[Pnews] Voices from Solitary: A Day in the Life, Part III

[Prisoner News]

  Voices from Solitary: A Day in the Life, Part III

March 3, 2014 By
*http://solitarywatch.com/2014/03/03/voices-solitary-day-life-part-iii/*

//This post is the third in a series of pieces Solitary Watch is 
publishing as part of a new project calling for people held in solitary 
confinement to write on various proposed themes (read the first and 
second entries here <http://solitarywatch.com/2014/02/18/pender/> and 
here 
<http://solitarywatch.com/2014/02/24/voices-solitary-day-life-part-ii/>). O///ur 
first suggested theme, /"A Day in the Life," /calls for writers to 
describe a day in his or her life in solitary confinement.//
///

///Not long ago, Joseph Dole, occasional contributor to Solitary Watch, 
kept a daily log in which he chronicles three weeks of his life in 
solitary confinement in the now-closed 
<http://solitarywatch.com/2013/01/09/the-end-of-tamms-supermax/> Tamms 
state supermax ///as part of the Anne Frank Prison Diary Project. The 
following is an excerpt of what he wrote. The full text can be found on 
the Real Cost of Prisons Project 
<http://www.realcostofprisons.org/writing/dole_prison_diary.pdf>, which 
maintains an excellent collection of writing by people behind bars. 
///////--Lisa Dawson/

/*?????*/

I'm really getting started late today. I just got out of bed about 
fifteen minutes ago and only got about five hours of sleep. Five 
interrupted hours of sleep though as Yip and Yap were sporadically going 
at it all night. These guys drive me nuts but I get along with both of 
them and try to understand that not only are they clearly mentally ill, 
but also that a lot of what they do are clear symptoms of what is 
commonly referred to as "SHU Syndrome" (Secure Housing Unit Syndrome) 
and what we call Tamms Syndrome.

What cracks me up is that they are completely oblivious as to how much 
they disturb the rest of the wing. They were screaming at each other in 
the middle of the night and in the wee hours of the morning and thirty 
seconds after they stop one of them calmly calls me as if nothing has 
been going on, and asks me to spell a word for him -- at five in the 
morning, when I know at least two other guys are trying to sleep.

Most days I feel like "information", you know, when you call "411"? Or 
nowadays I guess it's more like "Ask Jeeves". Instead I'm like "Cell 
Seven how may I help you?". All day every day guys are calling up here 
asking me to help them with stuff, or to ask me questions, or to look 
something up, etc. Some days I just have to tell everyone to stay off my 
door. Otherwise I'll never be able to finish what I need to finish.

One guy -- Yip, one of the screamers -- I have to intentionally be rude 
to for him to leave me alone. If I don't he will try and start a 
thousand conversations just so he can have something to do. He can't 
read past like a first grade level. The only genre that holds his 
attention long enough to even make him try to read are books about 
street life or erotic novels. He has so little knowledge about nearly 
every subject imaginable that the majority of his questions are 
completely illogical and even when they are coherent enough for you to 
understand them you need to explain a hundred other things first. The 
whole time though he's not really interested in the conversation. He 
just wants to hear someone talk. Whenever the conversation starts 
winding down he'll ask another question which usually has no connection 
to what you were talking about, or just as often evidences that he 
didn't listen to anything you just said.

Why does he do it? Because he's in his cell with no TV, no radio, 
uneducated, and can't read or write to pass the time. So his choice is 
usually to try and get someone to talk to him or scream at Yap his 
nemesis. He is so desperate to talk to anyone that he drives the guards 
crazy hitting the emergency intercom button, stops the guards every time 
they come on the wing every half hour to make rounds (to make sure no 
one escaped or that no one else has killed themselves) and every time he 
sees anyone come on the pod he screams at the top of his lungs, all to 
try to get them to come talk to him. Why they put him in cell #1 (the 
only cell that can see everything that happens out in the main area of 
the pod) is beyond me. They hate him screaming for people yet put him in 
the only cell that gives him a view to even know that someone has 
entered the pod. He knows every employee in the institution and nearly 
every mundane detail of their personal lives. The car they drive, which 
of their family members work for the IDOC, who they're dating, married 
to, etc.

I went off on a tangent again. Back to feeling like "Ask Jeeves". For 
the next few hours I'm going to log every time someone calls up here and 
asks me for help or information. There are only eight guys on this wing 
altogether. One, Yap, is completely antisocial. The only time he has 
talked to anyone in the past month was when screaming or cussing out 
another guy. (Yip). Anyway I'll start by recording what has already 
happened:

4:30 AM:

Cell #1 -- Asks me if I know what the temperature will be today.

5:00 AM:

Cell #1 -- Asks me how to spell the word "gave".

6:47 AM:

Cell #1 -- Tries to start a conversation. I tell him it's too early for 
that.

8:15 AM:

Cell #6 -- Asks me what time it is.

8:16 AM:

Cell #1 -- Asks me what's going on in Liberia (He pronounces it 
Libreria, but actually means Libya).

8:30 AM -- 9:45 AM (while taking a shower):

Cell #6 -- Asks me how to calculate compound interest.

Cell #1 -- Asks me, if "technically" is spelled t,e,m,e,r,i,t,y. He's 
looking at "temerity" in the  dictionary. It takes me five minutes to 
try and figure out what he's actually looking at though because what he 
actually asks is "Is 'technically' spelled e,t,t,e,r,t,e,m,r,t,y?"

I say "no". He's obviously dyslexic. Instead of trying to teach him to 
read to even minimally prepare him for release next year, the 
administration would rather deny him any education and send him out as 
an illiterate 41-year-old parolee.

10:00 AM:

Cell #2 -- Asks me if I know of any legal cases that show that if your 
defense attorney argues to the jury that you should be found guilty -- 
that that constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel.

11:00 AM:

Cell # 8 -- Asks me about a new case that says Miranda rights can be 
curtailed for terrorism suspects.

11:05 AM:

Cell #1 -- Asks me about electronic filing in federal court.

11:06 AM:

Cell #1 -- Asks me about jurisdiction.

11:10 AM:

Cell #3 -- Asks me about constitutional issues for a Post-Conviction 
Petition.

11:25 AM:

Cell #2 -- Asks me to look up cases for him.

12:15 AM:

Cell #2 -- asks me to look up a statute for him and explain part of it. 
etc. etc, etc. Some days this is normal, some days it is much worse. 
Once in a while an anomaly occurs and no one calls me all day. I love 
those days!

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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