Another place, another "home"

Yesterday I arrived at my permanent unit in Dayton outside Houston. I left the red-brick unit faster than I thought I would have. My poor cellie had been there over fifty days waiting to be moved while I left after four. On the way over here I was handcuffed to a guy who will be going home on parole soon after being in prison since 1984 - 25 years! Whew! I think any amount of time being incarcerated feels like it will last forever, but I'm glad I only have to do five at most instead of twenty-five.

After arriving at this 1100-man unit in the middle of nowhere, I sat in a cage outside for two hours while waiting to see the unit classification committee to get housing and job assignment. The housing here is also two-man cells, but they are bigger then those in the red-brick unit - about 9' X 12". Each bunk has its own window that opens to allow air through.

We have a desk with a shelf above it for storing our hygiene stuff. This is the first place I've been to where you can control the lighting in your own housing.

The cell opens into a dayroom lined with two floors of twenty cells and two shower areas with individual showers. There are eight tables on one side of the dayroom and two TV's facing each other with benches between.

The best thing so far is the presence of radios, hotpots, and fans. I haven't been able to get my own yet, but my cellie lets me use his hotpot and radio if he's not using them. I haven't been able to sit and listen to music in so long that it's worth all the commercials of stupid Clear Channel stations. For a few hours last night I lay in my bunk listening to classical music on public radio - not something I usually do but it was great!

I saw a few familiar faces when I showed up. There are a few guys from my first unit in Jasper and even more that I saw from my previous unit in San Saba. When I went to dinner last night, the guy filling the drink pitchers saw me and came over to say hello. He's a guy I played soccer with in San Saba and a strong Christian guy. It was really cool to see an old friend. I can already tell that God brought me to a good spot.