Being in jail can be an eye-opening experience. During my term of incarceration, I had seen all expressions on men's and women's faces, from extreme hardness to literal fear & trembling.
If you have never been to jail, let me describe in detail what it is like for me.
The whole ordeal is very humiliating!My arresting officer had me turn around with my hands behind my back...one wrist, click; the other wrist, click. My officer was mean spirited & somewhat abusive twisting the handcuffs before closing the last cuff thus creating extreme pain.
I asked him to loosen or just untwist the cuff causing the circulation in my hands to be restricted.
His reply was that he could no nothing about it until we got into the jail. The pressure was so intense that I had bruises & deep impressions on my wrists lasting for more than a week!
When we arrived at the local county jail, the police car was securely swallowed up behind 15 feet walls of reinforced concrete & razor tipped coiled fencing. Everywhere I looked there were cameras; on every corner, every wall, every room, every cell.
Once I was inside, my handcuffs were taken off. The feeling of absolute control had immediately left me as I was photographed, finger printed & processed into the "system". Although there are certain retained rights as an individual, the right to privacy is quickly stripped away as I was ordered to disrobe, shower, and dress (into the jail jumpsuit / uniform) along with a room full of total strangers.
It was very difficult to cope with the rude & harsh realization of being incarcerated when I was so desperate to maintain my sense of individuality & human dignity.
As I entered the holding cell, I was overcome by the feeling of helplessness. I felt like a sub-species of the human race...more like a cow that was corralled into a pen before being shipped to the slaughter house. (I was reminded of my experience running a cattle drive for a North Texas cattle rancher years ago. The cattle had to be handled in a certain way in order to maintain "mass control." As resistance to our control was encountered, direct force had to be administered to get the results we wanted from the herd).
I sensed a haughty attitude from the deputies by the manner in which they looked at, spoke to, and treated me and the other inmates. "Inmates"...that word took on another meaning to me. Instead of a lifelong image of "them", "inmates" became personal; my new name..."Inmate Patterson".
The holding cell was overcrowded. Normally accommodating a smaller group of men, I shared a 24 x 18 ft. cinderblock cell with 27 other inmates. For three days (72 hrs.), I slept on the cold concrete floor huddled under a bench against the wall so I would not be stepped on.
Once I was assigned to a cell block, aka, a pod, but the conditions were no different.
I was placed in a 72 man bunk dorm with an open bay floor plan. For all practical purposes, I was no better off being in a larger room (approx. 60 x 180 ft.); with open latrines (no privacy wall separating toilets); and no privacy at all.
Everyone smelt, saw, and heard the same everything I did.
At times, the odors from our bodies were unbearable!
When someone yelled, talked out loud, or decided to start ranting & raving from a drug/alcohol induced fit, all of the inmates heard & experienced it totally. The only way to escape the constant drama was to hope I would I conk out from exhaustion and sleep through it!
There was a time I had prayed to become deaf for just five minutes. That's how bad the constant roar of noise became. Just five minutes....total silence.
Sleeping hours in an open bay jail are short & sporadic. I was at the mercy of the rest of the inmates in the dorm when it came to getting any reasonable, restful sleep.
Often times, I was woken to the numbing silence after everyone had fallen asleep. Imagine being woken by silence!
The men's temperaments had ranged from extreme violence with racial tensions and fights, to individuals bullying weaker inmates, to inmates going through drug & alcohol detox.
One day, we had four fights break out! One of them was a racial riot where the guards were called in with tazers and mace.
Yes, the harsh reality of coming to jail can be absolutely nerve shattering!
I have seen grown men crying as they fall on top of their bunk mat for the night. I have seen men sobbing & trembling with fear and uncertainty to their fate.
The truth of it all, this was all seen before they received their sentence from the judge in court.
When a man came back from court with their sentence pronounced, their demeanor was completely different... sobering, solemn, and stark.
Many times, we were subject to the guards' temperament and mood. The rule was "whatever a guard said became a lawful order." Their favorite form of punishment would be to have the entire dorm punished for the rude and disrespectful comments and conduct of just one inmate. My second week there, we were all punished without any privileges for an entire week... no TV, no mail, no phones, no visitation, and no commissary!
We all were confined to our bunks for a solid week!
If you have never been to jail, count your blessings.
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A recent report stated from an article written in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1 out of every 13 Georgia State residents has been in jail at one time or another.
My advice: Do everything you can to live a moral, law abiding life & stay out of jail!
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If you are a father paying court ordered child support & you encounter a prolonged period of unemployment...be prepared to go to jail.
Do everything you can to pay something on a regular basis, even if you only have a few bucks!
This may sound ridiculous, but the courts are limited in what they can do if you show a consistently reasonable effort.
I learned this the hard way....during my incarceration!
A word from the wiser!
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