We are on day eight of a lockdown, caused by fight involving several people from two races. (But..the mental health unit isn’t locked down. Neither is the kitchen. Plus, a crew of inmates are working on a building siding project. So, did they really need to lock the rest of us down?) They are treating us like animals in cages, letting us shower every three days but cutting off our use of the computers and phones. They canceled visits and we have not been allowed access to the commissary. And the first dinner they served after the lockdown started was frozen solid!
Guys are reaching their breaking points. At one time this week, five men were on suicide watch. I serve as a suicide companion; it is only July and I am just 10 watches short of the total I did for all of 2023 (52 so far this year compared to 62). And I only do suicide watch three days a week!
Their reasons for lockdowns are always the same: insufficient staff, drugs, and violence. But the violence will only get worse with endless lockdowns. (This time, about 50 people were sent to the SHU for transfer. And whenever the SHU is full, the whole prison is shut down.)
I’ve been doing time for 36 years, and have way more experience than any of the staff, but they’d never ask the likes of me for advice.
Update: The lockdown lasted for 10 days, until Aug. 28, for all the units but one. That one unit is where the fight occurred and those poor guys were on lockdown until Sept. 9, when the men involved are shipped out. They were given no access to commissary or recreation.
As for my unit, we were also denied access to the commissary for THREE weeks. The first week, someone in another unit checked in. So, we suffered. The second week, lightening knocked out the electronic grid. This week, our unit failed a sanitation inspection. Since we’d been on lockdown and had just come out, we weren’t expecting an inspection. The inspectors found extra sheets and/or pillows. Those were the violations that made us lose the commissary for this week.