DannyBoyinExile

When I hear other inmates complaining about lockdown these days, I laugh to myself, because they don’t know how good they’ve got it! I’ve been in TDCJ since 1995. Back then, we had REAL lockdowns. We would go months at a time without hot meals – and there was no such thing as the “lockdown schedule” they use now, where they progressively release us, and we gain more privileges each week.
After surviving on nothing but sandwiches, three times a day, for months – people get desperate. It wasn’t long before someone decided that they’d be better off going to Ad Seg (where they’d at least eat hot meals) than to remain on lockdown and slowly starve. So they’d do something drastic to ENSURE they’d go to seg, such as jumping on the first guard they saw. This became so common that they used to bring a 5-man team, dressed in riot gear, when they opened our cell doors to hand us our meals – and they’d still get jumped on sometimes.
Fast forward to 2023, where the norm is known as a 23:59… By TDCJ policy, when they keep inmates on lockdown for longer than 24 hours, they have to justify it to their regional supervisors (the Warden’s bosses). This isn’t for humanitarian concerns, but financial ones: they want to know exactly why they are spending so much money on bread, peanut butter, jelly, paper sacks, etc. – in addition to the regular meals they’re still preparing for everyone else.
Their solution is the 23:59. This means that a certain wing (or even the entire unit) will be placed on lockdown for just one day – which gives them long enough to investigate whatever problem arose, and move the inmates involved to lockup. Then it’s back to business as usual, for the other inmates.
Guys still complain about being on lockdown because of something that someone else did – but a day on lockdown is tolerable, especially now that we have the tablets. And it really is in our best interests, as they’re trying to get to the bottom of the situation, and isolate the people involved.
As I write this, we’re actually ON a 23:59. I can overhear other people’s complaints, and I realize that some people are just chronic complainers. I’m tempted to quote Shakespeare to them (“Methinks thou doth protest too much!”), but they probably wouldn’t understand the reference. Yes, it’s hot. But honestly, if we WEREN’T on lockdown right now, I STILL couldn’t wait to get back in my cell! It’s much cooler when I can strip down to my boxers, wet myself, and sit under my fans. Besides – who am I to complain about a little extra tablet time? =-)
This, too, shall pass. I try to keep in mind that things could always be worse. In fact, they HAVE been worse, even if many of these guys are too young to realize how much things have changed. Many people in the world have it much worse than we do, even today – so I try to be grateful for the privileges I do still have, even if I’m just an inmate. So says DannyBoy.