8/7/2014
PRISON INFO./ADVICE;- Every month a staff member of the prison goes through every unit for a routine inspection, checking for clean cells, beds made, dayroom floors swept and mopped, etc. Each unit is graded on the inspections at a range of 0-100%. This inspection rating depicts what order each unit goes to chow in. The unit with the highest score eats first and the lowest score eats last. It seems for us that every month the order in which we eat changes dramatically from first to last for our unit. One would think it makes no difference what order, or time we eat, which is true, it really doesn’t. But in fact it matters too many inmates including myself. A change in the time and order in which we eat chow can be a difference of almost an hour and when a scheduled, strict daily routine is as tight and organized as mine is disrupted it can be frustrating, especially in the morning hours when my routine is planned down to the last minute. Last month we were being called to breakfast around 7:45a.m. And this month we’re being called to chow around 7a.m. Again I know that someone reading this, that’s foreign to prison would think this is a ridiculous topic, but when you live in glorified 6’*9′ bathroom with another grown man, one’s schedule can easily conflict with a change like chow time. It seems like just when we start to adjust to a new routine they change it again. I’ll give you some examples as to why this is just a little irritating to myself and others. For instance my celly, Kurt and I both use the bathroom first thing in the morning, I wake up Kurt on my way out the door to breakfast, giving him time to use the restroom while I’m gone, after I get back it’s my turn. My inner plumbing tends to be regular, making it difficult to change the time in which I go each month. This month I’ve been doing my crunches and pushups while waiting for breakfast, enabling me to be ready for running the track as soon as they open the yard. Now I can only do one or the other, and then finish my work out after breakfast. Many other inmates don’t like the down time in between chow and when the yard opens, when the length between changes, then they too have to readjust their schedule. Some inmates have to go to work at different hours when chow time changes, others have to wait longer to go to school and so on. Many men in prison are on set routines and schedules, having a change or disruption are just unwanted by most of us. Is this something we can deal with? Of course it is, we have no choice, many things change in real life, so don’t think I’m crying about anything, I just needed something to write about and also provide a little information to my readers as well.
STEVEN DYBVAD
