Oh... this is a creative writing exercise and has NO basis in reality! I mean if it were true... I may be questioned by "authorities!" :o)
I pick up my date Saturday and go to see “X-men Origins: Wolverine.” It was not a good film. It was aimed at a younger demographic and they did everything humanly possible to keep this film in the PG to PG-13 range.
They had a lot of violence and death in this film but it had to be sugar coated and the death scenes always had a money shot of the killers face scowling or growling -- usually in slow motion, as that looks cooler, right?
This was done as opposed to seeing a grizzly death via sword impalement or such. The worst part of violence of this type is that it is obviously being marketed to children.
If you take a child and show it holocaust footage -- real footage -- the child will puke but show a cool “hero” offing a hundred people in a cool, bloodless fashion and the desensitizing starts.
But I digress; the film started out strong and humorous and then it’s descent into darkness was hindered by it’s attempt to appeal to children.
So my date walks up to the refreshment counter and buys a soda. She asks for a large and the lady behind the counter says, “Four Dollars.” To which I reply, “For a dollar more I can buy the soda company.”
Now I find this hilarious but my date doesn’t. Also, we went to McDonalds as she wanted a soft serve ice cream. They had a hand written sign on the drive-thru that read, “We are not taking credit cards today.”
Now I found this hysterical! Who the buys a cheese burger with an Amex Card? Who is paying 10% on a Big Mac? So I have to yell out, “Do you take discover?” “What about checks… do you take checks?”
Now I know this is sophomoric behavior but I find it humorous. Life is just too absurd.
In the theatre you can tell it is a comic book film as there are several unaccompanied men. Sure, some people like to see a film by themselves but there were a few guys that looked like they belong alone in a theatre watching a comic book film!
The first guy is the overly lanky “Revenge Of The Nerds” type wearing a powder blue shirt and plaid trousers. He is wearing clothing from the 70’s and not intentionally going for the ironic look.
One of the other guys I see has this look on his face like he wants to blurt out, “They call me Psycho! And if you stare at me I will stab, stab, stab ya’!”
Every guy in the theatre alone looked like he couldn’t get laid in a woman’s prison with a fistful of pardons.
I was watching, “Let’s Go To Prison” on Comedy Central and that was pretty good -- aside from the ending, which always sucks in comedies.
Corrections Officers (CO’s) are always depicted as hard asses that love to push inmates around. CO’s are usually pretty level headed in reality. They are pulling life and if a con is doing a nickel the CO is doing that time with that con.
The last thing a CO wants to do is push a con too far. You have to remember that these fuckers are career criminals and they will get out and fuck a CO up. I had a minor gripe with one CO who locked me in for telling him to go fuck himself.
I immediately asked the other cons about him and I got more info than I thought would be hanging around in the GP (general population). I got a town and his favorite bar. I had no further issues with that CO so the information I got was not required.
But the CO’s know that you can find out about them so they will not fuck with you. I actually had one CO who did not usually work my POD (a POD is a small cell block, three PODs comprise a cell block). He was cool, tough and obviously ex-military.
He didn’t care about rules, hated almost every inmate and seemed to want to take a flame thrower to BCHC (Berkshire County House of Corrections), which gave us a lot in common. He took me over to the control station and he and I played on the computer; looking at other cons files and such. I liked him and I think he liked me but he could not show favoritism in front of the cons for both of our sakes.
I mean, you are not supposed to log into the jails mainframe computer and go over the prisoners with an inmate. I liked that guy.
Another CO I got along with, more or less, went so far as to walk into my cell after I was sent to segregation for disciplinary reasons (someone wanted to fight me, they made a mistake) and he told me, “Hilliard, don’t become one of these fucking idiots. You have a lot going for you. You seem like a bright, good guy so just ignore these morons, they are going to be in and out of jail their whole lives. This is it for them.”
I thanked him for the talk even though he wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t know. But he stuck his neck out giving me that talk because he knew the next two cells could hear him through the ventilation system. The cons run the jail… do not be fooled into thinking otherwise.
The one thing that they got right in the film, “Let’s Go To Prison” was isolation or A-Pod Segregation AKA the hole. It is only isolation but you do lose your shit in there. The boredom and violence of the GP seems GREAT compared to being locked in 23 and a half hours a day and heading to the shower in shackles.
They come to your cell and make you shackle up before you can shower! What a bitch! I mean that sucks!
I say a guy come into our POD after pulling 120 days in isolation and he was talking to himself! This kid was no older than 25 and he was fucking gone! He laughed to himself now and then so at least whatever he was hearing or talking to was funny now and then.
When they do come for you, they come hard. They were sending me to isolation AGAIN and they came with four men in a standard two by two stacked formation. The front two had assault shields and they all had riot gear! What the fuck?! Am I a fucking Ninja? I think they just enjoy putting the gear on! I complied. I saw a brother go hard and that was a riot but there was no reason for me to. I was only pulling 28 and 1/2 days.
Jail is actually not bad. I mean I wouldn’t pick it as a vacation destination but I can’t say it is that bad! If you don’t mind fighting and reading… it’s not bad at all.
I mostly played poker for commissary money. That is the best way to kill time. Chess is fun too. You have some cons that are damn good chess players because that’s all they have to do.
If I am ever looking at anything under a year, I’ll pull it. Why not? You get to lift weights, play poker, etc. Sure you are locked in your cell 16 hours a day in the POD and you have five or six standing counts but that is just the boredom of the routine -- or the routine of the boredom.
I awoke everyday before it was time to shower (around 7am in my POD) and as soon as they popped the cells I always was the first one out with his change of clothes and shower stuff. The shower was my favorite part of the day. I showered two or three times a day there, as I do anywhere, as I like to be clean. I cannot say the same for the other cons.
I know I wrote this before but everyone is fixated with prison sex (or rape, as it is called by most inmates). But it doesn’t happen often. There are enough jail-house queers and unlike the films, most men do not want to have sex with other men.
They do not allow pornography though. I mean they won’t even allow car magazines with scantly clad women! There are some mixed signals being sent there!
Well, time to piss off and start my day.
“I dream my paintings and paint my dreams” -- Van Gogh