THUGville

Don't close that door ...

  I just can't imagine it.  Day after day after day, being in that cell with all of my day in the hands of someone else.  Never being able to open the door without someone popping it open for me.  Not being able to look out the window when I wanted to.  Not being able to shut out the noise of the hoodlums in the other cells.  No music.  No freedom.   
  I do live with a portion of that restriction every day however, as there are no doors in a jail that are not controlled by the man/woman sitting in Central Control with a computer that 'pops' the door.  I do have a key to my office, but it is also controlled by Central. Every door on every hall to every room is locked.  When I started working at the larger jail in the other county I was told from the beginning that you don't want to piss of the guys in Master Control (different places have different names - same thing though) because they have the power to 'forget' you; in the elevator, down a hallway...  you smile to the camera, which you are on everywhere you go throughout the jail and the man/woman in Central/Master are watching you as you travel the hallways, and you say please and thank you.  Most will not mess with you that way, but there is always that one that will have his/her juvenile pleasure for the day.  No one at the jail that I work at now would do that, unless its for a joke. 
  When you walk up to a door you call on your radio the number of the door (above each door) and Central will pop it.  If you are going down a hallway with other locked doors, they will watch you and pop them as you get to them. At the larger facility with elevators, you hold up the amount of fingers to indicate which floor you wish to go to.  Master sees you and sends the elevator up.  You don't push the button as it won't work, you wait for Master to send the elevator to your destination.   
  But that is the easy part of being in jail, working here.  Being an inmate here is a different matter of course.  Do an experiment ... go in your bedroom.  Close the door.  Darken the windows.  Have nothing in there except a book and some glasses if you need them.  You can touch nothing else because if you were in a cell you would have nothing else.  You cannot leave.  You can go to the bathroom when you want.  In the bathroom you can have one bar of soap, a washcloth, a towel, a toothbrush w/paste, and deodorant   That's it, nothing else, so don't touch your cosmetics, your fragrances, your Qtips, etc... In the cell the commode would be beside the bed, so you wouldn't be going to another room at all.  Now, back to the bedroom.  From 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. you must have your bed made, and you may not get under the covers during that time.  Oh, you're cold, too bad, still can't.  If you get caught being under, you get 'lockdown' for whatever amount of time the officer deems appropriate.  For different offenses that could mean 5, 10, or 30 days.  More on that later.  Ok, so, you are bored. You can have paper and pencil, so you could write a letter. You want to just reach out and grab that cell phone, computer, game, something, you just want something to do.  Sorry.  Can't do it.  You have none of that in your 'cell.' You want to go out.  Sorry.  Door is locked.  You are bored and the book isn't a good one so it's not holding your interest.  Too bad.  Take a nap, well, maybe not because if you sleep too much during the day you won't sleep at night, then your sleep cycle gets all messed up.  You want to sleep in in the morning.  Tough.  Meals are served and you will get up, be dressed, and be released out to go sit at a table after you get your tray off of the cart.  You have about 15 minutes to eat.  Not finished... too bad.  Back to your room/cell.  Now what do you do.  You wait till free time.  At least during 'free time' you can come out and talk with the other inmates, walk around the pod, even sit at the table and play cards.  But you can't go back in your cell once you are out.   You have an hour.  Back to room/cell.  
  And on it goes.  That's your day behind those locked doors.  Both the jails I work for don't have the bars anymore, they have the solid steel door with narrow long rectangular window looking into the pod.  If you are on lockdown, there is a cover that goes over that window, and you are then completely cut off.  There is one tv in the pod that hangs above the officers desk, controlled by the officer, and when you have the window covered you cannot stand at the door and watch tv even.  
  About lockdown ... well, you don't want that because that closed door will be staying closed for quite some time.  The inmates at my home jail get a good bit of free time - 1 hr, 1 hr, then 2 hr episodes a day.  Lockdown = 1 hour every Third day!!  and that will be by yourself, not with anyone else.  Imagine.  Closed up in that cell, covered window, for 3 days.  Your commissary food, supplies (ie: paper, pencil, etc.) are taken away until you are off of lockdown.  No phone privileges on your free time.  No communication with anyone.  Now, was whatever you did to get locked down Reeaally worth this isolation?!!  
  I try to imagine being in that cell, day after day, my freedom eliminated and I just can't shake the feeling that I would have one more humongous anxiety attack!  I cannot think of a single crime that can be committed that would make that worth it to me, and yet, we have some that are in and out of here all the time, longer stays each time in many cases.  And I ask myself...Why?!!
My only thought is ... Don't Close That Door!!!