Style Weekly
FADA-X
Member since Dec 18, 2011
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Re: “Council Approves New Jail”
Well actually there are a very diverse group on fellows. Unfortunately the women are kept separate. This weekend we had some new folks, (as with every weekend). One, a middle age gay white teacher. We have Saum, he is our resident guru from Vietnam. But of course I am only jesting when I say the finer minds. But these are people just the same. People who are working, paying taxes and supporting families. They have been caught driving while intoxicated, or driving with a suspended license, or having too much weed in their procession, or finally punching their brother in the nose for jerking around the family for years and year... excuse me in vent.
This weekend fellas really complained about the mats. It's been realized that the mats really don't get cleaned at all and it's been that way for a really long time. We don't mind no sheet or blanket or even the hard concrete floor. But your face against a vinyl mattress that you can smell bacteria on smacks a little of "cruel and unusual". I have a while to go yet and I get a bit depressed each Saturday morning I go in. But there are a lot of latinos too sed. Of course there are more black men, that's a given. But I don't think you care too much about that anyway.
Re: “Council Approves New Jail”
I am just returning from a meeting with mostly black men discussing the ills and short comings of our community. This group of men are among the finer minds in the community and offered insights on our economy, politics, and family life in forceful and sensitive manners. Often the dialogue incorporated sports metaphors to exemplify the problems, like not playing the strong players and not thinking as a team in the long game. These men are feed up with the economic situations they are in and are thinking long and hard about how to change things for themselves and their families. No solutions are barred from the table, legal and illegal alike are now being considered as viable means for survival. Why not they reason, when Wall Street and capital hell, ooops Hill, conduct illegal acts at will without recourse. The men are angry and dangerous. They are dangerous because their collective decisions will have an effect on the establishment that will certainly change life in the community as we know it.
What you may ask draws these men together. Have they decided to meet on their own to discuss and plan their agenda? No. These men meet at the behest of the current systems set up by our own society. The meeting space is provided for free of charge. The time allowed in the space is guaranteed by the powers that be. The conditions of the space are inhumane which only ensures the tone and timbre of the meetings. The space is the city lock up where these men meet for 24 hours to serve weekend time for minor offenses ranging in severity from traffic tickets to domestic violence. They are cramped into two cell block locations designed to house 40 men. The regular number of men brought in to be confined is 80 to 90 men. They sleep two to a cell and line the floors in-between the cells. They are not given blankets and are allowed no reading or writing material, thus assuring that they stay on task and converse about the issues at hand. Does the establishment know what they have done by compiling these men together? I think not.
Recently the men have detected a smell of raw sewage wafting from the vents in the floor. The men who are unfortunate enough to land spots on the floor are awakened by fumes that cause coughing and retching. These are the times when the conversations get hotter and are often started with comments like, “I’ve had enough of this shit”. So the men talk about how they must pay to be jailed, (so where does the tax payers money go?) how they must pay court fines and still pay rent, mortgages, buy food, clothe themselves and family and still maintain their jobs. Many of them are discussing the sale of illegal drugs to boost their income. Some are seriously contemplating robberies and other schemes to get money. Some, not many consider second jobs are coming up with their own legal hustle, but invariably that hustle undercuts or undermines some other business.
They are given a thin vinyl mattress to lie on. The mattresses are stacked in the hall from week to week and are never cleaned. Should a q-tip swipe of a mattress be analyzed it would no doubt yield a high concentration of assorted bacteria. This too only fuels that angst the men feel regarding their situation. They are happy that they do not have to do long a stretch of time in jail. They are happy they got weekend time and still able to maintain a weekly job and perform the responsibilities to their families. They are even pleased about the new allies they are making with fresh ideas of how to get by.
Today as I return from my 10th meeting my hips, back and neck are in pain from the concrete floor. The 60 bucks I layed out to be held in jail does not seem to cover adequate food. Some would argue you are in jail man. You should not be treated well. Granted, but I do deserve humane treatment. When I open my eyes while lying on the floor I should not see a foot less than 6 inches away from my nose. It’s rather reminiscent of the loose pack, tight pack of the middle passage. Does anyone need to know this information? Does anyone care or is there any recourse for grievances about the conditions? I think not. Not when the city is about to build a new prison that will not be large enough to house the present population in the jail that is overcrowded.
So I document my trips. I journal my feelings and thoughts while there and meditate on the dreams. Thinking that what dreams may come may show me the means by which I may stand up against the sea of troubles and by opposing them. We are given time off for the holidays. No weekend visits till January 7th. This gives us time to get the money we need to meet the commercial holiday demands and hopefully not get caught and have to lend our ideas to future meetings…
rickym23227@yahoo.com
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