Solitary by Albert Woodfox

Author:Albert Woodfox
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Tags: Non-Fiction, Autobiography, Memoir, Race, Politics, Law, History, True Crime, Injustice
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada
Published: 2019-01-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 36

Amite City

At the Amite City jail I was processed and put in a new cell for 23 hours a day. First, one with a concrete bunk and a hole in the floor as a toilet. After complaining to the deputies, I was told a cell was being prepared for me and I’d be moved soon. I waited for hours. Eventually I was moved to a cell called E-1, used for psychiatric patients, which had a big picture window built for observation. I had no privacy. One day I was sitting on the toilet with my sweatpants and underwear down to my ankles when a group of schoolchildren were brought in front of my cell on a tour. When they passed the plate glass window, the children paused and stared through the glass. It was one of the most humiliating moments of my life. I stared ahead, trying to project as much dignity as possible in that situation. After this incident, I banged on the door of the cell until one of the guards came and I demanded to see someone with authority. I talked to a lieutenant; it was decided they would give me a garbage bag that I could place over the window when I used the toilet.

I wrote to the warden telling him I had an exemplary record of conduct at Angola and asked him why I was in solitary confinement and asked to be placed in the general population. He came to my cell and told me that based on the information placed in my prison file by Angola officials I was a “high-priority” prisoner, “dangerous to self or others.” The stupidity and hypocrisy of it was that while they kept me locked up by myself for 23 hours a day because I was supposedly a threat to others, they let me on the yard three times a week with other prisoners. That was a surprise. When it was time to go to yard they electronically opened my door from the control center and I walked out by myself down the hall. They told me which door to walk to and when I reached it they opened it and I got to the yard. On my first time out in the yard I started running laps when suddenly the door opened again and all the prisoners in the general population came out. It was nerve-racking because I’d just been told that because of my “high-priority” status I couldn’t be around other prisoners. I thought prison officials were creating a situation in which I’d have to fight for my life. I slowed down my running and started looking at the men to see which one of them might attack me. To my surprise, nothing happened. There was no setup. Because of the prisoner grapevine, and the fact that many of these prisoners had been to Angola, a lot of these men knew who I was, what I believed in, and what I fought for. They left me alone.

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