My time in jail (3)

I spent the rest of the first night in my cell listening to the other inmates. I thought about watching TV for a bit, but figured I might as well have been doing that at home, that's not what I'm here for. The layout of the prison is as follows: there is a central courtyard with a small soccer field and basketball field with a corridor (known as 'cold hall' since there is no heating there) running down the middle surrounded by four buildings. One general purpose building (with a gym, the dentist, the doctor, a small church/prayer room, general visitation room, private rooms for consultation with lawyers, counselor rooms and so on), and three cell blocks. Each of the three buildings has two wings (making 6 wings in total).

I was in the empty A wing, sharing the building with B wing. A and B are reserved for small time crooks. People who can't pay their fines, repeat offenders at things like shoplifting or joyriding, small time pyromaniacs, stuff like that. The next building houses C and D wing. Here you'll find the mentally unstable, people who are too violent to receive treatment for their mental issues. Pedophiles are also put here. These two wings are kept strictly separate from E and F wing. This is where the murderers and rapists are put. The rules of separation are so strict that a C or D-inmate cannot enter the general purpose building for medical attention if E or F inmates are in the gym for instance, even if it's urgent.

Anyway, I spent most nights listening to B-inmates talk to each other through the windows or hearing C and D-inmates scream incoherent nonsense. The screaming of the insane was quite scary to be honest. Sometimes you'd hear someone repeating stuff they see on TV as loud as they can, other times you'd hear someone relive some terrible trauma (one guy from Kosovo kept screaming like he was back on the battlefield). Most of the time however it was unintelligible, people would be howling at the full moon or be making deep, primal grunts.

Continued in my next post.