Dennis and I were taken to medical this morning for the last of our physicals. I got a tetanus shot just to be safe and told them about my gluten intolerance to which the nurse said “there’s nothing I can do for that.” I explained that I monitor my diet myself but if I eat too much for too long I’ll develop GRD (Gastric Reflux Disease) and I used to take PPI’s for it. Pills she was more than willing to give me. LOL When I mentioned I had occasional hemorrhoids she was also willing to offer me ointments but I said I didn’t need any just now, I just wanted to get it on the record along with my gluten intolerance and lower back pain. If I need to use them as a reason to not keep some awful job assignment I need to have them documented now. *wink*

 

While in the “waiting room” (aka the holding cell) to see the nurse I chatted briefly with a guy named Brad who is in unit 1 with me, A side too. He was an Airforce MP and was stationed in Pakistan for 9 months. He’s from the Omaha area so he hopes to go to OCC but he mentioned that he had heard that because Tecumseh’s staff are less experienced due to turnover and because they are chronically understaffed, Corrections is moving the hard-core troublesome inmates to NSP. Damn it! that’s a major reason I didn’t want to go to Tecumseh and now those hard-core killer types (the type that are most likely to do violence to a sex-offender) are being moved to NSP. That’s just peachy. *exasperated sigh* Barring inmate on inmate violence, I’ve concluded that doing time here as compared to CA will be easier…it’s just that the courts are so much harsher so the time is excessively longer. The staff are more humane, the food is better, the facilities (so far) are cleaner, more up to date and more comfortable, over all a much more human Dept. of Corrections. It’s just that I’m going to be in general population AND in maximum security due to the duration of my sentence which means I’ll be housed with the most violent inmates. I wish NE had something like CA’s SNY (Sensitive Needs Yard) as opposed to PC (Protective Custody) where you only get out of your cell for 1 hr a day besides meals. Hmmm! Obviously it wasn’t a well planned meal. *chuckle*

Since I mentioned that the food I do have to compliment NE Corrections for institutional food that is pretty good. The food quality and taste hasn’t been bad considering it is prepared on a massive scale. Even the COs eat it. I’ve also been able to manage my gluten intolerance fairly well. I don’t eat the ever-present bread and I skip any baked deserts but I often have to eat the cereal even if it isn’t gluten free and some meals have gluten in almost all of the food (noodles and such) but so far I’ve not had my “gluten headache” and no GRD yet. I’ve heard the portions are larger at the other prisons so I’ll be able to be even more selective in what I eat once I leave D&E. Plus I’m getting some backup options off canteen like peanut butter, summer sausage and rice. So I think my diet will be OK. I have only lost 3 pounds as of my physical this morning and I’m not really exercising much yet. LOL

 

I sent another kite to the guy in charge of the kiosks with 2 more UI/UX suggestions. 1. There is a timer in the lower right corner of the kiosk screen showing o ln you have till you’re logged out. The problem is that when you reply to an email you et composing windon on the top of the scree and the original email you are replying to is in a small window at the bottom with a scroll bar on the right…which is partially covered up by the timer so you can’t scroll through the whole original email. I suggested moving the timer to the top right corner where nothing is going on in any screen I’ve seen. 2. There is a 2500 character limit on outgoing emails. No on could possibly succeed in typing that much on these dysfunctional kiosks but Jeff has exceeded that twice by typing mails up on his MP4 player. The problem is there’s no warning as you compose the message. You type it up, send it, get it rejected with a warning that you are 27XX characters and you have to edit the message and try again to see if you removed enough. They should simply limit the input to 2500 characters and/or how a live character count. At the end of my kite I ask if they wanted me to continue sending feedback. LOL

 

Here is the typical odd/even day schedule. Realize that once a week, on a rotating day, we don’t get gym and there’s some strange alternating weekend schedule where we get 3 late nights in a row and then the next weekend B side gets the late nights.

 

Even Days

07:00-07:20 Breakfast (20 min)

07:20-08:00 Lockdon (40 min)

08:00-09:00 Dayroom (1 hr)

09:00-11:30 Lockdown (2 hr 30 min)

11:30-11:50 Lunch (20 min)

11:50-12:45 Lockdown (55min)

12:45-01:45 Dayroom (1 hr)

01:45-02:15 Lockown (30 min)

02:15-03:15 Yard – mandatory (1 hr)

03:15-03:45 Dayroom (30 min)

03:45-05:00 Lockdown (1 hr 15 min)

05:00-05:20 Dinner (20 min)

05:20-06:00 Lockdown (40 min)

06:00-07:00 Dayroom (1 hr)

07:00-08:00 Gym – mandatory (1 hr)

08:00- Lockdown for the night

 

Odd days

06:30-06:50 Breakfast (20 min)

06:50-08:00 Lockdown (1 hr 10 min)

08:00-09:00 Yard – mandatory (! HR)

09:00-10:00 Dayroom (1 hr)

10:00-10:30 Lockdown (30 min)

10:30-10:50 Lunch (20 min)

10:50-02:15 Lockdown (3 hr 25 min)

02:15-03:15 Dayroom (1 hr)

03:15-04:30 Lockdown (1 hr 15 min)

04:30-04:50 Dinner (20 min)

04:50-06:00 Lockdown (1 hr 10 min)

06:00-07:00 Gym – mandatory (1 hr)

07:00-08:30 Dayroom (1 hr 30 min)

08:30- Lockdown for the night

 

Once a week, on Monday or Tuesday, we don’t get gym. On Wednesday gym is at 3:30 if it is an even day, if it’s an odd day then it’s at 6. weekends alternate 3 late nights (ending at 8:30) and 3 early nights (8) on Sat, Sun and Monday nights. All inmates must go to gym and yard, unless yard in canceled due to weather. If maintenance comes to the unit whichever side is in the dayroom looses their dayroom time and has to be locked down. The only time an inmate can shower, use the phones, check and reply to emails is during dayroom so there is usually a line for the showers and phones, especially in the evenings.