Episode 3: At the Prison On a Tuesday!

In Episode 3, Myra counts down the days until her husband's release and takes us through a special event at the prison. She reflects on the isolation of prisons and the joy of small moments, like seeing her husband enjoy a rare meal of eating real food. Myra highlights serious issues, such as poor prison food quality, water contamination caused by a nearby Air Force base, and inadequate medical care. She criticizes the legal system for failing to protect incarcerated individuals and answers a listener’s question about terminology. 

CREDITS

Intro voices In order of appearance: 

Lex Ward

Kassandra Voss

Joellen Terranova

Davonna Dehay

Episode: 

Myra: La Tisha Conto 

Paparazzi: Nathan Keyes

Deranged Danny: Nathan Keyes

Commercial Voice: Benita Robledo

Email Listener: Dalina Michaels

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:14 Myra is excited to announce she is at the prison on a Tuesday for a special event.
• 2:35 Myra explains why prisons are built outside of cities.
• 4:38 Myra discusses special events and how being a prison wife is like being a celebrity.
• 10:58 Commercial Break: Just Give Them the Money Consulting
• 12:45 Myra discusses the toxic water supplying the prison.
• 16:37 Myra introduces Correctional Industries and discusses how prisons profit off of incarcerated individuals and their loved ones.
• 18:50 Myra touches on the problems that stem from paying incarcerated individuals low wages and taxing them at high rates.
• 22:20 Myra answers an email from a listener and makes a plea for more lawyers to get involved by representing incarcerated individuals.
• 25:10 Myra wraps up by sharing how the event went, and answers a second question from the listener. She ends the show by teasing episode 4 where she will probably rage against the system.

Transcript

Myra: 179 days until my husband comes home.

Myra: Welcome back listeners. It’s Tuesday. I am coming to you from the parking lot of the prison… on a Tuesday. I’m going to see my husband… on a Tuesday. Do you know how many times I've seen my husband on Tuesday since he was incarcerated? Exactly the amount of times I have said Tuesday so far during this episode. Five. Five Tuesdays. And if I manage to get past all the bullshit at check in today it will be 6.

Myra: Since it’s not a regular visiting day, there are barely any cars filling the visitor parking lot, so I am parked on the east side of the lot - no speed walking for me today. I am currently staring at the water tower that supplies all the water to the prison. It is pumped from a well. Why a well, you didn’t ask but I am certainly going to answer. Well - pun intended - because as you know - or if you don’t you’re about to - a lot of prisons are built outside of cities. 

Myra: Why? Why did they do that? Well… there are lots of reasons, but one of them – out of sight out of mind. If you don’t see a prison every day, you don’t think about prison every day. If you don’t see people inside the prison on your way to work, you don’t think about the people who live inside the prison everyday on your way to work. I mean could you imagine if you saw incarcerated people in the yard while you are on your way to pick up your child from little league, and you saw them playing baseball. And then for a moment you thought of incarcerated people as human, and maybe even, maybe you might start seeing them as your child, just playing baseball. Playing basketball. Running. Walking. Laughing. Or if you happened to see my husband -  laying down in the grass, just looking up at the sky. 

Myra: Maybe one of those days on your way to drop your kid off at little league you start to think about why so many people are locked up inside there and you might start to look up information. You start simple and google how many. But then you start getting into specifics. Googling things like ‘Who are they.’ And maybe once you find out who they are, you start looking into their individual stories, and now you start asking questions about how these individuals are treated inside that prison you drive by every day, because now these individuals start to remind you of your own children, or your parents, or your spouses. So, now you’re concerned about how they are being treated. And once you start looking into prisons, you start finding out that prisons aren’t what they claim to be, and aren’t at all what you imagined they were. And that’s dangerous for the prison officials because they need you to not ask questions, because they need you to just keep voting yes when they tell you they need more money for public safety. So, we can’t have prisons in the city, you know. For other reasons, too, but for today I think that one reason is quite enough.

Myra: Okay, so you’re probably thinking  why am I in the parking lot on a Tuesday? Well,  because today is a special event. Special events you have to sign up for, and each one will have a theme. Sometimes they are for families, sometimes they are for partners. This one is to celebrate love, so it’s adults only because I suppose the DOC is running with the whole idea that incarcerated people don’t love their children. Let me tell you I am so excited to see my husband. I mean, I am really really excited to see my husband but what I am really looking forward to is watching my husband eat chicken. Real chicken. Not a processed chicken patty consisting of mostly salt and soy. I mean let’s be honest with ourselves, how real is any chicken in the US anymore, but I digress. He’ll get a piece of chicken, and I will get a piece of chicken which means he gets to eat two pieces of chicken. And I can’t explain to you how much joy seeing your loved one eat actual food… on a Tuesday… can bring you. Pure joy. 

Myra: The special event itself is boring. My husband and I aren’t really event type people. The only dance we ever went to was in high school and we stayed for 10 minutes. I didn’t even go to prom, and for the people who used to say to me – you’ll regret that decision in 20 years. Guess what. You’re wrong. I promise prom is not an important milestone in your life if you aren’t interested in dances. It just isn’t. But, now that we don’t get many choices on hanging out together, the special event is more time for us to spend together and so we go and deal with all the awkwardness of it all. Imagine a wedding reception in a small town community room. They bring in somebody from toastmasters, who is either really religious, very culty, or a very religious formerly incarcerated person, or, and these are the strangest of the speakers to witness, a formerly incarcerated person who now sounds a lot like a cop. They come in and give the most ridiculous speeches meant to uplift but pretty much just come off as condescending and out of touch. You listen to them. They give out chicken. And then you go get your picture taken…

Sound: Cameras clicking, paps yelling 'Myra.'

Coparazzi: Myra, over here, we need to get your picture to put it in our system. Let us see what you’re wearing. 

Sound: Metal detector

Myra: Well, as you can see I have boobs, so I am wearing a black turtleneck – one of seven of the exact same that I own. I stick out my tongue to show you I’m not carrying in any drugs, although you aren’t satisfied, so you ask me to stick out my tongue again after I go to the bathroom because you’re sure I put the drugs in my vagina.

Coparrazi: Myra, tell us who you are dating!

Myra: Come on now, you already know that, as you get to open up every single one of our  letters. We know you snap photos of the good parts and share them around. You tap every single phone call we make, and watch us with cameras in the visiting room.

Coparrazi: What do you think about the latest from Deranged Danny?

Deranged Danny: Deranged Danny here from Correctional Officer Daily and Im coming to you live from my day shift during a special event to give you, my friends, and coworkers the hot goss about those terrible people coming to visit the worst of the worst people in the world. Who was caught canoodling for longer than eight seconds - we have the security footage, and we arent’ afraid to share it. Of course we received that staff wide email making fun of a letter that some stupid inmate wrote to their loved one. If you missed it, you’ll get a second chance to gawk when we post the full letter in the break room. 

Myra: Yeah, I saw that. Correctional officers emailing our private pictures amongst themselves, making fun of us. It’s not surprising though. Statistically speaking correctional officers are more likely to have low self-esteem - same demographic that’s likely to watch reality television to feel better about their own lives by putting people down. Plus, we have to come to a prison to see our loved ones, and they choose to be at a prison for half their lives voluntarily. So truly, who are the real idiots here? They have high rates of domestic violence, substance use disorder, and also have a shorter life expectancy rate. So, I know they like to make fun of us and our loved ones, because I imagine like the people who love celebrity gossip, making fun of us makes them feel better that their lives are miserable. I mean, truly, imagine voluntarily going to a prison everyday to act as a babysitter. It's ridiculous.

Myra: So yeah, seriously though, every piece of mail is read, every phone call tapped, every interaction watched with eyes and cameras. All your moments feel like they aren’t just your own because somebody is always watching and waiting for you to mess up. Your first kiss? They are watching because they think when you open your mouth to kiss him you’re passing the drugs you snuck in. They want to bust you, so they can take away your privileges. Because we don’t have any rights. They are privileges, human interaction is a privilege here. Telling somebody I love you on the phone is a privilege. Unless I am his lawyer, I have no right to see him, they get to decide that. Based on what they think is or isn’t going down between us. And all the while they talk, and gossip, and cut you down because they think you’re crazy, and terrible, and you don’t deserve joy. And that curious listeners, is how being a prison wife is like being famous, or, infamous rather.

Myra: And now, a word from our sponsors.

Commercial: Are you just exhausted by helping people? Are you just so over everybody always asking you for help? Are you annoyed by constantly having to show up to galas just to remind people how much you do for people in your community? Are you just absolutely bored by board meetings? Mission creep got you down? Interns  starting to ask for payment? Well, now there is a new way to do good. Like ... actual good. Without all the tiresome day-to-day of running your nonprofit. Introducing, Just Give Them the Money Consulting. Our team of dedicated unpolished unprofessionals will analyze your nonprofit top to bottom. We’ll scour your 990s and poorly named files. We’ll exhaust ourselves interviewing your over-privileged staff comprised of mostly affluent white women. And then we’ll draw the same conclusion every single time: Just. Give. Them. The. Money. Who, you’ll ask in an email you meant to send weeks ago. Who do you give the money to? Them, we’ll respond in an email you’ll accidentally delete. Poor people, sick people, unhoused people, Black people, - no not white people – Brown people, queer people. Them. Just give them the money. Just Give them the Money Consulting. For a better tomorrow, paid for today with cash not pamphlets and scarce services. Contact Just Give them the money today. Our unpolished unprofessionals are standing by.

Myra: I need to get back to this water tower I am staring at. It’s toxic. And I don't mean like the relationship you're in, I mean toxic murder death kill toxicity. Of course, we’ve heard the stories for years from our loved ones about the smell and taste of the water here, but now finally the US military had to admit it publicly because people who aren’t incarcerated also use wells in this area and are now at risk – so you know… now that it’s happening to people who matter, now it matters. 

Myra: the Air Force base is just up the street, so the story goes, they thought it was a very good idea to spray down their runways with fire retardant, and then of course that fire retardant gets washed into the ground, slowly seeping into the groundwater. That groundwater is pumped up into that water tank and has been sitting in there. So they drained the tank, but did they wash the tank? No they did not. So of course the whole tank is toxic. And if I have to go full push up bra Erin Brocovich mode on these fuck faces I will.

Myra: Not that I’ll be able to get a lawyer interested. of course there’s all these lawyers out here ready to copy and paste past legal arguments into their complaints and take 40% of whatever shitty settlement they obtain from the US military. After lawyers fees. But, do you think that any of the lawyers who are taking any of the cases are representing any of the incarcerated individuals? No, no, no, no, no. 

Myra: Sure, the DOC is suing on behalf of the DOC. Which means their employees, So, like OK. So some cop shows up to work. How often are they using the water? We know you’re pissed because you’ve been using the water to mix with your protein powder, cuz you got a crossfit tournament that you’ve been preparing your whole weekend for. Relax. You're what, using a water fountain once in a while when you forget your army surplus tactical water bottle at home? You're not eating the food that's cooked with it or warmed up with it. You're not showering in it. You're not drinking it. You're not around it. But of course, it's the DOC suing on behalf of the DOC so that they can recoup their own money, but nobody is representing the incarcerated individuals. I'm just livid. I'm trying to get a lawyer. Who will take it seriously. It just. It just makes me so angry.

Myra: You know what, lets get back to this chicken, and I know, you’re all thinking can we stop talking about chicken? But the chicken is connected to the water. To recap the US military is currently - ALLEGEDLY - poisoning  incarcerated individuals who have no choice but to drink the water, bathe in the water, and very relevant to the food situation - use the water to make the food that is eaten at Thereway Heights, but also is shipped to institutions in Oregon, California, and Arizona, to - ALLEGEDLY- poison more incarcerated individuals.

Myra: Food in prison is... shit. I mean. That's there's no other way to explain it. It's heavily processed, nothing served that can’t be eaten with a plastic spork. And they can’t really prep anything because they also can’t have knives in the kitchen. So what they get is high in carbs, high in sugar, high in sodium, low in nutritional value. It wasn't always this way though. They used to buy real food from local vendors and farms and then people would make actual food in the kitchen. You know, with knives. But, when DOC realized that they could profit off of incarcerated individuals and almost nobody would notice they created a private company called Correctional Industries and took over the food production.

Commercial Voice: Welcome to Correctional Industries. Where we use cheap labor and your tax dollars to air quotes make things to sell to ourselves and other unsuspecting government agencies. Confused. That’s great. Because this only works if you aren’t asking too many questions.

woman voice: Are you profitable?

Commercial voice: Yes.

Myra: Are you lying? 

Commercial voice: Also, yes.

Myra: Why don’t you take a break and I’ll finish up, 

Commercial: Do you know the rest of the commercial.

Myra: Pretty much. Thanks for your time. So, in summary, Correctional Industries or CI came along in the 90s and figured out that they can just turn incarcerated individuals into cheap labor and sell it to the public as workforce development. For example, they tell you that the individuals working in the kitchen are learning valuable culinary skills, but i’m pretty sure most chefs would agree that using a knife is a basic skill a chef would need to learn, and the only thing these individuals use their knives for is to open plastic packages of mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and more variations of starches. Or, they are working over in the furniture wharehouse where DOC marks up furniture and sells it to other state agencies. 

Commercial Voice: But who can put a price on workforce development? Our workers learn carpentry, and valuable furniture making skills that will make them competitive in the job market when they get out.

Myra: You again? Do you really want to do this? Because I’ve got the time. So, that furniture wearhouse, is just an assembly station. They buy furniture, like you and I do at IKEA, and then the incarcerated individuals assemble it. So, if you think that assembling furniture from IKEA counts toward carpentry skills by all means put it down on your resume, but I suspect if you do you’ll be as embarrassed as the DOC was when people found out about this. Okay, so commercial voice, go away with your propaganda, and let me talk to the listeners about how ridiculous it is that incarcerated individuals are forced to participate in this fraud - allegedly - all while only earning .40 cents or less an hour.

People: Forty cents an hour sounds pretty good to me. Hey, If I didn’t have to pay bills I would gladly take .40 cents an hour.

Myra: First of all, no you wouldn’t. Second of all, they do pay bills. They pay taxes and bills. You want to complain about your taxes, screaming about no taxation without representation. Well, incarcerated individuals pay steep taxes anywhere from 40% to 60% of their wages, and that’s not marginal – which some of you need to look up because you make some dumb arguments when you’re out here defending rich people over marginal tax rates – but I digress. 

Myra: Incarcerated individuals are taxed higher than rich people and they have no representation. More on that another time because that is a probably a twenty minute conversation on its own. But just know that there are all kinds of taxes deducted out of their paychecks, and they have to pay for doctor copays, supplemental food on commissary because they aren’t fed enough, they have to buy toiletries, all kinds of things really. So, they do get taxed, but we keep the commissary funded – which they also tax. Anything over 10 dollars a month that’s put on his books is taxed. But not everybody pays taxes. If you can have your loved one give an indigenous person loved one some money then he can purchase some extra tax free store and everything is great.

Myra: Except of course that’s against the rules and so people get in trouble. But people are hungry, so just like out on the street, because people don’t have what they need they have to figure out a way to get it and it usually runs afoul of the law and they get into trouble. Crime is not really what most of you think it is. If they wanted to cut down on the crime of sharing food they would offer more food. Plain and simple. It actually works for them that there are uprisings, and pushback, because more trouble means more budgets and more cops. And it double works for them because when there’s less trouble they get to argue that it’s because there are so many cops so they need more. Back to the point though, honestly if the DOC would just serve real food, enough food, things would be much better. But, because people support punishment on punishment on punishment, your tax dollars are absolutely wasted on terrible food that leaves these individuals with shorter life spans. That’s shaving time on top of giving hard time. You may be okay with that, but I just wanted you to know the truth about it.

Myra: So, to get back to the food for a moment, soggy macaroni and cheese, and bland mashed potatoes are made with the toxic water from the water tower that is supplied by the well. That food isn’t only barely tolerated by incarcerated individuals at Thereway Heights, no they go ahead and ship it out to incarcerated individuals all over Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Arizona. The toxicity of the DOC truly knows no bounds. And so when did DOC finally recognize that the water was toxic? When the FDA made them recall thousands of pounds of food.  

Myra: So, the event is supposed to start in two minutes, but we still have a closed sign on the window, so I’m guessing we’re delayed. Which I guess gives me some time to respond to an email I received the other day. I won’t say their name, because I think it’s a real name, but this person reached out a few days after the first episode came out.

Emailer Val: Dear Myra, I happened upon your podcast because a friend of mine had recommended it – or I thought they had. Seems the podcast she was talking about was about is called Evolved, about vibrating higher or some kind of thing like that. So, you can imagine I was really confused about your podcast, but kept listening – waiting for the tie in to higher vibrations. At the end you mentioned that the water at the prison you visit is contaminated and you were looking or lawyers to help out prisoners, also I noticed you don’t say prisoners and I am just curious why not. But, have you found any lawyers?

Myra: Okay, So let’s call this accidental listener Val. Val, to date I have not yet found a lawyer for the water contamination. And perhaps it’s just that there aren’t many lawyers who are experienced enough to handle this kind of case. But the good news is, there are so many cases to be had here. Staying environmental: There is mold in every area of the prison, contributing to the respiratory problems of the incarcerated individuals. If that’s not your bag, many individuals here have hernias that the DOC has declined to operate on. Arguing without any kind of hint of irony that 'until the hernia is incarcerated, it is not an emergency surgery.' So in theory, the hernia has to be double incarcerated before they do anything. Which, can we talk about hernias for a second? If it does become incarcerated you have to get to it quickly, and there is nothing done quickly here. If my husband is in a cell and he has a medical emergency, his celly needs to get the attention of the guard - that guard I mentioned from before whose probably distracted on his phone sending pics of incarcerated individuals to his buddies making fun of them. Yeah, that guy. Once he decides its an actual emergency, meaning he's interrogated the celly because, you know they always assume it’s a lie first – then they call medical. Medical has to get there. Evacuate them. It’s a very long process. You calling 911 and receiving an ambulance feels like it takes forever. Him calling a guard, the guard calling medical, then medical calling an ambulance, ambulance getting cleared to get inside means that most likely death will happen. Oh, okay sign flipped. Got to go. 

Sound: Car door shuts audio cuts. 

Sound: Audio back on. Car door shuts

Myra: Okay, sorry I just ran out like that but that’s the way it goes when your infamous I suppose. 

Myra: Oh, what a magical Tuesday. He had his two pieces of chicken and I am so happy. I mean, his stomach is going to be a mess for three days, because when you don’t normally have real food, and then you have real food your digestion system is really confused. But, it's worth it. 

Myra: I do want to answer the second question from Val, because she asked it in good faith and I will answer any question brought to me in good faith. She asked why I don’t refer to my husband, or anybody incarcerated here as prisoners. So, it’s important to remember that the moment my husband became incarcerated much of his life became about dehumanizing him. From using a number to identify him, and using language like prisoner, convict, felon, and inmate to void him of an identity. He is not a felon. He is a person who has been convicted of a felony. He is not an inmate, he is incarcerated at a prison. This is happening to him, this is not who he is. This is an experience that will shape the rest of his life, but it is not who he is or what he will be the rest of his life. I hope that makes sense. 

Myra: Imagine your spouse cheated on you, and for the rest of his life I referred to them not by their name, or even as your partner, or spouse, but just as cheater. This may seem small, and insignificant to you – but it’s important because so much of the work I do is about convincing people that people who are incarcerated deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, deserve rights, and when you use language that describes them as a classification – felony, convict, or inmate – its easy to throw them away. And when you regard humans as little more than numbers or crimes, it’s easy to get you to go along with mistreating them.

Myra: So, abolition 101 – we use language that accurately describes their condition – in this moment my husband is incarcerated here at Theirway heights. He was convicted 18 years ago of a crime. He is not a criminal or a convict. Val, I really appreciate your question. I hope if any of you listeners - other than those listening from the Carhort-

Sound: Car horns

Myra: I hope if you have questions you reach out, because although I kind of started this off as a joke, I am realizing many of you out there are genuinely interested in learning more as you are reckoning with this country’s history of criminalization to solve all of its problems - real and perceived.  I am not asking that you all become abolitionists, though I absolutely would love it – but I am asking that you consider the nature of criminalization and whether or not you believe the current model serves your community’s interest. 

Myra: Okay, off my soap box, for now, tune in next time though where I am probably going to rage against the system because I have to go to court with my brother. As always, you’re welcome and I’ve been great.