Post by Emcee Stove on Apr 22, 2012 20:21:16 GMT 6
tentcitytales.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/dont-eat-the-peanut-butter/
Day 1
I was told I needed to surrender myself at 9am on Saturday morning. Anxious not to be late, I arrived at 8:45am. After arriving at the parking lot of the East side of the Lower Buckeye Jail, there was a large, covered, outdoor area with several rows of metal benches and a metal sign that read, “Self-Surrender Waiting Area.” I sat down uncomfortably and looked around, trying to check out the other people waiting without making eye contact with them.
I have heard that if you are ever sent to jail you should “keep to yourself, do not try to make friends and never ask someone what they are in for.” This information was not true of my experience. Everyone in the waiting area was talking about the night of their arrest, how much time they had to serve and what items they had brought with them. I relaxed realizing that these people where all pretty normal, not crazed convicts that were going to shank me.
Shank: Prison slang for a homemade knife.
9:00am came and went and nothing happened. So did 9:15… 9:30… 9:45… And 10:00 am… Finally at 10:05, large metal doors opened and a detention officer came out. She was a short, heavy, butch lesbian with a crew cut and a bad attitude. I wanted to ask her what her thoughts were on reinforcing stereotypes but I decided it was in my best interest to stay quiet.
The angry lesbian yelled at all of us to line-up in a single file line and get our paperwork ready. There were three things that we needed to have with us in order to be admitted:
Your confinement order (Given to you by the judge at the time you are sentenced).
A medical certificate showing that you went and got a Tuberculosis test and the results were negative.
One form of Government-issued I.D.
It blew my mind how many people were turned away because they did not have these items, even though they were clearly told to bring them when they were sentenced in court and they were also given paperwork that stated the same thing to take home, meaning they had a verbal and written reminder. I guess it is not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree that end up at the Lower Buckeye Jail. This was not a proud moment for me.
Once our paper work had been verified they separated the men and the woman (there were about 50 of us). We were given a medical questionnaire to fill out and a detention officer came over to review them once we were done. This detention officer was a blonde, heavy-set woman with wire framed glasses, leathery skin and frizzy hair. She blew cigarette smoke from her Marlboro light at me as she asked me if I had any medical conditions. I replied, “Yes Ma’am, I have asthma.” She wrinkled her face, grabbed my medical sheet, made a red mark on it and stomped out her cigarette. Classy…
After our medical paperwork was complete, we were told to remove our shoes and jackets and turn around with our hands against the wall. I pressed my palms to the cold concrete as they searched us. Not the “bend over and cough” kind of search (Thank you God), they simply pat you down and make sure you don’t have anything hidden in the underwire of your bra. They found a pen that I was hiding in my jacket and threw it away since it is not on the authorized list. I was able to steal the tiny pencil they gave me to fill out my medical questionnaire so that I could take notes inside my book for this posting.
After we were searched, we were moved into an office where we had our mug shots taken. Note: Ladies, if you wear your hair up, you have to take it down for your photo shoot. Then they moved us to a holding cell to wait for our finger prints. There were 12 of us jammed into the small 7X7 cell, three of the women said that they had been there since 6am. I checked my watch. It was 11:05am. I decided I better get comfortable.
11:35am We are all moved to a different holding cell. No explanation is given.
12:12pm One woman is finger printed and brought back to our cell.
2:30pm The guards switch shifts. One pops her head in and tells us “Someone will be with you guys shortly.”
5:00pm A second woman in our group is finger printed and brought back to our cell.
7:00pm Dinner comes. A male inmate in black and white stripes with a pink undershirt brings us plastic bags filled with food (Note: The sheriff makes the male inmates wear pink underwear so that they are less prone to steal it when they are released). Dinner consists of:
2 Wheat Dinner Rolls
1 Cup of Peanut Butter
1 Piece of Fruit
1 Oatmeal Cookie
8oz of Cherry Juice
I heard the food was the worst part about this place so I was pretty pleased with the bag they gave me. That is, I was pleased until another woman warned us not to eat the peanut butter. Lily was the only one in the group who had been to Tent City before. She was convicted of a DUI last year and was recently caught driving on a suspended license. She was serving 48 hours as her punishment.
Anyway, Lily told us that the peanut butter is made in a large vat that is left uncovered in the jail kitchen for long periods of time. It is rumored that cockroaches and rats get into the vat to snack on the peanut butter before it is served. Ew! Sick! Nasty!!!
What's for dinner?
The other thing that was strange about the food was I genuinely could not tell what the fruit was. It was the color of a lemon, the size of an orange and it tasted like a grapefruit. I was so dehydrated from not having anything to eat or drink for the last ten hours that I actually thought it was amazing and affectionately named it a “lorange fruit.” The other women thought that was quite amusing which goes to show how easily entertained a group can be after being stuck in a tiny cell for 8 hours.
10:20pm I am fingerprinted (FINALLY!).
1:30am Everyone in the cell has now been fingerprinted and they call us out into the hallway and have us line-up against the wall. We are handcuffed, shackles are placed around our feet and we are marched single-file outside to a large van. They open the back of the van up and I shit you not, they had caged off sections in the back that they stuck us in. The van had no windows and no lights.
So there I am, handcuffed, shackled, in a cage, in the back of a van, in the dark. What did I do? I laughed. What else could I do? It was so surreal and also so ridiculously unnecessary. Everyone in my group had self-surrendered that morning. If we were a flight risk, we never would have showed-up in the first place.
1:45am We are transported from Lower Buckeye Jail to Estrella Jail and they put us in another small holding cell for about an hour. After that, they have us line-up single file in hallway and they march us outside and down a dirt road to tent city.
The vacancy sign is always on at Tent City.
3:15am We arrive at tent city. Again they separate the men from the woman and search us. Then they tell us the rules (if you are going to Tent City and have a question about the rules, please comment on this post and I will reply with an answer), give us two blankets and point out our assigned tents.
I have been assigned tent #66 and my bunk number is #01. The ID they gave me says “6601″ and that is what the guards refer to me as. I walk into tent #66 and it is pitch black. Everyone is sleeping. I have no idea where my bunk is. Fortunately a girl sleeping in the tent hears me wondering around and turns on her flashlight. She asks for my ID # and when I tell her she points out my bunk with her flashlight. I am on a top bunk, There is no ladder. There a large woman sleeping on the bottom bunk. I spend several minutes assessing this situation before I throw my blankets on the top bunk, step on the bottom of the large sleeping woman’s bunk and crawl up the side. There in the dark I attempt to make my bed with the blankets I have been given. As I am arranging the blankets, my bag of authorized items falls off the top bunk onto the floor in between the side of the tent and the sleeping ladie’s face. Shit.
This is what is looks like inside the tents.
I climbed down the side of the bunk, wedged myself in between the bed and the tent, and held my breath as I bent down to retrieve my items. I was inches away from the sleeping woman’s face. I didn’t know what she was in jail for, all I knew was that she was a heck of a lot bigger then me. “Please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up…” I prayed silently. She groaned and I snatched my bag and scurried back up to the top bunk.
After securing my bag, I attempted to make the bed again. I spread out one blanket and the other one fell to the floor. I sighed and contemplated leaving it there. It was freezing cold though so I had to shimmy back down to the ground, get my blanket and climb back up the bunk bed. I finally gave up on making my bed, rolled my blankets around me like a cocoon and went to sleep wearing my shoes and jacket.
Day 1
I was told I needed to surrender myself at 9am on Saturday morning. Anxious not to be late, I arrived at 8:45am. After arriving at the parking lot of the East side of the Lower Buckeye Jail, there was a large, covered, outdoor area with several rows of metal benches and a metal sign that read, “Self-Surrender Waiting Area.” I sat down uncomfortably and looked around, trying to check out the other people waiting without making eye contact with them.
I have heard that if you are ever sent to jail you should “keep to yourself, do not try to make friends and never ask someone what they are in for.” This information was not true of my experience. Everyone in the waiting area was talking about the night of their arrest, how much time they had to serve and what items they had brought with them. I relaxed realizing that these people where all pretty normal, not crazed convicts that were going to shank me.
Shank: Prison slang for a homemade knife.
9:00am came and went and nothing happened. So did 9:15… 9:30… 9:45… And 10:00 am… Finally at 10:05, large metal doors opened and a detention officer came out. She was a short, heavy, butch lesbian with a crew cut and a bad attitude. I wanted to ask her what her thoughts were on reinforcing stereotypes but I decided it was in my best interest to stay quiet.
The angry lesbian yelled at all of us to line-up in a single file line and get our paperwork ready. There were three things that we needed to have with us in order to be admitted:
Your confinement order (Given to you by the judge at the time you are sentenced).
A medical certificate showing that you went and got a Tuberculosis test and the results were negative.
One form of Government-issued I.D.
It blew my mind how many people were turned away because they did not have these items, even though they were clearly told to bring them when they were sentenced in court and they were also given paperwork that stated the same thing to take home, meaning they had a verbal and written reminder. I guess it is not the brightest bulbs on the Christmas tree that end up at the Lower Buckeye Jail. This was not a proud moment for me.
Once our paper work had been verified they separated the men and the woman (there were about 50 of us). We were given a medical questionnaire to fill out and a detention officer came over to review them once we were done. This detention officer was a blonde, heavy-set woman with wire framed glasses, leathery skin and frizzy hair. She blew cigarette smoke from her Marlboro light at me as she asked me if I had any medical conditions. I replied, “Yes Ma’am, I have asthma.” She wrinkled her face, grabbed my medical sheet, made a red mark on it and stomped out her cigarette. Classy…
After our medical paperwork was complete, we were told to remove our shoes and jackets and turn around with our hands against the wall. I pressed my palms to the cold concrete as they searched us. Not the “bend over and cough” kind of search (Thank you God), they simply pat you down and make sure you don’t have anything hidden in the underwire of your bra. They found a pen that I was hiding in my jacket and threw it away since it is not on the authorized list. I was able to steal the tiny pencil they gave me to fill out my medical questionnaire so that I could take notes inside my book for this posting.
After we were searched, we were moved into an office where we had our mug shots taken. Note: Ladies, if you wear your hair up, you have to take it down for your photo shoot. Then they moved us to a holding cell to wait for our finger prints. There were 12 of us jammed into the small 7X7 cell, three of the women said that they had been there since 6am. I checked my watch. It was 11:05am. I decided I better get comfortable.
11:35am We are all moved to a different holding cell. No explanation is given.
12:12pm One woman is finger printed and brought back to our cell.
2:30pm The guards switch shifts. One pops her head in and tells us “Someone will be with you guys shortly.”
5:00pm A second woman in our group is finger printed and brought back to our cell.
7:00pm Dinner comes. A male inmate in black and white stripes with a pink undershirt brings us plastic bags filled with food (Note: The sheriff makes the male inmates wear pink underwear so that they are less prone to steal it when they are released). Dinner consists of:
2 Wheat Dinner Rolls
1 Cup of Peanut Butter
1 Piece of Fruit
1 Oatmeal Cookie
8oz of Cherry Juice
I heard the food was the worst part about this place so I was pretty pleased with the bag they gave me. That is, I was pleased until another woman warned us not to eat the peanut butter. Lily was the only one in the group who had been to Tent City before. She was convicted of a DUI last year and was recently caught driving on a suspended license. She was serving 48 hours as her punishment.
Anyway, Lily told us that the peanut butter is made in a large vat that is left uncovered in the jail kitchen for long periods of time. It is rumored that cockroaches and rats get into the vat to snack on the peanut butter before it is served. Ew! Sick! Nasty!!!
What's for dinner?
The other thing that was strange about the food was I genuinely could not tell what the fruit was. It was the color of a lemon, the size of an orange and it tasted like a grapefruit. I was so dehydrated from not having anything to eat or drink for the last ten hours that I actually thought it was amazing and affectionately named it a “lorange fruit.” The other women thought that was quite amusing which goes to show how easily entertained a group can be after being stuck in a tiny cell for 8 hours.
10:20pm I am fingerprinted (FINALLY!).
1:30am Everyone in the cell has now been fingerprinted and they call us out into the hallway and have us line-up against the wall. We are handcuffed, shackles are placed around our feet and we are marched single-file outside to a large van. They open the back of the van up and I shit you not, they had caged off sections in the back that they stuck us in. The van had no windows and no lights.
So there I am, handcuffed, shackled, in a cage, in the back of a van, in the dark. What did I do? I laughed. What else could I do? It was so surreal and also so ridiculously unnecessary. Everyone in my group had self-surrendered that morning. If we were a flight risk, we never would have showed-up in the first place.
1:45am We are transported from Lower Buckeye Jail to Estrella Jail and they put us in another small holding cell for about an hour. After that, they have us line-up single file in hallway and they march us outside and down a dirt road to tent city.
The vacancy sign is always on at Tent City.
3:15am We arrive at tent city. Again they separate the men from the woman and search us. Then they tell us the rules (if you are going to Tent City and have a question about the rules, please comment on this post and I will reply with an answer), give us two blankets and point out our assigned tents.
I have been assigned tent #66 and my bunk number is #01. The ID they gave me says “6601″ and that is what the guards refer to me as. I walk into tent #66 and it is pitch black. Everyone is sleeping. I have no idea where my bunk is. Fortunately a girl sleeping in the tent hears me wondering around and turns on her flashlight. She asks for my ID # and when I tell her she points out my bunk with her flashlight. I am on a top bunk, There is no ladder. There a large woman sleeping on the bottom bunk. I spend several minutes assessing this situation before I throw my blankets on the top bunk, step on the bottom of the large sleeping woman’s bunk and crawl up the side. There in the dark I attempt to make my bed with the blankets I have been given. As I am arranging the blankets, my bag of authorized items falls off the top bunk onto the floor in between the side of the tent and the sleeping ladie’s face. Shit.
This is what is looks like inside the tents.
I climbed down the side of the bunk, wedged myself in between the bed and the tent, and held my breath as I bent down to retrieve my items. I was inches away from the sleeping woman’s face. I didn’t know what she was in jail for, all I knew was that she was a heck of a lot bigger then me. “Please don’t wake up, please don’t wake up…” I prayed silently. She groaned and I snatched my bag and scurried back up to the top bunk.
After securing my bag, I attempted to make the bed again. I spread out one blanket and the other one fell to the floor. I sighed and contemplated leaving it there. It was freezing cold though so I had to shimmy back down to the ground, get my blanket and climb back up the bunk bed. I finally gave up on making my bed, rolled my blankets around me like a cocoon and went to sleep wearing my shoes and jacket.