You know, you begin to question your mental health when you come to the front of your cell to look out of your cell in solitary confinement towards where the control picket stands in the middle of a pod. Well, the picket has plexiglass, and the reflection shows a flame. You know, can you picture a flame in a chimney chute? That’s how it looked on the reflection on the plexiglass, so I thought to myself, “FAM? Are you losing your muthafucking mind?” But for some reason, the flame goes out and I told myself, “Yup! You’re officially a crazy man!”

So, I walked away from the door, kind of sad, thinking, “Damn! I’m seeing shit.” Well, the next day, the same image flames on plexiglass. Now I’m like, “Fuck!” and it goes out again, but this time there is so much smoke it’s black. And I snapped, “Oooh, it’s a fire someone started,” and the reflection shows him, or that prisoner, starting a fire from his cell. Immediately, I’m like, “Thank you, Jesus, I’m not crazy like hell yeah!!!”

OK, sorry, I just don’t want to become an actual psych patient. No sir! I like reality, OK? So the fire was so intense, smoke turned the ceiling black, and it had a big black cloud of smoke hovering in the ceiling. So, like, when all was said and done, they actually had to get the cleaning crew to repaint things: ceiling, walls, etc… F-pod, is this place way worse than E-pod? And I thought I was in a crazy place. This place is way more insane.

My neighbor decides to jack the slot because he did not get his tray, which he gets a special tray. Which he is in his right, well, you’re not supposed to jack the slot, but he is supposed to get a special tray, so they never come to his cell. A new guy comes, a young black guy, says, “I’m not one of these niggas, I was in the military.” Get off my slot, a guy named Cali makes a comment saying, “OK, mister military, let’s see how tough you are.”

So, my neighbor is yelling and screaming about his special tray, which he is supposed to get. The young military tough guy tries to close the slot with the guy’s arm hanging out. The guy takes off, and comes back. Then, the young military tough guy gets into an argument with my neighbor. Well, my neighbor starts throwing trays out. The military tough guy says, “Don’t hit me with that tray.”Well, he throws a tray at the guy’s shin, which is technically assault on a public servant. Cali says, “Mister military, I thought you said you were tough. You got pussy nigga, bitch nigga, you’re a coward.”

Anyway, the guy leaves, but my neighbor keeps screaming for his tray. Another security officer comes with Mister Military in tow. The guy has a Johnny sack in his hand, Mister Military behind him. He tells my neighbor, “Get in the back of your cell and kneel on your bunk facing the back wall.” My neighbor cusses him out, and well, after much profanity back and forth, even Mister Military makes a comment saying, “Look man, just give up the slot. I am not mad at you for throwing the tray at me.” My neighbor decides to comply, which doesn’t turn out so well. The security officer closes his slot and keeps the Johnny sack, which my neighbor decides to try and spit on the guy, which fails.

The security officer tells my neighbor, “You want to act like a bitch? I’ll treat you like a bitch.”Cali, another black guy, says, “Hey, my military tough guy, you had to go call Daddy to come save you. I thought you weren’t one of them niggas, you were in the military. Coward.” Just a word, the word nigga is not used as racism. It’s a word used in slang terms, so like if you’re from the hood you know we refer to ourselves as niggas. You call friends or other people, but if you use it in a racist way then this is disrespectful.

Anyway, so this place is crazy. It smells like pepper spray gas and smoke every day. A guy was in the dayroom that decides it’s best not to use a toilet, so he urinates out of the bars onto the floor, which was nasty. Like the toilet is right next to him and the screams are endless. Like literally screams all day, endless. Like, “I didn’t do anything! There’s a war around the corner! Shut the fuck up! I want to fuck you like an animal!”

Crazy place, this is. I hate that this place does this to you and brings you to a low, so low you are a low life. Then you lose your sanity and you go into the ground so deep you can’t see up and the world is lost to you. A guy named Cali jacks the slot just because he doesn’t like a security officer. So, when this happens, he tells the security officer his grade point average is higher than his, and the security officer made a comment saying, “How did you get your degree? Was it miraculous?” Cali says, “Spell miraculous, bitch nigga! Spell it!” The security officer does not spell the word.

Cali goes on to make fun of the security officer’s shoes, which are Skechers. The security officer, stupid, he says, “These are Payless shoes.” Cali says, “Payless shoes, bitch nigga! Your shoes are so cheap, they’re sitting sideways, bitch nigga!” So, the officer finally gets angry and says, “I’ll break your jaw off.” Cali responds by saying, “Get close to my slot, pussy, I’ll slap the shit out of you.” He literally screams this at the top of his lungs. The officer finally figures he can’t talk to the guy, so he turns around, and leans on the bars, waiting for the rank to show up. Stupid him, because Cali has his slot open, and the TV is on, sports, female softball game, which he keeps saying, “Oooh, that’s how fine!”