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Behind Bars: Will work for food — or not

By Brian Wood, Behind Bars Columnist - | Apr 3, 2017

The way you are treated in prison takes some getting used to.

There is little to no trust extended to prisoners. All of our movement is controlled and under surveillance. Our decisions on many things are made for us.

After a few years, I’ve gotten used to this being my reality, so when I’m treated differently, it’s a bit of a shock to the system.

I have a volunteer job picking up trash on Wednesdays at the dump, but because of the weather, I have only been able to go twice. To make this whole thing feasible, I am allowed certain freedoms, not the least of which is leaving the prison.

 

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Last Wednesday, the other prisoner that makes up the two-man work crew was transferred to Draper that morning, so it was just me and the officer assigned to take me that day, aka “the boss.”

We walked over to the parking lot outside the fence, and the boss told me to wait on the corner while he went and checked out a gun.

While I was waiting, an officer with bars on his uniform parked his car, came over to me and asked, “What exactly are you doing here?”

I said, “Just waiting for a ride.”

He wasn’t amused and required a better explanation. He waved over a perimeter duty officer in a truck and had him watch me until my boss came back.

 

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That type of precaution is what I’m used to. All that changed when the boss pulled up.

First of all, he was driving a truck in which the only seating available was on a bench right up front. I don’t think he realized how odd that felt to me.

But then we stopped at Subway to grab lunch, and he told me to order what I wanted. The proprietor of the dump had set up an account for us there to show his appreciation.

I had no idea just ordering a sandwich would feel so weird. I think I must have apologized to the lady making my sandwich five or six times — each time I asked her to customize my order — and thanked her as many times.

I imagine the dump’s owner knows what a huge treat it is for us to get Subway because he probably has a good idea of how many hundreds of pounds of food the prison brings to the dump each day.

So much “food” (I use the term loosely) just gets thrown away by prisoners — that’s what happens when quality isn’t really a factor, and the only real consideration is a set number of calories at the lowest cost.

Getting a meal at Subway is really a huge perk. You could say I’m working for food, and ironically, it’s a substantial raise.

In a given month, the monetary value of these lunches will add up to more than double what I make working 35-40 hours a week at my other job.

I’m thrilled to get this benefit, but to be honest, I’d do it all for free. I think I may have enjoyed sitting in the booth at Subway just as much as eating the sandwich. I used the private bathroom that locked from the inside! I didn’t have the nerve to use the lock, but that’s not the point.

I felt like a normal person for half a day, and even though that felt odd, it was a great feeling! For most of the work day, not only was I not under video surveillance, but I was, at times, all by myself in the great outdoors.

Even before re-entering the prison’s vast barbed-wire fence, I received a reminder that my added liberty was at an end.

I was riding on the back of a golf cart, which my boss was driving, when another officer yelled, “Hey you! Get off that cart!”

My boss stopped the cart and the same officer who had just yelled at me politely told him, “Hey uh, prisoners aren’t allowed on the carts. He has to walk.”

I can’t say I was thinking — home, sweet home — but it felt kind of like it did when I reached the ground the time I first went skydiving.

It was fun, but now everything’s back to normal.

Brian Wood, formerly of Layton, is an inmate at the Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison. He pleaded guilty to nine felony charges for offenses from 2011 to 2014, including counts of burglary, drug possession and prescription fraud. He could spend up to 35 years in prison, depending on parole hearings.

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