Date: 05 Oct 25
Subject: (Conclusion of: "Close Custody vs Open-b...

(Conclusion of: "Close Custody vs Open-bay." Oct. 5, 2025)

So whether it be the solving of a crossword puzzle, practicing some daily meditation, or just an occasional picking of the nose (Please note that I would never pick my nose, or anyone else's for that matter. I was just. . . you know. . . using that as an example.), I'm sure you would readily agree, they could all be carried out in a much more relaxing manner when sharing a cell with only one guy, rather than a wide open room with 50 guys.

In my years of experience, I have had plenty of cellmates who had busy lives, and were hardly ever in our cell. Some were on a work crew, others were going to classes for their GED, one would work all weekend at the visitation department taking pictures, and yes, there have ben the ones who just had to get out of the cell anytime the door was unlocked. However, I can honestly say I have never had the opportunity to be alone for any period of time in an open-bay dorm.

I guess before I get to my closing comments, I should go ahead and share with you those examples of sleep-depriving habits a prisoner must endure REGARDLESS of where he is in prison -- I've spent time in solitary confinement and the medical infirmary as well. Here are the main ones that come to mind, along with 3 other real annoying issues as well:

1.) Someone snoring on and off throughout the night.

2.) Someone who has to holler, whether the recipient of the message is across the room, or only two feet away.

3.) Someone who is an overall messy individual, and refuses to accept the fact that he no longer lives at home.

4.) Someone who finds it necessary to have the alarm on his watch go off every morning at 4:30 A.M., but never moves an inch while it beeps for the entire 60 seconds.

5.) Someone who hums loud enough for everyone in the nearby area to hear him, every minute of the day that he's not asleep, eating, talking or brushing his teeth.

6.) Someone who's too stupid to realize that his whistling is as irritating as hell.

7.) Someone who has a squeaky locker lid, and for some unknown reason won't let me lubricate the hinges.

8.) Someone who suddenly wants to become my friend, because realizes my contraband I have for my OWN purposes could very well be an aid to him as well. (ex.: roll of box tape, bottle of bleach, razor blade, sewing needle)

9.) Someone who bumps me awake while walking past, because he's too blind to notice the 2' 6" x 6' 6" slab of metal, located 16" off the floor, with a mattress on top of it, and me trying to sleep on top of it.

10.) Someone who doesn't know how to maintain his use of illegal substances, and winds up twacking out, or even goes so far as to throw up -- sometimes on himself.

Now I'll admit, experiencing all of these. . . "in-house harrassments" is possible in both models of dorms. However, in my years of living in the two, I have noticed there to be a definite difference in the statistics. First of all, I have had to tolerate all 10 of my examples at one time or another in open-bay living. Whereas, I've only experienced the inconvenience of 4 of them in my years of living in close-custody dorms. And to top it all of, while in the open-bay dorm, prior to the one I'm in now, I was having to endure 7 of the 10 examples -- all in the same place.

Finally, in closing, I thought it would be wise of me to conduct one of my surveys, regarding the overall prisoners preference of living arrangements -- just in case I may have sounded a little opinionated while putting forth my information. Hence, I took it upon myself to ask a wide variety of 40 prisoners which model of dorm they would rather serve their time in. The results were as follows: 30 preferred to be in a close-custody dorm, while the other 10 would rather be in an open-bay dorm.

So as we see, even though I might not agree with the majority of the crowd most of the time, I guess there can be certain issues with which we do have the same opinion.

(Be sure to join me next week as we explore the subject of nicknames within the prison system. I'll be explaining some interesting issues regarding 40 of the nicknames I've found to be a bit interesting since my arrival to the prison system. See you next week.)