In The Klink. Have you "Done Time" in the Slammer? Can you share the details?

[Peacemaker]

I have always been curious about life "in a cage" (without having to go into a cage myself) and with all the fearless Free Staters willing to be arrested, in name of standing up for human rights, I'd like to request to anyone who has "done time," if they would share any details if they feel comfortable doing so.

I think it's a crime that innocent people are detained in the conditions I have heard about and "seen on TV."  so I think a record of the conditions individual's are subjected to is important for everyone to see and understand.  A day in the life, meals, times, clothing procedures, activities, etc. of where they were "housed"., no detail is too small to capture the reality of this picture.

Special thanks to everyone who's been willing to be arrested in the name of standing up for Liberty.

[FTL_Ian]

Cheshire County Jail in Westmoreland:

I never made it to population.  I spent the weekend in the "bubble", five cells, with the "reception" area, kitchen, and control room nearby.  Lights out at 11p, on at 5am for breakfast followed by lunch around 11a and dinner at about 4p.  Meals could have been worse - ranged from bad to ok. 

You're in the cell (mine was designed for two, but held four prisoners) all day, with an occasional offer of a shower.  This allows you to exit and get a little walking in, but not much.

Lots of time spent playing cards, books available, but I was unable to see them all at once - so they just bring a few by and you pick.  Was eventually able to get paper and pencil after a couple of days.  Phone in cell was collect call only to landlines.  Some poop stains on ceiling.

[Russell Kanning]

4 or 5 times 4 different jails 1 to 30 days
too many details to mention
you can ask me questions ... especially in person

baloney sandwiches

[Roycerson]

4 or 5 times 4 different jails 1 to 30 days
too many details to mention
you can ask me questions ... especially in person

baloney sandwiches

this ish

Jail is boring, the food sucks, there aren't always TV's but sometimes there's cable.  Play cards, read books, walk in circles, work-out if it's allowed, talk to people.  Cold Stainless Steel plumbing fixtures, thin matresses, they keep it cold in there, not enough blankets. 

They split people up minimum/medium/max security so if you're there for driving on suspended you likely won't be hanging out with murderers, unless that murderer had good behaviored himself to min.  That happens in KS because there is no self-defense defense in KS, if you kill a burglar who is pointing a gun at you you'll do a few years, couple of those guys in minimum.

[Lloyd Danforth]

Military Prison.  Almost a year in two chunks. A lot like Basic Training, but, with armed guards and no 3 day passes.

[firecracker joe]

3 years state prison for a plant
one month in shu for administrative review next to killers and nazis people i wouldnt wish on my enemies
more than a total of 3 days on the shitter
lots of pb&j  balony for sunday dinner
cards, pool, tv, lots of batches,  having money in prison makes your stay alot cushier
i would not work for the man unless i got something i wanted out of it  in my case i was shipped to msu in laconia which was llike a work camp  loud music and power tools drilling into asbestos before masks and suits were mandatory.
prison is better than county but lots of young punks lokoing to prove themselves

DO YOUR OWN TIME  and dont mess with the lifers cause they own the joint and their goin nowhere fast.

[Coconut]

Phone in cell was collect call only to landlines. 

That explains how my mother's friend could call her over and over again from jail. I was surprised the jailers would have let him try that many times.

Or did you have to ask before using the phone line? I must assume they monitor it.

[Coconut]

they keep it cold in there, not enough blankets. 

This is the part I'm most expecting to hate about jail. I nearly cry by how cold I am getting out of the shower in the morning...

[Jim Johnson]

In Des Moines, Iowa I witnessed a cop slam a guy's head against a stairway handrail and with his head against the handrail dragged him up two flights of stairs.  We got fried chicken and mashed potatoes on Sunday.

In CA I had a phone in the cell in holding and I could make unlimited local calls.  I only spent 12 hours pacing and kicking the walls.

[TackleTheWorld]

A Day In The Life
04 Dec 08

I awaken refreshed and alert without the grumbly mood, achy body and sticky eyes of normal mornings.  This isn't a normal morning I'm in jail, and its almost 2AM.  The right side of my face is stuck to the thin mattress' waterproof cover with sweat and the left side is scratches with the woolly gray blanket.  I'm wearing all my available wardrobe under the blanket.  T shirt, undies, pajama like tan scrubs top and bottom, and socks, my luxurious luxurious socks.  I don't know if I cling to the precious belongings because of the cold temperature I feel when I drop one, or the psychological cold I feel when I'm not shielding my eyes, ears, face from the sensations of being trapped alone in a cage.  My first thoughts focus on what day this is.  Thursday. 4th of Dec- Day 24 - 6 more to go – 24/30=12/15=4/5.  I find math games clear unpleasant details out of my head, give it something constructive to do and leave it with a sparkly-clean feeling of accomplishment. 
I sit up and watch three ants scout for food on the floor for a while.  I enjoy their company; it was so much more boring in the weeks before they came.  After hitting the stainless steel toilet with a deafening extended flush and washing my face I start the day by continuing to read the current book, Bag of Bones by Stephen King.  Reading novels is a good way to mentally escape jail until your butt gets too tired to sit on anymore.  For those hours before the pain of a compressed sacroiliac pulls my kicking and screaming into awareness life is good.  I'm being entertained in exotic locations, looking in on interesting characters and learning new things.
5:30 breakfast is set on the open food slot.  2 hard boiled eggs, 2 slices of white bread, frosted cheerios and milk carton.  I'm not sure if they expect us to make an egg or a cheerio sandwich.  I eat most of the cheerios and 1 egg.  This is meal #70.  70 out of 90.  70/90=7/9.  Two hard boiled eggs come for breakfast almost every day.  Back at meal #21 my intestines hadn't moved since getting jailed.  I thought of all the food that was still in there.  Everything I'd eaten since the court events.  I wasn't that much besides eggs.  It reminded me of the scene in Cool Hand Luck where he lies victorious on the mess hall table with a bulging stomach.  "I can eat fifty eggs", I said to myself.  In a self-mocking yet satisfied voice.  I'd like to think I'm as tenacious as Cool Hand Luck, and hate to think I'm as reckless. 
6:10 nap.  Pull blanket over head to block lights and fan noise.
7:15 Mail Call!  High point of the day!  16 postcards today.  Post dates ranging two weeks from Nov 17-Dec1.
Signs on the pill dispensing cart: No Sharing Cups!
NO WATER, NO MEDS!
No sick call during med call – thank you
I still haven't gotten the postcard I wrote to myself at my last supper.  "Dear Lauren, Lets go for a bike ride when you get back.  Lauren",
a picture of an abu grabe victim on it.  Mixed messages accepted, people are sometimes at a loss as to what to write.  Should I mention bad things I hope are not occurring?  Should I mention good things ripped from prisoners>  Don't worry, people who have just spent 40 hours and four fingernails scratching NHFREE.com into the paint on the wall are appreciative of any writing.  Solitary confinement is an attempt to take everything from you.  Anything you can offer in an improvement. 
10:40 lunch.  Mc Ribs.  Processed pork molded into a keyboard of flavor.  Oh god I'm starting to like prison food, help me.  French fries, no salt, inedible.  I still have some capacity for revulsion.  2 slices of white bread, catsup, canned corn, milk, all rejected.  Crunchy oatmeal cookie, snarfed.
After lunch cleanup.  Brush teeth with handle-less toothbrush.  Comb five caterpillars of lint from hair.  No I will not let go of my warm linty blanket, it is my hugs I can't have, my warmth of moving muscles I can't perform, my touch of human skin I must not forget, my substitute for human contact.
Outside in booking a few current inmates are being hobbled with leg irons for the court appointments.  Ah the horrifying ratchet noise of the handcuffs.  If you were going to have a fair trial wouldn't you want one side t wear expensive suits and the other to be chained into fluorescent orange jumpsuits?  I didn't think so. 
Later on one or two incarcerates are given the mesh hanger bag of freedom.  The coveted ceremony of regaining street clothes warms the heart every time.  It's weird how the guards become so polite at that moment.  Then the new arrivals break you heart again.
Sleep Sleep Drowse Turnover Drowse Sleep Sleep
4:40 Dinner. 
•   Processed beef patty with simulated grill stripes
•   Scalloped potatoes in cheesy souse
•   Gravy covers both of the above
Ate potatoes refused beef product
•   Mixed vegetables.  A jail meal favorite because it's not just colorful, it's not just food, its something to do!
•   2 slices of white bread
•   2 margarine pats
•   Milk carton
The last few days the milk carton has been a joy because the expiration date is the 13th – after my release.  When this milk goes bad I'll be out!
•   Unidentifiable gray speckled gelatinous mound
Afraid to even taste that even though I know it's dessert.
Read Change positions Read Change positions Read
7:30  Time for a walk.  First remove luxurious luxurious socks.  I can't let those babies get wet or dirty.  Clear walkway of 2 ants with an empty envelope.  Becoming vertical feels good.  Like soothing a shrunken wrinkled balloon by inflating it.  Ah, blessed muscular locomotion.  The movement breaks little viles of endorphins in my leg muscles.  I'd like to run.  I dream of acceleration but I only have five steps in the 10 X 6 cell before I must turn around.  Here's a fact that no one should have to know:  You can't pace in a circle, its got to be a figure 8 or you get dizzy.  You also get dizzy if you focus on things at eye level as  you pace, they go by too fast.  Looking at the floor in the far corner works better. 
Now I think of a fellow walker, Will Buchanan and wonder where he is, what's the weather like, how much longer till he's here.
8:30   Read
9:50 Rest  Drowse Think
11:50 Read
12:00 Midnight  Something unusual.  The guards opened the padded room and brought in a thin guy from the outside.  Usually they put ranting people in there.  They didn't take off his handcuffs and the handcuffs were behind his back.  That's specially mean.  He has no blanket either.
2AM  Read Read Read

[Russell Kanning]

Phone in cell was collect call only to landlines. 

Or did you have to ask before using the phone line? I must assume they monitor it.

every jail seems different and depends on where you are in the jail too

[Russell Kanning]

they keep it cold in there, not enough blankets. 

This is the part I'm most expecting to hate about jail. I nearly cry by how cold I am getting out of the shower in the morning...

I have not been too cold in jail ... after the first day or so.
I have also not been in a nh jail in january .... the guys say it is cold in max during the winter in cheshire county jail

[FTL_Ian]

they keep it cold in there, not enough blankets. 

This is the part I'm most expecting to hate about jail. I nearly cry by how cold I am getting out of the shower in the morning...

Agreed.  This was my largest concern.

Turns out that Cheshire County jail was quite warm in the bubble (I was there Nov 14-17).  Even sleeping naked didn't stop me from sweating all over.  I was told it'd be colder upstairs in population, but when I went upstairs for a shower, I didn't notice a significant shift in temperature.

I've heard Valley St. in Manch is the worst in winter.

[FTL_Ian]

That explains how my mother's friend could call her over and over again from jail. I was surprised the jailers would have let him try that many times.

Or did you have to ask before using the phone line? I must assume they monitor it.

The phone was in the cell.  Calling hours were restricted to lights-on times, but you can always make calls during those hours.  It's presumable that all calls are recorded.

[FTL_Ian]

While in the bubble, (where you'll be if you're arrested Friday and kept over the weekend) you do get the sad entertainment of watching the cops bring in people.  One guy was a DUI at 4 in the afternoon.  He yelled incoherent stuff while in the barren holding cell.  Glad they didn't put him in my cell.  Of course, we were maxed out with four people in there.  You have no room to walk whatsoever in that circumstance. 

Additionally the females are housed in a cell off the bubble, and they get the perk of being able to work in the kitchen, so you do get to experience the sight of some ladies walking around all day.

Likely things are less interesting in population, though they do have board games up there...so I don't know for sure.