NOTE: From time to time Lorne will be sending me his perspective on life inside. Trust me when I say, inmates don't think like the rest of us...it truly is a whole other world inside. The following note is a letter that Lorne asked me to post for followers to read.
Tuesday May, 17, 2011
Sitting in the office at work this morning (I am the gymnasium clerk), another gym worker and I were discussing some of the other inmates whom we've known and who've been sent to the hole. As a result of this conversation, it occurred to me that the possible impending closure of Nevada State Prison (NSP) is creating yet another advantage for those inmates who get into trouble over those of us who do our best to stay disciplinary-free.
Because of the director's zeal to shut down as much of NSP as possible, NSP has no unit which is designated as the hole. Inmates who get sent to the hole as a result of disciplinary sanction, being put under investigations, or whatever other reason are held in a temporary holding cell on the bottom floor of the worker's unit until they're absolved of whatever wrongdoing of which they've been accused and let back out into the yard or until they're shipped off the yard. Those who are shipped off the yard go to Warm Springs Correctional Center (WSCC) Northern Nevada Correctional Center (NNCC) or Ely State Prison (ESP), this last if they've done something really horrible and I use that phrase loosely.
The irony of this is that with the exception of ESP, which is Nevada's primary maximum security establishment, most inmates, me included, feel that WSCC and NNCC are far preferable destinations than the one to which the vast majority, if not the entirety, of NSP inmates are slated to go to if NSP does indeed close, that is to say High Desert State Prison (HDSP), where they have major problems with both water and power. It is my understanding that you can only flush the cell toilets every so often like once an hour, and that surge protectors are not allowed so that you can only have two appliances plugged in at a time. Furthermore, HDSP has very little, if any, movement, so suffice it to say that doing time at HDSP or anywhere down south right now for that matter just sucks. To add insult to injury, I would be losing my job so that will trim a few meager bucks off my monthly income but more importantly, will cost me work time credits, making my expiration date for this sentence further back.
Meanwhile, these other inmates who got shipped to WSCC and NNCC did a couple of weeks to a month in the hole and are now walking those respective yards. They may have even acquired other jobs by now. it makes me feel as if I should go to the hole for something serious, but not serious enough to go to ESP, just so that I can stay up north and get to a yard where there's plenty of movement and some semblance of normality. It seem preferable to a trip to HDSP, which is my punishment for holding down a job and staying disciplinary free. Obviously, the lesson to be learned here is that there is no regard for doing the right thing, following the rules and being an upstanding, model inmate. And people wonder about why Nevada has such a high recidivism rate.
Just chalk it up to their great incentives for good behavior.
**For those unfamiliar with the term "the hole", it is where inmates who can't follow the rules are placed until a decision has been made about what to do with them. Most facilities have a separate area for them, like a pod or wing. Interaction with others as well as mail, phone and visiting and other privileges are very restricted. This is not the case at NSP as Lorne notes in his letter.**
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