Part 19: The Final Days in the Cage
Although, the final days in the cage refers to time spent in jail, and court house holding, etc... this was not the end. The final days in the cage, wasn't gearing up for release, rather it was the beginning of the sentence, after having been somewhat pressured into pleading guilty to the charges...
To my surprise, the amount of fighting I was subject to was few and far between among my fellow inmates, however the amount of beatings I was subject to on behalf on pissed off jail guards was much more... we weren't aware of this, but the time we spent on locked down during the strike was in part because of a huge riot at young offender facility out near Lake Huron, called BlueWater. Their riot had lasted a few days, and was very destructive... the after effects on the young offenders involved, and any of them that were simply incarcerated there were some experiences that I learned of much later, through first hand meetings with the survivors.
My final days in the cage, were brutal in their own way... when things were good, or calm... we were able to clean our cells on a daily basis... The time during the strike, that was not happening.... then one day, the guards decided to implement their owns rules for visitation. Basically, if you had a visitor, and wanted to see them, you were subject to a strip search before attending, and upon returning.... even though most visits were through glass, and not in person. I thought this was a load of bullshit.
The first time I was subject to this new rule, I was reluctant, and didn't believe it... I thought the guards were just fucking with me to get me to react. After my visit, I returned for my strip search, then was returned to my cell... and moments later, the guards came onto the range to toss the cells and conduct yet another strip search... This time I refused. The next few hours I was isolated while they finished their searches on the other ranges... then I was given another chance to obey, or suffer the consequences. I chose to refuse, so I was held down by four guards while already handcuffed, spread eagle... while they cut my clothes off with scissors...
Afterwards, for my refusal I was given a swift beating by those guards and others that were nearby... I counted at least five or six. Not too sure how conscious I was or even if I was... It was an attempt to break my spirit, but after that I wasn't concerned with whether or not I could win a fight, just how hard I could fight... if fighting came into the picture.
Before that event there was only a few instances that I really felt the need to fight, afterwards, fighting wasn't really on my mind... it was more about making life difficult for the guards and banding together with our fellow inmates, against their treatment of us...
For the most part, court was finished, I was just waiting for news of the next step in the process... My lawyer told me that she was able to get a plea deal, for a few months of Open custody, as well as probation upon release... When I agreed to a few months, I thought maybe three to six months.... when the sentence came down I was given 12 months more, of open custody, and 2 years of probation to follow my release...
The night before my final court date, I was still unaware of this deal... But understood that their was some kind of treatment element involved within the sentence...
On my final day within the cage, it kind of ended the way it all started... This time I wasn't so worried about it... The morning of, everybody that was headed to court was shuffled off the ranges and into the departure area. I was stuck in the cell with the most people, well over ten, most had only been there for a couple days and were expected to make bail, so they didn't know me, or how long I had been there and what I was capable of... probably didn't care though either...
There was at least one guy, that had been on my range... our breakfast came in and as I reached for the tray, the toast got snatched, so I knocked it over and went for the next tray, same thing happened.... so this time I grabbed the tray, dumped it out... kicked over the rest of the trays so nobody was eating.... and proceeded to hit anybody that looked at me with the tray in my hands...
I got a few shots in on a few guys, before I was hit from behind with the juice jug... I was standing on top of what would have been the bed in a normal cell, slipped on the juice and fell into the pit of kicking boots and shoes... As soon as I stood up, I was yanked out of the cell by the back of my collar... the guard dragged me a few cells down and literally through me in as I tried to squirm free, not knowing who it was...
I had a quiet day of waiting, during the court process, they had no more room on the men's side and had to keep me on the female holding cells.... there was no women there that day...
I was there longer than normal, everybody had left back to the jail house, or got bail... I was being sentenced and transfered...
One of the guys I was fighting with that morning ended up in the bull pen across from me... he got his bail, but apparently got in a fight in the holding cells and was charged again... he was pretty upset when they guards told him he wasn't leaving... I laughed at him, just to piss him off a little bit which did not impress him...
As my final day in the cage approached its end, I was pretty exhausted from the long day, the missed breakfast, and maybe the few lumps I received, but I didn't back down, and I never gave up.... But I was glad to get out of the place for the first time in what seemed like forever, but was not much more than six months...
In that short time, I never left... but saw the same group of guys come and go multiple times... Pre-Trial Custody, also known as Dead Time, is just that dead - time.... as if life goes on without you on the outside, but every single day feels like 3... time almost seems to stop and drag on in slow motion...
My next trip on the jail bus was to a group home in Brampton, to await another transfer to the treatment facility to which I had been sentenced to serve the next 12 months...
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