7 weeks: Reception at State Prison

A bus finally came to get me from county and transfer me to state prison. They took 5 of us. We are stuck in this hell hole of a place called reception for approximately 2 weeks where they test your blood for diseases, malnutrition, etc., meet with the psych to determine your mental health, take scholastic exams to test your level of education, and of course inform you of any rules and regulations. Then you get classified based on the nature of your crime, length of sentence, prior history, etc. , to see where you belong. In other words, do you go to minimum security, aka grounds where you can literally walk off the facility (of course getting an escape charge if you do), medium security which is behind fences but you live in dorms, max where you live in single cells and have intense supervision. They told me I'm on the border probably between medium and grounds, but may have to do a few months in medium first before being moved to grounds. I should be able to go to a halfway house after a year though. Reception is a giant room with bunk beds lined up, enough to accommodate 66 people. What sucks most is you have to shower in front of 6 other people at a time for your 2 week stay here. I've never seen so many boobs and nasty naked women and tattoos in my life. I try to stare at the wall, do what I have to do quickly and get the heck out! We all take turns with cleaning duties here; tonight I have to scrub the showers. Gross. After reception, I hope to get an administrative job of some kind so I don't have to clean. they say it's likely for me since I have higher education than most women here as well as office experience.

Everyone continues to ask me why I'm here. Every single day someone comes up to me telling me I don't look like I belong here. Well I'm here and sorry but it isn't any of your business! I know what they mean though. The "stereotypical" inmate is usually somewhat "gangsta" or hardcore looking. A certain toughness naturally exudes from most inmates. You can't always follow stereotypes though! Mostly, what they say in the movies appears true though. Lots of manly women, troublemakers, barely many who speak proper English, etc. Not everyone though. I guess my face just looks too innocent to mesh in or something. Maybe I should have gotten a few tats before my arrival. I can hold my own thought. I may look innocent but I'm not naive and I've seen or been through enough to make sure I don't get taken advantage of or mistreated. And I'm smart enough to stay as far away from trouble as possible.

Food is slightly more edible here than in county!! =) Today we had chicken salad with real tomatoes and real Breyer's yogurt. They give wheat bread instead of white, too, and multiple salt and pepper packets per meal - it's a miracle! Too bad they only give us like 10 minutes to scarf each meal down in reception. The number one thing I'm happy about right now though is that they give you brand spankin' new sheets and a real pillow here! Whoohoo! Funny how such simple things can make you so happy when its been taken away from you before. Goodbye old linty nasty county sheets. Goodbye and good riddance!

I still look around me sometimes in amazement that I'm actually in state prison. Khaki uniforms, fake Timberlands that you write your name on because people actually try to steal them. It's like in the movies except not as many fights breaking out constantly or people sneaking in Burger King Whoppers. So far, I saw one fight. Someone threw a mattress at another and then 10 guards came running in and brought them to lock in handcuffs. Guess what it was over? Fake Timberlands being stolen - yup. Extremely petty of those thieves to steal especially when everyone has the SAME things in reception! There are a few nice girls though - people from your own county stay together in reception since most don't know anyone else yet. I'll have to make nice with others soon though so that people will have my back if ever needed. The psych and doctor who took my blood both warned me of women who might try to have their way with me. Yes, there are those who will want to make any little thing their bitch and sexually harass you. The doc said watch out because I might be more at risk being "young, pretty and innocent looking". I don't feel pretty in these prison clothes and no makeup yet and short hair with no product! I will try to look better for visitations but that's about it. I'm still thinking of a way to show people no means hell no if anyone tries anything though. That is, without them thinking I'm a bitch, without being a snitch, and without getting written up for being in a fight. I'm sure I'll figure it out if the situation ever arises. Hopefully not - I have enough to deal with just being here as is.