Shakedown Through an Inmate's Eyes in TDCJ

First off this morning just as we were finishing our work shift, we were corralled into one of our two dining rooms and very thoroughly strip searched plus body cavity searched. Well, that was certainly one of the most humiliating times so far here. We have two female bosses and they made no attempt to leave the room even though an additional 4 bosses (males) were brought in to help in the job. After this, sixty or so of us were led back to the dorms, counted again and told to stay on our bunks til further notice....

It's now 9am and we have been given our medication and are waiting for our meal. One of the advantages of lockdown is that guards here do almost all of our chores. Literally we are waited on hand and foot for the duration....

Well, from the looks of things we will go through major shakedown today or surely tomorrow. We can see people from the other end of our building carrying their property and walking to the gym.... so now we have 54 guys scrabbling about trying to get rid of any contraband they might have and make sure their name and # is on every last book, blank envelope, notepad, stamp and photo.....Then I began to pack my things into the middle of my blanket, then all of that into my other blanket and tied all four corners together....

Next we the very strenuous walk from the dorm to the gym. The reason it was difficult was simply because of the weight of my bundle. Mine wasn't the only heavy parcel either. A few of us have so much, mainly in books that there was just no easy way. And what makes the walk all the more difficult is that the bosses want us to pick up our bundles and continue holding them whether we were moving or standing still.....

In the middle of the gym there are six tables right in the middle lined across the room. Each table has two guards to search two inmates property. We are instructed to form a line in front of each table and one by one are called forward to disrobe to our boxer underwear and socks. We are called forward still and told to strip completely and set our bundle of property on the table. then we are told to step back, turn around, lift our nuts, spread our cheeks, show the bottoms of each foot. Then we must wait quietly while the bosses search our things.This is all quite uneventful except if you count the bosses randomly at times selecting items to throw away. And of course our emotions ranging from docile humility to subdued anger. Imagine your carefully packed files and photos being rifled through like so much rubbish. What we have is a sheet spread on the floor beside the table and a mound of disarray after the search is complete.... we are told to drag our sheet to the opposite wall and get dressed only. We are explicitly told not to straighten our mangled pile of property, we can only tie the corners together and rag or carry. We must sit indian style with our bundles in front and wait quietly (we are always being told to be quiet, shut up, get off the bumper). Being quite is difficult as we already have stories to share of what they took from whom....

The walk back to the dorm is even more unpleasant as our bundles are not nearly as well packed as before. The bosses are now getting grumpy after having already searched four previous dorms. We are told to keep walking and not stop for anything, including our packs coming apart and shifting in our loads. By the time we get back to the dorm, all the mattresses and pillows are all strewn about. So now we have to get our mats and pillows without resorting to violence. Amazingly we do this and within an hour we are an orderly organized 54 once more....