Prisoners have varied experiences in different jails

Editor's note: Three prisoners who were in my medium-security cellblock agreed to sit down with me after my 24 hours in jail. They were Brian Johnston, Cory Minez and Vincent Gladue. They agreed to the use of their names and photos for this article.

Johnston has been in the county jail since June, 2004, after failing a urine test while out on probation. He and his attorney were in court earlier this month contesting that urine test. It's his fifth lawyer, he said.

Minez has been in the county jail since Dec. 2, after being transferred here from Glendive. He is facing charges of operating a meth lab, and was allegedly caught operating another lab while awaiting trial on the first charges.

Gladue has been in jail since Dec. 5 after being charged with two counts of felony assault, after he allegedly got in a fight in Pablo involving a knife. He found out a warrant for his arrest had been issued after reading about it in the paper, and turned himself in.

He was the one I wrote about in late November, and whose name I didn't recognize until I was locked up with him.

We talked about some of the conditions at the county jail, as well as their experiences at other jails around the state. Between the three of them, they had been in probably half the county jails in central and western Montana.

Gladue said he'd been in Missoula, Sanders, and Lewis and Clark county jails, and Great Falls city jail.

"Most of them [arrests] were for driving with a suspended license," he said, although he noted he has two partner or family member assault convictions for hitting his son.

All of the prisoners said the Lake County jail has some pluses and minuses compared to other jails. Some offer movie channels on cable TV, while others have outdoor recreation areas - a big plus to enjoy the smell of fresh air. Despite its reputation, the state prison at Deer Lodge offers a number of amenities, they said.

"Deer Lodge is better. You get to go outside [for rec time]. Here, you are cooped up in the cube," Minez said, referring to the rectangular room that is the recreation area. "At Glendive, you get a little more freedom than this, but it's not much better."

Johnston said at one Idaho jail, prisoners were allowed to stay up all not and watch TV if they wanted - something that was a nice option since they slept all day, he said. He wasn't subjected to lockdown, either.

Both Johnston and Minez served time in maximum security here at the county jail, but were both moved to medium security when space became available, they said. I asked them if they ever worried about their safety in maximum security, and they said it wasn't an issue.

Although personality conflicts do come up, most of the time it stays under control, they said. I told them I wasn't so sure about my safety going into the situation, especially if someone had found out who I was, but they said my fears were unfounded.

"It's not like we go around raping each other. It's not like you see in the movies," Minez said.

Johnston served 36 days in jail in 2000, and 75 days in 2001. Minez served seven months in 2000, while Gladue served 30 days in jail for what he said was his first no insurance conviction. The men were able to recall their length of time served the way most people can rattle off their social security number.

The men were able to compare food, cable TV, shower availability and numerous other aspects of the many jails they had been in.

"You're going to miss movie night," Minez said, to much laughter, when I told them I was leaving after the interview.

The Lake County jail staff provides movie night on Thursdays, when the prisoners can select from any title they want, and detention officers will try to get the movie at a local video store.

"You put in a request, and they will get the best they can," Johnston said, including R rated movies. "They used to serve popcorn but now they don't."

Movie night, along with special nights like New Years and the Super Bowl, is a perk that can be dangled in front of the prisoners and withheld for bad behavior or at the discretion of the detention officers. There's no state law that says you have to offer pizza and soda to prisoners during the Super Bowl, for example, but that's exactly what the detention officers did a few Sundays ago.

To serve pizza and soda would make the prisoners' day - their week, actually - and the detention officers sit down and essentially decide whether the prisoners deserve the perk, I later learned. The prisoners said that they were promised the same perk for New Years, but it just didn't happen.

On the subject of food, they said they've had worse at other jails, but complained that with the new food services contract the county signed with a private company, the quality of the food has suffered.

"You see how they feed us. It's kind of sad how they hold our food over us," Minez said.

"They say they save $30,000 a year but I don't see how that's going to happen. But we did used to get fruit everyday - bananas, apples and oranges," Johnston said.

"We're human capital," Minez said. "It's all dollar signs."

Besides food, the detention staff can add or remove the plastic lawn chairs found in the cells. There were two while I stayed in the jail, but the prisoners said that a couple had been removed. After sitting on the hard metal picnic benches found in each cell block, I could understand why the plastic chairs were treasured items.

"They kind of pick and choose what they want to give us," Minez said.

The men had complaints about being required to wear jumpsuits, instead of pants and shirts, and no underwear, even though the female prisoners are allowed underwear and bras.

[Detention staff say the no-underwear rule is to reduce the chance of someone sneaking in a weapon, drugs or other contraband, due to the amount of prisoners who often schedule their prison time in advance, or are aware of their pending arrest. Women are allowed to wear underwear because of female-hygiene issues, I was told.]

While state law mandates that prisoners be allowed to shave, and they are given straight razors, they are not allowed to have shaving cream because the cans can be used as a weapon, even though the razors are the same ones millions of people cut themselves shaving with everyday. Electric razors are out of the question because they make it easer to spread disease, detention officers told me.

So the men either dry shave or use soap, something they said should change.

All of the three prisoners have family in the area, but amazingly, said they'd prefer not to be visited. Families and friends are allowed to visit several days a week during the afternoons, but all of the prisoners said visits disrupt their routine.

"The only thing you can do around here is sleep," said Johnston, who has family in Pablo.

Gladue had the least amount of complaints, and seemed to have the most pragmatic view of his status.

"It's [prison life] just something you gotta deal with. It's part of being here," he said of the many things they can't have or do on the inside.