Employment

EMPLOYMENT There are a few jobs that are available to the women here. The paying jobs are two librarians, two computer lab workers, 7 industry workers, then the cook, the baker is paid from each shift, and there are two shifts. Then there are nonpaid jobs which these people receive goodies like drink mix and what not. There are the rest of the kitchen workers that are not paid. I believe that there are 3 to 4 people in the kitchen who isn't paid. In addition, a floor crew does the floors at night while everyone else is sleeping. They stay up waxing and buffing the floors most of the times on weekends. Then there is the CTI crew, which is in charge of maintenance around here like painting, or moving stuff. They also have a garden here where we get fresh vegetables and fruit. They tend to the gardens, and they mow the grass out back and in the rec yard. When winter comes around there is a snow shoveling crew. They get up at all hours of the night to go out and shovel a path for the officers to come into the unit. They also have to shovel a path out in the back rec yard and a path around the front rec yard for when we have fire drills. I can tell you that when they wake you up at two in the morning by a loud alarm and have you march outside where it is snowing like the dickens out there is not too much fun. There is also a few programs where pretty much anyone who knows how to crochet or knit can do. In June there are women that come in and make a big presentation about stitching out cancer and they provide the yarn for us to make pink and white scarves. There is also the Linus Project which is where we make blankets for the newborns in the hospitals. There is also a veterans project that my good friend started and she is even donating the yarn herself for the cause. I am trying to get making stuff for the homeless going. My good friend on the outside gave me the idea in fact it was his idea I only have a means of trying to get it started. I don't have the means to buy all the yarn needed for this remarkable idea. He says that there are a lot of homeless people that most people on the outside wouldn't even bat an eyelash at. So he said why not have you women making stuff for the homeless to show people in society that "prisoners" getting a bad rap all the time is not always a correct term. I mean come on we are sitting her in prison and it shows that we are taking time to make stuff for people who are less fortunate I think that will resonate with people out in society to change their ways of thinking about "prisoners." I want to say that we are not bad people. We have just made some mistakes and if we are willing to try to change for the better then why not let us do stuff for others who can't afford these things. The last thing that I would like to say is that I am not a bad person at all. I have a bit of time left and all I want is to have someone to recognize that about me. I am not saying take care or anything like that. Just to know that there are others who don't think so negatively about people is prison.