CHAPTER 4
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF THE ELECTRIC MAN

Six months after Operation Big Scoop, on February 22, 1994, at the beginning of my research at Kent Institution, a prisoner named Gary Allen was fatally stabbed in the courtyard by another prisoner, Hughie MacDonald. The circumstances surrounding the death of Gary Allen provide a window on the forces of life and death in maximum security, which is all but beyond the comprehension of those of us who live our lives outside of prison. Those circumstances, as they were related at Hughie MacDonald's murder trial, describe a reality in which the threat of violence permeates the fabric of existence, shaping prisoners' conceptions of who they are, informing their perceptions of other prisoners, and conditioning their interpretations of the gestures, walk, and talk of those around them.

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