Like surely they don’t allow prisoners to have razor blades right?
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I worked as social worker type role in minimum, medium, maximum, and solitary confinement (super max) units in Canada.
In minimum they are allowed to have a razor at all times in their housing unit.
In medium and maximum it is a specific inmates job to hand out the razors, mark off on a chart who gets them, and then go collect the razors and mark off who did not give it back on the chart. A guard would then verify and it is the inmate worker’s responsibility if the information does not match what it should. If the inmate worker reports someone did not give back their razor it will be investigated and most likely a search will be done. They are given access to the razor for a few hours.
In solitary, razors are handed out upon request at the start of a shower, and then immediately returned to the guard once the shower is completed. If the inmate has specific security concerns or mental health issues they will be watched during the shower anyway, but some extra precaution will be taken when they have a razor in their possession.
The razors themselves are made of small plastic handle and two very small thin blades
In the country jail in the US that I spent 60 days in they had “shave days” like twice a week. You would have to sign up for a razor and they would send the amount of razors equal to how many people signed up that day.
At night when lights went out the CO would call people 1 by 1 and let them shave in the bathroom to which you would have to be handed and hand back the razor before entering and leaving the bathroom
Can’t speak on prison, but I spent 9 months in county jail in Kansas. I was in a pod that had 24 beds, but usually had sub 20 population most of the time. Single blade orange plastic disposable razors were provided once a week in a plastic tray 30 minutes after breakfast at 6 am. The number of razors were the exact amount of prisoners in the pod. You had an hour to shave. All razors had to be returned to the tray which would be collected by a guard. If a razor was not returned to the tray or was thrown in the trash guards would toss the pod. This never happened as most people ate their breakfast and went to bed immediately and few actually shaved.
i remember one ‘shaving night.’ i was a guard, not an inmate. i gave all my guys a plastic razor, one by one, marking each of their names on a list. after they shaved, they had to return their razors, showing them to me before they put them in a secured waste disposal bin and i marked their name again. the razors were made so that it was impossible to get the blade out without breaking the shaver into at least three pieces. one guy allegedly put his shaver in the bin without showing it to me first, and ugh! (not paying attention for a second). i had to call all the other guards in to ‘shake down’ the whole unit. strip searches, looking inside every mattress, shoe, towel, etc. we found lots of stuff, but no broken razor. the inmate wasn’t a bad dude and i don’t think he did it on purpose, but it was a hell of a night. being a jail guard (aka screw) is not very fun. i wasn’t really cut out to be a corrections officer. i got out after a year, thank god.
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