One hundred and forty-nine

1. Call it in immediately. Control and your supervisor: count 149 against 150, name of the unaccounted prisoner, yard gate open this afternoon, contractor on site. An unresolved count is a potential escape until proven otherwise; the cost of a needless lock-down is minutes, the cost of a late one is a prisoner over a fence.

2. Lock down and stop movement. Secure the yard gate; nobody in or out. Account for every other prisoner by sight against the roll and photographs - a clerical error remains the likeliest explanation and must be eliminated first.

3. Fix the facts: description, clothing, last confirmed sighting and by whom, who he was with.

4. Search in a set order: unit, yard, roof and voids, bin bays, service corridors, vehicles. Prisoners do not join the search and do not move freely.

5. Preserve his cell as it stands.

6. Notify the perimeter: main gate, visits, tower if staffed, and the contractor's escort.

Why this order: the count and the perimeter alert protect against the worst case, while the recount protects against the most common case. Don't leave the unit to search personally if that leaves 149 prisoners unsupervised - direct the search, don't disappear into it.

He stays until the count is reconciled and Control clears movement. Say it plainly, without disclosing the situation: 'We've got an unresolved count - nobody leaves the site until it's cleared. Shouldn't be long.'

Then manage him as a person, not an obstacle:

• Escort him to a supervised waiting area away from prisoners and sightlines.
• Secure tools, ladders and vehicle keys, and check the van and equipment with him present, recording what was checked and when.
• Do not let him walk back to the yard to collect the last fitting - that is exactly how a gap opens.
• Note his name, employer, arrival and departure times; offer water and an honest estimate of the delay, and tell him who to speak to if he wants to raise it later.

Why: the commercial relationship never overrides security, but courtesy costs nothing and a complaint is easier to answer than an escape. Searching a contractor's vehicle without them present, or implying suspicion, is both poor practice and a fairness problem - do it openly, with them, on the record.

If he pushes back: don't negotiate or escalate in front of him; hold the line and refer it to your supervisor. If the count resolves in two minutes, tell him so and let him go with a record of the check.

Move him out of earshot first. Thank him, ask short factual questions - what exactly was said, when, where, who else heard it - and record it verbatim with his name and the time.

Be honest about the limits: 'I'll keep this as tight as I can, but I can't promise no one will ever know. What I can do is not put your name around the unit.'

Protect him operationally:

• Don't confront the prisoner he argued with, and don't mention the information in the unit.
• Don't record it as fact: 'Prisoner alleged that the missing prisoner said … and had argued over a debt.'
• Pass it to your supervisor and intelligence with a note on source sensitivity.

Why it matters as much as the search: a missing prisoner may be found in twenty minutes, but a source burned today leaves a silent unit tomorrow - and silence is what intimidation, debt and contraband thrive on. Handling him carelessly makes him less safe and makes the next prisoner less likely to speak.

Balance the weight of it: what he reports is intelligence, not evidence, and it does not justify moving or segregating anyone tonight. It changes where you search, not whom you punish.