As I continue to get to know more people, I see and hear more things in prison. Here is this week’s Keeping It Real While In Prison:
You know you are keeping it real in prison when:
1. You see inmates dumping ice in a mop bucket so their sodas have a place to stay cold.
2. You can’t buy plain sugar at commissary any more because too many inmates made hooch with it. (Basically fruity wine.)
3. You see that inmates made homemade speakers out of cardboard boxes and wire in the trash. (I am just amazed how creative people are)
4. You see that inmates made a homemade remote control for their MP3 player.
5. You must hurry to commissary only to have to wait an hour to get your items and then another hour to leave. (Luckily I only had this happen once since I got a job a Unicor in their finance department which means I have a separate day and time I get to go to commissary. So instead of an hour wait it is 30 minutes. I go Weds at 6:30 AM.)
6. Your bunkmate knows how to organize your small locker in a ergonomically and aesthetically pleasing way which doubles the amount of storage you have. Being locked up so long one develops skills like this to maximize their locker space.
7. You hear of someone passing out because he smoked something. I have no idea where they get stuff like that and nor do I want to know. I make sure to just surround myself with people not into that stuff.
8. You must sleep on top of most of your covers so your bed area looks more upkept in case an officer comes into your room to inspect.
9. You see inmates pilfer through an inmates stuff that got sent to the SHU (Solitary Housing Unit) as punishment.
10. Your bunkmate is so famous for his crimes that he had a Hollywood movie made about him and his family. (True story, look up Towny with Ben Affleck. It was about my bunkmate.)
11. You see bathroom stalls for inmates outside of the units such as near the chow hall and each stall door says “one inmate at a time”. This is an all male prison so you do the math why they must state that. (I try to avoid these restrooms for obvious reasons. At least I hope it is obvious to you guys.)
Hopefully you enjoyed these and got a better picture of what life is like here. I will write out some more later for you guys. Keep praying that I continue doing the Father’s will here on my journey.