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Interview with Kristen, Renee, Chad and Dennis

JM: How many different blocks were there?
Kristen: There were three. A, C, and D
Renee: I believe there were 9 different pods. Apod was the female pod where they housed any female that was there. R.H.U., maximum security, general population, minimum security, and trustees were all placed together. The rest of the pods housed males, and they were all separated accordingly.
Chad: I am not sure how many blocks there were.
Dennis: A,B,C,D,E-1 E-2,F,G,AND J. there is no H because it is considered the holding or intake.

JM: Did they have names? If so, what were they?
Kristen: A, C, and D block. They also had inmates in the hole and the infirmary. I was on C block and when I was getting ready to have my baby, I was in the infirmary.
Renee: Apod- female. Bpod- male mental heath Cpod- male trustees e1pod and e2pod were R.H.U. there was a d, g, f and j pod also.
Chad: The blocks at Erie County Prison are called "pods," and they were lettered A,B,C,D,E,F
Dennis: They only went by the letters of the alphabet and were called pods.

JM: Which types of inmates were housed in the different blocks?
Kristen: There was minimum and maximum security and general population...depends on what you say in your initial interview and your charges. I was in general population which is the best place to be.
Renee: It depended on the level of security you were at. Im not exactly sure what criteria you had to meet to be on the separate pods. R.H.U. was for people who had gotten in trouble at the prison. Maximum security was for violent offenders. Trustee and maximum security was for inmates who were wll behaved and were sentenced. General population inmates were not sentenced yet.
Chad: Inmates are separated in jails by classification. Inmates are classified by how violent they are, the nature of their charges, whether they have work release or not, whether they are a problem inmate in the jail, and whether they are male or female.
Dennis: A- was for females b- was the intake pod and the pod for people with medical issues. d- was general population c-was for trustees and for inmates that were brought in that were already on probation or parole. e-1 and e-2 were the restricted housing units or the "hole" g-was general population as was j. f-was the maximum security pod where only half of the inmates were allowed out for 2 hours then it would switch to the other half of inmates allowed out for 2 hours

JM: What do you remember being the nicest and worst parts about the different blocks?
Kristen: depends on the inmates. You don't want to be on a block that has a lot of mean girls or on one where there a lot of girls that snore or smell. The best block to be on is the minimum security, because there are less fights and the inmates tend to be nicer.
Renee: The nicest part of apod was minimum security and trustee. We had our own area with a tv. it was quiet and had less inmates. The worst was general population. There was one tv for 70 woman and you could never hear it. Also we were locked in our cells for an hour before and after every meal, during medication time,and during shift change. It added up to alot of time.
Chad: The block you are placed on for classification has a more diverse mix of people. A lot of non- english speaking people. Once you are taken to your pod after they get a feel for you, you will find more people like yourself. Most of the blocks in Erie County were the same, architecturally, as far as I recall.
Dennis: In whole there was nothing that was that nice about any block because it was jail, but i would say if God forbid i ever have to go back to that hell i would pick "c" pod because you can become a trustee which breaks up time and you earn a whole dollar and six cents a day. The worst pod i was in was "b" pod because there was allot of STRANGE people in there that i thought should have been in a mental facility.

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