With so many people around that are already inclined to be just a little bit anti-social, it’s easy to imagine how many tricks are played between the inmates. It’s especially funny when a joke can be played on one of the many C.O. s that rule our daily lives. In my many years of incarceration, I have seen hundreds of jokes play out. It’s always a relief to have some fun whenever possible. It will always lighten the load for a little while!

One thing that every inmate looks forward too is recreation time. Being able to exercise is always a good way to forget your troubles and mix with the other inmates. Many take their rec time serious and lift weights or play such games as basketball or volleyball. At the receiving center, we got to go outside for about an hour a day. This is a very short amount of time for all we wanted to do.

I always liked to play volleyball. We had some really good players and some great games. Being able to go outside was a treat as we could get a little sun and fresh air. The time always seemed to pass way too quickly though and we were ordered back to our cells. I guess we will have to wait till tomorrow to play another game.

One thing I didn’t like about receiving was that we only got out of our cells on every other night. Due to the fact that there were so many people there, it was a security risk to let us all out at once.

There were two sides in our wing with each side three tiers tall, this added up to a lot of inmates. One night the gates would open on the right side, the next night would be the left sides turn. It always was good when it was our night. We then had access to watch TV and walk about in the common area.

We could visit with the other side and communicate with them through the bars, but they were locked inside and couldn’t come out to play! It was just another annoyance we had to put up with on a day to day basis.

Many shows on TV have some prison scenes in them. I have watched a number of them and have not seen any that are remotely true. Prisoners’ banging on bars with their metal cups comes to mind. While from time to time there may be some excitement, for the large part, it’s very boring. Prisons are extremely controlled. You will not see prisoners unsupervised at any time.

The worst part about these shows is that many people actually believe what they see. They think that there is a large population of angry killers who are just waiting to get out and create havoc. While once in a while this may be true, for the large part it is not! I wish the television shows would do a better job of showing the truth.

With so many people around and not much to do, the penitentiary is a breeding ground for April fools jokes. One of the best we ever did was on a friend of mine with the nickname “Stub”. Stub was a great guy and we had many good times together.

Anyway, knowing his schedule as we did, we used that to our advantage. After he had left, we had one of the C.O.’s open his room. We emptied the room completely! We took out his bed and his locker. We took his rolling locker and trash can. Everything was gone.

In due time, Stub came back to find what we had done. We had a great time and all enjoyed the surprise and gave him a great ribbing! Sometimes jail is a fun place to be!