Prison inmates hard at work or hardly working? UNICOR and Facilities get to go to lunch directly from work once all the rest of us are safely tracked back in the unit. They feed UNICOR, then Facilities, and then they start calling the units. So depending on your cleanliness, you could eat lunch anywhere between 11:15 and 12:30 or even later.

UNICOR and Facilities get called back to work at around 11:30 and 11:45 respectively so they do work a seven-hour day. The rest of us have to wait until the end of lunch, usually 12:30, so we only get a six-hour work day.

I am currently earning at a Grade 2 rate of $0.29 per hour. That is up from Grade 4 at about 12¢ but still down from the Grade 1 (42¢) I was making at the Chapel. Monthly, the pay works out to $15, $50, and $75. So I am really missing the Grade 1. I need about $2.00 a day to feed myself and stay out of the chow hall.

Are you keeping track of all the valuable information? There will be a quiz afterwards, so please have you #2 pencils ready.

Let’s see, lunch is done and back to work we go. They check us in, and then we have the 1:30 and 2:30 moves and the great 3:30 RECALL. That means we all go back to our housing units and get ready for the 4:00 PM stand up count. Sound impressive, doesn’t it?

Well, with the exception of fifty or so inmates working on the dinner, the rest of us are locked in our rooms and then counted.

Oh, and since it is a stand up count, we actually have to "stand up" as opposed to lying down on the bunk or sitting at the desk.

These lock down type counts take about an hour, so by 4:30 we are back out, and if it is Monday to Friday we have mail call.

So now what does this all mean you ask? Well let us see if you can get some of those questioned you asked answered.
  ¶ 11:05 AM