Mostly we ate beans and rice. They would add a tablespoon of coleslaw to that and a hunk of white bread made like cornbread. For dinner, they serve two lunch meat sandwiches, usually bologna or salami. We used to get two cookies and an orange, but now they just give five cookies and a pack of powdered kool-aid. We would get this meal around 4:30 in the afternoon and wouldn't eat again until 5:30 in the morning. This left an overwhelming need for food around nine o'clock that night. If you were lucky enough to have family who cared enough or who were able enough to send money; you were cool.
Most of the women who were there were problems to their family and had been in jail many times over the years. Nobody sent them money and nobody cared that they were in jail. These were the key members of the prostitution racket. These people lived on the street and got their food how they could. Some of them actually got food stamps, but didn't spend their money on food, but sold them to buy drugs and ate where they could when they could.
When given the chance to "turn a trick" for a 6 oz. burger on the Hot Food menu, it was nothing for them to leave the POD for a period of time days or even hours before the Hot Food would come. That is the easiest money that could be made during the periods of Hot Fod and commissary. This wasn't the worst they'd ever done and the scenery was better than the dumpster behind the Sav-Plus store.
I woke up last night and my mother was startled by my rambling in the kitchen. She asked me, "If you were in jail, what would you do if you were hungry?" I replied, "Nothing, but stare at the walls and listen to my stomach growl until breakfast got there." Breakfast would consist of most grits, now. It use to be oatmeal, but I think they get a better deal on the grits. That same white cornbread and a hunk of butter. They no longer give milk in a carton, but give powered milk that tast like mostly water.
They no longer give sugar or cheese, and meat is hardly ever served, although most of it was meat by-product like dog food. You have to buy seasoning and sugar on the commissary. The real molesters walked around with sugar in their pockets and passed it out to those who were having problems converting to "The Way". I had plenty of sugar!
I lost a pound a day when in jail. Even when I had money to buy food, it was too expensive to keep myself in food for more than three days. Prison is better and cheaper, but who wants to go there. In jail, you get out at 12:01 a.m. on the day of your release. In prison you have to wait for a board to set you free and pray for the six months you have to stay that nobody decides to hit you and keep you there.
They make it so easy for women to make the choice to be sold, because they refuse to feed you. When you mention it, they laugh in your face. Some jails actually feed their inmates, but for the deputies at Oakland County Jail to feed you would mean money lost. Nobody cares about inmates, and no legislative body or person answered my letters to stop the exploits of the Oakland County Jail. Nobody cares and when cuts are made, they are made to the jail without challenge. Inmates suffer because they cause so much pain in society. I say they cause so much pain, because they suffer.
There is no education or corrections, but exploitation and degradation. We must do our best to try and understand that going to jail does more harm to our youth than anything that happens to them on the street. Being hungry is not a lesson, but a slight that makes people into ravished animals and allows them to resort to the worse type of behavoir they could ever think of doing. This brings about self loathing and shame. When you hate yourself, it is easy to hate others, rob, shoot and kill another to get what you need. Murderers go free at the Oakland County Jail and that's something serious to explore.
There is no education or corrections, but exploitation and degradation. We must do our best to try and understand that going to jail does more harm to our youth than anything that happens to them on the street. Being hungry is not a lesson, but a slight that makes people into ravished animals and allows them to resort to the worse type of behavoir they could ever think of doing. This brings about self loathing and shame. When you hate yourself, it is easy to hate others, rob, shoot and kill another to get what you need. Murderers go free at the Oakland County Jail and that's something serious to explore.
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