Waking Up in Prison

There are days I "wake up in prison".  Today is one.  I was reminded first thing when the showers were locked.  See, I live in a lock-down dorm.  It houses HO4's and HO5's.  Each inmate has a custody level and a housing level.  We are categorized from 1-5.  A 1 is like work release level, a 5 is like the worst; they have to be behind 3 secure doors.  5's are usually pedophiles and ex-cons.  I am a 4 custody plus a 4 housing.  4 & 5's are housed together.  It is still unsettling that I am a 4-4 given my actual story, but I have to accept it.  Anyway, lock-down dorms have 4 quads.  Each quad has approximately 64 inmates.  It has 2 tiers-with cells that hold 2 inmates each (16 rooms up, 16 rooms down).  We have metal doors that lock us in our cells during count time (counting inmates) which happens 5 times a day and at night.  We get up at 4:45 in the morning.  Each quad had a "dayroom".  It is not an actual individual room-you walk out of your cell and your in the dayroom.  It contains 5 metal tables bolted to the floor-I metal bench and a TV with 2 payphones on the wall and a water fountain with cold and hot water.  Each tier has 4 showers.  They are like a stand-up shower with a jail-barred door.  You can see right into them so people put "shower sheets" over them.  The metal barred doors lock only by an officer.  They lock them at night and open them at 5AM.  By policy, they are locked all day until 5PM, but you learn quickly that EVERY SHIFT and EVERY SERGEANT does things differently.  DOC is the last place in the world that will ever have consistency.  So, it is up to us to learn each officer, SGT, LT, CAPT, COL and warden.  And we learn them well.  We know which ones don't like clothes hanging, wraps on your head, not to do each other's hair, which ones actually do their rounds and walk the quads, who is going to follow every policy and be petty but not one of them says anything about smoking (lot of ladies smoke which is against policy). 
This morning it was the petty policy shift and they will deny showers.  Our officer decided that since the SGT wasn't around, he was going to be in control and not open the showers until he was good and ready. 

The officers station is called "the bubble".  We have big metal and glass sliding doors (controlled by the bubble) that have to open to leave the quad.  Outside the bubble is a "flap" to talk to them through.  Everything is glass so they can see us from the bubble and we can see them sitting in the bubble.  There is a PA system so they never have to really get up except to do rounds.  I woke up and the showers were locked and not opening anytime soon because the officer was sleeping and didn't care.  So, I grab a cup of instant coffee, with with my shower bag patiently waiting.  I have the same routine every day.

I am on the "religious diet" called RDP.  It is served at 4AM and so I get up at 3AM.  It is in a bag that we pick up from "chow".  It is P/J and cereal, but it is better than any food that you will get in the chow hall.  In the chow hall, they never give you enough time to eat, and officers can be yelling at you.