Nathan Teal was Douglasville/Douglas County’s Ernest T. Bass. He was short, thin, and appeared to be in his forties. Nathan was a homeless man. Everywhere he went, he caused turmoil. His family had given up on taking him in. Nathan was not your typical drunk or drug addict. He was mostly just off in the head. Nathan walked everywhere around town. An urban camper, so to speak. Even local churches had given up on helping Nathan. The county courts and county jail were exacerbated by his constant petty crimes, which resulted in short jail incarcerations. He would commit misdemeanors occasionally, which would give him time in City or County jail. Criminal trespass, shoplifting, damage to property type crimes. Nathan was mostly the city police’s problem.

The Laws back then were, if found guilty of a misdemeanor, a person could be sentenced to up to 12 months in the county jail and up to a $1000.00 fine. For felonies, a person could be convicted and sentenced to over 1 year in custody and over a $1000.00 fine. After the sentencing of more than a year, inmates were relegated to spend their time with the Georgia Department of Corrections. Reidsville. OL’ Sparky.

When Nathan would get arrested, he stayed in the county. His family had given up on posting any bail. Nathan had no money for bail. So, he would sit in the county jail until his court date and then plead guilty. He was usually sentenced to time served and released. Nathan had a gimmick where he would get arrested in late fall on a petty crime and sit in jail for a few months through winter.

When I became a jailer in the summer of 1979, Nathan would blow through jail now and then to let us all know he was still around. I requested and was finally given a day shift position as a jailer around the fall of 1980. As a jailer on the day shift, I would have the help of the Sergeant Chief Jailer George G. At that time in the jail, we had 1 jailer on the night shift and 1 jailer with the sergeant during the day. The usual inmate count was around 18 to 26 persons. One morning I arrived at work and the night jailer said Nathan was brought in overnight. No last names were needed. During this incarceration, Nathan kept himself under control for a brief time. In the coming weeks, Nathan began to lose it more and more each day. We could see it coming. Nervousness. Jittery.

In the coming weeks, Nathan refused to take his prescribed medications. His right. Nathan never took “prescribed” medications on the outside. So, he obviously refused his hospital call medicines in jail. One morning on the day shift with George, we heard the inmates in the cells upstairs, yelling and cursing. I went up to see what the hubbub was all about. Nathan had flooded all three toilets in his side of the jail. He flooded the cells by shoving toilet paper rolls into the shitter’s and hitting the flush buttons over and over. The inmates never said a word until their clothes, letters, legal papers, and such were starting to get wet from their storage on the floor under their bunks. When I got to the top of the stairs, the water was just then starting to run down, looking like a cascading waterfall. I reported my findings to the chief jailer downstairs. Yelled. George called for “any” available deputy at the office to watch the jail book-in while we both went upstairs.

When I went upstairs to the cells again, I saw where the inmates had Nathan backed up against the bars, threatening to beat his ass. Nathan had done an excellent job on the flush buttons. He had wedged slivers of cardboard into the flush position with the buttons. George shut off the water pipes behind the walls of the cell area. I rescued Nathan from the other inmates and took him downstairs to the “Hard Cell.”