DannyBoyinExile

After weeks of rumors and speculation, we’ve finally been placed on lockdown for yet another annual shakedown. Honestly, why they call it an “annual shakedown” has always eluded me. I mean, I understand the shakedown part well enough – they search the entire unit for contraband. I just never understood the “annual” part, because they do it every six months! Wouldn’t it make more sense to call it biannual, or biyearly? I’m not sure if this has ever occurred to anyone but me – but these are the things you think of, when you’re locked in a cell all day.
Now I’m back to the basics, getting reacquainted with the lockdown routine. I’ve always admired the Spartans – and it’s a good thing, because our meals on lockdown are definitely Spartan. With few exceptions, sandwiches are the norm. Two sandwiches per sack meal (one meat, and one PBJ), three times a day. Yesterday, for example, we had salami and PBJ for lunch, then two corn dogs and PBJ for dinner. I know a few toddlers who would be delighted with that… Grown men in prison? Not so much. But noone will starve, and many of these guys could stand to lose a few pounds, at any rate!
During the last lockdown, several guys used their tablet phones to complain to their families about the sack meals, and have THEM complain to the Administration here – so this time they took care of the problem: I mean, the meals are the same, they just turned the phones off, so they don’t have to listen to as many complaints! 🙂
Sometimes, when we first go on lockdown, the meals are WAY off track, and we eat HOURS later than we’re accustomed to. But this time they have it on schedule, and I had the foresight to keep plenty of commissary in my locker (we all knew lockdown was coming, after all!), so I have no reason to complain about the food. It is what it is, and it’s practically the same on EVERY lockdown, so most of us are used to it.
The lockdown schedule decrees that we shower on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – which kinda sucks – but it’s consistent, and some people decide to skip it even then! After being cooped up in the cell a few days, it almost feels like recreation to be able to walk down the hall and mingle with other people – but as a rule, I try not to do TOO much mingling in a communal shower, where everyone is nude!
For these few short weeks, I have plenty of free time, so I try to catch up on the things I didn’t have time to do before. I have books to read, letters and essays to write, plans to make – and I even have a toy to play with. (My tablet, I mean!) It’s not the end of the world, and it’s never a bad idea to think about where we’ve been, where we’re at, and where we intend to go. Most inmates didn’t plan to get here, but that doesn’t mean we can’t plan to get out of here. So says DannyBoy.