A Little Insight

All hell just broke loose… There is shouting, screaming, a lot of loud noise. I just woke up and the air smells of burnt plastic or rubber… my door in the cell is still locked and I have no idea what the hell is going on. It’s around 7am and I’m rather confused, but also kinda pissed-off for not knowing what’s up…. I tried to look out through my only window and catch a glimpse of what looks like the riot squad running to some cells … Man this shit is weird. Roughly an hour after this scene my cell was unlocked and I could move towards the breakfast area. Everyone was talking about what the cause of the commotion was, yet no one knew for sure. Just for interest sake, when an inmate hears unfounded rumours or stories it is called “radio bandiet”. One thing about prison and that is that there is always rumours going around, because a lot of guys don’t have much else to do but spread stories…

During breakfast I hear two Gatta’s talking about what I gather was the cause commotion. From what I can understood that there was a gang related fight that took place in one of the communal cells. Apparently someone lit the bed of another inmate and from there it was chaos! You can imagine how sick the society in a prison can be… when the authorities joke about scenes and scenarios like this by jokingly singing the midnight oil song: ”how can we sleep while our beds are burning…”

So, that was the main event and excitement for the day and the rest of the day consisted of gym training, walking up and down a long passage in the Khulukhuts section and talking nonsense with the rest of the inhabitants… I can’t for lock-up time so I can use my cellphone… In the confines of Sun City Prison, the only  network operator worth using is Vodacom, for some reason MTN and Cell-C drop calls all the time, (its probably the same story outside these walls, isn’t it?)

Hiding a cell phone in prison is actually very simple once you learn to think like a criminal… I will divulge two ways: first up, well if you have a Nokia 8310 or similar sized phone, you could place the phone in a plastic bag and fit it into your water bottle and then fill it with water or cold drink, that way any time a search arrises you could simply stand around sipping water from your water bottle, whilst conveniently hiding your phone… just make sure its not a see-through water bottle as doing so will certainly win you the dumb-ass of the week award… a second method is to use a 5 socket multi-plug and removing some of the copper plates inside to fit the phone, whilst leaving one or two working … pretty  damn easy and the possibilities are endless if you use a little imagination…

Most days in prison are actually boring and this routine becomes monotonous. Yes, make no mistake you must be wide awake all the time! Sometimes days go by with nothing in particular happening and you tend to blend into the surroundings…

Lying on my bed at night I realize that my back hurts from the unsupported low-density mattresses issued to us. I guess that is were the bright idea originated to smuggle a Li-lo for myself, one of those blow-up pool matrasses to sleep on. This takes a couple of days to organize but at least I would be sleeping comfortably.

People, I’m getting very frustrated, irritated and just plain fed up with Correctional Services. These people are always boasting about change, second chances or rehabilitation to the public, but in reality there is no such thing. All these government wankers care about is collecting a salary and doing as little as possible and oppressing inmates gives them a kick… Sometimes I wonder how the “fat-cats” in charge got their positions such as the Head of security in this prison, Pappa “R”. This idiot doesn’t have any logic! He actually accused me that I was going to make a parachute with my Li-lo…But this idiot is so stubborn he actually confiscated it, despite my protests and explanations. The Bastard!!!

By now the dust has settled around my case, and combined with my current frustrations I’m starting to think about appealing my case… it’s a tiny light in a very big dark tunnel, or could it be an oncoming train?

Quote of the week: Confucius once said: “He who stands on toilet is high on pot…”