November 17, 2023

I get some legal access today. The other inmate in the small room at the other computer gets called for HSU and I spend some time further convinced that what I experienced was not the intended due process but a perversion of what every attorney is schooled to value.

​When the other inmate comes back he explains that he has been at Boscobel since 2018 and before COVID they got two hours of rec per day. He points out that only Charlie unit range one is so restricted as our rec, today, is limited to 45 minutes but the other ranges are getting a full hour and a half. He also says that other units get fed hot meals when we do not and also that the kitchen gets better food but the guards eat it and give us worse. Like, we get plain corn chips but they eat Doritos. We get gross expired sandwiches and they eat the Smuckers Uncrustables. I wonder if the actual cost of housing an inmate isn't ridiculously inflated by the misappropriation or mismanagement of resources. He also points out how they routinely claim there is not enough available staff but everywhere we look has multiple staff standing around gossiping. It is not absolutely true but it is frequently the case. The rec time being cut in half means each side is let out for half the usual time. This avoids the phone conflict with the other inmate for the time being. The food is still way better than what they served in county. Since COVID policy taught the prisons how little they need to do and gave them all the excuse to make it the new normal without consequence, we are essentially a Supermax with the minimal and most restrictive form of incarceration. Guys that know better are especially frustrated though.