 Why was it advantageous to the prisoners to make noise constantly?
He was a captain of guards in Estates-General Correctional Institution—better known to its inmates as the Jug—and if he hadn't been able to detect the scent of trouble brewing a cell-block away, he would never have survived to reach his captaincy. And, what was more important, why she couldn't adjust herself to it, now that she was in. It said in the Civil Service Guide to Prison Administration : "Detainees will be permitted to speak in their own behalf in disciplinary proceedings." He had managed, by strength of will, not to hear that she had omitted to say "sir" every time she spoke to him, but he couldn't keep it up forever and he certainly couldn't overlook hysteria. Every prison has its Greensleeves—sometimes they are called by different names. When you're in it, you don't much care what it is called; it is a place for punishment. Block O in Estates-General Correctional Institution was the disciplinary block, and because of the green straitjackets its inhabitants wore, it was called the Greensleeves. She was in a detachment of three unfortunates like herself, convoyed by an irritable guard, climbing the steel steps toward Block O from the floor below, when she heard the yelling. "Owoo-o-o," screamed Sauer from one end of the cell block and "Yow-w-w!" shrieked Flock at the other. The two guards turned to see what was coming in as the three new candidates for the Greensleeves slumped to a stop at the head of the stairs. The outside guard said sourly: "A woman, for God's sake. The outside guard pulled the switch that turned on the tanglefoot electronic fields that swamped the floor of the block corridor and of each individual cell. While the fields were on, you could ignore the prisoners—they simply could not move fast enough, against the electronic drag of the field, to do any harm. But it was a rule that, even in Block O, you didn't leave the tangler fields on all the time—only when the cell doors had to be opened or a prisoner's restraining garment removed. It was the first time he had ever seen a prisoner cry in the Greensleeves. Sauer and Flock were what are called prison wolves. They had spent so much time in prisons that it was sometimes hard even for them to remember what they really were, outside. The inside guard finished putting the new prisoners away and turned off the tangler field once more.
 It drew attention away from their escape plan.
 It convinced the guards and others that they were crazy, and to leave them alone.  It intimidated new comers like Bradley.  It drew attention away from their escape plan.  It annoyed the guards, and made them go through their routes faster.