Last Saturday Juli and I ended up in jail. It happened around 10am. Fortunately we didn’t have the kids with us as we set out that morning.

We were driving downtown…and to make a long story short (and without going into any detail), we ended up at the Sedgwick County Detention Facitlity. There, we were escorted to Booking by a Sedgwick County Sheriff. As we entered, there was a fine funk in the air. There we encountered men and women of all kinds packed within the holding cells. Each one’s eyes staring out at us. After leaving the “mug-shot area” we headed towards our destination on the second floor.

Oh, did I mention we were on a group tour of the jail?

Juli’s professor at Newman University (Major Danny Bardezbain) works during the day as Sheriff of the Sedgwick County Detention Facility. He was gracious enough to give us (and several other students in the class) a personal tour of prison life. And let me say, in prison, you have no life. All freedoms are completely stripped away.

We walked through several “pods” (or areas of grouped prisoners). Prisoners spend just about every hour of the day within a dormatory type setting (unless they go to group activities like obtaining a GED, church, AA, Anger Mangement, etc…). Some pods have open beds, with bunks lined up next to each other. Other pods confine prisoners into their own cell with a common area to sit, watch tv and play cards.

Amidst all the prisoners in each pod sat a single, alert, Sheriff’s Officer…with cameras on him/her at all times. From this center console this officer controled everything. TV, lights, cell doors, and telephones. Need more toilet paper? You’d better ask first. Need to use the phone? Better ask first. In other words, prisoners had better ask the guard for permission to do anything.

The last place we visited while touring the prison was Master Control. Yes, the name says it all. This 4-person podular room controled everything including lights, elevators, intercoms, sliding doors, cameras, etc… Oh, and to add even more power to their status, they have the power to control any guard’s pod station within the prison…at any time. Basically, these 4 Master Controllers are the gods of the entire prison…so don’t even think of escaping.

After seeing only a portion of the prison that took up two city blocks, we were released 4 hours later. Those 4 hours enlightened our minds against a life of crime. Personally, I enjoy my freedom.

Comments