Day 185-186 (3/26-3/27/2015) Riot in the Chow Hall

Day 185 3/26/15

It’s been two weeks since I saw my counselor and I’m still here, trying not to get discouraged but it’s been 10 weeks and 71 days in receiving and I’m ready to go. On the bright side it was so quiet all day in our room now that H-Bang is gone. Silence is Golden!

The silence didn’t last too long, as we were getting ready for dinner, the inmates from housing unit 501 are starting to come out of the chow hall when the alarm goes off. We notice the officers running so it’s a fight and a big one, because next thing I know they have 8 women handcuffed and sitting in the grass outside the chow hall. There are cops everywhere including one with a huge beanbag gun. You don’t want to be shot with the bean bags because not only will you be “shot” you will be charged $75 for the replacement of each bean bag that they shot at you. The officers have moved the women that were outside of the chow hall when the alarm went off to the side as they are giving medical care to the 8 handcuffed women due to the pepper spray that was used to stop the fight.As they tend to the 8 the alarm goes off again and they going running in and bring out two more women in handcuffs. They now empty out the entire chow hall and have all the women sitting outside for crowd control.  After about 30 minutes the officers escort everyone back to their unit 10-15 women at a time. Once everyone is back in their housing unit the officer with the gun and her partner leave our yard. The sergeant is now working on getting all the officers statements and making sure everyone is finished being seen at medical. They release one of the ladies back to her housing unit as they are finishing up processing this mess, the alarm goes off again the cops go running to 501 it’s another fight. They bring out two girls, one is the girl they just let go back to her unit. The Officers lock up the two of them in the cages in the sergeant’s office while they move the 8 from the chow hall riot to R&R (receiving and release) to finish processing the incident. All 8 women are being charged with inciting a riot. The 8 are looking at possible additional time and they will definitely be doing some time in Ad Seg. (Administrative Segregation Unit). Finally over two hours later they release unit 503 for dinner. By the time they release us for dinner its 8:15pm, at dinner they had double the cops and they gave us two minutes to eat, they wanted us in and out quickly.

There were about 20 people fighting in the chow hall brawl, but most of them got away. The cops only arrested 8 and out of the 8 only 5 went to Ad Seg. It was no surprise that Peaches and Taya were two of the 5. The rumors on the yard started immediately everyone wanted to know how and why the fight started. Some said it was a race riot, Blacks vs. Mexicans, others said it was just a big fight. Ducey one of the 8 that got arrested said it was not racial that is had to do with some issue earlier in the day over in 501.

Story one was a window got broken earlier in the day and the entire room got shot gunned (Shot Gun: when the cops move all 8 women out of the room to new rooms and/or housing units) and the fight was about the broken window. Story two was that a Mexican girl was in Ad Seg. with Peaches and Ducey and she didn’t get along with them and when she got released from Ad Seg. she put the word out to go after them and that “hit” is what got the fight going. Story three was the fight was over a girlfriend (90% of all fights are over girlfriends) and final story was the fight was over some mascara.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world that's doing its best to make you somebody else, is to fight the hardest battle you are ever going to fight. Never stop fighting."

Day 186 3/27/15

After the “riot” (in prison a fight involving 3 or more people is no longer a fight it is a riot) last night we woke up to extra security and a full staff for breakfast. Everyone got to and from breakfast without incident, but it didn’t last long as a fight broke out this morning in B hall. Two girls got into an argument and one cupped (Cupped-when an inmate uses their state issued cup and strikes another inmate in the face or head) the other and it was so bad she had to be taken in the ambulance. The fight delayed our program time (Program- the time given to inmates daily outside of their cell) but at least we got to program as C and D ( In receiving we are split up by the halls we live in A&B and C&D) did not get to program today due to last nights incident.

After dinner 14 plus officers with gloves, bags, and metal detectors head towards 501, it was a huge raid on the entire housing unit. When they were done they headed into our housing unit but only raided C and D hall. It’s been an insane week, never a dull moment in Chowchilla!

Days 180-184 (3/21/15) "I Swear on West Side Hoover"

Day 180 (3/21/15)

Today should be moving day for Missy, but she only wants to move across the hall to room 5 and guess what ? They don’t want her. That's not surprising she annoys us and I am sure she has annoyed them as well. I don’t blame them, I wouldn’t want “girlfriends”, a couple living in my room especially one who just got the entire room in trouble. Now she’s all upset and wants us to feel sorry for her, the only thing we want is her to move out. I don’t care where you go, just leave. Normally we would throw her out, but the officer on duty today will "shotgun" (move us all out) the entire room so we are stuck.

Everyone is disappointed that Missy is still here but we have other problems now as everyone is napping Peaches is at our window calling out H-Bang they are arguing and fighting through the window. Peaches and Ducey just got out of Ad. Seg on Thursday and now that they are back on A-Yard they are talking shit to H-Bang, wanting to know why she hasn’t got Flo yet, I guess Flo is suppose to catch H-Bang’s fade per Astro’s order. H-Bang has been sending kites over the wall saying she’s going to take care of Flo but she hasn’t and has no intention to do so. Peaches is telling H-Bang to roll up in room 28 and take care of it or Peaches is going to run it with H-Bang, all the commotion wakes everyone up. Peaches eventually leaves but I know its not over.

Our room is full of problems and it's not over I am sound asleep when I am awoken by NayNay freaking out. She is packing up all her belongings and slamming doors, lockers and yelling. I guess Missy and Jessie were at it again in the window acting childish and playing games with the girls across the hall and NayNay wasn’t feeling good and was trying to sleep, but these two couldn’t keep it down. I wake up, its dark and everyone seems to be asleep and is not saying anything. Its getting loud as NayNay is in crazy mode. She’s so loud the officer comes down to see whats going on. NayNay tells him she wants out of this room, she told him to roll her out now ! He is on 1st watch so not much he can do. He calms her down and lets her know he put a request into the sergeant and hopefully she can be moved in the morning. NayNay stopped slamming things around, but she ran her mouth yelling at Jessie and Missy for pretending to be a sleep and that they are "fucked up bitches" with no room courtesy for others and she wants to whip their ass. This went on for a while. I finally was able to fall back asleep, but with all the fights and arguing, I really need out of here. I am hoping this is my week.

Day 182 (3/23/15)

It’s Monday morning, the start of a new week. I am ready to get the week going. My routine is that I get up, exercise, and take a shower before breakfast. Today while I am in the shower, I hear all this commotion going on. Missy and Jessie are freaking out like its the end of the world. Jessie is about to start crying and Missy is yelling about hating stupid people and I keep peaking my head out to see if there's a fight going on. I thought maybe NayNay got mad and broke a window, but I see they are all in tact and no one is physically fighting so, I have no idea what the hell is going on. I get out of the shower and as I am getting dressed NayNay comes up to me and says “We have to move” I reply with “What!?! Why?” “They broke our window”. I come out and see that the window facing the yard is broken. A rock was thrown and it shattered the window. All I can ask is what the hell is going on? It was Ducey and Peaches coming back from breakfast, Ducey throws a rock at our window and shatters it. It's still intact but has to be replaced. We let our housing office know and the sergeant comes to take a look and calls in the repair. We are lucky it's Monday and that they don’t have enough beds to move our entire room, so it's getting fixed today and no one has to move. Not that I wouldn’t mind moving at this point. H-Bang sneaks out of our housing unit and waits for Ducey. As Ducey is walking back to her housing unit from medical, H-Bang walks up to her and she swings, and of course misses. H-Bang is twice Ducey’s size but is slow and Ducey is quick and I have come to the conclusion that H-Bang can’t really fight !  She may be BIG, but she can’t fight. The two of them go at, it goes to the ground and the cops finally walk up and its over. They get handcuffed, taken to the sergeants office, issued 115’s and get sent back to their housing units. This war is just beginning. We were just told at our window that "If you don’t want blood in your room we better roll her out", her being H-Bang. This is now starting to get out of hand and I don’t want any part of it. Can I please get off this yard this week.

Day 183 (3/24/15)

No rocks today, instead we start our morning off with a fight. On our way to breakfast, we are walking out of our housing unit and here comes Peaches. She was waiting for H-bang, she walks around the corner and right up to H-Bang and she punches her in the face. They start fighting and the next thing we know, H-Bang's shirt comes off and she’s not wearing a bra, so she is standing there topless. They stop fighting and Peaches walks away and gets down with the rest of us as the alarm is going off. As the cops come up, H-Bang is standing there, boobs hanging out hollering about “lets go, come on, I swear on West Side Hoover” It was a sight! The cops hand H-Bang her shirt, handcuff her and Peaches and off to the sergeants office they go. We continued to breakfast and all anyone could talk about was the boobs, “it was like a photo out of National Geographic”. We get back to our room after breakfast and Missy is already trying to move her girlfriend into H-Bang’s bed assuming another fight would get her moved out. I am super irritated, but I don’t engage because I’ll just get angry and I’ll deal with it only if H-Bang doesn’t come back. I am sure she will be back and she was she got another 115 (that makes 3) and she would have only been moved if they called "enemies" on each other. I guess H-Bang hit Peaches in the face with her cup and this fight is still not over. H-Bang is running scared now, she did not go outside to program at all today and on the way to dinner she wore a bra and brought her "lock in the sock" with her to dinner. In case they came at her again, she's ready. This is getting ridiculous, I have to ask myself sometimes is this real?

Day 184 (3/25/15)

The drama never ends, I got woken up in the middle of the night to a fight. I guess Smiley "took off" on H-Bang, then H-Bang pushed Smiley to the ground and she fell into the locker , then H-Bang hit Jessie in the head with a cup. I woke up after Jessie got hit and was yelling. NayNay jumped up and was in the middle separating H-Bang and Smiley. Next thing I know, H-Bangs hollering her normal fight routine “On my mama, West Side Hoover, I’ll take you all on” and starts swinging around her "lock in the sock" she has for protection. Oh Hell NO! Somehow NayNay puts an end to that real quick and its over just like that, H-Bang starts packing up she knows it went too far and needs to go. I lay awake for a while just hoping this is over and H-Bang really moves out. This room has been out of control for the last month ever since Ms. Dolly left and H-Bang moved in.

We get up for breakfast and its real quiet. No one is talking, we all get ready and as soon as they pop the doors, H-Bang is out the door with all her stuff. When we get back from breakfast, I get the whole story about what happened and how it all started. Then here comes Missy with moving her girlfriend in our room again. I don’t know why she was asking, she already had Jay ask to move in, WTF!?! I told her straight out that I don’t want a “couple” in this room and its not fair to the rest of us. What if you fight or break up? We shouldn’t be put in that uncomfortable situation. She tried to tell me that wouldn’t happen, but I’m not compromising on this, the answer is NO ! Then, here comes H-Bang back in our room. She tries to tell us they won’t let her move out of our room. We know this is not true because at breakfast her girlfriend down the hall told her not to move. Before we have to say or do anything, the officer comes to our room and talks to H-Bang about moving. There are two empty beds in our hall. Everything ended up working out and after lunch H-Bang officially moved out and down the hall to room 7. She is their problem now. Everyone was happy and it was a nice and quiet day. 

Later in the day, we got our new roommate, her name is Lizzy. She's 27 from San Bernardino. So far, I like my new bunkie and roommate.

Days 177-179 (3/18/15) Pruno

Day 177 3/18/15

Today was a frustrating day, the morning starts off with a fight during AM program, then someone from C hall in our housing unit gets caught stealing books from the library, so all library privileges are over for the day. 

It’s finally our units day to shop for the month, but by the time its our turn to shop they are out of stock on everything. Then to top it off they gave out 24 muumuus and I did not get one. Will I ever get off of A-Yard? I just have to remember it can always be worse.

"Success is never final and failure is never fatal, it's courage that counts"

Day 178 3/19/15

After breakfast NayNay went to her friends room to braid hair, she trades places with Chelsey so there are not any extra bodies, so when the CO’s walk by there are 8 of us in each room even if its not the right room they really don’t pay attention, but go figure today they call NayNay for medical. So the porter comes by with NayNay’s pass and we have to tell her NayNay is in another room so she could give her the pass, well it didn’t work out and NayNay got caught, the officer hit the room she was in and our room. Our room was lucky he didn’t mess up to much, he took a few extras and thank goodness he didn’t find the Pruno (prison wine) they hid in the trash can. We got off easy, and NayNay didn’t even get a 115 for being out of bounds. Of course when NayNay gets back from medical she is all upset trying to blame the porter, but she got herself caught and if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime! Everyone knows what the risks and consequences are when you do dumb shit like this and it could have been a lot worse she should be thankful it was no big deal. No one gave her a hard time and if it was anyone else I don’t think she would have been so kind as we were to her.

Day 179 3/20/15

We wake-up to modified program due to being short staffed again, well happy Friday! We just got our room hit yesterday for one of our roommates being out of bounds but that does not stop Missy from going across the hall and hanging out with her girlfriend. Missy had a dukat and instead of coming back to our room she goes across the hall. We may not program today because we are on 1st watch status and Missy knew that but still goes over there, she is so stupid, but she gets on my nerves so I don’t mind that she's gone all day. 

At 2pm we have shift change, we are no longer on modified 1st watch status but we have not been released to program, so they start panicking across the hall. They get a brilliant idea to ask for a plunger, they get their door opened and she's now standing in front of our room; seriously how dumb are you? Obviously that plan did not work and she gets caught. We are all irritated just waiting for our room to get hit again, well lucky for Missy our housing officer is sick and does not hit our room but we all lose program.Everyone is outside except our room and room 5 across the way, we are stuck inside and everyone is pissed off. Everyone wants Missy out, yelling at her to pack her shit and find a new room.