I served as a prison chaplain in Stillwater, MN during my internship year. One day a Native American prisoner stopped by my office wanting to talk. It was a life and death conversation.

He told me that one of his neighbors on the cellblock had made a shank that he was planning to use to kill another prisoner. A shank is a makeshift knife made from whatever a prisoner is able to smuggle into his cell.

He told me about the shank because he was hoping to prevent a murder. The intended victim was a friend of his as was the one who planned to murder him. The informant had been recruited to be a lookout for the would be murderer.

Actually the would be murderer was already a murderer. He was serving a number of consecutive life sentences for previous murders. He had nothing to lose. There is no death penalty in Minnesota, and he was never going to get out of prison because of crimes he had already committed. He was a dangerous person. Informing someone of his plan was a dangerous thing to do. There is no doubt that the murderer would seek vengeance against anyone who informed on him.

The informant was torn about what to do. There is a convict code that most prisoners attempt to follow. One of the commandments in the code is thou shall not rat. An informal rule among prisoners is that you do not inform on a fellow prisoner. My informant had lived by the convict code for years, yet here he was in my office informing me of another prisoner's plan.

After the informant left my office I made a trip over to talk to the Sargent in charge of prison security. The informant had told me that the shank was inside a stocking folded up under the bed in the murderer's cell. I passed that information on to the Sargent along with the prisoner's name and cell number.

Guards were sent to search the cell. The Sargent didn't tell the guards what they were looking for. He didn't tell them where the weapon could be found. Each day at the prison, guards are assigned to search some cells. They are not supposed to know if the search is a random search, or if it is based on inside information. The Sargent doesn't tell them that he has inside information unless he has to.

When the guards searched the cell they didn't find the shank. Then the Sargent had to tell them about the shank and the stocking folded up under the bed. The guards went back and found the weapon. It consisted of a tooth brush handle with a strip of razor sharp metal attached. I got to see it when everything was said and done, and it looked lethal.

No charges were filed against the murderer. Whenever prisoner's cells are searched twice in one day, the prisoners can claim that whatever contraband materials are found in the second search were planted during the first search. The prison doesn't even try to prosecute cases like this any more. They have lost too many of them and they see them as a waste of time.

When the cell was searched twice in the same day, the murderer knew that he had been informed on. He correctly guessed who did it. The informant was placed in protective custody.

It's a bad deal to be in protective custody. Your activities are quite limited in prison, but they are much more limited if you are in protective custody. For your own protection, many areas of the prison are off limits to you. It is a lot like being in solitary confinement. You don't get out to the prison yard. You can't participate in classes with the other inmates. You can't have a job in one of the industries. You can't even go to the chow hall and eat your meals with everyone else. Meals are brought to you. You spend the vast majority of your time inside your own cell.

The informant's biceps were at least twice as big around as my own, but he feared for his life after this incident. The intended victim was offered protective custody, but refused it. Things were unchanged for the would be murderer.

I had met the informant a few months earlier. His mother had a stroke, and I let him use the phone in my office to call her in the hospital.

One of the comments that he made to me when he was telling me about the shank and the plan was, "I don't know if I'm getting a conscience or what." Clearly if was very difficult for him to inform, but he didn't want his friend to end up dead.

Obviously I think he did the right thing. The opinion of the Security Sargent was that he had saved the intended victim's life. For his troubles he was going to have to spend the remaining months of his sentence in protective custody.

He had a few months left to serve on a five-year assault sentence. I think that he was developing a conscience. Maybe God was beginning to work on his heart.

I haven't seen him since I left the prison about ten years ago. I don't know what has become of him and perhaps I never will. As I think of him now I hope things are working out for him.

I pray that God will help him to choose the good in all areas of his life. I pray that his temper is in check and I pray he uses his considerable strength for good. I hope that his conscience continues to develop.

I pray that whenever an evil plot is hatched in this world that God will intervene. I pray that God will use perhaps even a reluctant person and have him do the right thing at the right time.

May God watch over you and your and shower your life with blessings.

Sincerely,

Pastor Birk