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Good vs Bad C.O.s

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The people employed to monitor us and who dictate most of our day activities are called correctional officers (C.O.s). There are normally three in every building. One in the tower and two on the floor. A good C.O will pretty much leave you alone. He won’t give you a hard time over petty things. He will make sure that you get what you are entitled to—like a shower and yard/dayroom free time. If a good C.O. searches your cell, he will respect your stuff by not throwing stuff on the floor or disorganizing everything. Also he won’t confiscate petty things like lines for hanging laundry out to dry. Basically, they will be respectful of the position we are in. We’re already separated from society so other than for security and safety risks, why should they make our lives any harder? For those C.O.s that do make our lives harder, it is seriously hindering people’s chances of rehabilitation. How can you feel confident and optimistic about going back out into society and contributing to civil
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I’m Sick OF Covid-19

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So we recently had an outbreak of Covid-19. By the way, nobody went to the hospital or even had more than a sore throat and a runny nose. It used to be if someone tested positive, he and his celly went into quarantine regardless of his test status, but they changed that for awhile, which was a good thing. Eventually a lot of people caught it and they moved all the positive cases out of the building. Some of them were even sent to the hole (administrative segregation), which has no TV, or phones, and they only let them bring food. Everyone who tested negative got put on quarantine due to potential contact despite our negative results. Then more positives showed up, and Sacramento told the prison to pack the whole building up (over a 100 people and their belongings) and take us to the dining hall so they could sanitize the whole building. They soon realized that was not going to work, so they had us put our stuff outside our cells and wait until about until about 7pm… a lot of people’s m
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From the Inside Out

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The relationships an inmate has with people outside of prison or jail makes a big difference on his or her state of mind and outlook on life. There are those who never had anyone to begin with, which is very sad to think about. I can only imagine the hopelessness they must feel. Without anything to lose you’re more likely to make decisions that lead to even worse predicaments. Then there are those who have burned all their bridges. Some gangs intentionally make you prove that they are more important than your family. Other people are having a hard time with drugs. I know a few people who are trying after many years to fix their relationships, but a lot the times their family or friends feel like they’ve given them too many second chances. Last, but not least, are those who never lost their relationships (or they got them back over time). I believe having friends and family to talk to prevents total institutionalization, which can hinder entry back into civilization. You’re more lik
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A Typical Day in the Pen

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This is just a general idea of what a day of mine might look like--they are by no means constant though. 6:00am – Wake up, get dressed, and make bed. 6:30 – Go to chow and eat SOS or something close. 7:00 – Brush teeth, stretch, and prepare for the day. 8:30 – Go to dayroom, work out, and phone call or shower. 11:00 – Back into cell to eat lunch. 12:30pm – Go to substance abuse/self-help class. 2:30 – Come back and work on college material. 4:30 – Count time! 5:00 – Watch world news. 5:30 – Go to dinner and eat slop or close to it. 6:00 – Come back, brush teeth, and see what’s on TV. 7:00 – Unroll mattress and make bed. 9:00 – Go to sleep unless something really good is on TV until 10:00 10:00 – Bedtime. Time management can be a challenge because you are always at the will of the institution. Sometimes they will pull everyone out of the building, out of nowhere, for a search. Another example is how I have to plan my exercise around when I can get a shower.
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It Could Be Worse

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Life in prison is never a walk in the park, but in the USA no one is to blame but ourselves. This is certainly not the case in third-world countries as well as a few others. If I had to speculate, I’d say that the quality of living in a country is directly related to the quality of living in its prisons. Most of them do not provide opportunities to better oneself. The gangs are given freedom to control what goes on inside and inmates are mistreated by staff. They are notoriously unsanitary, the food is sparse, and the justice system that populates those prisons are usually as corrupt as can be. All in all, I’m very happy I’m not doing time in a different country, even though it can be hard to have our human rights recognized, at least we have a fighting chance here. I would like to say thank you to all of the inmates and advocates who fought to have our rights recognized in the previous years. We are already separated from society—I don’t believe that there is any reason why someone
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My Covid Experience

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This week I’m sharing an “assignment” we were given not long ago regarding our feelings/opinion etc. about covid: When I first heard of covid I was in Calipatria State Prison, which is a level 4, so there isn’t a lot of freedom. I was lucky enough to drop points (your points determine what level you go to by how good or bad you are) and be one of the last buses to transport prisoners before covid restrictions came into effect. I found my self on a pretty decent level 3 that was fairly close to where I used to live (and where my family still lives). I was also very lucky that the prison yard I was on barely had a handful of cases throughout the pandemic, so not only did I not get covid, but we never went into full quarantine lockdown like a lot of other prisons did. I was recently able to get vaccinated, so I’m glad for that. It makes me feel much safer. One thing I will always remember is watching covid seep into television—at first it was all over the news, then slowly but surely
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Stay In Touch

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Contact with friends and loved ones is very important to inmates. The impact of being locked in a cell all day, or being around convicts all day, can really have an effect on your emotions and attitude. The ability to make phone calls is great, and it makes a huge difference in our day-to-day lives, but they usually only last 15 minutes, which isn’t really enough time to hold a meaningful conversation. Since the pandemic, CDCR has implemented video visits that allow us an hour to talk with an approved visitor face-to-face. These video visits allow for lots of people, who wouldn’t normally be able to get a visit, to see the people they care about. If our loved ones are ill or live very far away, it could be very difficult to make the journey. There are laws that state they can’t provide video visits instead of contact ones unless there is a pandemic or some other reason, so we usually don’t have that option available to us. Some people are working to keep them going in a limited capac
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