You Better Lock That Bladder Down!

 Lockdowns are fairly common in prison. They involve prisoners being sent back to their cells and all movement stopping. Some lockdowns relegate prisoners to their housing units (in-house movement only), but most send prisoners to their cells. Some lockdowns are short (to deal with a fight, for example), and others are long (like for planned massive cell shakedowns).

Some cells, especially in higher security levels, have toilets in the cells, so a lockdown, while frustrating, is not the end of the world. Others, like the prison I'm housed in, have no toilets in the cell. When we are locked down, the number one complaint is that prisoners need to use the bathroom, but they are locked in their cells. 

Prison policy is vague in what prison staff are required to allow. Policy states that prisoners are to be allowed to use the bathroom after a "reasonable amount of time." A recent nine hour lockdown we experienced, for massive shakedowns, left us in our rooms for four to five hours between bathroom breaks. Nobody would say that is "reasonable," except perhaps prison administrators, like the Warden, who directed corrections staff to deprive us of reasonably spaced bathroom breaks. 

Being sent to prison is punishment for committing crimes, but prison is the punishment itself. The US Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. Preventing hundreds of prisoners from using the bathroom for 4-5 hours at a time is just plain cruel. The last time this happened the Warden promised it wouldn't happen again, but it did. Clearly, protecting prisoners from cruel and unusual punishments is not a priority. 

What makes matters worse is that while prisoners were not allowed to use the bathroom for hours at a time, officers took the dogs that some prisoners train out to use the bathroom several times. As we prisoners see it, the animals are treated with more respect than we are. 

Shakedowns and lockdowns are an inevitable part of prison life. Getting locked for hours at a time in a 6' x 9' cell is unpleasant. But it's much more tolerable when you are allowed to use the bathroom in reasonable intervals. No prisoner, especially those who are double bunked like we are, should have to piss in a bag and throw it out the window because we are not allowed reasonably spaced bathroom breaks. That's inhumane.

Lockdowns provide an opportunity for quiet reading, studying, sleeping, writing letters, watching TV, or working on creative projects. But it's nearly impossible to focus on anything but the frustration of being deprived of one's fundamental dignity when we are treated in this way. 

Prison is not supposed to be a "fun" place, but it's also not supposed to be a place where administrators thumb their noses at Constitutional protections. It's not supposed to be a place where people are routinely treated with indignities. If free people could see how prisons are really run, how prisoners are sometimes treated, they'd be ashamed to know their own tax dollars support such indignities.