Transcript
We as children growing up never thought our lives would amount to this, coming to prison and spending a good amount of time here. Sitting in a “Box'* all day long and thinking about why our lives have amounted to this. We constantly have to be reminded every day of how much of a piece of shit we are, by what you could say "overpaid babysitters". If I was to have to explain my day to any normal law abiding citizen they would think 1 was a crazy human being, 1 wake at 6 am every morning and thank my creator for the day and being able to breath, 'then for the next half an hour I spend time getting myself together, ie. hygiene. Then from that point on until about 11:0am which is "count" time where the prison has to make sure none of the occupants have suddenly escaped, 1 read a book or do push-ups, once and a while 1 will watch day time television which 1 can tell you right now is something 1 never plan to do for a living, i forgot about breakfast which is usually about 6-7 am in the morning, this consists of what the prison loves to call oatmeal, but if you think back to when you were in kindergarden and your teacher got out the paste to glue your art projects, when you think of the smell of that and the consistency this is what you you eat everyday, not to mention the so-called "sausage" they feed us here, not only for breakfast but also for every other meal. Prisoners here in Michigan like to refer to this mystery meat as "Cat- Head" because of the unique texture of this meat and the simple fact is it tastes like nothing at ail, other than it being under-cooked there is no color to it at all. Lunch comes after count time and lasts between the hours of 1200 and 1300, If you didn't know the prison system runs on military time, so not only when you first come here are you terrified because you don't know what is going to happen in prison but now you don't know what time it is going to happen at also. Most of the “boys" who come to prison can't read, so what made the officials think who created the time schedule here think it would be a good idea to run everything on a 24 hour clock? Just doesn't make sense but then again what does here in the prison system. After what we get lunch or what they consider to be food, which fun fact- (All boxes of food prisons serve state clearly on the box, "Institutional Use Only", meaning that the general public (law abiding citizens) do not deserve to be fed this abomination. To be honest if the government wanted to eradicate the rule breakers all they would have to do is put it in our food here in the prison system. So after I eat lunch it is time to go to the Yard, which consists of about two football fields put together with no track around it so we constantly walk around in the dirt. We literally walk around in circles because we have nothing else to do, you have very few choices when it comes to activities on the Yard, you can lift weights that is if you have a Permission slip (ie. Gali-out) to be in the weight pit, or you can play basketball, play softball, horseshoes, work-out, sit at a table that is not already "claimed", use one of the 18 phones, but you have to be very aware of who's phone your using otherwise it could get you in to trouble. There are specific areas on the Yard that are different organizations, it is like looking at a map of the United States of America arid understanding that the states belong to a group of people arid to cross into that state you need a valid reason, or permission slip. You also nave to be aware of the different benches that we have on the yard, there are plenty of places to sit but you have to know which ones are owned by who, this is very important to know not only for your own safety. We get a total of 6 hours a day where we can be outside and walk around in circles or talk with our associates. Most of the time people usually stick with their own kind, we as a human kind want to get away from segregation but in prison it is just like the old days where we still separate according to the color of our skin. Now it is true what the prison documentaries say on t.v there are many different types of gang's but the important thing to know is violence here in the Michigan Dept of Corrections is not anything like it is in California prisons, back about 2014-2015 G. Robert Cotton Corr Facility was one of the worst prisons for violence and trust me when 1 say this many people got stabbed or beaten to the point where they went to the hospital and never came back. But to be honest now it is like a summer day camp where everyone gats along and there are really not that many problems anymore. The main reason for this is because Cotton is considered a Medical Prison mainly people who have top back and forth between outside ^ doctors appointments and have special medical accommodations. This is one of the main reasons why this prison is not one of the main ones for fights and/or other problems. After we get done with our two hours of yard from 1:30 to 3:30 we come back inside for yet another count time, because somehow ^ the prison officials think that one of us could have jumped over the barbed wire fence to another fence and gotten over that one to another fence and then tried to escape past the state police headquarters that sits right next to us. When we get back in from our time outdoors it is either back to our 8 by 12 cells and we can watch t.v or sleep, or it is time to play chess, or twiddle our thumbs. Why are we considered hot to be human beings when we come to a place like this? The system thinks that we are just supposted to "be appeased with being basically on lock down all day long, because closed movement facility such as this G. Robert Cotton, only consists of us prisoners being able to do what our call-outs for the day have on them. If we don't have any call-outs for the day we can't do anything but go to chow, and yard and nothing else in between, otherwise we get a Major ticket for being Out-of- Place. Let me tell you about the ticket system here in this wonderful facility, some prisons in Michigan are considered "Ticket Traps” for the simple reason because these glorified baby-sitters like to watch us get into trouble and not be able to do anything that is positive for changing our lives for the better. The worst tickets you can get are called Class 1‘s, then of course you have your class 2‘s and class 3's. how most of the time when you get a chance to get these class one tickets they take you to the "Box, Seg, time-out, the sin bin, brain freeze, or hell". Segregation is a whole other subject I will speak about later, now as for the class 2 tickets you can get sent to the box, but only if you have a bad enough attitude when being heard at your hearing. Class 3 tickets are minor tickets that officers love to give because it puts you on what's called Loss of Privilege (LOP), and/or Top Lock which really only works over in level 4 because most of the time you have a bunkee in level two so you can't be top locked otherwise how would you get to go to the community bathroom you share with everyone else in the unit?. Now the Loss of Privilege consists of not being able to use the phone at all, not use the J-pay machine where you can send and receive emails to your family and friends (also pictures), but you can not be out of your celi in one of the two days rooms, one of which have a t.v. (that doesn't work most of the time), of the other day room (which has a few tables in it). Usually when you get your day's that you have to do, it ail depends on the officer or LT who hears you how many days he feels you deserve, between 5-30 days. Trust me when I say this it all depends on the color of your skin, you attitude and if the officer and LT "ride together" how much punishment you'll receive. What the public doesn't hear about on those so called Jall, and prison shows is how much corruption there is between all of the officers not only here in Jackson, MI but around the united states also. It is truly amazing how the officers break the law almost everyday because there is no one here to hold than accountable, how much they think they can get away with, (speaking to us like we are less than human), calling us out of our name (bitch, useless, etc..) things that would be deemed Cruel and Unusual Punishment in a Civil Court, but who would believe the prisoner right? We don't get a chance to tell our side of the story because there is a negative stigma around us for the rest of our lives no matter how many accomplishments we have, we will always be known as the trouble maker and rule breaker. Now back to the tickets and how they are such a waste of time not only for us but they sometimes hinder us when we see the parole board because, the officers that write them embellish on them to the fullest extent so that we receive as many days possible when we get heard on them, for instance; it took me about 3 years of being in the MDOC to receive a “good job" in Maintience and 1 wasn't there for more than 4 weeks before someone I don't even work for was feeling “sane type of way" towards me and got the fired. You'll want to hear this story and it will prove my point of how corrupt just part of this prison is, It all started about the first week that I got hired we had a huge job of laying underground pipe for water that was flooding, me and about 6 other guys were the only ones doing the job, one day when we were outside digging up the ground we were all tired because it was about 90 degrees out there and were doing manual labor so it was a daunting task, but one of the other bosses who we' ll call (lady 1), because he gossips like a woman, decides that he'll call out one of the workers who mows the lawns his name is not important, but just to let you know now he was about 60 years old and lazy as they come. He get's this guy called out, so he walks over and is just standing there holding the wheel-barrel just watching us bust our backs digging a 4 foot trench around this 100 yard building, so I an just a little you could say dissapointed in the fact that this guy is getting paid to stand around and watch, so 1 kind of start heckelling the guy, not calling him names or anything but just gibing him a hard time (ail in fun), the other workers were laughing but this guy wasn't. So we get done that day and go back to our cells. The next morning when I wake up I go to work at 7 an and we start by unclogging toilets in a different unit and my boss who we will name as (lady 2) comes to me and says that I need to go easy today because I made a enemy with not only the other worker who c got called out but with (lady 1). Now I don't think nothing of it because it was all in good fun and my boss knows that and so do the rest of the crew. Fast forward to about the 3rd and a half week we are working in my own unit, doing a big project in the downstairs bathroom, at about some point in the morning I have a question to ask the “block rep" so I walk not only 10 feet away and ask the question to hurt, then come back to the job site and continue my work. The next morning 1 don't get a call out to my job, and at about 9 am in the morning 1 get called out to the control center because I have a major ticket, I find out that it was my boss (lady 2) who wrote me the ticket for being Out-of- Place and Disobeying a direct order, I find out later that the other boss who hired my boss told him he had to get rid of me because of the day I picked on the old white man the one day. Just to prove my point of how the system can do whatever they want and there are no consequences for their actions. Now this ticket could have gotten me kicked out of the college program that I am currently in, or it could have hindered me when I see the Parole board, the simple fact is that these workers for the prison have no idea the problems they cause for us when they do foul things. Tickets can hurt when the officers embellish on them, corruption runs rampant here in this prison, and it needs to change. The prison system wonders why us prisoners act the way we do, it is because we don * t get respect when we deserve it, that is why I call this place “Connections, and not corrections.
