Once again he was handcuffed, his arms behind his back, and escorted out of the building by two officers. As they exited the building, Lee saw several inmates wearing blue working on the surrounding grounds. As the escort officers and he walked out of the gated door, one of the officers yelled out “Escort!” Immediately, all of the nearby inmates arose from their tasks and walked a short distance in the opposite direction, away from the escorts. Lee was then led out of the building, around a security checkpoint, and along a paved walkway. After the walkway, they exited onto a large, paved yard. There were more inmates all over the yard dressed in orange jumpsuits. Walking around the circumference of the yard, Lee felt the scrutiny of many of the inmates around the area. Fingers were pointed at him and secretive nods made in his Direction. These indications of identification only served to make him uneasy. The two escort officers seemed to take no notice of the other inmates. Their main function seemed to be only to walk him to the East Block Condemned Row, hollering out ‘Escort!’ every dozen strides or so. They passed the prison kitchen and chow hall. The smells of cooking food assailed his senses. Then the prison canteen (store) was passed. Two officers and an inmate stood nearby, talking. Their voices carried to him easily in the pre-noon air.
“Is that him?”
“Yeah, that’s him.”
“That’s one son-of-a-bitch that needs his throat cut as soon as possible!”
Finally, they arrived at two huge doors. As one of the officers opened a small door set in the huge ones, he again yelled out “Escort!” Inside, Lee heard a bustle of quick movements. When he walked through the door, a blast of air hit him. He almost dropped to the floor, but then recognized it as an insect guard attached above the doorway. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness of the interior of the building, he noticed several inmates moving around huge laundry machines. They were moving away from him, but kept their eyes focused on him. He was then walked through a gate, another gate, and then placed in a small holding cage. There, he was once again told to go through the strip down routine, then told to get dressed again. He was brought several sheets of paper, told to sign some of them and then was once again handcuffed. Then he was escorted up the four flights of stairs to the fifth level tier and locked into a cell a little more than half way down the tier.
This new cell was even smaller than the one he had just left. This cell was 10 feet long by four and a half feet wide. Three solid walls, the fourth being a wall of bars and small-grade mesh wire. As he looked around this new home, the tears began to fall. Despair overwhelmed him and his body began to shake with the sobs that erupted from the very depths of his soul. The circumstances of what the prosecution and prosecution witnesses had done to him with their lies and innuendoes was completely overwhelming him.
Through the tears that were obstructing his vision, he made up his bed. When that was done, he put away the other items he had been given: a new toothbrush, tooth powder, a bar of soap, laundry soap, a comb, a mirror, extra sets of under and outer-clothing, and a plastic spoon and fork. While doing this, the tier officer came by with a sack lunch. Lee didn’t have an appetite, so he set the lunch aside and finished trying to straighten up his cell After that, he laid down and immediately lapsed into the unconsciousness of sleep. He was now sleeping much more than he ever used to, but he didn’t care. The losses he had suffered were just too great to bear. By escaping into the realm of sleep, he didn’t have to face those losses.
That afternoon, he was awakened when the third shift tier officer came by.
“Listen up, you newcomers.” His voice was shrill and nagging on the ear as he yelled at the new inmates. “Let me tell you right now, I ain’t putting up with any of your bullshit! Don’t give me any grief and you won’t get any from me! And don’t ask me for nothing ‘cause I ain’t gonna give it to you!”
He closely resembled one of Lee’s brothers. He immediately thought of the officer as a short blowhard with an attitude, trying to make up for his lack of height by appearing a giant in voice and ill attitude. Just like Lee’s brother! A few minutes later this officer came up to his cell.
“Lee. You know someone named Slim Blackman on the first tier of the other side of the building?”
“I know a Jake Blackman. He was my cell partner in the county jail.” He replied. “He sometimes goes by the nickname of Slim, though.”
“That’s him. He said he’s going to send you a kite a little later. You’re also scheduled for the phone at 8:45 this evening. You want to call someone?”
Lee thought for a moment. He only knew one phone number: the husband and wife couple who had stood beside him throughout this whole terrible ordeal. He told the officer that he would like to use the phone and that he would appreciate it very much. The officer made a notation on a notepad, then left.
Dinner came about an hour later. The food was almost tasty and included one of his favorite foods: Chinese food and cottage cheese. When it came time for him to use the phone, he called his friends. They only had 15 minutes to talk, and it was a very sad conversation. Dave had turned the phone over to his wife so she could talk to Lee. She knew him better than Dave anyway. When she got on the phone with Lee, her voice started to crack badly. She sounded very sad, which made him feel even worse than he felt before he had placed the call. She missed him terribly and told him so. Dave and Flo had come to the county jail to visit with him often during his stay there. In the background, Lee could hear Flo’s children calling out to speak to him. They were unhappy at not being allowed to talk with him because of the small amount of time available. And that time went all too quickly. He could tell she was crying openly by the time they had to hang up. As he hung up, he noticed that he was crying pretty profusely, himself. It took him a couple of minutes to regain his composure. When the officer returned to take the phone away, Lee thanked him for the use of it.
“What are you thanking me for? No one else in here ever thanks me for anything.”
“Because I always thank a person when they do something for me,” Lee said, “whether it’s of their own free will or because it’s part of their job. It’s the way I was raised and I believe people should be treated with respect, regardless of their position in life or their individual situation.”
The officer cocked his head to the side slightly and said, “Lee, you’re one strange puppy!” With that said, the officer walked away, pushing the phone in front of him to the next person scheduled for its use.
When he laid down on his bunk, he just stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t think any coherent thoughts, nor could he immediately go to sleep. His mind was too active with the terrible visions that were passing before his mind’s eye. They weren’t the visions of expectant death. They were the visions of being in a situation he had no control over, for something he had not been responsible for. Those visions once again caused the tears to start running out of his eyes and only stopped when he finally lapsed into unconsciousness for the night. He no longer called it sleep. It was the lack of consciousness to the mental horrors he expected to be piled upon him. He had not yet been in the prison long enough to find out if the prisoners were subjected to the same mental cruelty that was heaped upon him in the county jail. He’d heard that mental games were played by most prison guards. So far, though, he’d not come across any of the guards that were into playing those mental games. He hoped he’d be spared that indignity.