The Inside Scoop

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...

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....

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 ...

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 ...

Our so called “Golden State” has an unacknowledged dark side. It may not be a big deal to everyone, but at least half the state knows somebody who has been to jail or prison. California has a very complex and extensive sentencing procedure. It was explained to me, by a judge, that people study for years specifically to calculate sentences and they have to keep studying just to keep up with all the changing laws. These “new laws” contradict and counteract old laws to no end, and therein lies the problem. They rarely ever get rid of an old law, no matter how bad it is. They just revise and refine, so they never have to give up more than they want. Even with the federal government breathing down their necks. We’ve all heard that processed food isn’t good for us, so why would refined laws be good for the state? For the individuals being sentenced, it’s very frustrating not being able to double-check or hold them accountable. Sometimes your public defender or lawyer will tell you one th...

Ever since this pandemic started, all the prisons in the world went to some sort of modified program… among those is my prison (Sierra Conservation Center). A modified program consists of below normal amounts of yard, dayroom, and/or jobs, and self-help groups. We understand that it’s because of Covid-19 and we’ve gotten kinda used to it, but for the past couple months my prison has been going through some sort of bureaucratic bull-crap that doesn’t have anything to do with inmates—but affects inmates. Randomly, throughout the week, multiple correctional officers won’t show up to work and we won’t get yard, or any program at all, and sometimes this happens multiple days in a row. Now, I’m not exactly sure why this is, but I’ve heard a couple of rumors. One is that the union cut a deal so they can take away vacation days whenever they want, just because they feel sick. The other is that nobody wants to work with the new sergeant that took over second-watch. Regardless of all of this,...

So, imagine what your kid eats at meals and I mean like a 7 or 8 year-old. If you don’t have kids, just imagine a Happy Meal from McDonalds. That’s about how much food we get—just of lower quality. According to rumor, people used to eat pretty good in prison, but within the past ten years they have been slowly diminishing the size and quality of our meals. They say it’s for health reasons, but how is a 200 lb. young man with a high metabolism supposed to keep himself in shape when he barely gets 3000 calories a day? That might seem like enough to people who want to sit on their butts all day, but that’s not a healthy lifestyle. How can a 3000 calorie diet promote good health? On top of all that, they’ve taken sugar out which doesn’t prevent diabetes. People need to learn self-control—otherwise, too bad! The replacement for the sugar is much worse than the real stuff. I’ve personally stopped using sugar substitutes because people say they can cause cancer. I’ve had bowel issues, cog...