Prison (part two)

An officer arrived at A wing to transfer me to C wing, a protection unit housing vulnerable inmates, child abusers, and pregnant women. I have no idea why they would place child abusers alongside pregnant women. I cleaned my cell and tried to settle in. A few nights later, water began flooding my cell because the woman next door decided to protest by blocking her toilet. I hurried to move my belongings off the floor and yelled at her to stop. Hours later, a listener arrived and spent the entire night trying to calm her down. This happened frequently over the following weeks.

There was also a woman downstairs who I suspect had borderline personality disorder. She was a pyromaniac and had set her house on fire multiple times. Most nights, she made a ligature from torn bed sheets, tied it around her neck, until she passed out. The officers placed her under 24-hour watch, but one of the officers would often mock her, opening her flap and making insensitive comments like, “Are you going to try and kill yourself again today?” Even though we were frustrated with her for keeping the wing awake, we wouldn’t have been so cruel.

There were a few recovering users on the wing. One tried to hustle me for my t-shirt, I quickly put her in her place and told her not to ask again. She wasn’t like this because she was an ex user I may add, she was just an opportunist. Another woman was on remand for killing her husband in a drunken argument. I couldn’t help but think, “That could have been me.”