IZ's 2008 prison blog Entry 4: The First of Many, Many Days

My first of many, many days behind bars...

The first day in jail is always a mystery...Where will I go? Who’s gonna be there? Are we chillin’ or is it drama? These are all good questions...
There are a lot of different types of housing: dorms, cells, barracks~ all of these have pros and cons....The dorms and barracks are all the same, busy and loud...About 60 to 200 people pretty much walking around freely, but there’s no privacy...On the flip side, the cells are quiet, most of the time too quiet...The good thing is you don’t have to worry about getting killed in your sleep, unless of course your celly does it...it happens...

The dorms are filled with mostly petty crimes, drug offenders etc...But that doesn’t mean it’s any less dangerous. When it goes down, it goes down hard, but I’ve done 90%of my time in cells because of violent crime history and gang affiliation...

In Orange County, the cell facility is divided into sectors, each sector has 16 cells, with 2 inmates in each cell...The 16 cells are divided into 4 groups...the 4 groups are let out seperately once a day for "program." "Program" is the dayroom which has phones, a shower, and a TV...The collect calls cost an arm and both legs, the TV is old and shitty, and the showers are worm infested. Take your pick. You’re supposed to get 2 hours a day minimum by law, but you’re lucky to see an hour...Furthermore, the program can get shut off for the stupidest reasons. Fights, breathing the wrong way, or because the Correctional Officer’s (C.O.’s), or "sir", as they like to be called, are busy scratching their asses and they forget to let you out...."STOP SCRATCHING YOUR ASS AND TURN ON THE FUCKING TV" is a popular request in the cell facility...

The system works to keep the violence to a minimum. You can live 5 feet from your worst enemy, looking at him every day, and it wouldn’t matter if he’s not in your group. You will never have physical contact with him. You can look at him and talk shit, but that’s about it. You can have two morons talking shit for months straight in the cells sometimes. If you ask me, it’s a waste of breath, but that’s just me. It’s a strange world...

This time around, however, none of this shit is going to matter, because I’m going to ’the hole’...

-IZ
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