He's playing with it, trying to get our attention. Everyone is a little uneasy, wondering what alliances have been forged, who was bought for Monday and Wednesday's biscuits and gravy, who was owed a pack of smokes and canceled the debt. Finally he begins to talk to different cons in hushed tones. The level of tension in the room becomes tangible, extending to other parts of the jail. Fights break out.
Guards start acting hard-assed.
Mail distribution is delayed. Someone in the holding tank is screaming. You hear footsteps, then the door opens, then they really start screaming and it keeps going and going and there are no more footsteps even though you know the holding tank is right beside the dispatch and the offices of the sheriff, the captain and the warden. The shank is a showpiece. It's seeing more light than it has for as long as it's been in the jail.