Waking up here at 6:30 A.M. and going through the snow and cold to chow hall is something I wouldn’t wish on anyone. It’s twenty degrees and the wind is blowing ten miles an hour. The snow is stuck to your face, the wind blows through your coat like you don’t have one on, but you make it there. I am lucky I can walk; you should see the guys in the wheel chairs. If you knew how far it is to chow hall you would understand. Also, there are 1,300 inmates to feed.

Well I made it back to my cell which is a two-man with a toilet. Our unit has an A and a B side with 120 inmates each. It has ground floor cells with a recreation area and a tier above. Airway Heights Correction Center’s population on an average is about twenty-five years old. For a guy like me who is over fifty it seems like a daycare center. I’m watching a little T.V. until work. You see, I work in the kitchen. It’s not too bad, but it is a chore to feed the 1,300 inmates and still make the food taste good. We all work seven hours, but today I need to go to pill line so I will get off early.

The snow is still falling but not as heavy as before. We have people that shovel the snow, and they have cold weather gear but us in the pill line don’t. It’s still around twenty and the wind is blowing even harder. I can count around thirty guys left in line including the wheel chair folks. One guy has crutches, he hasn’t fallen down yet. We hope for some laughter but he’s pretty good on them. I can’t feel my ears or my fingers. I just hope I make it before they quit giving out pills. That sometimes happens. The line is long and I might have to come back tomorrow. There is no cover from the wind, which is the worst. I am almost to the window to get my pills. One of the guys ahead stood in line for nothing, his pills were not ready. I can’t write what he said to the window.

I made it; the guys behind me did not. The other inmates for regular pill line have showed up. Two more hours for pill line to freeze in line for them. Maybe the psychological meds will help them. It’s just too bad they have to stand in the cold.
I’m back at my unit it sure feels good. I can stand the noise to get warm. I’ll just go to my room anyway. So there is a day for me at AHCC. Nothing changes much day to day for us.

GS is a grandfather serving time in Airway Heights Correctional Center in Washington State.