Pick a Team and Stay on the Bench

Prison is a game. A stressful survival game with rules that muse be followed. First rule is, pick a team, usually sorted by skin tone or ethnicity. Team choice is important. Some people try not choosing a team and go it alone. Loners are weak in numbers (one) and stand out. You never want to stand out. Pick a team and stay on the bench. Eat with your team, work out, walk, fraternize, barter and trade only with teammates.  If you want to have a stress-less prison stay, don’t buck the system. People who follow the rules but stay on their bunk are left alone.  
A Latino man was beat up yesterday by four guys and sent out by life flight. He wouldn’t pick a team, chose to play-poker, everybody knew they could take advantage of him because he had no backup. Now he has two battles, the need for heath care in prison and his own race against him.
Prison yards are volatile. Prison staff know it and try to keep the team “race” numbers as equal as possible. If you portray yourself as weak or sick you are looked at as a person using up space that a stronger team player could be in. Everything you say and do is being watched and judged. Almost every day someone leaves this yard either voluntarily “checking in” or forcefully. Despite your personal beliefs, self preservation requires that you follow the rules every second. This is a stress you live every second of your time here.

Comment Responses

The author sent some responses to comments on this blog.

Comment by Anonymous on post, "Make Up":
Q: What percent of your block do you think is HIV+?"
A: Each state has prisons scattered throughout. State prisons have contracts with one or more major hospitals to house inmates for hospital stays. Inmates with chronic medical needs will be housed only in the prisons closest to contract hospitals. Usually its the prisons closest to big cities. Inmates know they are on a highly medical yard because the med and pill call lines are ten times longer. There are a lot of people with canes, limited duty waivers and special medical diets. If you do nat have a visible impairment and are not an insulin diabetic, questions may be asked. Nobody can say who has HIV or how many have AIDS as there are a lot of people here who are not sick. Some are removed from other yards and placed here for "Protective Custody" reasons. I am friends with the medical porter and he estimates from what he sees and overhears that 25% of the 1100 on this block have HIV or Hepatitis C. That obviously doesn't count those who haven't tested. There in no mandatory testing, nor is there a push for voluntary testing.

Comment by Ashley Anderson on post, "Comments and Questions Welcome":
Q. What are the comparisons between the health care he [the author] was receiving prior to incarceration?
A. If you google "prison health care" you'll quickly see the lack of it nationwide. Incarceration is a business. Employers resist paying half your health insurance coverage on the outside, so prisons dont want to pay all medical expenses. Prisons resist, avoid and procrastinate diagnosing anything. If the diagnose it they have to make an effort to treat it. They do have the bare minimum to avoid lawsuits. On the streets I had a PCP plus dermatologist for skin cancer, neurologist for neuropathy, urologist, etc. Here in prison, there's nurses who answer "health needs requests" and after enough requests and complaining, you finally get to get to an all purpose doctor who finds a way to shoot down all requests. HIV care is all about preventing opportunistic infections and secondary illnesses on the outside. In prison its bedrest, warehousing and "drink lots of water." Pain medications are not allowed and if you dont come to prison with a current drug regimin, you will be prescribed an older, less expensive onc. I am the only person here on Issentress. Doctor has never heard of it. Its all about the dollar, especially now.

Shot Her in the Mouth, Part II

Every December 1, I make it a point to share my story with an inmate I think could benefit from it. This year the inmate chose me. Remember the “shot her in the mouth” guy? He came to me and asked me to help him write an introduction letter to three halfway houses. 

I immediately recognized one as a large AIDS organization. I told him I could definitely help him out, but asked, “why are you applying for this one?” He replied, “I wasn’t honest with you before.” He continued, “I actually shot my girlfriend because I tested positive then she disclosed she had known her status for years and hid it from me. In the heat of the moment, dealing with my diagnosis and her betrayal, I acted recklessly. That's why I only got 6 years for reduced manslaughter.” 

He then turned the tables on me and asked how I knew what an ASO [AIDS Service Organization] was.  That began my disclosure and life story. This guy has had nothing but questions ever since he was imprisoned right after diagnosis. Obviously I have to process the fact that he killed somebody. He is getting out in 6 months, no matter what. Not at least he is well educated, sober, and eager to be a contributor.

Superbowl Sunday

Get up or don't, nobody cares. Breakfast is served at 7:00am. Today we got:

6 oz. scrambled eggs with diced bologna ham

1 cup corm flakes

1 cup milk

1/2 cup grilled potatoes

1/2 cup canned fruit

2 slices of bread

3 oz. scoop of peanut butter

Weekend breakfasts are extra large as we only get 2 meals for the day.

The day is spent reading, working out, television, cards, visitation...the norm. Nobody wants to work on Superbowl Sunday so the prison operates on a skeleton crew. Dinner will be served in paper bags, so staff can watch the game. At 4:00, we received our bags that contained:

1 Hot dog bun

6 oz. roast beef

2 individually wrapped cheeses slices

1/2 oz. onion slices

1/2 oz/ tomato slices

1 snack size chips

3 duplex cookies

This meal was extra special, like Christmas and Thanksgiving. The only three meals with real unprocessed meat and fresh tomatoes. Still, knowing there wouldn’t be much food, I ordered some items from the store in advance and made my version of “Super Nachos”: nacho tortilla chips, topped with re fried beans, chili beans, jalapeno squeeze cheese, beef sausage, all stewed in an ice chest for 3 hours then poured over chips and topped with fresh jalapenos and a Green Bay Packers win!

IDU

I just finished cutting into some one's arm and pulling out a shard of plastic from their vein.  Thought you’d want to hear about it. 

Unless you have been there you will NEVER understand the world of IDU [injection drug use], not truly. Here’s an illustration:

Of course we get needles in prison. We get lots of them. Once in a while you can find a clean one. The most common place to get needles are from Health Unit porters or clerks that steal the ones used for insulin shots.

Some people in lock down, or with no money to buy a needle, have to invent new ways to get their fix. Here’s one way you probably haven’t come across: Clear Bic pens are melted at the end and pulled to a fine point, kind of like glass blowing. Just before hardening, a sewing needle is pushed in the tip to form a clear hole.  A pencil eraser on the end of a paper clip is used as a plunger. Unfortunately, the sharp plastic tips are brittle and many times break off in the vein.

“Its worth the risk!”, I am told.

HELP!

The prison systems do their best to limit inmates ability to access knowledge. An ignorant population is more manageable.  Inmate libraries do not contain any books on diet, health or medical diagnosis and treatment. 

We can personally receive most magazines but no medical books or PDRs. To win written grievances, we need supporting facts which are easily found on the Internet. Obviously we don’t have access here. 

In order to successfully argue for prisoner rights, I need help from someone to do a little research for me. Winning these battles enables me to tell others through my blog how to do it for themselves. If you have a computer, printer and a little spare time, please let us know. We can then make arrangements to communicate.

Thank you!

Editors note: The author doesn't want to further burden me with this task. There really isn't much time involved. If you are able to help, post a comment on this post and I will contact you with more details.