Everybody has heard of the connection with the full moon and crazy activity. I never put much stock into it on the streets since I was mostly dealing with a limited number of people during the phase. Now working in the jail with as many as 140 or so inmates, my mind might be conducive to changing my belief on the matter.

Sure the moon is strong enough to affect our sea levels, thus the high and low tides. A bright full moon was always an excellent source of light on the night shift. But is the full moon strong enough to change our brain functions?

While working the road I do remember relating a domestic violence, a stabbing and a shooting to having taken place during a full moon. Each of those were single incidents and I never gave them much thought.

Recently during a full moon however I had three of 70 inmates acting weird. One who is prone to seizures was in a holding cell and for 5 hours continued nonstop to howl like a wolf, make sounds like a chicken and other farm animals and some sounds I could not discern.

The inmate’s sister called and inquired how she was doing since she had a seizure at home earlier that day. I explained the animal calls and the sister said, “Oh that is normal after she has had a seizure. She will tire and eventually go to sleep.” Indeed the inmate tired and went into a blissful night of sleep.

The inmate howling got one of our other problem inmates all worked up and he howled as well. Eventually the inmate began kicking and beating on his cell block and had to be restrained to prevent him from hurting himself. The steel doors do not give and an inmate can break bones on them.

The third inmate went off after all the howling and began trashing his cell block, doing enough damage to justify a felony charge of damaging government property. He also had to be restrained.

At the other jail they also had an inmate go off and damage his holding cell. That totals four inmates going bonkers during a full moon. To relate this abnormal activity to the moon is still a bit of a stretch in my mind. After all the clientele here are often here for being off the wall. Now please excuse me while I go shave the hair on my knuckles, they seem to have grown six inches since the moon came up.

First Group 2x2
First Group 2x2
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