Chow Time
We have 300 inmates here and roughly 200-250 of us eat in the chow hall. They claim to give us 15 minutes to eat but they give us only 5 -7 minutes. We barely chew our food. We’ve learned just to eat as fast as we can and swallow without barely chewing the food. The food comes out of the server so hot it burns our mouths. All we get are starches. We get 1 apple a month and 1 orange a month. Breakfast, the most important meal, they give us 2 tablespoons of eggs, ¼ cup of grits or oatmeal and 1 biscuit that is the size of a golfball.
We used to get desserts at lunch and dinner, but they cut the desserts down to 4 times a week. The stewardess alters the menu all the time. We are not fed according to the food pryimid. On 2nd shift the officers argue who is going to feed us. We’re supposed to eat at 04:30 but we don’t get fed till almost 5 and then we are yelled at the whole time whilst eating and are rushed to eat.
SUPPLIES – We’re supposed to get 1 bottle of shampoo, 4 bars of soap, deodorant, 1 razor, 1 tube of shower cream. The black folks get a shampoo and conditioner for their hair as well as hair grease, but the officer in charge of our supplies never orders enough. Today we ran out of the bottles of shampoo for white people and when the officer was asked, what was we who got no shampoo to do, her reply was “I guess you won’t have any shampoo”. We’re supposed to get supplies every 30 days, yet our supplies are every 45 days. This same officer was supposed to give us 3 pairs of state shorts along with 3 t-shirts, but she gave us only 1 pair of shorts and 1 t-shirt.
The other 2 female prisons got their 3 shorts and 3 t-shirts. We’re also supposed to get 2 pairs of shorts pyjamas and 2 pyjama pants, yet we get none of either. We get 6 panties 4 bras every 6 months. The panties tear up within a week and she never has our size. The panties are either too small or too big. The bras for big girls are rarely available, size 40 or bigger. We get sports bras, either too big or too small. I am out of panties altogether but cannot get any for another 4 months, so now i go without, which is against regs, yet its not my fault that i can’t get anymore.
If you tell her you have none, she comes to your bed and goes through all of your property and embarrasses you. Its very hard for us to get a visitation uniform. We get used ones, marked up. Another girl put in a request for panties and bras the 1st of February 2016 and still has not been called. This officer takes 2 to 3 months to answer requests for clothes. Our jackets are horrible. They belonged to the male inmates, who resided at this camp before us. The officer takes them from us in April and stores them in a rotted trailer where rats piss and doodoo on them, till November, when she gets them to give them back to us. I know we broke the law, but we are still humans. We’re tired of being treated like animals.
This same officer kicked us out of her laundry trailer during the 1 O’clock count last summer because her AC was not putting out with 11 additional bodies (inmates) in there. She said it was hot and kicked us out in the sun with 105 heat index where we were out in over 30 minutes. And the officer calls herself a Christian.
Warehouse Living
We live in a warehouse. We burn up during the summer. It feels like your car feels like when its been outside locked up, and you open the door and the heat knocks you down. The fans we have just blow hot air. The officers lie about the temperature reading they record. Its against the law to leave your pet in a car, yet we love in this heat. At 01:00 its 99°f in here. Our showers cannot adjust the temperature so we’re forced to take scalding hot showers during the summer.
We are attacked by flies, the dumpsters are right outside our windows, they are supposed to be further back according to OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) but once again ADOC (Alabama Department Of Corrections) is in violation. According to PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) we’re supposed to have curtains in front of the toilets, but we don’t. They are open where others can view our private parts. According to the Feds who visited us, ADOC were supposed to remove the 40 beds they have bunched in front of the dorm, by the TV area, but they’re still there.
When the male inmates lived here, they housed only 200 inmates. Yet when we got here they added beds and we are at 300. We get all the officers that just graduate, they are young and immature. A graduate used to have to work at a Maximum security facility before working at a work facility. We have an officer just make Sgt. and we wonder how, when from 2007 till 2015 she hit inmates, used unnecessary force and has been investigated by I&I (ADOC Internal Investigations) more times than i can count. This place covers up the physical abuse, the mental abuse and the sexual abuse.
We wish the Feds would take over this camp and escort every person who works here and re-hire new people, the people who run this camp and the ones who are supervising, are corrupt.
The person who is supposed to post our money never does it on time. She’s made it clear, she hates us. Tutwiler and Birmingham gets their money posted 7 days a week, yet our families have to keep calling, investigating why the money they sent via the internet or over the phone is not posted, when everywhere else its posted within 24 hours. She takes weeks to post the work release inmates checks but she has no problem immediately taking out fees for van rides and laundry.
Each girl that goes to work and picked back up has to pay $5.00 a day. Alabama Department Of Corrections is making a killing off of van rides. Estimate 60 inmates that work 5 days a week, adds up to at least $6000.00 a month. And these girls ride at least 5 to 10 per van. They also pay $15.00 a month for laundry that gets washed like our uniforms. There is a list of what they are supposed to wash with, yet the officer over this gives them a day supply and tells them to make it last a week. Our clothes are washed in degreaser, disinfectant, Windex and a tad of bleach. Our clothes are dingy and they itch us. She barely gives out cleaning supplies for our bathroom. She gives 1 gallon of Mildew and 1 gallon of bleach, 1 gallon of Windex and thats supposed to last each shift a whole week, which to doesn’t, so they clean with Windex.
Montgomery Women's Facility 