On Wednesday the 26th, there was a General Recall at about 11:40. This means that everyone must return back to their cell. This happens periodically – usually when their count is off, a door is left unlocked somewhere or the electric fence somehow gets turned off. I left work and was thinking about all the things I was going to get done that afternoon with an extra 2.5 hours allotted to me.
At about 12:15, a swarm of C.O.’s came to our unit and told us to go outside and not take anything with us – no books, no radios, nothing. When we walked out the door, we were all wanded. We then went to another station where we were patted down and a third station where we took off our socks & shoes and they were both inspected one by one. We then walked around a pole that somehow could detect for electronics. From there, we went to inside recreation room, where we stayed for about 3.5 hours while they searched each of our rooms.
Our room does not have anything, but there was some general concern because when they search your lockers, they can leave it strewn all over the floor for you when you return. While walking back to the unit, they handed everyone a new bedroll with 2 sheets & a blanket – so it was obvious before we even got to our cells that they had taken our old sheets and blankets (it was a shame for me because I just washed mine last week). When I was back in my room, I saw that they had taken my pillow (I had a home-made pillow because there are no issued pillows) and all my button down shirts. I was curious why they took the shirts, but we soon found out that they will be taking all the button down shirts and khakis with buttons & belts back because they are transitioning us to T-shirts/sweatshirts and elastic band khakis. I am really not looking forward to this because I like wearing shirts & pants that look a little dressier. Elastic band pants look exactly like something a prisoner would wear – very sloppy and they don’t have any pockets. Now there will be even more guys walking around with their hands down their pants!
It turned out that the C.O.’s found a couple batches of home-made hootch (wine made from sugar & fruits, brewing in a plastic bag), a phone or 2 and some drugs. I don’t think any of this was found on our 1st floor – nearly all on the 2nd & 3rd floors. I heard that several guys got taken to the SHU – Segregated Housing Unit.
While I was at work yesterday, I heard that they were again raiding our unit. As it turned out, some of the cops got some fentanyl on their clothes on Wednesday and they came in with HazMat suits to clean out and sterilize the rooms where this was found. No one else had anything checked in their room – but people still had to leave the rooms to go to the rec room again. Fortunately, I was at work, so it didn’t affect me.
I guess they raid units about every six months or so and this was my first experience. One guy’s first day was on Monday and he was really freaking out. I told him to calm down and just follow me, which he did. I made a new friend out of the deal as he did not have anyone else to talk to while in rec. He got a 15-month sentence for cockfighting. Here are just a couple of the interesting things you face in prison!
