Breakfast is how I wake up; I bring my own instant coffee to add to the weak coffee water they serve.

After breakfast, I have 20 minutes to report to processing for work. I work in the carpentry department. I love the smell of wood, and I love getting to leave the razor wire fences for part of the day.

The building I work in is in the far corner of the prison property, with a 6ft fence between the prison and the railroad, and there’s a small park with picnic benches under a patch of tall pine trees that I get to walk out to unsupervised to eat my lunch, and for a few hours a day I don’t feel like a prisoner, and it gives me a sense of control over my life. Knowing that if I wanted to leave, I could easily hop that fence and walk off, but I don’t.

When I get back from work, I have to take off my boots and get into a body scanner that shows every bit of my body inside and out to the officer looking for contraband. I know I’m being radiated by this machine unnecessarily, but the alternative is to strip down naked and show the officer my butthole.

I get back to my unit and take off my work clothes and get in the shower… sometimes I’m exhausted and don’t feel like getting in the shower until after dinner.

The noise of 80 women talking, laughing, yelling is constant until 8 pm, and by then I am ready to tune out, and I’m able to do this with the earplugs I snuck back from work.

I read my books until I feel myself falling asleep, but before I do, I write about my day and then write a prayer to God. Often I ask God to help me be a better person tomorrow and thank him for the lessons I learned today.