Jail, Jail, Jail, #2

I had forgotten to mention that I was completely out of contact with my husband, and family for the week I was at the Kenosha County Jail. There was a phone in the cell block, but an account needed to be set up and pre-paid which I didn't know. I had no way to let my DH know. I felt so alone. I am certain that was the LONGEST week of my life. I really, had lost hope of getting on "work crew". I was starting to TRY and accept the fact that my next 80 days(or at least 60 days...you get 20 days off the top for good behavior) would be spent right there...in that very small smelly, cold, dark place. A true feeling of hopelessness.

I was so grateful when the sheriff called me to be on the work crew. I was transferred that day to Kenosha County Detention Center (KCDC). The sheriff was kind enough to let me call my husband to tell him  I was being moved, and to bring me some street clothes that I would need for work crew. I would be working at  a soup kitchen/food pantry. It was actually the best work crew job to get, because we got to get out EVERY DAY to feed the hungry. When on work crew you also get 1 day off of your sentence for every 3 days worked...a nice bonus.

I got to see hubby a couple of times a week. He was allowed to meet me outside of KCDC when I went to the van in the am. He was allowed to exchange my dirty clothes for clean ones, and he would drop off cigarettes too. We were allowed a couple of smoke breaks at KCDC as long as one of the staff was with us outside.

There were about 5 of us from KCDC that when to the soup kitchen every day, another girl, myself, and 3 guys. A van picked us up from jail, and dropped us off there. On the way home there was a guy that have to have been 90 years old. He was a dirty old man to say the least. In addition to being a pervert, he was a horrible driver. Every night on the way back to jail we would have a near death experience...no lie. I was never so happy to get back to jail.

I have to say I really like working at the soup kitchen/food pantry. It really wasn't "jail" to me. In many ways I think it was a God thing.  The food pantry was open every Mon, Wed, Fri. There were 2 sessions, 1 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon. They gave out 50 numbers each session. It was so sad people would like up hours ahead of time. It broke my heart to see people turned away. The problem was there simply was not enough food. As fast as it was donated, we unloaded the trucks, stocked the shelves, and the shelves would be empty a few days later.

The soup kitchen was every day. No one was ever turned away. We made food during the day. We started serving at 4:00pm. We did a ton of dishes, mopped floors, etc. I got to know many of the people that came by name. I was glad that they at least got one meal a day, and a place to warm up for an hour or so.

I kept volunteering the after I was done with jail. DH and I served Thanksgiving Dinner there too.

So that was the work crew portion of jail...now for the jail part.

The jail part not so pleasant, as you might imagine. It was one big room for all of the people that had Huber privileges. Either the girls that left for work, school, or were on work crew some place. There were 2 rows of about 15 steel bunks. Each bunk had a metal locker, were we kept anything we were allowed to have(anything we had purchased through the jail...chips, candy bars, envelopes, pencils, tampons, ibuprofen, cards..etc).One side of the bunks there was a half wall, the wall separated the bunk area from the day room. It was really not much of a separation. there were a few tables, and chairs. After the day room, came the bathrooms. Another half wall, serrated the day room from the 3 toilets...which were out in the open. You had no problem having an up, and oh too personal chat with the person next to ya...yep ya saw, and smelled EVERYTHING. I think I pooped twice the whole time I was there. That was another reason I was grateful to go to the soup kitchen...private pooping. Forget about any private feminine hygiene moments. Just beyond the toilets, were 3 showers, no curtains. Male guards would walk into the dorm and see it all. I am so not sure that is legal, but it's jail, what are your options.

There was an identical dorm next to ours separated by a guard booth. The OTHER dorm was considered "general population". It was basically women that were tried, and awaiting sentencing, or had been sentenced, and waiting to be transferred to prison. They were much scarier than our Huber dorm.

Oh and then there was "the hole". The hole is were ya get put when you get into trouble...solitary confinement. I have no idea why it was on the Huber side. We all had to get up and go somewhere in the morning, the general population didn't. Even so, we got to hear the girls in the hole scream, pound, and yell...ALL NIGHT LONG! One night, one of the girls in the hole, decided to throw her feces around. When people were in the hole they were fed what the inmates referred to as "cat food sandwiches". I guess it was all the left over food blended together. Luckily, I never got to find out what it tasted like...I never visited the hole.

On the bunks were about a 1 inch mat, flat sheets that never actually stayed tucked in, and 1 itchy wool blanket that was only about 5 feet long.

Most of the women in my dorm were OK, some really strange, but mostly OK. Most of them were DUI's like myself. Except, the girl that I had the bunk above. She is a jail lifer. My first night there she left a note on my bunk that said, "Bitch if you step on my bunk again, I will beat you". It is nearly impossible to get on the top bunk with out stepping on the bottom bunk. Turns out it was a really good think I have such long legs. Eventually, I got a lower bunk. When a girl on a lower bunk leaves, you can request the bunk. Kind of a seniority thing.

It was nearly impossible to sleep at night. Most of the lights were left on, the guards keys jingling, constantly trying to readjust the 5 foot long wool blanket on my 5' 10' body to try and keep warm (it was freezing in there), and the screaming from the hole. I did however, learn a jail sleeping trick from my friends from the food pantry...TYLENOL PM. That was another item DH would bring during clothing exchange. We kept it in the locker at the food pantry, and would take it right before we left.

When we returned from being out during the day, we would change out of our street clothes, and into our KCDC orange. Everything was provided...top, bottoms, a sweat shirt, socks, and yes...underwear. It was nice to have the sweatshirt at night to keep warm. The underwear thing really skived me. They were granny panties, usually with no elastic. The socks were tube socks, and again had no elastic. They had no elastic, because the girls would pull out the elastic to make jail hair ties.

Once we had our street clothes off, and before we put on our KCDC orange, we did what is called "the Huber dance". The Huber dance is this; In front of a guard naked, shake out your hair, open your mouth, lift up arms, show them the bottom of your feet, and then with your back to the guard, squat and cough. They do that to make sure you are not bringing in any kind of contraband. Some of the guards were very thorough, others hardly at all. You would get to know which guards that were strict, and the ones that would pretty much just let you walk on by naked and get dressed. You also got to learn the guards' schedules, so you knew pretty much what you would be in for upon return to jail.

I had to tell you that story to tell you the next story. One day, we all expected a lenient guard to be on duty. There was a very large, I mean VERY large woman (she was on work crew at the YMCA), that tried to sneak in a prok chop in under her breast. She was very surprised to find out the lenient guard was off for some reason, and we had the toughest guard that day. When she was doing  the Huber dance, she was asked to lift up her breast...the  pork chop fell to the ground. She had a visit to the hole, and traded her prok chop for  "cat food sandwich's" for 3 days.