The following ideas an opinions reflect the general consensus of the majority prisoners held in the FCI Mendota B2 Building. This is a continuation of my small zine, titled “Holdover Life at Mendota.”
Life in the FCI Mendota “holdover unit” is difficult and often challenging. Even though we are only allowed out of our cell 5 1/2 hours per week — no more than one hour on weekends, no more than 15 minutes (for a phone call) on weekend days — every day brings a new obstacle, a new drama, a new and supremely unnecessary interaction with a petty correctional officer. I honestly can complain for days on end.
There are very few items to choose from on the commissary, with a $50 spending limit. We only order commissary once every two weeks. We run out of food items before the second week most of the time.
Although the kitchen serves us three meals a day and many days do a great job providing quality food, the portions are small and the trays almost always arrive cold. The last part is always due to the CO’s not passing out the food in a timely manner.
We barely have any items or options available to program with and keep busy. I average reading ten hours a day — terrible selection of books. I feel brain rot.
It’s difficult to workout in the small cells, and our so-called “recreation time” is usually 6am or 7am. so, if you decide to workout any time later, you will not be able to shower until the next day. Oh i should probably mention that you only have that single hour in the morning to shower between Mondays and Fridays; we are not permitted shower on the weekends.
Meanwhile, most of the C.O.’s sit around in their office half of the day and barely have to do anything. This is a convenient (although i imagine boring) unit for them to work. Most of them hate it here, and many times daily they project that disdain onto us inmates.
My least favorite aspect of this experience is how we do not get *any* outdoor time. None. Zilch.
Did i mention we receive terrible medical care and treatment for inmates with chronic or emergent health needs? With one phone call a day we are deeply isolated from the outside world. To add to the stressors, the mailroom absolutely sucks!
In the b2 Unit we are essentially treated as if we are in the SHU (“solitary confinement,” aka “the hole” or more properly the “security housing unit”). Yet none of us are facing disciplinary infractions; many of us haven’t even been designated. Some of us have been stuck here for over three months!
Here at FCI Mendota, the administration are *de facto* punishing us inmates in the holdover unit. The policies and living conditions are cruel and unusual. Its freezing cold. We suffer extremely unnecessary immobilization and deprivation of bodily autonomy. As a result, we also suffer long periods of time where we’re held incommunicado from our loved ones on the outside.
Shit, I’ve heard the SHU inmates have certain perks that we are withheld in the holdover unit. For example, the SHU inmates may not be given television nor a phone call home. However they do get a daily hour of *outdoor* time. We in the holdover unit only leave our cells for an hour each weekday morning, with *zero* outdoor time. Those days, our alleged “rec time” only allows for one 15 minutes phone call, because the phone system blocks you from making a follow-up call for a half hour duration. The remainder of the time we use to shower and gather ourselves for the next 23 hours of captivity.
When in cell, most of us have inadequate views of the television, and even when your cell has a better TV shot, we are not provided headphones nor allowed to purchase radios to hear what’s on the silent, muted televisions. Instead, we struggle to read tiny subtitles that move so quick it’s comical. From the cell i’m currently held in, my cellmate and i do not have a view of a TV at all.
In some ways we have it worse than SHU inmates, who at least breathe fresh air daily and have showers *inside* of the *cells.* Some even say they have a better commissary list in the SHU, although i can’t vouch 100% for that claim.
To be a “holdover” inmate, means you are inthe process of becoming designated (or in fact are already designated) by the BOP to be sent to a different, more long-term facility. Most of us, if not all at some point or another, were either just sentenced or brought here on a violation and awaiting release or transfer. Some inmates in this unit are “pretrial” and those inmates receive two hours of “rec time” every day. Even on weekends. I’m not exactly sure why we do not receive the same treatment as the “pretrial” inmates of the unit.
When you arrive as a new holdover inmate, the first thing the compound officers tell us is how we should expect 2 hours of recreation time outside of our cells. Federal law (look it up, i’m not lying) also mandates that inmates without any disciplinary infractions or write-ups must be given *at least* ten hours out of their cells a week. The reality is we spend 163 hours a week locked in cells. The excuse we are most often told, upon filing informal requests and grieving to staff is: “most of you will only be here for two to three weeks, then on a bus… you just gotta deal with it.” I’ve been told that same response from C.O.’s from councilors, and even from certain medical staff. The crude fact is that some of us have been here for three months! I am included in that category of “long-term holdover.”
We are being punished simply because we exist as “undesignated” or newly designated BOP inmates. No other reason.
At the current moment, there is no convincing reason why we are held in cells this long, besides the fact that it is easier this way for the staff. During the time of this writing, there are only 14 inmates in this entire 64 cell building. We are split up into four “rec” groups: Group A, Group B, and two pretrial groups. None of this has to be this way. There are only *four* small groups of people; the largest of which has only six members. It’s absurd. Most of the day there are no inmates on the rec floor at all.
