Prisons in the postapocalypse

[raketenjagdpanzer]

In case I hadn't brought it up before...

I recently read a Punisher comic that I'd missed on it's initial release, one titled The End. The premise is that after decades of his war on crime, Frank Castle is caught and locked in a maximum security prison. On the outside, for reasons of plot convenience, the War on Terror boils over into a shooting war with the Chinese who have world-ending amounts of nuclear weapons which they use. During the "warning phase" (detection of ICBM launch to impact, which is what, like 40 minutes at most when you're talking about Asia to the CONUS?), the governor contacts the prison wardens and orders them to execute all the prisoners in their cells.

Putting this in a T2k context, the implication in the 1e set is that the TDM came as a near-total surprise (although considering a nuclear shooting war was already going on in China and at least tac nuke usage in Europe as well, it couldn't have been that much of a surprise?), "Millions of Americans watching football games suddenly saw their TVs go dark" (or something like that), so a "kill all prisoners" order might not have time to go in effect, assuming that wasn't just for the convenience of the comic.

So what, then, happens to prisons in a T2k setting? For example, Starke prison in FL is where FL's "Death Row" is, yet it's nowhere near a primary site. Orlando has a pretty large jail system, too; even given my rather optimistic outline for Central Florida (which is decidedly noncanon), what happens next?

Do we have any posters connected with law enforcement who can disclose any sort of contingency plans in the face of a disaster of that scale?

[pmulcahy11b]

Well, the cops could all leave, letting the offenders rot in their cells...

[Panther Al]

And that would probably happen more often than not - but I can also see more than a few still doing the best they can to carry out the duties assigned out of professionalism.

[pmulcahy11b]

I'd love to ask my nephew about that -- he was a CO before he enlisted, but he's in Afghanistan right now, and my sister and I had a falling-out, so I don't know the address. US Army Locator might tell me something...

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Here's the relevant part, if anyone cares (actually a lot of the "second act" would make good "Post Apocalyptic Images" fodder, too).

[rnitze]

Well
A. I like this thread! Esp comics
B. High danger prisoners... i can see the "summary justice" though pre-emptive prison riot could be messy
C. Low priority prisons.... prolly put them to work or some such ...guess it depends on where....after all it is a nice source of forced labor... ;-)

I still wanna figure out the POW camps in USA (WW2 we had 666 of them)... and I think less loyal Pact POW's will become goof recruiting ground for Free Polish Bdes I'm designing and such... true German govt wont allow them in, but I have a Libyan campaign and need warm bodies...

[Brother in Arms]

rnitze
there were at least two prison camps in northern Maine (that I know of) one was Seboomook a prison logging camp where P.O.W's of Rommel's Afrika Corp where sent! The other was camp Houlton which was an Army Airbase and housed over a 1000 prisoners. I have seen the remains of camp houlton which is where houlton industrial park is today. There is nothing there but one ww2 era air traffic control tower. Mostly the prisoners, harvested trees, picked potatoes, worked on road crews. They were fed,clothed and in some instances paid for work (though very little) also some prisoners took extension and correspondence courses. Many did not return to Germany after the war but staid in Maine and became farmers or wood cutters.

[rnitze]

Originally Posted by Brother in Arms

rnitze
there were at least two prison camps in northern Maine (that I know of) one was Seboomook a prison logging camp where P.O.W's of Rommel's Afrika Corp where sent! The other was camp Houlton which was an Army Airbase and housed over a 1000 prisoners. I have seen the remains of camp houlton which is where houlton industrial park is today. There is nothing there but one ww2 era air traffic control tower. Mostly the prisoners, harvested trees, picked potatoes, worked on road crews. They were fed,clothed and in some instances paid for work (though very little) also some prisoners took extension and correspondence courses. Many did not return to Germany after the war but staid in Maine and became farmers or wood cutters.

Thanks man, wow took me a while to get back on here...

[stg58fal]

I'm going to have to see if I can find that Punisher comic. The Punisher is about the only comic that I like enough to actually buy. Who did the artwork and story?

Regarding the topic, I'd like to think that regardless of timeline (1, 2/2.2, 2013), all of the violent and irredeemable scum (pedos, rapists, crack dealers, etc.) would be killed in their cells.

In the non-2013 timelines, maybe those that can be trusted to some extent could be given very basic training and sent to the war to fill gaps in NATO lines. Sort of like the American contribution to the first special forces group made during WWII (you know, where the Canadians gave one of their best fighting units, and the US pulled guys out of the brig and sent them).

[Canadian Army]

I think Prison work gangs would be organized using the "trusty system".

The "trusty system" is a strict system of discipline and security used as a method of controlling and working inmates in prison. Under this system, designated inmates are used by staff to control and administer physical punishment to other inmates according to a strict prison-determined inmate hierarchy of power.

Highest in the prison inmate hierarchy were the inmates armed with rifles, called the "trusty shooters". Their job was to act as prison guards and control other inmates on a day-to-day basis in the residential camps or out on the field work crews. Next was the unarmed "trusties" who performed janitorial, clerical and other menial tasks. Simple tasks are carried out by other categories of inmates such as "hallboys".

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Originally Posted by stg58fal

I'm going to have to see if I can find that Punisher comic. The Punisher is about the only comic that I like enough to actually buy. Who did the artwork and story?

The art was by Richard Corben, who did "Den" for Heavy Metal back in the day. The story is by Garth Ennis, who wrote a lot of stuff for 2000 AD (among other things).

The story is decidedly alt-universe/non-canon regarding Marvel Comics. The Punisher himself even makes an offhand comment about the fallout that indirectly disses some of Marvel's more popular/well-known characters (The Hulk and The X-Men) : "...it'd no more leave survivors than it would give you mutant superpowers."