Home for an inmate
The
title of my blogs is "The Prison Cell", so maybe I should talk about
what it actually looks like. I have been in several prisons (no
bragging, that was part of my incarceration), from Craven Correctional,
Pasquotank Correctional and others, and in each situation the actual
living quarters of the inmate differ.
There are three basic
types of living quarters, and I am not talking from the DOC point of
view, these are MY views as I have experienced them. There is the
communal living or dorms, there is the double cell and then the single
cell. Since no two prisons are exactly alike in appearance and rules,
it all depends on where you are.
I could just as easily talk
about my cell in jail too, since I spent about 15 months there, but I
will keep this to prison views.
We all have some picture of what
a prison cell looks like, but most times when they show prisons, they
usually show the supermax prisons or the close custody prisons. The
ones with the iron bars and the single cells, or sometimes the double
cells.
But not all prisons are like that, many have communal
living, which again means dorms. Some maybe as few as 40 and as many as
60, maybe even more. In either case, where the inmate is will be his
home, whether he calls it that or not. After all, it will be where he
lays his head at night.
When I was at Pasquotank Correctional in
Elizabeth City, NC, I had a double cell. That obviously meant living
with another person, a complete stranger. I ought not be too disturbed
with that, after all when you are a college student you room with a guy
you don't know. You just have to try to get along if you can.
My
room was not that big, and by the way if you read "Grades of Honor" you
know exactly what I am talking about, since the second book covers my
time at Pasquotank Correctional.
As I said before, cells differ
from prison to prison, but mine had the double bunks, with the upper
being a bit higher than normal, about chin high to me. I could normally
jump from the floor to the bunk with a little support, but not with
these...too high.
The mattress was foam, and thick, which
actually was more comfortable than the regular mattresses, which were
too lumpy. There was a very small "night stand" for the upper bunk guy
(me) which came in handy many times.
Each dorm had 2 of those
plastic lawn chairs, one for each inmate. There was also a stainless
steel table with two steel seats attached, but sitting on those was
never comfortable, even with a pillow under your butt.
There was
a sink with a mirror attached, and a night light over both. Right
beside it was a toilet, not too close but maybe about a foot and a half
from the sink, maybe 2 feet.
The door itself was steel and
heavy, and locks when closed. If you wanted to get out, you had to
press a red button inside the room to have them "pop" the lock.
Again,
the actual cell was not so big, but I know that in other prisons the
conditions would be different, some better, some worse. But what I
wanted to do was kinda give you some view at what a prison cell can
look like. You noticed I didn't say that our cell doors were bars,
because they weren't. In fact, I think in my incarceration I was only
in one cell that had iron bars, and that was when I was in seg.
Anyway, looks like rain, so I better go for now.