lemaymiami said: "Lastly, over the years I've found I'm much less up for adventure than I was as a young man... but that's another one of those "ask me how I know" propositions. Getting arrested isn't nearly as much fun as you might think (and to this day, like most former cops, I can still remember the terrible sound of those sally ports clanging down behind me when bringing a prisoner into the jail - and I was only visiting....)."
Hmm, you've got that right. One arrest I made caused me to have to lodge the prisoner at the Tombs, an ancient jail in NYC's lower Manhattan which has since been torn down because a Federal judge ordered it closed for humanitarian reasons.
It had no windows or ventilation, solid glass blocks only, and was filthy and stifling with a particularly unpleasant miasma of unwashed bodies and various bodily fluids that hit you like a baseball bat as soon as you walked in the door. Dante would have given it it's own ring. You surrendered your weapon, then walked your prisoner through the place, jailers turning huge keys in noisily reluctant locks, and heavy jail doors creaking on un-oiled hinges. The doors loudly clanked closed behind you, not the most pleasant sound in the world, locks turned again.
You went through this several times until you got to the arraignment cell, and dropped the prisoner off. Then some prison key controlled elevator took you to the attached courthouse where you exited through the court pens.
I hope to never see (or smell) the inside of a police station, jail, or courthouse ever again.
