Monday, November 8, 2010

My time in jail (4)

The next day was work-day. Once every 2 days you have to work in the shop doing menial things like cutting door mats to size or folding boxes together. You have to work for 3 hours and you get paid 5 bucks per week for it.You can spend that money on stuff like phone cards, luxury food, or a pair of slippers for the shower if you didn't bring any (slippers cost 5,95).

After eating breakfast in my cell I would finally meet my fellow inmates of B-wing. I was kinda nervous about leaving my cell when the door opened, but the inmates weren't as bad as I had expected. A and B wing are separated by glass walls and a sentry post in the hallway. When I came out of my cell I got a few surprised stares from the other side of the glass since they thought A-wing was empty, but most inmates were too focused on themselves to notice me.

When I joined them I kept to myself a bit, joining the back of the line, observing what they would do as we were guided across the courtyard towards the workshop. The inmates were mostly young males, with an over-representation of certain populations. Some were very loud and seemed to feel quite at home in prison, some were just absentmindedly going through their daily rhythm and some seemed intimidated and wanting to go home.

I recognized one guy whose mugshot had been in the papers. I was quite surreal to see someone I'd only read about standing just a few feet from me. He was chatting with someone walking beside him and didn't seem like the criminal I imagined him to be.

Continued in next post.

21 comments:

  1. Inmates go through a harsh experience in prison. Thanks for the post.

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  2. keep it up, reading with interest!

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  3. Yeah, must have been quite an experience!

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  4. well,interesting waiting for your next post :)
    (also I wouldn't buy there slippers lol!)

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  5. Prison isn't as bad as everyone thinks after all..unless you are a kkk member in an african jail :V

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  6. so interesting, cant wait for the next post!

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  7. Great post as always, love your stories

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  8. Wow, this stuff is very interesting, can't wait to see how you adjusted to jail.

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  9. Still getting cooler every post.... Thanks for typing all this out for us... I love the read!

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  10. Most criminal don't seem like they are portrayed.

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  11. damn your tales from jail are really interesting!

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  12. Some people don't deserve being there, but sometimes justice is not fair, i guess...

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  13. I would wet mysefl.

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  14. Nice story man, Really intriguing !

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  15. Dude this sounds like a great experience. im really surprised you were able to go through with it. Sounds like something I would enjoy doing since Ive watched way too many locked up episodes.

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