Notes from the Land of Oz
Don't Try to Understand
Mon, 2012-12-17 00:00 +0000 — Phil Horner"The incomprehensible order or rule is a basic feature of life in prison." - Gresham Sykes, The Society of Captives, Princeton Univeristy Press. 1958.
It was mail call a couple of weeks before my birthday. I got a five-day notice from the property room. A five-day notice is the prison’s way of telling you it has some piece of your property that you can’t have.
Secrets
Mon, 2012-12-10 13:30 +0000 — Phil HornerThe day after Dan’s parole hearing I found him leaning against the rail on the second tier looking glum.
Professional Courtesy
Mon, 2012-12-03 21:53 +0000 — Phil HornerI arrived at the Receiving and Diagnostics Unit of the New Hampshire State Prison in June. It was a sultry summer. R & D is not known for its accommodations. My cell was a five by seven foot metal box that I shared with another inmate. There was barely space for a bunk and the stainless steel toilet-sink combination. We spent twenty-two hours a day locked down. A few tattered paperback novels provided the only distraction.
The First Week's Rent
Sat, 2012-12-01 23:20 +0000 — Phil HornerAlvah was a small sixty-something guy who looked even smaller in his oversized prison-issue jeans jacket, hands stuffed deep in the pockets.
