Day 7, 6/29/21 - Tuesday

#prisonjournal

Actual Journal Entry:

“No Wellbutrin, so way more sleep. Standard Cereal Breakfast; I ate it just in case lunch sucks. Demeaning, Demoralizing, and definitely inhumane—that is my current expanded analysis of the SHU. Found out I’m getting the vaccine tomorrow, the Pfizer one. So here we go. See what happens.

Lunch: Chicken Parm (I’m thinking the BOP got a deal on a sh*t-ton of it.), pasta, spinach. Decent meal for the SHU. ‘E’ said it costs 60 cents a day to feed prisoners (note: Research this.). He got good news: He still qualifies for the Early Release Drug Program. He is going to the camp in a few days. At which time, I will get a new cellie or be solo. Interesting afternoon. We were both checked by the Doctor. She was super nice, and on the trip back to our cell, we scored some new books by asking the guards. Well, new to us anyway. The book rack was hidden in a dark corner of the hallway, and the books were covered in dust. (I’m kidding, but you get the idea.)”

Notes for Day 7 (Four Years Later)

That first week now seems like a lifetime ago. The SHU was an incredible, albeit jarring, experience, especially for someone who had never even been in jail for an hour before. You have this intense feeling of being ripped right out of the world—your world. It's hard to fathom that your old world is still going on, but without you in it. I had to keep telling myself, "This is my world now, and will be for some time." I pledged right then and there to make the most of it: to keep the journal going every day, filling it with observations of the prison experience, dreams, story ideas, business ideas—whatever I might find useful later down the road.

Since I never truly researched E’s claim that it cost 60 cents a day to feed each prisoner, I’ve decided to do it now. Let's see what comes up using AI:

• Summary: There’s no credible source supporting the claim that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) feeds a federal inmate for just $0.60/day.

• BOP's total per-inmate daily cost (including food) is about $4.40–$4.80.

• State and local prisons often spend $1–$4.50/day on food alone.

• Some facilities do have very cheap individual meal prices, but those are not representative of the total daily diet.

Well, that looks like a big "no" to me for the daily total. However, "very cheap individual meals"? After the CHICKEN FRIED RICE, that statement is very believable! I will be revisiting the topic of prison meals in future entries and notes. Here’s a little foreshadowing: I'll soon be wiping down tables in the dining room at the camp, and the food situation takes on a whole new level in a few months.

One more thing about this day: E was quite excited about the potential of getting a year knocked off his sentence through the Residential Drug Abuse Program (RDAP). I was aware of it before I came in, but I didn't think I would qualify because my charges were copyright infringement, not drug-related. Oh, so little did I know… (A little more foreshadowing.)