Cruel and unusual doesn’t begin to cover it

After a month of transport and several more without communication, I'm finally back in the 21st century with email. This was not my first transfer, but it was the worst. This is the final jurisdiction, final sentence, and after 13years I'm almost home. But this experience was the most dehumanizing of all. it’s hard to believe this still happens in the world, let alone this "civilized" country of ours. I'll skip the degrading strip searches and county jails in my transfer from the feds to AZ, but the noteworthy experience was AZDOC transfer center known as Alhambra. This place is the intake, where anyone sentenced to prison time in AZ must pass before going to their designated prison. The average stay is 7 days, but some do WEEKS. Doesn't sound like much, but it was the most degrading time in my life. I'll explain.

The cell is 14x24ft. 14 strangers crammed into this room about the size of a small garage, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, who don't leave but for filing outside the cell for a count every few hours, even in the middle of the night. In this cell there are 7 bunk beds which dominate all but a few cubic feet, making movement for even 2-3 people difficult. It’s seen as proper etiquette to stay in one's rack unless you need to use the ONE toilet in the middle: in plain view of everyone. that's weird, right?! At the risk of not sounding like the hardened convict I'm supposed to be, I'm still human enough to believe there are moments when people deserve privacy.

It gets worse. The room is hot, at least 85 degrees. and it was winter outside! Feels like a taunt when you know fresh cool air is on the other side of the brick. When you ask a guard (one who will deign to speak with a lowly inmate), they tell you the prison doesn't control the temperature. so... they control all the doors, all the feeding, every pill and every movement and single-file line within the enclosure of the walls but they can't... control... the thermostat. Heat is an easy way to increase aggression. Lots of studies support this, but heat with close proximity to others is about the surest way to get peoples' hackles up, doesn't matter if its two convicts or two old ladies back from a church picnic strangely. In every cell there is a low red light burning at all hours. This is also a well-studied effect known to increase aggression. You can look up the studies. Why would the prison choose that light? Are you starting to understand the implications? There is NOTHING to do. No TV, no books or magazines or reading material of any kind (unless you count our daily carton of milk which, after 2 days donations was enough to make a deck of cards, the suits scrawled on with a precious pencil stub. We played poker a lot, gambling our saccharin "juice packets" or a daily cookie). We were given paper and 2 pencils (to be shared among us all) to write a "free letter" home, none of which made it to their destination as far as I know.

Imagine a night in a small room with 14 people, snoring and tossing and farting and there HAS to be a sleep talker! but then variables like a schizophrenic who talks to himself (Chris and the boys) and guys who try to sleep the whole time away inevitably wake up at odd hours and they're as frustrated as anyone else and they want to talk to someone at 2am, or whatever time in the middle of the night (there are no clocks). This frustration leads smoothly to my next point: the violence. Oh, the violence! I didn't think to start counting the instances until maybe the 5th brawl between the older schizophrenic and a very overweight 18yr old who was likely more miserable than the rest of us, starving as he was: we're only fed twice on the weekends. I think 10 physical altercations and 20 unveiled threats of violence is a conservative guess. This is over 6 of the longest days of my life. Black eyes, busted heads, and a broken arm in a guy in the cell next to us... but I've saved the best for last! We came out once for showers. I had time to measure the room in the 45 minutes I was locked in there: 20x6ft (ie, a hallway), 4 shower stalls (one without a curtain) no ventilation and... 28 people! I was led to believe we were lucky to get a shower, short of staff as they chronically are. I didn't feel lucky, less so when the poor bastard from the neighboring cell had a mishap with his colostomy bag and its contents pooled on the floor at our feet. That was maybe halfway through our lucky shower time. The guard laughed. As an aside, I should mention the ridicule from staff who mock our shabby appearance (they give us the clothes!) and the stench of men crammed in a hot, poorly ventilated cell for days. I've never met a more sick lot of people than my time in Alhambra, where hardened criminals are the saints compared to the wretches who voluntarily walk through the gates every day where the thousands of us are dragged in and out in 10lbs of chain.

I'm sure I've left out some details. I shared the pencil and much of what I wrote there was smudged or illegible, writing in that goddamned red glow. This didn't happen in some Victorian dungeon or madhouse. This happened in February of 2024, in the state of Arizona. and it’s happening to hundreds of people right now, in their own little hells in the cells of Alhambra. and it will continue until someone stops it.