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The Lucifer Effect
ingly at each other for a job well done. Now no one can go in to or out of those two
cells until the guards have figured out how to fix that defective lock, which 5 704
probably broke.
"No cigarettes for you, 5704, as long as the cell door is blockaded. You're
going to be in solitary when you get out."
Rich-1037 yells out threateningly from Cell 2, "I have a weapon!"
Arnett challenges him: "You don't have a weapon. We can get that cell open
anytime we want."
Someone calls out, "He has a needle!"
"That's not a very good thing for him to have. We will have to confiscate it
and duly punish him." Landry pounds his club hard on the doors of all the cells
to remind them of who is in charge. Arnett adds his slam on the bars of Cell 2, al-
most smashing the hands of one of the prisoners, who pulls back just in time.
Then, as in the rebellion in the morning of Day 2, John Landry begins to spray the
fire extinguisher with its skin-chilling carbon dioxide exhaust into Cell 2. Landry
and Markus push their clubs into the cell bars to keep the inmates away from the
barred opening, but a prisoner in Cell 2 steals one of their clubs away. They all
start mocking the guards. New bedlam is about to break out now that the prison-
ers have a weapon.
Arnett maintains his cool demeanor, and, after some discussion, the guards
arrange to take a lock from a vacant office and install it on Cell 1. "Actually, men,
it's a one-way street in the last analysis, it's just a matter of how long it takes," he
tells them patiently.
Eventually the guards triumph again; forcing their way into both cells and
hauling big bad boy 5704 back into solitary. This time they are taking no
chances. They tie him up hands and feet, using their cord taken off the cell doors,
before dumping him into the Hole.
This uprising forfeits the privilege of lunch for all the prisoners. Too bad for
416, the new guy. He has had only a cup of coffee and a cookie for breakfast. He
is hungry and has done nothing but look on in amazement as these bizarre events
unfold around him. Would be nice to eat something warm, he thinks. Instead of
lunch, the prisoners are all lined up against the wall. Paul-5704 is hauled out of
solitary but remains bound up and helpless lying on the floor of the Yard. He is on
display as a lesson against further thoughts of rebellion.
Guard Markus orders everyone to sing while doing jumping jacks, to the tune
of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
"Since you guys are in such good voice, we're going to sing Amazing Grace,' "
Arnett tells them. "We're just going to do one verse, I'm not going to strain God's
credulity." As the rest of the prisoners assume the position on the floor for push-
ups, 416 is singled out for his first public notice: "Here you go. You better memo-
rize this, 416. Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound, to save a wretch like me, I
once was blind, but now I see, in the first hour since God, I'm free.' "
Arnett resists the correction about "in the first hour since God" that Paul-
Wednesday Is Spiraling Out of Control
113
5704 offers him from the floor. "That's the way you're going to do it. That line
might not be exactly it, but that's the way you're going to do it." Then he inex-
plicably changes the last line to "since the first hour I've seen God, I'm free."
Arnett, who obviously knows he is a good whistler, then whistles 'Amazing
Grace" once through, and whistles it all again in perfect tune. Prisoners applaud
him in a nice, spontaneous gesture of appreciation for his talent, despite despising
him for his attitude and assorted cruelty against them. As Guards Landry and
Markus lounge back on the table, the prisoners sing the song, but clearly they are
out of key and out of unison. Arnett is upset: "Did we scrape these people up from
the Sixth Street ghetto in San Francisco, or something? Let's hear it again." Trou-
blemaker 5704 makes another attempt to correct the inaccurate wording, but
Arnett uses the opportunity to make his point loud and clear: "Of course there is
a discrepancy here; you're to do the prison version of Amazing Grace.' It does not
matter if it's wrong, because the guards are always right. 416, you stand up,
everybody else in the push-up position. 416, while they do push-ups, you sing
Amazing Grace,' as I have dictated it."
Only a few hours after being imprisoned, 416 is moved to center stage by Ar-
nett, who isolates him from the other prisoners and forces him to perform a mind-
less task. The video captures this saddest of moments as the scrawny new
prisoner sings in a high-pitched voice this song of spiritual freedom. His slackened
shoulders and downward glance make evident his extreme discomfort, which
worsens when he is corrected and has to repeat the song while the others are
forced to keep pushing up and down and up and . . . the irony of being ordered to
sing a song of freedom in this oppressive atmosphere where his song provides the
cadence for mindless push-ups is not lost on 416. He vows not to be crushed by
Arnett or any other guard.
It is not clear why Arnett has singled him out this way. Maybe it's just a tac-
tic to get him into the pressure cooker faster. Alternatively, maybe there is some-
thing about 416's shabby and scrawny appearance that is offensive to a guard
who tends to be meticulous and always well turned out.
"Now that you are in a singing mood, 416 will sing 'Row, Row, Row Your
Boat' while everyone is on their back with legs up in the air. I want it loud enough
so that 5704's loved one, Richard Nixon, can hear it, wherever the fuck he is. Legs
up. Up! Up! Let's hear it a few more times, especially emphasizing that last line,
'Life is but a dream."
Prisoner Hubbie-7258, still hanging on to the ironic moment, asks if they
can sing "Prison life is but a dream." The prisoners are literally screaming the
song at this point, their chests heaving with each word. Life here is ever stranger.
Return of the TV Cameraman
Sometime this afternoon we had a visit from the TV cameraman from local San
Francisco station KRON. He was sent down to do a brief follow-up on his Sunday
shoot, which had sparked some interest at the station. I restricted him to shooting
114
The Lucifer Effect
from behind our observation window and to talking only with the warden and me
about the progress of the study. I did not want to have external interference upset-
ting the dynamic that was emerging between the prisoners and the guards. I
wasn't able to see the TV coverage he made that night, because we were all en-
meshed in too many more urgent matters that took our full attention—and then
some.
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