Untitled by Jay Goodman

I have looked around me every day at how the craziness of prison, how it’s run by the administration and how the prisoners accept things that the administration does. I am well aware that each prison has rules and regulations that need to be followed, I am at where I get that now in my life. I give it my best shot each day to stay out of the way and be polite to everyone around me. Believe me after almost two decades I am tired of the bullshit that goes on inside here. When I see what the administration does, I wonder why they have to act that way. I am a firm believer in you will get what’s coming to you, if a prisoner does something wrong and they screw him over, well he had that coming, but if the cell block isn’t giving the administration any trouble, why come in and tear our belongings up? You would think that would be reserved for the ones giving them trouble, but about a week ago the administration came inside the cell block I live in, took all of the prisoners outside to the rec yard, while they tore all of our cells up. I am sure one would think, well you’re in prison, so what that they searched your cells? Well, while that is true, I am in prison, I am well aware that I will have my things searched, there is a big difference in searching my cell and tearing it up.

The guards locked us in our cells around 7:30 in the morning, while all of the guards and people in administration opened one cell at a time, searched the two prisoners and sent them off to the rec yard. After all of us were gone, around twenty guards and administration began searching our cells. About three hours later they brought us back. They literally tore our stuff up, not just contraband, but took our personal belongings, like sweatshirts, sweat pants, t shirts, bowls, commissary, even people’s medication. They opened people’s rice, beans, coffee and other food items, and just dumped them on the floor. Even if they needed to look inside the bag, which is clear, everyone has a bowl. They even dumped everything together to keep people from scraping it off the floor to put back in the bag. When people asked our case worker or counselor why they did this, they were told to file a tort claim. When some tried to ask for a grievance form, they were told to get the fuck away. There were dozens of people that lost books their families had mailed to them, many tried to get their books back, but were told no, file a tort claim. Before they took us outside, someone in administration had taped a form on each door, this paper was to inform each cell of what was taken out of our cells, but when we came back, all of those papers had been removed, why do you believe they did this? Because they didn’t want anyone to have documentation of what all they took, to do that would have given us proof of them taking our personal items. Like I said, if a prisoner does something wrong and the administration tore something up, I would understand, it doesn’t give them the right to do it, but I would at least understand. Since I arrived here at this prison in 2020, this seems to be the norm for how they conduct themselves here. There have been countless times people that live in the cell block with me have been taken to isolation, when that happens the guard working in here is supposed to secure the prisoners belongings so no one can steal anything, but I have never seen it happen, not once.

To give an example of what goes on, I have a friend in here, Greg that arrived here during the Covid lock down, since he was new at this prison, he was allowed to make commissary. He was here maybe twenty-four hours; the guard shook down his cell and found some hooch. They sent Greg and his cellie to the captain’s office, the cellie told them right away that the hooch was his, plus they saw Greg had just got here the day before, so they knew he had nothing to do with it, but they still put him in isolation. When he went to court, his cellie told them again the hooch was his, so they let Greg out of isolation. When he got back to the cell block and got his property, the guards had stolen sixty something dollars of his commissary. Of course, when he talked to our counselor and unit manager, he was told to file a tort claim. One would think that our unit managers and counselors would go out of their way to help a prisoner that lived in their unit, but they wouldn’t even look in to it. Greg lived in the cell straight in front of mine, so I personally saw the guard pack up his and his cellie’s belongings, so there is only one person who could have stolen Greg’s things, either the guard who packed up his things, or the guards who work in the place our property is stored. When I asked Greg how his tort claim was coming, he said “The institution said because there is no lock on his lock, they were not responsible.” Now just to show you how stupid the administration is, Greg had a lock, but let’s just say he didn’t, all the institution would have had to do was look at the video from all the cameras in our cell block, and they would have saw if someone had gone into his cell and stole his commissary.

A thought just crossed my mind, they probably did view the cameras, saw that the guard locked Greg’s cell door just like I did when he was sent back to the Captain’s office. So, they knew, just like I did, that the staff had stolen Greg’s commissary. One would think since they could just view the video to establish the truth, that our counselor or unit manager would have done this and of course one would surely think the administration or warden would have viewed the video to do a thorough investigation, but of they would have done their jobs at every area they would have had to say, it was our staff who stole Greg’s things. That is an absolute fact. Here is a guard or guards that steal our commissary and other personal items, and instead of putting a stop to it, they give them a green light to continue stealing and mistreating the prisoners in their care. A lot of fault does fall on the prisoners, I have seen many that have had their belongings stolen when they went to isolation. I have yet to see one who was willing to file the tort claims and back it up with the grievance process. Greg did file the tort claim, but after he received his answer about not having a lock, he did just like everyone else in here does, which is to say fuck it, they’re not going to do anything about it anyway. Which is exactly what the administration anticipates, they are well aware of how 90 to 95% of prisoners think. The administration knows that at first when they steal our belongings, the inmate will be frustrated and want to do whatever he can to get his things back, but they also know that by the time the unit manager and counselor basically tell him to go fuck himself, the administration makes the prisoners wait weeks, well truthfully months, before they get an answer back on the tort claim. Which is a rubber stamp saying that they don’t see any misconduct. The administration knows that by now the prisoner has already been to the store many times, replaced all of his stuff and is happy like a child who got all his toys back.

Like my friend Greg, who at first vowed to take them to court, but once he had a locker box full of goodies, the thought of actually having to put a little work in to make these people pay him for the commissary they jacked from him, becomes a distant dream, just as the Federal Prison system knows, the inmates will just bend over and take it.