Dispatch from San Quentin: 'West Block Weather'

SAN QUENTIN – My new home is in the West Block section of San Quentin penitentiary. There is a huge sign posted on the wall outside my cell: NOTICE NO WARNING SHOTS FIRED IN THIS UNIT. The wall on which the sign is hung is stained with dried blood, saliva, urine and feces.

There are so many health and safety codes and civil rights violated in here every day, I wonder why the health department doesn’t come in and shut this place down. Perhaps they look the other way or don’t look at all.

West Block is half the length and width of a city block and has a capacity to hold up to 890 inmates. It has five tiers for each of its two sides. There are 445 4-by-12 foot, two-man cells.

Two gun rails enclose West Block. One is situated across from the second tier and the other on the fourth tier. A gunner walks with a semi-automatic rifle and a can of mace the size of a fire extinguisher.

There are hundreds of transactions going on. Inmates, both mentally insane and psychologically fit, are screaming, conversing, cat-calling, cursing the correctional officers, banging on lockers, rapping, singing, bartering and “fishing” with lines made out of linen. Through this chaos, falling water from overflowing toilets (we call it booty water) and trash from the cells create what we call “West Block weather.”

It is absolutely disgusting in here. The trash cans placed at intervals beneath the gun rails are empty. Garbage is thrown out onto the tier, then swept off to fall and accumulate on the first floor.

I can look out of my cell and see the refuse caught on the barbs of the coiled razor wire attached to the gun rails: old state clothes, dirty sheets, dingy underwear, bits of linen, rotten apples, plastic bags, moldy bread, green bologna, and tea bags. The wood used to make the walkway for the gun rail is covered with so much grit and human waste it has an oily dark sheen to it.

If we are lucky, we get to shower every other day. We are released by tiers and get 15 to 20 minutes to shower. That’s up to 88 inmates sharing only 12 or 15 shower heads. You step in, get wet, step out and soap up while another inmate steps in and does the same. When he steps out, you step back in and rinse.

Since I’ve been here I have never seen the shower cleaned. A lot of us, myself included, would rather “bird bath” in our cells. It’s safer and cleaner. We plug up the sink, fill it up with water and bathe. By using a container, possibly a cup or coffee jar, we rinse, soap, lather, then rinse again. We then flood the room with toilet and sink water to clean our cells.

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