Reddit, on a good day, is the perfect place for those with stories too graphic to share in person to gather and trade often troubling memories. This is what the internet should be all about: a true community. In a thread first spotted by BroBible Wednesday, for example, current and former prison guards (and, in some cases, their families) opened up about the "most disturbing" things they've seen on the job.
A broken shank, as revealed by Reddit user eaterofdog, once inspired two prisoners to instead use a pen in an attempt to kill another inmate:
"From when my dad was a guard: Two prisoners trying to kill a third prisoner. The shank broke, so the put a pen in his ear and stomped on it. It came out his mouth and he lived."
BritDontCare previously "worked closely with all the prisons in the state," noting one inmate who made a habit of throwing various bodily fluids at guards and fellow inmates:
"I work closely with all the prisons in the state. There's one notorious inmate who likes to jerk off and throw his semen in everyone's face...fellow inmates, guards, it doesn't matter. He's not strict to semen, sometimes piss and shit, just whatever he can get his hands on."
For Reddit user Cleaborg, a list—including harrowing accounts of stabbings and other acts of violence—was more appropriate to properly detail the difficulties of the job:
"Oh boy here we go
Cleaborg later edited the post, tossing in a few more:
EDIT Just adding a couple extra seeing as you guys seem to be enjoying this
In a rare moment of levity, Xofthecourts recalled a story initially relayed to them by their father about an "Easter surprise."
"My dad used to work as a CO and he would never tell me any stories about his time there until one day of constant badgering he told me the tale of the Easter surprise.
The full thread can be peeped here. Also worth noting? A Brennan Center for Justice study published in December called for an almost 40 percent reduction in America's prison population, which currently stands about 2.2 million people.
