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Leisure Time

Interview with Stan, Rich and Claudia

JM: What types of facilities were available to help pass the time?
Stan: Reading, listening to the other inmates interact.
Rich: If the inmate, or inmates in one's cell block, have access to commissary, there are games to be purchased off of the commissary list, including checkers and chess boards, playing cards, coloring books (yes!), crossword and wordsearch puzzle books. The jail and the jail chaplaincy also provide various Bibles, and a prisoner can receive softcover non-harmful (i.e., not racial or offense or sexual in natural) books from any major book vendor, or subscriptions to magazines/periodicals/newspapers. Leftover or passed-around books from current or previous inmates are also usually able to be found. There used to be basketball courts on the rooftop of one part of the jail, and a gym, but use of those facilities has apparently not occurred for many years or even decades.
Claudia: there are only a few there are drug classes but some of them you have to be court ordered to attend. there are Na/AA classes, small church masses, and there is also school you can attend to earn your GED. there isnt a library only a cart that comes aro0und like once a month that you can choose a book or two off of it.

JM: Did you have regular access to the entertainment or was competition fierce? Give details.
Stan: ?
Rich: If the inmate has access to outside entertainment/leisure sources like the ability to get someone from the outside to order books or newspapers/magazines for him, or if he can order or receive commissary for the games available on it, then there is at least something to pass the time with. Most inmates are willing to pass along or share the 'hand-me-down' type reading materials or even heavily used decks of playing cards for solitaire purposes to other inmates, and poker/rummy/etc. are popular cell block games, as well as chess or checkers. There do not seem to be may fights or much competition for the entertainment materials, except when gambling issues with commissary items arise out of the playing card games.
Claudia: there is only a very small tv in each unit and it only gets about 7 channels and there a normals a group of about 5 older women that sit in front of it everyday so no normaly you cant see it unless one fo those women are napping and the only other entertainment was the radio that the officers turned on once in a while adn that played over the loud speakers so everyone could hear it.

JM: Did you have a hard time staying in shape while in jail?
Stan: No
Rich: Yes. On the television and in movies, many people think of jail as being like prison. In many ways, prisons in this state at least provide many more 'amenities' to their inmates. There is no 'gym' or any form of formal physical exercise opportunity such as a basketball court or weight room in this jail. You can walk the halls or 'catwalk', as the case may be, to burn off energy and calories, and you can do push-ups/sit-ups and sometimes pull-ups depending on where you are housed. Some inmates are obsessive about staying in shape (creating improvised 'weights' out of sheets or blankets filled with heavy objects to use as part of a routine); many, or perhaps most, only do the walking routing and some occasional sit-ups/pull-ups.
Claudia: YES the trays that they feed you are filled with just starch and Carbohydrates to fill you up and you have nothing to do all day that you just gain water weight while in there and your body gets no activity so its very hard to stay in shape because there is a very small rec area indoors where u can walk in circles the inmates call it the fish bowl lol.

JM: How often did you get to go outside? What did you do outside if you were allowed to? If you were not allowed to go outside what could you do for exercise?
Stan: Not at all.
Rich: There is no 'yard' or outdoors opportunity for jail inmates. There are certain 'trustee' inmates who can cut the grass and attend to some of the landscaping, and of course you might get a brief moment of fresh air on the way to or from the jail from court, but otherwise, there currently exists no program for outdoors activity. Again, walking, sit-ups, push-ups and sometimes pull-ups (if your unit has a staircase with railings) are all that is usually possible.
Claudia: You do not get to go outside in macomb county jail they do have a small roof area for rec but they only let you use that on very special occasions put it this way i have been in and out of that jail about 18 times over a 4 years period from 2009-2012 and i had been on it ONCE!

JM: Did the jail offer church services? If so, what were they like and when were they held?
Stan: Yes, Just fine, once a week.
Rich: The jail houses a volunteer-run chaplaincy of primarily Catholic and some protestant chaplains and representatives. Although formally services of worship are offered, this at the current time only very rarely occurs. The chaplaincy is either understaffed or overwhelmed with requests. It took over two months for them to respond to a 'kite' request I wrote them, and regular service was not offered. They do, however, provide small gift bags (containing a few commissary-type food items and perhaps toothpaste or socks) on the major holidays, and they do also provide [at least officially] for the religious needs of the Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic inmates. Only the chaplaincy's office can recommend a special dietary accommodation for religious or philosophical purposes within the jail. Worship service, when it is rarely offered, is on Saturday or Sunday and similar to what one might expect to a small-scale non-denominational Protestant sermon, held in a room similar to a public high school classroom.
Claudia: Yes there were church service only one kind and that is a christian service. they were decent services held in a very tiny classroom so onnly about 20 people can attend each mass and they held 2 in row when they had the service normaly a few times a week but very sunday they had mass for certain first thing in the morning it jsut wasnt fair that everyone couldnt attend only maybe 20 people per service if that I dont think even 20 could fit really and there were only 2 services for certains sometimes they would hold another later in the day but eh first two in the morning were for certain.and again they were always held in a very small class room but the service was still decent and held by the sweetest ladies from the church program who always bought special little card with prayers on them that they would spray with a good smelling perfume or little gift bags or peieces of candy, stationary, prayer booklets and other items

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