The incident upon which this report is based follows closely on the heels of a few questions I made to Jail staff after $30 in phone cards vanished prior to reaching a prisoner. Two days after my questions regarding disappearance of phone cards, a surprise search was made of the cell in which the intended recipient of the phone cards resided. I have no idea if the incidents are related, but feel it might provide additional perspective to those who deem the account below to be unfathomable.

The prisoner's account is as follows. The guards entered our cell suddenly and began searching. His radio and his Bible sitting upon it were slammed to the floor. He protested "Hey be careful with my stuff." He was quickly told by the guards to pack his things, that he was going to the hole. He said "Pack them yourself", somewhat surprised at this rapid punishment of solitary when he had only said to be careful. They took him to solitary and confined him there for 12 days, re-entering the cell and macing him in the face before they left as he crouched down and protected his face as best he could. He had kicked the door in protest after they left and said he knew they intended to mace him when they re-entered the cell.

Solitary confinement in this particular jail has no T.V., no books, and no phone calls. One simply sits or sleeps for 12 days until the time is up. The only item available upon request is a bible. Thus was his Bible requested.

The Bible took many days to be located. A female guard informed the prisoner that she had taken the Bible from another man in the cell who had put it in his personal property to prevent it being seized. She had been on the way to bring it to him, but it was intercepted by one of the Sergeants who said he would deliver it. The rumor was that the Sergeant had thrown the Bible in the trash.

I approached a staff police officer on visiting day and first confirmed that prisoners in solitary are allowed to have their bibles. The officer told me yes they may. I then asked about this particular missing Bible and whether it had indeed been thrown in the trash. The officer told me that it may have been because it had been out of the prisoner's personal property and was therefore a fire hazard. I asked how it could be that the Bible could be thrown in the trash when Kentucky statute classifies desecration of a religious object as a crime. The officer informed me that prisoner safety trumps both State and Federal Law.

One sometimes wonders how one can be having such conversations in the United States! How in heaven have such things come to pass where a staff officer calmly justifies throwing Bibles in the trash due to a threat to prisoner safety?

I looked the officer in the eye and explained to him that while this might seem reasonable to him, I work in a corporation having in the area 16,000 of the finest, most moral, upstanding pillars of their communities. I said that when I tell them this story, I doubt very much they would see things the same way. I reminded him that throwing Bibles in the trash reflects very badly upon the jail to those on the outside.

The Bible was located the next day upon the desk of the Sergeant who had originally intercepted it, and it was thankfully returned unharmed to its owner. The hostage crisis ended peacefully with no collateral damage to the Word of God.