SHAKEDOWN (aftermath)

Its 5:30pm and we have been in the gym all day. It looks like a refugee camp with people sleeping on benches and curled up in the corners.

There are even people sitting in the hallway that leads to the weight deck and bathroom. Probably because its quieter and warmer and its away from the breeze of the open doors to outside.

At 5:30 an announcement was made, we are now able to go eat dinner and or go strait back to the unit.

When they let us leave, 80% of us went strait back to the unit and skipped dinner. Everyone was excited to get back.

I went strait back to the unit because I wanted to see what kind of damage was done to our cells. Food wasn’t on my mind at all. I was thinking only about getting back to my domain.

Let me first explain what I left my cell looking like. It was very neat and tidy. Everything had its place. Clothes on hangers or folded neatly in a bin. All my food was arranged in sections in a cardboard box. My legal work was all in folders in a legal file folder in a box tucked under the bunk.

My shelves were organized neatly and in sections on each shelf. One was books, paper, my dictionary and a few old photo albums. One shelf was spices to cook with. And the bottom shelf was toothpaste, lotion, shampoo amongst other things.

I had homemade shelves made out of cardboard glued to the wall for miscellaneous things like brushes, ear buds, pens & pencils scented oils and such.

I had hooks made to stick to the wall for stuff like my hat, towel, the dog leashes, my dog vests, dust pan and fox tail hand broom and even a little spot for my fingernail clippers and tweezers.

All the dog stuff was neatly organized in its bin next to the dog crate. All the dog blankets were folded neatly in the crate. Some blankets were used as a dog mat next to the dog crate.

The only thing that wasn’t neat was our beds. And thats because we were sleeping we they got us.

SIDE NOTE: We just had our cell searched on 11/19 and the C/O’S that did he search actually complemented us on our neat and tidy cell and basicly just left everthing alone because they didn’t want to mess it up. They even said it smelled good.

What do you expect when Steven Jennings is my celly. However I like it too, and enjoy the orderlyness and cleanlyness. When two people are on the same page of lifestyles. It makes things smoother. Some cellys are really gross, stinky, dirty and just don’t want, or care about living neat and clean.

So I went back to the unit to asses the damage. Granite I was hungry, but this was weighing on my mind and just had to know. I can always just make something to eat later.

As I am walking back to the unit I am trying to prepare my self for the worst. I know its going to be bad, it always is. Just how bad is the question?

As I walk into the unit there are 8 SERT team members and the unit C/O spread out in the unit. I guess this isint over yet. Its like their waiting for something to happen.

I get to my cell and look in the window just before I key the door. I laugh a little and chuckle as I look over my shoulder as Steve comes up the stairs. I key the door and swing it open as he walks down the tier looking in the room. I step aside and let him vast in the glory of what’s left of our cell and ask, ” What do you think.”

I’m guessing that this tornado struck room is going to drive his OCD wild.

I can’t see hardly any of the floor. Nothing is hung up. The dog crate is up on one end and for some reason the door to it has been removed and is leaning against the wall.

Our mattresses are folded over on the bunk with the sheets and blankets removed. There are quite a few things on the bunk, under and on top of the mattresses. If you can even imagine how that’s possible.

Some of the dirty dog blankets are on the bunk and a few are on the floor. And some things are even in the up turned dog crate.

My TV was on the floor covered by some clothes. Steve’s TV was on the top bunk with the screen facing down on the sheet metal bunk.

Nothing that was on the shelves before was there now. Other things have now replaced them that were probably from differnt boxes. I know, none of the stuff currently on the shelves belonged there.

Both of our belongings are jumbled together in piles on the ground. Food, Books, Random items, Clothes and even paper work are all mixed together.

One thing I have learned over the years and being in multiple shakdowns like this is that you check all electronics first.

So that’s what I did. First I picked up my TV that was on the ground and plunged it in. It worked. So I continued to move on with all the oher things I have to plug in.

When I got to my radio/CD player, I plunged it in and it worked. However when I pushed on the CD lid to open it, it didn’t open. The spring that pushes the lid up wasn’t working. And doesn’t stay open when I pulled it up. It just slowly floated back down.

I got a little pissed off but only for a second. Then realized that there is nothing I can really do about it. Its just the way it is. Thats how these Sert teams are, disrespectful and don’t care at all about you or your stuff.

I could go down to the C/O or Sgt and throw a fit or make a scene. But how is doing all that going to help my situation? I can’t prove they broke it. Its my word against thiers. Who they going to believe? Yep, your right. Its them!

I can’t take this personal. Because if I stress on these kinda things, its only going to make my time in here harder. And my life miserable.

I hadn’t herd Steve say anything or even noticed him move for a few minutes now. I turned around and I asked Steve, “Where we should start first.” He kinda, snapped to, and said; ” Where ever man. Let’s just get started.”

So we did. We both started with our shelves. That seemed to get a lot of things off the ground. It also got us a little bit more organized. We made piles of things to go different places. At the same time we also slowly separated our stuff and found where things were supposed to be.

As we were doing all this I made a comment to Steve about how he’ll have the cell all to himself for the next two days to do whatever he wants. Time to build his shelves, hooks and organize while I am at my Trailer Visit (EFV) with my parents. I had a trailer visit scheduled for the day after this raid.

We got a lot done that night. Its definitely not quite comfortable yet but it on its way.

We got the dog crate back together and put in the corner and Our TV’s are back in their spots, hooked up and working. And our Beds put back together so we can sleep comfortable for the night.

Since the Sert team our sheets, we had to wait till the C/O’s got around to handing out new sheets.

From the looks of it, they took everyone’s sheets. And some people got their blankets taken too. The whole pod was waiting on sheets. Not just us.

The next day I left for my Trailer Visit. When I got back the cell looked better than before. It was like Steve upgraded it.

The shelves were back. The hooks were back. They were even painted the color of the wall so they really blended in and looked like they were actually suppose to be there. Everything had its place again.

It now looks liveable. We can get back to our daily life once again.

Jesse Bailey
DOC #879476