Thanksgiving week. One of the biggest holidays of the year—and I spent it locked up. It sucked, but I’ll use it as an opportunity to share what celebrating one of America’s favorite holidays looks like from behind bars.
When we got to the chow hall at 11 a.m., everyone was curious about the meal. Turns out… it wasn’t great. We got a big, slimy slab of turkey (I only knew it was turkey because they told us—it looked more like roast beef). There was stuffing that looked canned, mashed potatoes with gravy, and a burnt piece of what was supposedly pumpkin pie.
As we filed through the line, they also handed us a sack lunch with our dinner inside. Since staff go home for the holiday, there’s no evening chow. So dinner was a piece of frozen roast beef (again, identical to the “turkey”), two slices of bread, two slices of cheese, an apple, a peanut butter pouch, and an oatmeal brownie.
But the real Thanksgiving meals were made inside the cubes. Starting around 3 p.m., the whole unit came alive with cooking—mac and cheese, real pies, cheesecake, broccoli and cheese, and more creative dishes than I can list. The guys really made the best of a bad situation.
Not the best Thanksgiving I’ve ever had. Not the worst.
Something else happened on Thanksgiving, but it needs some backstory. In prison, they run counts every few hours. They announce it over the loudspeaker, and we all have to stand silently by our beds while guards walk through and count us. They take it seriously. If someone messes up a count by talking, moving, or being in the wrong place, retaliation often comes later in the form of a full-wing search.
Well, last Tuesday during one of these counts, a guard was walking past a cube when someone’s contraband phone started ringing—right as he passed. It was unbelievably stupid timing. The guard yelled, “Whoever’s phone that is, bring it to me.” Nobody moved. He warned there would be consequences. Still nothing. He left furious.
That wasn’t my wing—it was the one above mine—but based on what happened Thanksgiving night, the story checks out.
Around 8 p.m., when everyone was relaxing, full from their cube-made meals and watching football, a guard stormed into Wing 3. He told everyone to line up and started patting people down as he pushed them out of the wing. While the line formed, people could hear metal hitting metal. The guard didn’t find anything on anybody, but he did find seven phones in the bathroom trash can. Seems several guys tossed their phones before he could search them.
Looks like his way of getting payback for the messed-up count.
Other than that, it’s been a quiet few days. RDAP was off for the holiday and most staff were gone. Honestly, it makes time move painfully slow. When you’re this close to going home—18 days—time crawls like molasses.
Workout-wise, I’m doing great. I restarted my Sunday fasts and hit 7 chin-ups today. Getting closer to my goal of 10. Not sure if I can squeeze that much progress into two weeks, but I’m giving it everything I’ve got.Stay legal and safe out there,
Larry
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