DannyBoyinExile

I came in from work the other day, and my wing was racked up, due to the usual short-of-staffageness. Which was fine with me, because when I return from a hard day at Bedlam (B wing), I’m READY to go back in my cell. There I can relax, recharge, and recuperate – and maybe even “rest my eyes”, as my grandfather would say.
I didn’t even mind when, later that evening, we were informed that we were on a 24-hour lockdown due to some guy getting caught with a cell phone. It happens – and it happens to mean that I’ll miss a day of work, as well, which isn’t exactly bad news.
The next morning, as I was happily missing work, with my headphones on, my cell door suddenly opened. A guy was standing there with a leash in his hand, which was attached to a drug dog. He told me (the guard, not the dog), “Step out in your boxers and shower shoes,” which is precisely what I did.
As a result of the previous day’s shenanigans, they were searching our entire section, looking for more cell phones, drugs, or whatever else. It’s a nuisance to have your property thrown into disarray, but I totally understand. Security overrides just about anything else in prison – and we’re honestly better off with it being more (rather than less) secure around here. As a wise man once said, “Secure prisons are safe prisons, and safe prisons are secure prisons.” (OK, I just made that up…)
I survived the ordeal just fine, simply because I didn’t HAVE anything I wasn’t supposed to have – but everyone wasn’t so lucky. Even my neighbor’s biggest complaint was that they threw out ONE of his work boots. He’s like, “That doesn’t make any sense! Why would they throw away ONE of my boots?”
I told him, “Duh! You know they were looking for cell phones. Clearly they thought it was a SHOE phone, like on Get Smart!” haha
By the end of the day, though, they found SEVERAL more cell phones on my wing. That was three days ago, and we’re STILL on lockdown. Perhaps that doesn’t seem very long to some of you – but remember that every single person who got caught with one (along with their cellmates, in some cases) went to lockup right away. They don’t even live on this wing anymore! By definition, the inmates who still live here (and are on lockdown) are the people who had nothing to do with it.
Ironically, we’re out here eating sack meals three times a day (and I don’t know where they found so many corn dogs to feed us!), while the guys who caused this commotion are in single-man cells, eating hot meals. Today, for example, they had baked chicken for lunch. We had (you guessed it!) corn dogs again.
I still won’t complain. Even on lockdown, I’m better off than the guys who got caught with cell phones. I typically keep plenty of commissary, JUST IN CASE we get put on lockdown, and this just happens to be one of those times. I can get some reading and writing done, as well as a little extra tablet time.
Learning to cope with unpleasant experiences may not be fun, but learning to PREPARE for them makes them seem not quite as serious – and that’s something that will be useful to me anywhere. So says DannyBoy.