven't much faith in Parliamentary committees as they consist of busy men, who have inadequate opportunities to go into the thing thoroughly."

Limitation of the autocratic powers of Magistrates, many of whom are actually lacking in the education and foresight necessary to the true dispensation of justice, was one of the prime movements essential to penitentiary reform, Mr. Nickle believed. Ho cited the instance of a 15-year-old boy who was sentenced to seven years and twenty lashes for holding up a shop clerk with a toy pistol. He pointed out that he did not mean city Magistrates, but that he was referring to country Magistrates.

Investigation into so-called "confessions" was another reform the speaker urged, stressing the injustice of condemning men on the strength of confessions obtained by police from prisoners who have not benefited by the advice of counsel. Mr. Nickle strongly advocated the institution of proper defense measures for men who were without funds to retain their own lawyers. The Crown provided attorneys for the prosecution, he said: why not do the same for underpriviliged prisoners?

Hotbeds of Crime? Inquiry into the truth of the charge that penitentiaries constituted hotbeds of crime should also be made, he said, deploring he non-segregation of convicts following conviction. When a young man was a first offender, he claimed. he should be taught and trained, and he added a fervent plea for systematized teaching of vocations to all convicts. Equalizing of sentences was another matter that called for drastic remedy, the speaker declared, pointing out that while one man was sentenced to a year's imprisonment, another was given ten years in the penitentiary for crimes between the seriousness of which it was beyond the ordinary convict's ability to differentiate.

Mr. Nickle was strongly in favor of a State fund for the maintenance of the families of convicts; why, he demanded, should the wives and children of men who have made mistakes be forced to suffer? He was strong in condemning the use of "rats" in penitentiaries. "Rats" is what convicts call the men whom the prison authorities delegates to act as spies among their fellow prisoners and to report everything they see and overhear. He understood that the system had been discontinued at Kingston Penitentiary, but he was of the conviction that similar steps should be taken throughout the Dominion. He thought that something should be done, too, to provide for convicts upon their release from the penitentiaries, to put them back on their feet and give them a chance to remake a place for themselves in society.

Check on Guards' Charges. A record should be kept, he advocated. by which all charges made by all guards could be checked, so that It could quickly be determined which of the guards were bullies. The case had come to his attention of one guard who sat outside a convict's cell for hours at a stretch, putting In the time taunting the man, brutally and mercilessly, with the disgrace that his crime and conviction had brought upon his family.

Referring to some of the recently inaugurated changes at Kingston Penitentiary, Mr. Nickle thought that while some were for the better, some were also for the worse. He specified the regulation permitting the guards to carry weapons capable of inflicting mortal wounds. He believed that the use of force should be strictly commensurate with the danger involved in the offense committed. He also advised the installation in all penitentiaries from the convicts who were capable of being improved and instructed. Statistical knowledge of this phase of penitentiary conditions was sorely needed, he said. Mr. Nickle paid tribute to the late Right Hon. C. J. Doherty of Montreal, who, he declared, would certainly have accomplished many of the reforms which the speaker ind advocated, had he lived to carry on his work, while Minister of Justice, from 1911 to 1921.

Briefly tracing the history of prisons in England and on this continent. Mr. Nickle said that since the time of Adam and Eve, punishment was held to be the way to drive people into the paths of rectitude. He contended that by stimulation, rather than by repression, were convicts to be reformed, recalling the days of old in England. when 10-year-old children were hanged for stealing trifles from shop windows.

The term "penitentiary," he explained, had its origin among the old monks, who, when a brother monk did something against the rules, ordered him to solitary confinement. where he might become "penitent" and thus redeem for himself a place among his fellows. It was the same Idea that led to the penitentiary system, even as it is practiced today, he declared. Little Progress in Century. He saw little improvement in the system of today over that of a century ago, in the United States, when a convict was arraigned, and, if convicted, was blindfolded, taken to hear sentence passed and then conducted to a cell, twelve feet long and eight feet wide, with a small courtyard about the same size, where he spent the term of his imprisonment, never seeing a fellow-man other than the guard who brought meals and who was forbidden to speak to convicts, and never receiving letters or messages. Yet it was only last year, he pointed out, that solitary confinement was abolished in England as a punishment, after the period of incarceration of this nature had been cut down a few days at a time for several years past.

Not so long ago, in fact, convicts in some penitentiaries in the United States were liable to flogging if they spoke a word, or if they so much as lifted their eyes from their work while in the shops. And, if they denied having spoken, they were flogged again.

"Pressure of economic and national events may stay the hands of our Prime Minister and of others of his ministry," concluded Mr. Nickle, "but the time is coming when they will be stimulated to action, and will have the satisfaction of knowing that they have improved the conditions of those who have an undeniable right to know that society recognizes its obligations to them. The penal population of Canada is growing all the time. Sixty per cent, of, it consists of 'repeaters,' so what can our penal system, as it is now, be accomplishing?

"The truth shall make you free," providing you can make the convict realize that his incarceration is not a period of repression, but one of reformation and regeneration, to the end that he may be restored to society as a social asset, not as an out- cast whose destiny lies along the dark road that invariably leads back to within the walls of the prison whence he came."

Image caption: HON. W. F. NICKLE, K.С., Who Demands That the Present Penal System Be Swept Away as a "Disgrace to Our National Life."

[irishpaisano]

Donal served nine years of a fifteen year sentence for manslaughter. Don Luca got him out early. He got bigger...

[roach-works]

ok im waffling on about fallout instead of having breakfast but i saw a criticism of how the prisoners were treated that's stuck with me.

spoilers!

so i think the criticism wasn't incorrect, per se: it condemned the way the show portrayed the vault dweller's naive intention to rehabilitate their murderous captives. it found fault with a common, and horrible, message that tv shows like to say, which is that carcerial violence and even the death penalty is the only effective way to deal with criminals, who are a fundamentally Bad category of human. im sick of that message too! but i think that wasn't what was going on here, actually.

so like, the vault dwellers had only ever experienced violent loss the once, and didn't really know how to cope other than denial and repression of the ordeal. but they were all hopeful and enthusiastic that their prisoners, the invaders that came to kill them all and take their stuff, could be eventually welcomed into the community as their comrades. the champions of this cause were nebbishy dorks and painfully out of touch academics. this is pretty normal for how prison reformers are portrayed, if extremely fucking annoying for those of us who ARE in favor of prison reform.

but so of course when the son of the former overseer, Norm, speaks up and suggests killing the prisoners, because why should they share resources with invaders who explicitly wanted to keep hurting them? why should they show mercy to their attackers? everyone is appalled by this suggestion. because they had to reinvent the whole concept of vengeance right then and there, because grudges and cycles of violence are anathema to a bottle society like theirs. they have been raised all their lives to forgive and forget and now, put to the test, they're recommitting to this ethos: get along, let the past go, look towards the future, believe the best of everyone.

but the prisoners die, anyway. the prisoners are killed with rat poison. and the thing is that Norm who suggested it didn't do it himself. and the prison guard who's blamed for it, even though she privately agreed with Norm that the prisoners are dangerous and unforgiveable, she didn't do it either. it's not a moment of triumphant, cathartic vengeance and it doesn't prove that there's no way to negotiate with terrorists and invaders but kill them like vermin because that's not what the message is meant to be.

the message is that norm stands there in the middle of these inconvenient prisoners, these corpses dressed in his own people's uniforms, and he looks at the new overseer. and he knows that she killed them, and she knows that he knows. she wanted him to know. this is her message and he's reading her loud and clear. and he doesn't look like a guy who's just been backed up by authority, who's just been validated in his desire for the ultimate control over those who have wronged him.

he's scared and pale and the music is ominous as fuck. and he's inside the cell, he's directly in the middle of it.

because what just happened is that he realized his entire society is being held prisoner, and the overseer is the one with the rat poison. and that he doesn't know, anymore, what freedom and safety and justice actually mean, just that he doesn't have them and he doesn't know where to find them.

that's what that scene meant. not that rehabilitative justice is a pathetic delusion of people who have no idea how to make hard choices.

but that before you advocate for killing prisoners, you might want to see how big that prison is, first.

and which side of the bars you're standing on.

[homielander]

like yeah of course tom thinks shiv is a scorpion because he doesn't know she compromised her position and sacrificed her brother so he wouldn't go to prison. he doesn't know she refused to divulge any information about cruises to gil in season 1 before she was certain tom would walk away unscathed. he doesn't know she shut down her brothers' offer to fire him, doesn't know she ensured he'd have a place in the company post-acquisition, doesn't know that the first time she indelicately interrogated matsson about whether she'd have any power and influence at waystar gojo was literally immediately after matsson brought up the idea of firing tom. and it's her fault he doesn't know that she's protected him at nearly every turn because she won't tell him. and it's looking more likely with every passing episode that he'll never know 😔🔫

[kply-industries]

[chamoemileclown]

Quacki!!

[rainbowspinch]

Sammy and Henry play battleships in prison by calling out the grid numbers across the room

[bimoonphases]

@wolfstarmicrofic September 19 - prompt 19: Dementor [word count 533]

Peter was actually happy there were Dementors around the castle grounds. They would protect Hogwarts, but definitely not in the way those idiots at the Minister thought. They wouldn’t protect their precious school and precious saviour from a murderer, but rather themselves and their oh-so-flawed system from the truth. And they would protect him as well. Peter was even happier to discover that Dementors little affected him in his rat form. He had enough to worry about as it was. He could only imagine what twelve years in that hellish place that was Azkaban had done to Sirius, and actually hoped the terror he was sure to have of the Dementors would keep him away from Hogwarts. And from him specifically. Still, he couldn’t ignore the hundreds of memories he had of Sirius appearing from some secluded place in the castle apparently out of nowhere, the whole of the Marauder’s Map memorised in his brilliant mind. And if Peter had found out as he had stayed hidden in the red-headed boy’s pocket that Dementors didn’t affect Animagi as much, Sirius surely had found out as well.

Moreover, the train ride on September 1st had brought another gigantic problem with it as well. It wasn’t enough spending it, like he had done with every single day since the news of the breakout from Azkaban, frantically wondering where he could run to to save himself, if there was any place more secure than Hogwarts, if Hogwarts was actually that secure faced with twelve years of wrath and betrayal and the mind and abilities of a Marauder. It wasn’t enough being fussed over with because he looked ‘ill’ when all he was was utterly terrified, or being once again face to face with James’s son who, as the kid face slowly left him to be replaced by the sharper traits of being a teenager, looked more and more like his father, his eyes sometimes dragging over him unknowingly as accusing as his mother’s. No, when the kids had closed their compartment door he had smelled it first and then seen it with his own eyes. Remus. Remus was there too, fast asleep in a corner, looking worse than he had ever seen him. But Remus would know if he took even one look at him, or if the wolf in him took a whiff of his scent. And if Remus knew, it would be over. There was no way he would survive as soon as the certainty that Sirius had never betrayed James and Lily hit Remus. No, despite twelve years of heartbreak, the moment Remus knew the love of his life was innocent, and what he had had to endure because of him, he would run back to his side, Ministry, Dumbledore and Dementors be damned. And if Peter was deadly afraid of Sirius’s wrath, fueled by grief, twelve years of nightmares and possibly the legendary craziness of his family at this point, he was even more afraid of Remus’s level-headedness, the calm he always had in front of even the most awful things. Yes, if Remus and Sirius found each other again, fell into each other’s arms again, Peter was as good as dead.

[honeycombhank]

March 6th 24 pickles pie is in prison for being far to cute

[trappedinchemicalplantzone]

Y’all remember that one panel where Scourge gets thrown into a washing machine?

Do it again.

& the aftermath of course.

I basically just redrew that panel, hopefully you don't mind !! but y'all are evil to this guy

I managed to lose his other arm somewhere in translation, but uh,, him, he looks like a wet rat

he absolutely got sick afterwards

and a bonus scourge sketch for y'all !

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"When the average prisoner has an argument or fight with another inmate, he generally feels called upon to be as vindictive as possible, considering it a sign of weakness and effeminacy to shake hands afterwards and make up the peace with his enemy. He will rarely let the matter drop but will try to arouse the enmity of all his friends against his latest antagonist. To do this, he will tell a highly prejudiced story of the events which led to the quarrel and claim that everything his enemy says in rebuttal is a lie; and generally attempt to make his enemy out a "rat" or a "lousy bastard", or anything which will result in his ostracism. There is very little good sportsmanship or sense of fair play, it being considered the essence of folly and weakness to give an enemy an even break. The idea is to win, to gain the advantage no matter how.

Although he professes to despise the informer, the average inmate who is not a gangster thinks it perfectly justifiable to inform against an enemy, especially a prison official. Or if a fellow convict has given information against him, he usually feels that he is then justified in doing likewise; the idea that two wrongs never make a right is too subtle for him.

The average prisoner dislikes the work of the prison; but he actually hates any work of a menial kind such as emptying the slop buckets. Many inmates prefer to go to the cooler for ten days of bread and water, rather than to perform work they consider beneath their dignity! The fact that it is work which must be done, and that some one must perform it, does not make any difference. The usual reaction is: "What, me empty buckets? I should say not! Who do they think I am? They'll never make me do any of that kind of crap!"

Many inmates who work in offices, or hold relatively important jobs within the prison, become afflicted with the "big shot" complex and consider themselves highly indispensable persons. They are frequently seen strutting about the yard, bragging to their fellows of their ability, their privileges, and their general importance in the scheme of things. "Why," they will be heard to say, "that so-and-so of a 'screw' would be absolutely helpless over there without me!" I have seen men on intramural jobs, especially when working in the deputy warden's office as runner, who had so exalted an opinion of their capabilities and importance that I doubt if they could ever accustom themselves to normal positions as relatively unimportant persons in the free world. This naturally has a tremendously bad effect upon their chances of re-adjustment when they leave prison. Men who have been minor heroes in the prison world because of prominence in musical, athletic, or other activities, often go the same way.

There was, I remember, a prisoner named Walthour who had a very important prison job. He was the deputy warden's clerk. The deputy warden depended greatly upon Walthour for information about men who applied for various jobs and special privileges; and thus Walthour came to wield a great deal of power. If he recommended a man for a job, the man invariably got it; and so Walthour became a prison "big shot." He could walk un-challenged anywhere within the walls and could obtain for a friend (or for a cash consideration) anything within reason which a prisoner might desire. The job and the power went to his head; he became perfectly insufferable, although he was clever enough not to let the deputy warden see to what extent he had been influenced by unaccustomed power.

When he was released, after five years of this power, no job he could obtain in the free world could satisfy him. In the free world he could be nothing better than a second-rate clerk. This did not please him nor was it unruffling to his inordinate conceit. He threw up one job after another because he could not bear to be an ordinary mortal again. He took to stealing, riding about in a flashy car, pretending to be the same "big shot" in the free world that he had been in prison. Skeptical policemen in the town soon began to keep their eyes on him, and within three months he was back in prison where he immediately began angling for another important position.

In Eastern prisons, with the sole exception of those in the State of New York, there is little of that solidarity among prisoners which under the conditions one might expect (and about which so much drivel has been written). In New York it is the gangsters who preserve the spirit of solidarity in the prisoner group. I think this will be found true of every prison in which there is a sizable group of gangsters (as in Joliet, Illinois; Jefferson City, Missouri; San Quentin, California, etc.). For the rest, the prisoners are, as far as my personal experience and observation go, a pretty shabby lot in that respect.

In Charlestown, for example, there is hardly a trace of class consciousness or esprit de corps. There are perhaps fifty or sixty inmates in the population of nine hundred who have any faintest notion of loyalty to their kind. I remember several very revealing events, in this connection. For example, a man was caught surreptitiously playing checkers in the brush shop. When haled before the deputy warden for a breach of shop rules, he said, "The men up in Shoe Four can play checkers when they get their work done; I don't see why I shouldn't be allowed to do the same down here in the brush shop." That this was sound reasoning is beside the point. The point is that he thought only of himself, of saving himself a few days in the "cooler" by revealing the fact that his fellows in another shop, under a more broadminded guard, were permitted a privilege which was denied him. He cared not that in so doing he would deprive fifty fellow prisoners of a petty privilege they had been lucky enough to obtain.

Another incident reveals this tendency even more sharply. Two men planned to make an escape. During a morning church service attended by only a few inmates (of the Episcopalian sect) and guarded by a single officer whom they planned to over-power, one man was to seize the guard's gun and hold the roomful of prisoners in check while the other man sawed out a steel window bar which would permit them to escape. Luckily for the guard, his gun was unloaded. As the men assaulted him, he cried out for help, and told every one that the gun was unloaded. One of the desperate men, had already secured the gun, held it against the guard's body, and pulled the trigger. When the gun failed to explode, several prisoners, instead of helping their fellows, as might have been expected, ran to the guard's rescue, and at length the two desperadoes were subdued.

The thing which I made note of at the time was that the men who jumped to the rescue of the guard were not men who had reformed and were sincerely interested in upholding law and order; they were two of the most notorious hypocrites in the place, men who "played" the religious and welfare workers for all there was in it, and were now aiding the prison authorities simply because they saw a chance of thus advancing their own selfish interests, possibly to the extent of winning paroles or even pardons. As it happened, however, one of the men was a lifer whose own father had objected to his getting a pardon; but the other man obtained a parole within a few months.

Even more illustrative of the lack of class loyalty is the steady stream of notes which pours daily into the warden's office of any prison. In these notes the prisoners "get even" with personal enemies by telling tales and generally stirring up envy, jealousy, and a vast amount of friction.

The average prisoner, despite all that he has seen of treachery and double-dealing, which ought to teach him that appearances are often deceitful, seems to have developed little charity. He is very quick to condemn a fellow prisoner at the slightest hint of scandal. A friend of mine, who happened to be very well connected with some crooked politicians, once went out before a grand jury to testify against a "fence" who had withheld a large sum of money after disposing of the proceeds of a jewel robbery. The idea was simply to force the "fence" to disgorge more money. It was plain extortion. Through a crooked district attorney the "fence" had been arrested and the plan was to have him indicted by the grand jury. There was no thought of actually bringing him to trial. He was simply to be scared so that he would contribute a sizable sum of money for the "no-prossing" of the indictment. But the prisoners, of course, did not know all this. All they knew was that Swain had testified against some one before the grand jury. At once he was ostracized by the inmates. That he had all his life been "right" counted for nothing; that the "fence" never came to prison, and never even came to trial, was also of no consequence; and that my friend asserted that it was "all in the bag" (this was as far as he could let the whole group into the secret) made no difference. To this day he is considered "wrong" by all but a few intimate friends who were on the "in" of the story.

It is currently believed by the average prisoner that all religious and welfare workers who come to the prison are moral and sexual degenerates of one kind or another. The reason for this is that occasionally a male worker has actually been a sex pervert and occasionally a female worker has proved to be a sex-starved old maid. Another reason for this belief is to be found in the activities of the workers themselves. It seems that they almost invariably select, as deserving prisoners to help, the most depraved inmates in the institution. This is not their fault; it is due simply to the fact that such men appeal so strenuously and shamelessly for help that the worker can hardly help but yield to their importunate cries. And since so many of these men get help, whereas so many decent men (who hesitate to apply for help) are left unaided, this leads to the belief that welfare workers deliberately select sex perverts as deserving cases. Moreover, the average prisoner, because of vanity and egotism, believes it far more manly to steal than to beg; and so the prisoner who needs help is afraid to apply for it lest he incur the scorn of the prison herd, who would say to him, "Losing your nerve, eh? One of these Salvation Army bums, huh?" In other words, it is considered a worse crime to accept legitimate charity than to steal.

The egocentricity of the average prisoner is revealed in the most startling as well as in the most amusing ways. It is apparent in his brash loudness of voice, his pushing forward of himself and his views at every opportunity. When he is in line, he will crowd and shove his fellows (unless they are bigger than he is); at the table he will reach impolitely across his neighbor's place and grab the biggest or best portions of whatever is in sight; at the table he is inconsiderate and coarse, belching, feeding noisily, and generally revealing the table manners of a healthy pig."

- Victor F. Nelson, Prison Days and Nights. Second edition. With an introduction by Abraham Myerson, M.D. Garden City: Garden City Publishing Co., 1936. p. 126-133

[one-time-i-dreamt]

A rat was holding a seminar in prison, he then proceeded to dis Remy the rat for an hour.

[littleeggrock]

HEY HEY I'M GOING CRAZY

Y'ALL REMEMBER THE BOOK CUCURUCHO GAVE JAIDEN BEFORE SHE WAS "KIDNAPPED"?

"YEARS AGO YOU HELPED US. ME"

IF THE RESET ISN'T A NEW THING

HOW LONG HAS JAIDEN BEEN HERE

[halcyon-autumn]

Jace’s end is so funny because he’s ostensibly the right had of the big bad but half of his duplicates got killed via lava shove - and that’s STILL way less embarrassing than getting arrested by the Elmville PD. He must be soooooo mad that Porter got a cool death via god sword while he gets arrested by the most embarrassing police department in Spire.

[emin-folly]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but what do you think Eobard does in his free time? Like, does he have a daily schedule? A color-coded calendar with reminders how to fuck with Barry? Is he still a professor? Like, what does he DO when he isn't actively fucking up someone's life? Sry, I just got interested in him very recently, and the comics are chaotic lol

Hello~! I'm very happy to be the first to welcome you to Yellow Rat hell <3 He's such a fascinating, tragic, horrid gremlin of a man, and he definitely deserves more fans aha. As someone who reads comics, I can confirm it's not you, they can be very confusing and all over the place xD

And no, that's not a stupid question, not at all! He is shown not to always be around to bother Barry for months at a time, so it's entirely reasonable to wonder where he goes a lot of the time~ Some ideas of what he could be possibly doing are but not limited to:

Tending to his beloved museum. Aside from Barry, this is one of the very few things he treasures deeply. It's his pride and joy as well as his home. We all know he's established to be the curator of the museum and has provided tours to the public, but it's very unclear if he continued with that after becoming Reverse Flash. While he might've, I feel like there's too many reasons why he wouldn't. One being that the Renegades know his secret identity and I'm pretty sure that would ruin a lot of business for him lol. Plus with Eobard's mentality, I think he would be just too distracted, too frantic with his need to focus on Barry to do his day job

Now this is more of a fun headcanon my friend, Ftl were talking about that I since adopted where Eobard likes to pop back into the past, right before a major event or disaster, whether just as a bystander or a instigator. And of course, he always manages to run into Vandal Savage, so much to the point now that Vandal now associates him as a omen for things to come

He is canonically shown to go and bother/mess with Thomas Wayne a handful of times. This is significant as normally he really doesn't go out of his way for anyone that's not Barry/Flashfam member more than he absolutely has to. He doesn't even go after Hal. The only people he seems to be genuinely interested in and fixated on are those who have (willingly) killed him. Thomas may not rank as high as a priority as Barry, naturally, but he definitely counts as a hobby at least

There was also that time in Flash Age, where Eobard got to play the role of savior of Central City in his own era. He genuinely seemed to enjoy being the hero but, well, if you read to the end, you'll see why that most likely won't be happening again heh

Now this one is a lot more jokey, but in a DC Holiday Special, there's one panel in the last story that shows Eobard enjoying a game of poker with the Anti Monitor along with some other characters, so take from that what you will~

Now, as for your question about him still being a Professor, that's also really not explained in depth. They never really cement exactly what he's a Professor of, but considering him, it's most likely history and/or the Speed Force. In some comics he does have students, in others it works mostly as just a title and then sometimes it's not referenced at all, but it's safe to assume he still is one aha

I also don't really see him having a daily routine. The way I see it, Eobard is so far removed from being human, he doesn't really need to eat, sleep, or do personal hygiene lol But I really love your calendar idea! It would definitely look something like: "Fuck with Barry" "Fuck with Barry" "Fuck with Barry" "Fuck with Barry/Visit Daddy Bat" "Fuck with Barry/Die" "Askdhsgkdbjk" "Poker night" 😂

Also, I know it's not really canon but I really enjoy the idea of him painting. Eobard is a gifted child and a genius, he can master practically anything he sets his mind to. IDK why painting of all things, but it just kinda seems right. Bonus points if he uses it to replace original paintings in the past with his LOL

Overall, sadly, we don't get to see all the mischief he gets up to when not tormenting Barry, only tidbits. But hey, that just gives us some creative freedom to come up with fun ideas ourselves~

[rubbish78]

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