I had been in prison a few years, long enough to be transferred to a medium security prison. Two inmates had been at each other most of the day, back and forth, the larger woman taunting the smaller woman. I was housed in a dormitory setting, 40 women housed in one area watched over by one guard. No doors, no cells, those were in the past when I was in a Maximum security prison. The last count of the day was taken and the C.O. stepped out to wait for the sergeant to pick up the count slip. I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye as I began to lie down, a shadow raced silently past me, heading away so fast I was unsure I had really seen it. I stood and looked in that direction and caught the shadow slip into the end of the line of beds. That told me all I needed to know. A second later a woman screamed, a second after that the other woman was shadowed as she leapt up and both shadows began fighting. It was clear to see that the smaller shadow was making stabbing gestures as her hand rushed at the other shadow.

Maybe the entire sequence of events lasted ten seconds. I would be surprised if it did. The smaller shadow suddenly separated from the larger one and a split second later raced past me to the bathroom: Breaking up the home made knife, in this case a pen casing that had been shaped and flushing the evidence. The larger shadow stumbled to the open doorway. There had been so little noise that no one, not even the C.O. standing just outside that door had been alerted...