Day 6: Sanctity of the Commons

Back in Commitment, the cells were what most people imagine a jail cell to be like: the delightful toilet/sink combo (if you have to use it, it helps to pretend you are an astronaut), the electronic big metal sliding door with tiny plastic window, and the feeding slit. The Commitment cell walls are also covered in graffiti done using the pencil in the Welcome To Jail Kit:

• "I am So Over This Place"
• above followed by "Me 2", "Me 3", "Me 4",...,"Me 18"
• "Each Day Is a Challenge So Meet It Proud"
• "You Have One Day Less To Your Sentence Than Yesterday"

In a way, it is much like the Motivational Art one finds in corporate offices and conference rooms. I wonder why no one has started a line of inspirational prison art - it would be a welcome change from the health posters showing grotesque wounds ("if you have one of these on your arms please request to see a nurse..."). I am sure my prison would be all over it.

But here in Work Release the setting is much like a dormitory. The rooms are still jail cells, but the doors aren't locked except by the inmates. We have communal restrooms, but the stalls have no doors and there are of course no privacy shields separating the urinals. The showers are across the hall and similar to showers in a high school locker room.

I am not bothered by many things save for one: hygiene. I don't share the hypochondriac-like obsessions of some people here in the States - I don't carry hand sanitizer or refuse to touch any door handles - but I have little tolerance for public bathrooms that aren't clean, and people who go a week without showering and who think the best thing to do with a disease is to share it. So naturally the living conditions were worrying me the most.

As it turns out, everyone here is quite courteous with the restrooms. The people here are careful to leave the restroom as clean or cleaner than before they used it, which is unlike my corporate office, where notices have been posted to "put all paper towels in the trash bin instead of just throwing them on the floor", and "please flush toilets after use". In Work Release, unless someone is in a hurry, the communal shower is only used by one person at a time. In a place like this, privacy is a luxury and the men all seem to understand that you offer it to your comrades as often as possible.

Even back in Commitment, I was confused to see someone across the hall using his Welcome To Jail Kit spares (fatigues and small towels) to cover the feeding slit, the window, and the floor-to-door gap. I thought perhaps he was going to kill himself or something, but then quickly realized he is providing himself with as much privacy as possible to use the toilet. A courtesy also for his neighbors in nearby cells.

When we leave our rooms to get a meal or to use the restroom we are supposed to lock our doors, but most do not. The door is not difficult to unlock with your key, so this seems to be about establishing a bit of trust with your fellow inmates. A paranoid person who wouldn't even leave his room unlocked for 30 seconds would quickly stand out, and the single-most important thing about prison is not to draw attention to yourself.

Derick tells me "because we leave the door cracked and unlocked when we go get our chow, just make sure you don't leave nothing you care about laying out on the desk, someone may grab it, even on this block."

"Well," I reply, "it is not like I have much stuff in here anyway."

"Yeah" says Derick, "but when you don't got much, that's when what you have matters most."

Perhaps this is why do my co-workers show far less regard than prisoners for shared restrooms.