When I was in jail I had the privilege (for a very short time) to go stay in D8 (one of the two 'working pods'). I was assigned a job on first shift food factory. I had to wake up at 4:30, shave (or else I would not be allowed to go to work, and a couple of those days in a row results in loss of working privileges) go get cuffed to a chain gang outside, and walk about half a mile to the food factory. Once there, we were given a ladmo sack and a cup of coffee. After we ate they would call out different jobs and the number of people they wanted, like "we need 10 for tray wash" and the regulars had priority over the newbies. There were jobs everyone wanted and jobs everyone hated. Tray wash (washing several thousand trays from last night's dinner across all MCSO facilities; towers, lbj, Estrella, Durango, 4th Ave, etc.,) Ladmo land (preparing and bagging that days ladmo sack lunches for all MCSO facilities) cook chill (making the slop and side items for evening chow) warehouse (picking and delivering supplies to each food factory department) were among some of them. When I first started I went to ladmo land and spent 6 hours a day putting oranges inside plastic bags. There were perks, we could make and eat as many custom PBJ sandwiches as we wanted, eat as many cookies as we wanted, got to listen to the radio. Then I was involuntarily drafted for tray wash one day, a job everyone hates, but I realized I didn't mind it so much. My job there was to dunk the trays in hot water and put them on the tray wash machine belt. I liked it because it was a little more physical than ladmo land (double arm dunking several thousand trays every day was a good workout!) After our shift was over we went back to the dining hall and were served an "enhanced lunch" (which was awesome since we didn't get a lunch at all normally) we would get food that actually had seasoning in it, chips, soda, and all kinds of treasures. Then we were chained up and walked back to our pod, and were strip searched and given a fresh pair of clothes. This was 7 days a week which really helped pass the time.
Today I am grateful that I don't have to wake up at 430 to go to a job with no pay, in handcuffs. I'm grateful that I have access to whatever food I want whenever I want. I'm grateful that I wake up free and have a daily reprieve and a new found choice from the thinking that landed me in jail in the first place.
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