Inside Views

3C Report Extra Info

A few examples of that it is like in jails. 

 

1. Shediac Provincial Prison

The housing units are large, 3 levels with 10 cells each, open onto a central common area. There is an exercise room, a meeting room and an outside yard. With 2 inmates per cell the total unit population can be up to 60. There is one phone and two shower stalls per level. The guard station is next to the exit and the medic window, where methadone and daily drugs are given out. There is only one set of stairs leading from the common area to the upper levels. Each cell is 7x14 ft in size, with a bunk-bed at the far end. Near the door is the stainless steel sink-toilet unit. There is also a desk-shelf unit and two plastic stools. The big overhead light is dimmed at night but never turned off.

Getting to sleep can be a challenge. You want to do something to block the light, of course you are not allowed to. Naturally inmates get creative with this issue. There is lots of time to dwell on anything you care to focus on. The mattress is a 2inch piece of foam, encased in plastic. You are supposed to have a pillow, but sometimes you don't get one. Likewise you are supposed to have two blankets but you don't allays get both. You do have a small window next to your bed.

Your clothing is grey Walmart sweatpants and t-shirts, a sweatshirt is supposed to be issued, but that is seemingly random. If you get one never send it to the launder. Hand wash it, if you want to keep it. You also get socks and underwear, use at own risk. Shoes are floppy slippers. You are not allowed any outside clothing or jewellery or a watch.

In theory each level is allowed out for recreation 1 hour in morning, afternoon and evening. That is a total of 3 hours / day you are out of your cell. Rec-time includes showering, phone calls and yard time. If it is dark in the evening you are not allowed in the yard; which is a 20x40 foot area with solid walls and a fenced over top, so you can see the sky but nothing else. There was next to nothing in the common area, people just walked in circles there. You are never allowed to go in anyone else cell. Rec-time is also when you ask the guards if there is any mail for you or give them any out-going letters. Naturally you have to ask them for pens, paper, envelopes and toilet paper too.

You receive 3 meals per day. Each level is unlocked, comes to the common area, picks up the trays and returns to the cells to eat. After about an hour the process is repeated to drop off the trays. The food was not horrible. Many inmates would try to save something to have as an evening snack. There were vending machines, which were stocked once / week with junk-food and a few other things. If you had someone outside put money on your card you could buy stuff this way. Usually the machine was cleared out fast so it was really only once / week you could get anything.

There is no library access. A book cart comes around about once / month. You take as many as you can, only supposed to take 3, then you trade as you finish reading them. You can rent a TV, for $80/month. You are supposed to be issued with a small radio, but this is a random thing you may or may not get when you arrive.

The unit I spent time on was a mixed one. The upper level being reserved for PCs; those in “protective custody”. Because of the type of crime they committed or because of interactions with fellow inmates, any PC was labelled a sex offender or a rat. Naturally the more upstanding inmates looked down on the PCs ant took every opportunity to yell insults at them.

I did not see very much violence in my time there, just a few short fights and a few times the guards came in full riot suits to drag someone off to the hole. There were however many threats of violence, and rumours about who was going to get who. The most aggravating thing was the constant yelling and vulgar insults as the “solid” criminals tried to display their superiority over the PCs.

There was absolutely no distinction between prisoners on remand and those serving their sentences. There were no educational classes, no rehabilitation programs, no religious or spiritual activities. In the event that the jail was on lock down, rec-time was cancelled. This happened because of emergencies and short staffing due to snow storms and nice summer days. We could also lose rec-time as punishment if the level misbehaved.

When you first arrive in jail fear of the unknown is very strong. What will happen next? What is the daily schedule like? What is expected of you, by the guards, by the other prisoners? What are the people like? How should you deal with aggressive or violent inmates? Will it be safe to sleep or take a shower? A lot of questions will run through your mind. If you have been in any jail before, you will still have these questions when you arrive in a new place, they will simply be less panic inducing and more a mater of necessary survival adaptation.

Perhaps the most important question is; what is my cellmate like? As you will be spending lots of time with him, locked in a small room, its something you have to figure out fast. If you are very lucky you may end up with someone you can actually enjoy spending time with. If you are very unlucky then your time will be hellish, as you must watch everything you say and never turn your back on him. But as with most things in life, you are likely to get some cellmate who is in the middle of the spectrum.

The subject of getting along with your cellmate can not be over stressed, especially when you are locked in for 20+ hours each day. Sleeping and reading can take up a lot of those hours, but life will be much more tolerable if you can find some common ground to talk about. Humans are social animals. You see this expressed very well in prison, both in positive and negative ways. You must interact with fellow inmates to some degree. You don't need to make friends, yet at the same time that is exactly what you must do.

The next most important question is; what hobbies can you develop to kill time? Considering there is very little you are allowed to have in your cell, you must be creative. A lot of people play cards, this is ok if you and your cellmate get along and no one is upset when they lose. You can spend lots of time writing letters to friends and family. But this may turn out to be a bit disappointing because very few people reply, very often. If you like to write in general, jail is a great place for that. Keep a journal, write short stories or a book, take up poetry. But remember the guards can read you stuff at anytime and they may toss it out during a cell search. Other inmates may also get hold of your writing to pass it around or destroy it. Drawing can be a good hobby, but they do not give you pencils just pens.

By this point you may be thinking; going to jail does not sound very hard. Let me tell you it is. Anyone who has been there will usually joke about the stuff that happened. That is a way to cope with the trauma. Even if you suffer no physical abuse, the environment will make you suffer mentally. Especially Shediac Jail, in my experience. A million small things add up to make the place awful. Its hard to explain unless you live it.

2. Dalhousie Provincial Prison

The housing units are small, 2 levels with 5 cells each, for a total population of 20 inmates. There is a common room with a big tv, bench seats, a few tables, and 3 phones. There is a guard post next to the exit. There is no yard or weight room for the individual unit. These facilities are shared among all units. There is a complicated scheduled giving you 1 hour of time / day to use them.

There seems to be a higher standard of behaviour expected from inmates here. On the bright side the treatment is much better. You stand outside your cell door at 7am each morning for the count, then there is cleaning duty, then breakfast. You are allowed in the common area all morning. After lunch is lock up until diner time, then you are allowed out for the evening. At 10pm there is another standing count and its into your cell for the night. So you could be out of your cell for about 11 hours of the day.

The smaller unit size and the pattern of daily activity go a long way to making the place more tolerable. Assuming you do not have any serious problems with another inmate. You can pass your time in more social and civilized ways. In Shediac the environment conditions you to be a caged animal, at Dalhousie the environment is more human. The lack of screaming crazy people goes a long way to improve mental health. Guys play a lot of cards and the game are usually quite friendly.

There is a rec-room with some old Nintendo games, a ping pong table and a guitar, the vending machines are located there. A complicated scheduled is used because the room is shared with all the units. As I recall you got 2 visits / week of 1 hour each. If your unit was misbehaving or if there was a lack of staff, the rec-room visit was cancelled. But punishment was not the only idea at work here. If your unit did very well, with cleaning and behaviour, you would be given a new-release movie to watch on Saturday, with free chips and pop. The book cart came around every other week, however the selection on it rarely changed. There was a library room but we were not allowed there.

More importantly there was a GED education program being run and there was church service on Sunday. Unfortunately there was no real rehabilitation programs or job skill training.

The clothing was grey, the mattress was thin, just like in Shediac. However here there seemed to be no shortage of pillows, sweatshirts and radios. You got these things when you arrived. The cells themselves were very much like those in Shediac, with a small but important change; the light fixture was oriented differently so that you did not get it shining in your eyes as much at night.

My time at Dalhousie jail was relatively good, in part because of the environment, but mostly because I met some people who were easy to get along with. The quality of people you associate with has a lot to do with how you cope in any situation. In my time there, only once did a fight brake out and only once did anyone get dragged off the unit by the guards. Prison sucks at its best, but it is a huge improvement to pass your days not being fearful of getting ambushed and assaulted.

Looking at the two prisons  I do think Dalhousie is a much better place in terms of how it functions. A multitude of small units is much better than a few big blocks. Because the environments can be tailored to the type of inmates being held in them. Also the philosophy at work expresses some understanding of the normalization principle; reward and penalization for behaviour, not just punishment, socialization of people, not just caging of the animals.

3. Springhill Federal Prison

The time I spent there was in “reception” and is not an accurate reflection of what regular life at the institute may be like. When you are sent to a federal jail, you undergo a period of close confinement and evaluation. A weak or two in solitary, then 3 to 6 weeks on the range. The building used for this was one of the oldest. The cells were about 5x12ft in size, with a single bed, a sink-toilet unit and a desk-shelf unit, most amazingly to me at that point, there was a light switch, so you could actually sleep in the dark. The building was divided into several ranges; a hallway with cells, showers, a phone and a mini kitchen/laundry room. There were 14 cells on a range. At the centre of the building was the guard post “the bubble”. Next to it was a common room, but this was closed during my time there.

There was a service counter next to the bubble, that is were we went to get out meal trays. We ate in out cells. We did not return the trays directly, but dropped them off at the next meal time. The food was horrible.

While in solitary, we were allowed out for 30 minutes in the yard, but only ever 2 inmates at a time. Also we were allowed on the range for 1 hour in the evening to shower, use the phone etc. There were a few books. There were no radios issued.

We got blue jeans and blue t-shirts for clothing, black sneakers and green jackets too. The mattress was even thinner than those in provincial, perhaps because they were 20 years old.

The building housed several types of criminals including a PC range. However because of how it was set up, there was little yelling of insults. Those did sometimes come from the outside, as other inmates had their free time.

While on the range, we got 1 hour / day of yard time. Also we were allowed out of our cells for most of the evening 5-10pm and most of the week end. We joked that it was our job to be a prisoner. We were allowed over to the gym, which was in its own building, once / week, but this often got cancelled. There was not much to do on the range, it was basically just a hallway. There were a few books to read. You could have a small tv sent in and pass the time that way. Fortunately for those with out a tv, we were allowed hang out in other people’s cells, so if you made friends with a guy who had one, you could pass a few hours each evening watching tv.

There is some good and bad to be said for having a cell all to yourself. You did not have to worry about a crazy cellmate. But also you did not have anyone to talk with. The isolation sure did give you time to think.

There were only a few fights on my range when I was there. One because of laundry the other because of the phone. Both were short and did no serious damage. There was some tension because of some guys, but overall it was not dangerous.

There was testing and evaluation interviews. A long talk with a parole officer, who would make recommendations about your placement; minimum or medium. Also questions to determine if you needed a program or not. According to the formula I did not need one, but I put in a request to have one anyhow, because I wanted the help to understand it all.

4. Dorchester Minimum Federal Prison

It is not like what people imagine a prison to be, unlike the old Dorchester Medium Pen which is exactly the stereotype of a prison. The minimum sector is a lot of open land surrounded by a single fence. Being there is something of a privilege and there are a dozen ways you can be sent “over the wall” into the medium sector to serve your time. For example there is no tolerance for violence and fighting.

It is rather like a village, that you can not leave. Most of the housing units are small houses, with 4 double occupancy rooms or 6 single rooms upstairs and a kitchen living area downstairs. There is also a building that has apartment style dorms, each with 8 single rooms. The aim here is to provide a level of normality that will help re-integrate inmates with regular life. The rooms do not feel at all like cells. There is also a housing unit for the elderly.

The main building holds; a medical block, staff offices, the guards’ main desk, a visitor centre, the library, the gym and a few specialized recreation rooms. It is where you drop off and pick up the mail. Nearby is the school and programs building. There is a specialized building for psychology. More important than that, for most people, is the chapel. Then, perhaps most important of all is the sports field, with the track. Many many inmates pass lots of hours walking the track, alone lost in thought or in pairs talking about whatever they really need to talk about.

This is a point I really want to stress. The ability to walk out of your housing unit, down to the track, and around in circles is a huge sort of freedom over the tightly confined environments of other prisons. It makes you feel more human. If you want a private chat or if you want some alone time, you go walk the track.

Of course the place is a prison. There are rules. You are locked in your housing units over night, from 10pm to 7am. There is a standing count when everyone must be in their rooms at noon and 5pm. But compared to being locked in a 7x14 box for over 20 hours each day, it is paradise.

Unlike most prisons, meals are not made in a central kitchen. Each person makes a grocery list every week, having a set budget to work with. Once per week the groceries are picked up from the distribution centre. You can do your own cooking as each kitchen is equipped with all the normal things you would expect to find in a house. This is an other important normalizing factor, as some guys may have forgotten how to cook while in traditional confinement, if they ever knew how in the first place.

Some houses elect a cook and pool their grocery funds, while in others its every man for himself. Some houses have a set scheduled of cleaning chores, others are more free-for-all; everyone just helps clean on Saturday morning. The guards insist that things be kept neat, but they do not hover around to say how and when cleaning must be done.

On the subject of money, there is no cash. Grocery funds are purely fictional numbers on paper. What is real is your account that can be used to buy stuff at the canteen and to put money on your phone card. You can have money sent into your account from the outside. You can also work to earn it. Unfortunately the rate of pay is a bad joke; $5 / day. If you do not have a job you get welfare pay $2 / day. On the bright side taking a program or other educational class does count as a job.

It is a serious issue in terms of planning for your eventual release. Saving up for an apartment rental, damage deposit and utilities, is next to impossible under the current system.

You are allowed some personal items to be sent in a “pen box” when you first arrive. You are allowed a small TV. If you have one or not, a monthly deduction is taken from your account to pay for the cable service. Of course you are allowed to buy items from the canteen. There is/was also a purchasing office that allowed you to buy certain items from outside. So if you hear about prisoners enjoying any luxury items, it is their own money they used not tax payer funds.

There are a wide range of jobs, some you can learn useful skills at, others not at all. Some jobs even allow inmates to work off site, if they qualify for it. There is basic GED education to gain a high school equivalency. There are various job skills courses run on a complicated scheduling system, so its kind of random if you get into one of these.

There are rehabilitation programs. As that is one of the aims of the institute. However not all inmates are required to take a program. You can drop out, but this looks very bad on you when it comes to parole time. Most inmates stick with the program even if they do not take it seriously as useful life changing knowledge.