Day 8, 6/30/21 - Wed.
- mainemoviepirate
- Jun 30
- 3 min read
Actual Journal Entry:
“Vaccine and Commissary today. Really big day at the SHU. Took me a while, but I slept some. Day 8, over the hump.* The Vaccination and Commissary went okay, except they gave me the wrong chips. In other SHU news, they moved the Screamers/Bangers. Supposedly a big busload of new inmates are arriving tomorrow. Today goes into the win column, so far. Good Lunch: Burgers/Potato Wedges. Bad Supper: Gross Onions, meat sauce-like substance over pasta. Since my arrival here at the SHU, I’ve been kicking around some story ideas. The first one I’m calling “Cellie” or “A Night at the SHU.” Now I’m thinking of a bunch of intertwining stories that take place in a 24-hour period. More thoughts on this later. Early stages. Anyway, we just lost power, and only the emergency lights are weak ones in the hall. Real scary. The plot thickens. I thought about bringing up the 'Escape Plan' conversation with ‘E’ but decided against it. I’m learning.
Once power was returned, the guards started handing out fresh laundry. As we waited for the clothes cart to make its way up the hallway, this was said very loudly by an inmate: “WE’RE BOTH NAKED!” To which the guard handing out clothes responded, “Thanks for Sharing.””
Notes for Day 8 (Four Years Later)
The timeline for my discovery of information kind of went like this:
Day 1: I initially believed the SHU was where I'd be serving my entire five-year sentence, minus time for good behavior.
Day 2: 'E' informed me we were only quarantining in the SHU for 14 days before going to the camp. Since he had arrived before me, he would leave first. Now, technically and logically, his time should have reset after my entry into the room. But as I quickly learned, logic rarely enters the world of the Bureau of Prisons (BOP). There was no way I was bringing up that math error to anyone.
*That is why Day 8 felt like "over the hump," or so I thought. Of course, at this point, I was still doing real-world math, not BOP math.
Once the "screamers" and "bangers" were gone, the SHU became very peaceful. However, it didn’t last long.
This was the first entry where I recorded some story ideas, well, just titles. But it was a start, and eventually, I did write some of this story, though I have yet to finish it. Maybe someday I will. It felt good just getting those creative ideas down on paper.
The "We’re both naked!" exchange had both me and 'E' cracking up at the time. You see, in the SHU, you get a fresh batch of clothes once a week. The Correctional Officers (COs) pass the new stuff through the cell door slots after the prisoner passes out their dirty laundry, which you just throw into a plastic garbage pail. The guards don’t check what you throw out. So, if you’re smart, you can hold back shorts or something to wear as extra clothes. That inmate and his cellmate apparently stripped totally naked and felt the need to brag about their nakedness. The CO’s response was so deadpan and classic, we just lost it.
In a place like the SHU, you have to find humor where you can. It keeps you sane.
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