Another Day (by Lifer Renee)
Renee - She was only a teenager when she received a sixty-year sentence from a judge in Pima County. Fourteen years into her sentence, Renee is writing from Perryville prison in Goodyear, Arizona, providing a rare and unique insight into a women's prison.
I scrambled to get out of the call center. I logged out, submitted my time sheet, and Jen told me we were locked down. I thought, Well, there go all my plans for the day. So much for exercising.
We asked the guards why we were locked down. Sergeant Nash said we could be locked down five days a week as long as he is here, and we only have two officers on duty.
I walked across the hot dusty track that has been freshly grated. All I could think about were the staph infections, herpes and strep throat that have been running rampant.
I walked in the gate to have my door accessed. It was 90 degrees with no air on. I knew my room was going to be an oven. I opened the door, and I was welcomed to a cell that has no air circulating. I spent an hour trying to position my little fans to move the air around me. I covered the windows just enough to block the sun, but not enough to get into trouble.
A girl was taken from SMA in an ambulance. She’d hung herself, but I don’t know if she died.
Click here for Renee's previous blog
Download my jail book, Hard Time, for FREE
Renee - She was only a teenager when she received a sixty-year sentence from a judge in Pima County. Fourteen years into her sentence, Renee is writing from Perryville prison in Goodyear, Arizona, providing a rare and unique insight into a women's prison.
I scrambled to get out of the call center. I logged out, submitted my time sheet, and Jen told me we were locked down. I thought, Well, there go all my plans for the day. So much for exercising.
We asked the guards why we were locked down. Sergeant Nash said we could be locked down five days a week as long as he is here, and we only have two officers on duty.
I walked across the hot dusty track that has been freshly grated. All I could think about were the staph infections, herpes and strep throat that have been running rampant.
I walked in the gate to have my door accessed. It was 90 degrees with no air on. I knew my room was going to be an oven. I opened the door, and I was welcomed to a cell that has no air circulating. I spent an hour trying to position my little fans to move the air around me. I covered the windows just enough to block the sun, but not enough to get into trouble.
A girl was taken from SMA in an ambulance. She’d hung herself, but I don’t know if she died.
Click here for Renee's previous blog
Download my jail book, Hard Time, for FREE
Shaun Attwood
Hi Renee,
ReplyDeleteMy heart stopped when I read your entry..my first Thanksgiving at PerryVille I was housed on 26yard in kitchen 23 just out of a 2 1/2 month stay in R&A and we were in line to get our cold meal on a styrafoam tray to eat on our bunks, when the same call came over Walshe's Radio you could here a pin drop as the words rang out in a somewhat hysterical voice on the other end. "She has a sheet wrapped around her neck and she's not breathing" tears sprung from my eyes,as they are now while I write this we all just looked at each other in horror then looked out the window,as we could see SMA from our window and the ambulance came screaming in. The saddest part and two things that burn in my memory that sickened me was that some inmates were pissin and moanin cause we were locked down and they wouldn't get to smoke! I stood there wanting to scream so I did " What the F*** is wrong with you people someone like us could be ur friend, ur bunky felt so bad they took thier life and all u b*****S can think about is F*****g smoking OMG you all make me sick" I cried myself to sleep that night silently wondering how I was going to survive the next 2.5 years and as my eyes locked with the black girl across the way,(Trey My Dog, I love you girl) I could see her tears too and she gently whispered "I Got U" and I sniffled and whispered back " I Got U Back" nothing else needed to be said.From that moment on we were and still are the best of friends and we had each others back on good days and bad days and thats what got me through so many more moments such as that. The other unbelievable thing was the staff acted like it NEVER happened when I inquired to another CO the next day as to if the inmate was ok I was told that we must have heard in correctly that nothing of that nature had occured and to go about my business. I feel you Renee, I feel you!