Shots?

Again, the natural light woke me up and it was not yet breakfast time. I decided I needed to do some exercises because it had been four days since I did some push-ups and sit-ups. I got myself out of the bunk and proceeded to do 500 push-ups and sit-ups. The lethargy of just sitting around for the past few days added up quickly. I struggled through these exercises because of the inactivity of the past few days. It will be interesting to see how much I have fallen out of shape when I am able to actually do some running again.

Hopefully, I will be here no more than 3 months but as I know there are things beyond my control. Also, as it turns out there have been some inmates who have been here five or six months. By the same token there are inmates who have been here a month and a half and are being sent on to the next step. The noticeable difference between here and the County Jail is here we don’t seem to be allowed out of the cell very often. In fact, yesterday we were let out for dayroom but after four minutes we were told to “get done”. Apparently when there is a fight or if someone tries to escape the Corrections Officers instruct the inmates to get down on their stomachs on the floor. As we were down on the ground I would have sworn I heard shots outside. After two minutes of lying on the floor we were instructed to get back to our cells where we stayed the entire day until dinner.

Today we were again allowed out for dayroom this morning and we were able to stay out without any warnings. However, dayroom only lasted 30 minutes and each inmate must remain seated either watching television or playing games at the table. I opted to watch television because I am not interested in the games such as cards, dominoes, checkers or chess. There is no movement of any kind only until the dayroom is over. We are not allowed to take showers at this time either. Showers are controlled by the Officers at a later time in the day and each tier alternates days for showers. Yes, this means I do not get to take a shower every day only every other day. Later on in the afternoon our tier had their turn to take showers. There are two sets of showers one on the top level and one on the bottom level. Yes, it is a group shower and each shower has three shower heads. The Correction Officer lets three cells out at a time and it is very controlled. It was nice to take a shower because the last shower I took was on Thursday and I didn’t smell very good. There are no combs and there are no razors for shaving. I am hoping I can get a comb through the “store” when I get my number and I am done with diagnostics. Razors are controlled by the Officers and today the Officer did not have any. The procedure is to present your identification card (which I am waiting to receive) to the Officer in exchange for the razor. The inmate must bring the razor back and they will receive their identification card back, but today there weren’t any razors available. Another item I noticed is the security is much better here because at every meal and during dayroom there is an Officer present in the room in addition to one in the watch tower. I do feel safer here than in the County Jail but I still cannot let my guard down for one minute because this is still prison.

Dinner came and it was much better that yesterday. Dinner is served much later and because there is no clock I am assuming it is served around 6:30pm which makes the night much shorter. I was able to borrow another book; “Side by Side” by John Ramsey Miller from another inmate. Also, there is a library program and once I get my identification card I will be able to borrow books from the library. Yes, there is still a great deal of down time but hopefully I can fill up this down time with some positive substance.