Communication with friends and family in the free world is very important to those serving time in prison.  There are four primary means of communication available to inmates: phone calls, email, snail mail, and visits.  For some visits are a rare treat to savor, while these other forms of communication take precedent and occur at greater frequency.

In the housing units and on the yard are phones that can be used when the housing unit or yard are open.  Collect and pre-paid debit calls can be made to a limited number of phone numbers each month (check for change to the phone policy).  Except for calls to lawyers, the calls are recorded and possibly monitored.  A phone call can last 15 minutes.

Given the ratio of inmates to phones there is almost always a line of people waiting to get on the phone.  There is no privacy in prison and the phones are no exception.  The phones are clustered together making it easy for other inmates to overhear half of the conversation.  Many prefer to use the outdoor phones since it tends to be a little quieter than in the housing units.

Phone service is under contract with a private service provider that is responsible for the upkeep of the system.  It seems that at any one time at least one phone in four is out of service.  Men in prison experience high levels of stress and frustration and tend to take it out on those they are talking to on the phones and when that is not good enough they take it out on the phones themselves.  The current carrier is Global Tel Link (GTL).  Phone rates are a national issue and both the FCC and the federal courts have gotten involved trying to set fair rates.  Prisons are captive markets and almost every vendor under contract to the MDOC to provide services and products to inmates take advantage of that by charging significantly more than what the general public normally pays with a free market. With the MDOC these higher prices generally translate into so portion of the proceeds being shared by the department.  In the real world we would call this a kick back, but it is business as usual for Corrections.  In the case of GTL, they offered to set up a fund where the states portion of the revenue proceeds would go to buy cell phone detection and blocking technology to combat the growing problem of contraband cell phones in prisons.  (At the time of the contract award it was against federal law for the states to utilize this form of technology.)  The result is that prison phone calls cost $0.34 -$0.37 per minute, depending on whether they are collect or debit calls.  Long distance and international calling rates were even higher.  Now this is far better than the county jail were calls could cost $1.00 per minute, which is outrageous and far beyond what calls cost in the free world.  It is clearly a case of the state and counties making profit from those that can least afford it.  At one point the courts ruled that it was predatory pricing and ordered that phone rates be reduced, however the phone companies that provide services to prisons and jails successfully lobbied to get a stay while further study was done.

Either an inmate can put money on a disbursement to GTL to setup a debit account to pay for phone calls or those that receive the calls can either contract with a phone carrier that will allow them to receive collect calls and then bill their account or they can put money on a debit account of their own with GTL.  When I was in the county jail the hardest phone call I have ever had to make in my life was to my mother.  Fortunately, it was a land line and the carrier allowed them to accept the charges.  Cell phone carriers don’t work that way and you have to set up the prepaid debit account.  I was fortunate enough that I had the luxury of calling home collect and put money on a debit account so that I could call my family’s cell phones in case of emergency or vacation. Most people in prison don’t have that luxury.  I made it a practice to call home for 15 minutes once a week for the 8 years that I served behind bars.  This probably ran into the thousands of dollars in order to keep the lines of communication open.  Not everybody in prison will be able to afford this, although I knew several married guys who called home daily to talk to their wife and kids.

Being able to have the ability to pick up the phone and make a call is a major comfort to people in prison.  I knew a lot of guys whose priority was putting money on the phone instead of purchasing commissary items.  If you have a loved one in prison the best thing you can do for them is to set up a pre-paid debit account so they can call your cell phone and talk to you any time they can.  In a place so full of stress and hostility, being able to hear a friendly voice is a comfort and a blessing beyond words.

Starting around 2010 the MDOC brought in another vendor JPay to provide a form of electronic communication.  Friends and family can register on the JPay website and buy “stamps” to send what amounts to email to prisoners.  In the housing units, prisoners can then use a kiosk with a monitor and a keyboard where they can send and receive JPay messages.  The inmate can only send messages to people who have registered on the JPay website to communicate with them. The inmates can also buy “stamps”.  It costs about $0.50 per “page” to send a message.  Messages can even have photo attachments.  These messages are subject to the MDOC mail policy.

Snail mail through the good old USPS is also a good way to keep in contact with inmates. In 2017 the prisoner mail policy was updated due to contraband being sent to prisoners. Envelopes are discarded because of drugs being hidden in the adhesive under stamps, flaps, or address labels. Also, black or blue ink only, no colored ink, borders, or water marks.  Photos printed on plain paper only are permitted.  Forget sending stuff like newspaper articles, magazines, church bulletins, etc.  Greeting cards also have restrictions.

Children will longer be able to send their daddies refrigerator art.  It is as if the MDOC wants to discourage people from sending snail mail to prisoners.  The same thing has occurred in county jails where the only permissible format is a postcard.

Prisoners can purchase letter sized envelopes with metered postage.  The story is that back in the day, prisoners actually purchased postage stamps but that these would be treated like currency and used to pay prison debts among prisoners who would send the stamps to people in the free world who could return the stamps to the USPS for cash.  I can’t verify this but it was told to me by a lifer bunkie who had been down since the 1970’s.  It is an example of how those held against their will will attempt to find ways to circumvent the system.  And that a few will ruin it for everyone.

 

My prison safe coffee cup.  I kept it as a reminder of what I left behind and never want to return to.

 

 

 

One of the notable aspects of jail/prison is the removal of common items that could potentially be used as a weapon.  Everyday items, creature comforts, or even basic hygiene supplies when they end up in the wrong hands can become dangerous.  The higher the level of security the more items are restricted.  For example, in quarantine which is in some ways like a level V, standard writing utensils have been replaced with less dangerous alternatives.  Golf pencils instead of full size.  Short stubby pens made from soft flexible material instead of hard plastic or metal.  The idea being that they are too short to be fully griped in the hand and still penetrate deeply enough into flesh to cause significant injury.

The same approach was taken with tooth brushes.  Full size tooth brushes made from plastic can be sharpened into a point.  More over this has been across all levels.  There does tend to be some inconsistencies.  At one point while I was in prison travel tooth brushes were added to the commissary.  The type where the handle doubles as a storage case.  Less than a year later they were removed without explanation.  If I had to guess one was used as a weapon.  In an unusual move that was probably an oversight, an innate returning from county jail where he spent time while attending court was able to bring in as personal property a dozen long handled tooth brushes. He was able to sell them in the housing unit for two bags of coffee each, worth about $8 per tooth brush.  For the guys that had the foresight to buy extra travel tooth brushes, these were going for a bag of coffee each.  This just shows the value that some guys put on their teeth.

Razor blades have to be the all-time hair-raising security nightmare.  The plain old disposable single blade type with a plastic handle that cut skin better than facial hair.  In the county jail the razors were kept at the officer station and given out for use.  The same technique was used in prison segregation.  While I was in prison the MDOC removed razors from the population because of the number of incidents involving razor blades used as weapons.  Instead inmates had to purchase battery powered electric shavers.  As a concession the PBF bought razors for the indigent.  A $1.50 razor was replaced with a $16 device that required AA batteries for an additional $3 per 4 pack.  This is just another case were a few have ruined it for everyone.

When they took away the razor blades they also took away the pencil sharpeners for hobby craft that had a blade held in a plastic housing.  Only the wall mounted rotary style was available in the housing unit.  The classrooms had either those or electric pencil sharpeners.  The unit sharpeners were generally so bad that they would eat an art pencil before ever giving a point sharp enough to draw with.

Scissors could only be children’s safety scissors.  The type that you couldn’t hurt yourself with if you disregarded your mother’s admonition not to run with them.  They could barely cut a sheet of paper, skin would be out of the question.  Rulers could only be plastic; no wood or metal styles were permitted and no more than a foot long.  Knitting needles were not allowed but crochet hooks were permitted.  Paint brushes had to be short handled and thin bodied.  Sewing needles were only sold as part of a small sewing repair kit and would break going through fabric let alone anything tougher like leather. Leather working as a hobby craft was eliminated with its stronger needles.

Wrist watches were allowed to only have basic day, date, time and stop watch functions. Count down timers were not allowed.  The MDOC must have been afraid that MacGyver inspired inmates would make a bomb out of it or something.  My first watch was a basic digital Casio with an Indiglow face.  When that watch died I tried to order another but was denied.  I had to settle for the same watch without the Indiglow face.  The reason was that the catalog description for the two watches differed slightly, even though the only actual difference was the night light on the approved watch verses the Indiglow on the unapproved watch.

Legal pads and loose-leaf paper for writing but spiral bound notebooks or three ring binders were not allowed to be purchased because anything metal was contraband.  I once purchased a foot-long florescent light so I could have adequate light to read in bed.  A month after I purchased it a memo was issued requiring that the lamp be sent home or turned in.  The catalog vendor had switched from the approved plastic body to a metal case.  I still have it at home and use it in my garage workshop.  Odds are after I moved to level I it would have been stolen.

Vaseline used to be sold in large containers with an easy opening lid.  But when Vaseline and water are heated in a microwave it becomes a weapon when splashed in someone’s face.  It is worse than plain boiling water because it sticks and causes greater damage.

Large mugs were removed from the commissary before I got there.  Only 8 oz. coffee cups and 20 oz. plastic tumblers were available.  The larger double walled mugs came with a plastic handle and a lid which kept the coffee warm longer.  By limiting the volume of cups, it would thereby reduce the number and severity of incidents involving throwing liquids.  The old mugs became a valuable commodity that would be resold over and over.  Guys would have them painted in order to give them a unique appearance to reduce theft by making them one of a kind works of art.  Floor wax sealer applied regularly would keep the paint protected.

Cleaning chemicals like bleach were supplied in a diluted form and even then, metering pumps were installed to dilute them further prior to use.  It reduced waste when guys used chemicals for cleaning with the philosophy “if a little is good, more is better” in a vain attempt to kill more germs and kept chemicals that could cause harm if ingested or splashed in eyes from being readily available.

Tools from maintenance or vocational education must be accounted for at the end of every shift or class period.  Contractors working in the facility must manifest in and out every tool.  Many years ago, I worked as a contractor doing repairs in the ceiling above Cell block 7, the intake unit at the old walled prison and scalpels were part of my took kit. The COs had a cow about me needing to take them into the prison but there was no way to do my job without them.  I had to account for them or I wasn’t going home.

Mirrors in the bathroom are made of either plastic or polished metal.  No glass that could be smashed and the shards turned into weapons.  Small plastic mirrors were available in the commissary and necessity since the bathroom mirrors were either oxidized or scratched so badly that they were practically unusable to use to see yourself shaving.  Just before I came home one of the pole barns I lived in was being renovated and they put new mirrors in the bathrooms.  I got to see myself clearly for the first time in years instead of the funhouse image I had to put up with previously.

Lawn mowers at the multi-level facility were the old fashion manual push mower because the higher levels weren’t allowed to have access to power mowers which could be used as a weapon apparently.  At the level I only facility the yard crew had gas powered push mowers but maintenance had put a lock on the gas cap so the inmates could not steal the gas.

Except for the school the only calculators available have basic add, subtract, multiply, divide functions.  The school has to supply a specific calculator for the GED program or they wouldn’t have them, again the MacGyver thing.

Typewriters that were available for purchase in the catalog came without memory because the legal beagles would use them to mass produce grievances.  There were a few old ones around when I was in level II that had memory, so I’ve seen their power.  I guess the MDOC believes that words can hurt.

In level II there were a lot of items that I saw that could no longer be purchased.  Large ghetto blasters, TVs with internal speakers, black plastic headphones, and other items that were either held onto by the lifers or resold over and over again because they weren’t on people’s property cards and therefor would be confiscated if they tried to take it with them to another facility.

In the units with cells the MDOC had to install a fan as part of a settlement over the lack of air conditioning and heat related illness during the summer months.  To keep from having to pay for replacement fans when those wore out the MDOC allowed inmates to purchase small personal fans from the catalog.  The big ones did a good job moving air.  I had one in my level IV and II cells.  I had to purchase a personal fan when I got to level I. The problem was they were small and really didn’t move very much air to cool you off. Attempts to get a larger fan approved were denied because they said it posed a security threat.  As if a bunch of hot and grumpy guys with short tempers wasn’t already a threat. It is amazing the devious uses guys with too much time on their hands, a temper, and who see little value in human life can come up with.  Somebody once said to me that prison wouldn’t be such a bad place if it wasn’t for the people there.

One of the first things I noticed when I first went to jail and then prison was the odor.  Not hospital antiseptic but of unwashed bodies and filth.  In jail the water in the shower was ice cold and the lack of clean clothes to change in to meant that body odor stayed with you.  In the higher security levels of prison, showers were only offered every other day while you could exercise every day.  In the lower levels showers were accessible every day.  This is where hygiene becomes the distinguishing characteristic and could make or break your relationship with your bunkie or cubemates.

Poor hygiene goes beyond access to showers.  In a place where no one feels at home, many will make messes and simply walk away leaving them for others to take care of.  Plugged toilets, hair trimmings in the sink, clogged shower drains, malfunctioning chemical urinals all contribute to making the bathrooms foul, disgusting, smelly places that don’t get cleaned nearly often enough.

An underlying issue is aging infrastructure.  Many jails and prisons are more than 25 years old and some are more than 50 and in need of significant repairs and renovations.  Coupled with prison populations that are double the original design specification there is significant pressure on sewage pipes.  In one case these issues made the newspaper.  Inmate maintenance crews were used to clean up raw sewage that had overflowed and one of the inmates on the cleanup crew contracted hepatitis due the lack of personal protective equipment.

At one of the prisons I was at there were problems with the drain pipes in the Level II chow hall backing up.  Grease had plugged the pipes and overflowed all over the kitchen floor.  The kitchen was closed for a day while the sewage pipes were snaked out and the kitchen cleaned thoroughly before food preparation could begin again.

Another time raw sewage was bubbling up out of the ground from a broken pipe coming from the Level IV housing unit.  They had sewer problems there on a regular basis.  To reduce pressure on the sewage system they installed controls on the toilets that prevented multiple flushes.  In a unit where the toilet is in the two-man cells they used to do what was called a courtesy flush so that the smell of your waste would not be inflicted on your cell mate.  With the controls in place limiting the number of flushes in a 5-minute period this practice could no longer be performed.  In Level I the flush urinals were replaced with chemical urinals.  These created a whole different set of headaches and after a couple of years they were removed, and low volume flush urinals were reinstalled.

In a place where the residence will purposely break or sabotage the facility, anything and everything will get flushed down the toilet.  In the kitchenette there isn’t a garbage disposal so lots of food waste is poured down the drain.  The result is a constant struggle by maintenance to keep the drains flowing, a losing proposition.