I'VE BEEN SERVED
My Daily Journal in Federal PrisonArchive for criminal justice
Day 238 – Part I
I thought I had died and gone to a less marginal prison. The kind that has a gourmet bakery.
You know those evil muffins they sell at Starbucks that are packed to the hilt with cream cheese? The ones with muffin tops the size of large UFOs? Well, they served those for breakfast this morning and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I don’t know where they came from and I don’t care. I just hope they keep on getting ’em. A moist, freshly baked pumpkin spice cake surrounded by a plump, cream cheese pillow. Nom, nom, nom.
*
Is it just me, or is it weird how there’s no holiday songs about prison?
*
HOW TO EAT A BANANA IN PRISON
1. Avoid unnecessary eye contact.
2. Hold fruit below chest.
3. Peel quickly and without innuendo.
4. Break off an inch of peeled fruit with thumb and forefinger of opposing hand.
5. Insert piece and chew with mouth closed.
Repeat.
*
WHY YOU HAVEN’T HEARD FROM ME IN SO LONG
I think I’ve become institutionalized…no, not in the ass-raping, tattoo-getting, gang-affiliating way…but in such a way as the things that once seemed so odd and foreign to me here no longer seem that strange.
The fleeting joke of “Hey Mom! Look at me! I’m in prison!” soon became the sharp reality of “Oh shit…I’m in PRISON.” Not that my experience has gotten any worse since I arrived here last May…au contraire. In fact, it’s gotten somewhat comfortable (not a good thing, necessarily), yet I’m feeling less like a tourist on some “extreme” vacation than I do an actor playing a bit part. And since becoming ingrained in the prison lifestyle, it’s difficult for me to assume a me vs. them (blogger vs. inmates) mentality…because, for better or for worse, it has become more of an us vs. them (inmates vs. prison) reality.
Which is why I am forcing myself to “come up for air” again and to view this experience as new and fresh…and to remind myself that it is definitely not normal to be here. So, expect much more frequent updates in the New Year. Unless the Mayans‘ prophesies ring true…
Oh yeah, and I owe you some answers to your thoughtful questions from a few months back. Coming soon…and part II of this update later this week.
*
PRISON LINGO
Instead of “thank you,” say “good lookin’,” which is shorthand for “thanks for looking out for me” or “good looking out on my behalf.” (At first I was flattered by all the compliments.)
Example of proper usage:
“Hey brother, drop that stinger. The cop is making his rounds and will be coming through here in a minute.”
“Good lookin’.”
*
ANOTHER REASON FOR MY SILENCE
I feel totally ridiculous for saying this, but…I’ve been busy. I know, that may be hard to believe and I’ll be the first to admit that many of you are leading much harder lives making a living and feeding your families. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that I’ve been KEEPING myself busy. Big difference.
It’s very easy to imagine prison as a bunch of lazy degenerates lying around all day doing nothing — and while there certainly ARE elements of that behavior — prison is what you make of it. If you have the motivation and the spirit, there’s absolutely no reason why you can’t come out of here a better person than when you first came in.
So, how exactly have I been so busy? Here’s a peek at my schedule. Monday through Friday, I get up around 5:45 a.m. and go to breakfast. At 6:30 a.m. I have a 30-minute Power Yoga class (more on that soon). My job in the data processing unit of Unicor (Federal Prison Industries) begins at 7:30 a.m. and runs through 3:30 p.m. After work, I go to Chow, and then I work out for another hour or two with my “crew.” By the time I get back to my Unit, it is usually around 7:30 p.m., at which time I take a shower, do laundry, check my e-mail, and call my wife. Before bed, I write letters and catch up CNN. I then read until I can’t keep my eyes open any longer. Repeat.
On the weekends, I read, exercise, work on my writing projects, catch up on magazines/newspapers in the Leisure Library, and watch the institution movie (if it appeals to me). I don’t watch much t.v., or at least not anything regular. Wednesdays used to be my t.v. night when I would watch X-Factor and American Horror Story, but both shows have recently wrapped up. Every now and again, on Saturday nights, I might catch “48 Hours Mystery” on CBS.
Oh yeah, and I’ve also got involved with Hobby Craft — ceramics, oil painting and calligraphy (more on all of that soon).
*
Overheard in the TV room: “Is that ‘GH’ or ‘One Life to Live’?”
*
I grew a moustache-soul patch combo this past November. My hispter bros from my hometown were diggin’ it…some other guys told me to shave it immediately…and a few more said that i looked, um, “ethnic.”
Proof positive — I was at the prison pharmacy filling out a prescription form and a nurse asked if I could translate for another inmate. She had assumed I was hispanic. (I guess this is only funny if you know who I am.)
*
An inmate from my Unit was recently selected, at random, for a breathalyzer test. He registered a false positive because he just ate a honeybun. It contains a high amount of yeast. Just tell that to the next officer that pulls you over.
*
My prison job isn’t that much different than most jobs in the real world. We typically spend the morning discussing what we’re having for lunch. Then we find ways to work hard at hardly working — paper shuffling, aimless walking, impromptu meetings, etc. We return from lunch at the last possible minute. We watch the clock as if our lives depend upon it. We invent scenarios that would allow us to leave work early. And many of these guys would rather sit in a stinky bathroom stall on an extended poop break than sit at their desk feigning productivity.
Oh, and the gossip…anything from which prison employees are having affairs with whom, to which inmate was caught giving another a BJ in the closet. We have an enormous dry-erase board that details recent changes and updates on standards for performing our jobs. At the very top of this board, in red, someone wrote — “If this were GOSSIP, you would read it!” The same could probably be said for all of the mass e-mails you get at YOUR job, with subject headings like “Corporate Communication.” Does anybody ever really read those? It’s so much easier to ask the Office Manager what’s what and then watch her get angry at you for not reading the relevant e-mail.
Although, unlike the cutthroat nature of many jobs in corporate America, very rarely would any inmate throw another inmate “under the bus.” Because that would be snitching. And in Prison 101 you learn that a snitch is the greatest severity offense next to being a chomo. This rule is particularly amusing in my job here at the Federal Prison Industries, considering what it is we do exactly…ensuring that inventors’ patents adhere to the standards of the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Moreover, we have several layers of Quality Assurance whereby the more experienced inmates check and verify the work of the less experienced, before the patents can even leave our factory.
The QAs are held to a quota of writing a certain number of error sheets — that is, writing up inmates who incorrectly process a patent. But, of course, a lot of guys refuse to write error sheets because they don’t want to “snitch.” Can you imagine if the same logic applied in an automobile plant? “Jimmy forgot to add the brake pads again. Oh well, I wouldn’t want him to get fired….let’s just pass this one through.”
Oh yeah…and I bet YOUR computer monitor doesn’t just start randomly smoking like a chimney. True story.
*
PRISON LINGO
“Jack my wreck”, i.e., fuck up my routine, mess with me, play around, make things difficult for me, etc. Origin = carjack my automobile.
Example of proper usage:
“Man, that nigga coming over here to do pull-ups in in this shower stall when he KNOWS it’s my favorite joint. Why he always tryin’ to jack my wreck??”
*
Prison Pet Peeve: Why do all of the inmates here insist on typing their e-mails in ALL CAPS…and then never to turn it off for the next guy??
*
Happy New Year. It was nice not waking up with a hangover this year…although, I did wakeup in prison.
Day 145
OH-NO-HE-DIDN’T. (Oh, yes he did.)
Earlier this week, our Counselor had posted a notice in his office window. A small group had gathered around it, grumbling under their breath. As I peered over someone’s shoulder to get a better view, I couldn’t believe what I was reading.
To paraphrase: “effective immediately, you will no longer be able to reserve a seat in the large, multi-purpose TV room. All seating is first come, first serve. If I find any newspapers, books, towels, water bottles, magazines, radios, headphones, etc. on a chair or on the tables, they will be confiscated. If you leave the room, even for a moment, you must take your belongings with you.”
Sometimes I surprise myself at how far I have come in the nearly six months that I have been here, how well integrated and accepted I have been by the other inmates, and how quickly my attitudes have changed regarding certain behaviors. Shortly after my arrival on the compound, I took real offense to guys “owning” seats in the TV room. But just weeks thereafter, I came around to the philosophy that there are so few things that an inmate can control while in prison…therefore, why not allow those with seniority the privilege to sit where they choose, and to even claim a spot? I’ve even taken this one step further by leveraging this system to my own benefit and I often “hold” a seat for myself on nights when there is a movie that I’d like to watch. In fact, there are even a few spots in the TV room that would loosely be considered as “mine” by me and the other inmates…but I still would never go so far as to kick a new guy out of my seat if I found him sitting there. Nor would I “gently” inform him of the ownership of said chair, yet still allow him to sit there for the time being. After all, I hate it when dudes play the “that’s-my-seat-but-you-can-sit-there-for-now” card…then why say anything to begin with??
What’s astonishing to me is that some guy (presumably someone fresh off of the bus) snitched on his fellow man and brought this behavior to the counselor’s attention. That’s an unforgivable offense. And whomever said something to the Counselor better hope that they remain anonymous. I can guarantee that it was one of the chomos, who have been all but banned from that room anyway.
The memo was posted on Monday of this past week. Guess what has changed since then? Absolutely nothing. Not even temporarily on the afternoon that it was posted. It’s funny, too, because A) the Counselor NEVER goes into that TV room, so there’s no chance that he would have ever noticed this behavior on his own to begin with without someone bringing it to his attention, nor would he ever (moving forward) have the opportunity to enforce this rule and confiscate any items; B) there’s no way that an actual cop would do anything about this because they understand the system that inmates have in place, and C) this was clearly a “Unit” memo, and not a new prison policy, so there was really no way to properly enforce this because the rule doesn’t officially exist.
And besides…even if this new rule WAS enforced, what inmate would be brave enough to dip his toe in the water and actually sit in a seat that was previously owned by another inmate without revealing himself to be the snitch?
Perhaps the Counselor realized all of this himself — or maybe he felt that he did his “part” by addressing the inmate’s concern and posting the note — because the memo was taken down today, not even a full week after it was posted.
Carry on my wayward sons.
*
Institution Movie: “The Grace Card”
*
Lunch: Sloppy Joe
Dinner: Breaded Chicken Patty Sandwich
I'VE BEEN SERVED 