My night in the big house

So the prison that Trav has been working on in finally finished!! To make sure everything was
running smoothly and to give the guards a chance to practice some people from around town and the surrounding areas were able to stay the night in the prison. Travis and all the guys he works with were invited to stay but since they have practically lived out there for the last couple years they didn't want to but I wanted to! One of my good friends Jill was going to stay too luckily I wouldn't be alone out there. I was so nervous to go though because this was my first time leaving Jacie overnight! I knew she would be fine but it was so sad to say bye!!
This was such an eye opening experience!! I know that I never want to be in prison, not that I was planning on going there anyways :) But we had to be out there at 4:00 pm and they loaded us up in a van and took us over to the intake area. Once we were there they had us change in actual prisoner outfits and we had to give them all of our personal items. They fingerprinted us and took our mugshots. It was so weird to be having all this done!! We were given our bedding and hygiene items and were escorted to our cells.
We had to then make our beds (and they checked to make sure it was done right) then we had to ask the guard if we could be let out of our cell. Since we weren't real prisoners we could go into/out of our cell whenever we wanted but since they are always locked we had to ask them to open the door each time we wanted in/out. It was such a pain not to be able to do what we wanted when we wanted! After everybody got all checked in and their beds made we were able to talk and ask any questions we had. Then it was dinner time which was good cuz I was hungry! The food was actually really good! We got chicken and rice for dinner. So good! We only had 20 minutes to eat though which was weird having a time limit. After dinner we went to a class that a prisoner would actually go to. It was on social skills and active listening. It was actually a really interesting class!
One weird and thing I hated to do is using the bathroom! The toilets are in your cell but the guards and constantly walking by and can totally see you!! I understand that it has to be like that in prisons but it was no fun!!!!
After our class we had 2 hours of free time so many of the ladies just talked and played games. At 10:00 we had to go into our cells again so they could do head count. They locked us in there for a while and I was so bored!! Luckily they let us out about 15 min later because we didn't have to go to bed till 11:00. Going to bed was not very fun because they locked us in our cells and the beds and pillows were so uncomfortable!! Plus they had to leave night lights on because the guards have to see the inmates at all times. But the lights were so bright I could fall asleep!! Plus you could hear the guards talking and doing bed checks. It was a long night!
They woke us up at 5:00 am which is way too early in my book!! We had to make sure our cells were clean then they took us to breakfast. It was super good! We had pancakes, eggs, bacon, and yogurt. After breakfast we were able to change back into our clothes and we had to get ready to meet with the Warden to get pardoned. Luckily we all got out :)
This was such an interesting experience. We had so many more freedoms then regular inmates do but it was so annoying to never have any privacy, be escorted everywhere, be told when to do everything, and to be constantly being watched. It really was an eye opening experience and I am so glad I was able to do this!!

We couldn't take cameras but earlier in the day there was an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony and so I got a couple pics of the cell then. Those blankets were not very soft!!

This is the common area where we spent lots of our time

SO awkward using the toilet!!!

I'm just getting into the van to be taken to intake!

My friend Jill and I after we got our prisoner clothes

getting fingerprinted

Check out these sexy clothes!!

This is a bad pic but we each got an inmate identification card.

This was our hygiene items we were allowed. That toothbrush is so small!!!

This was the certificate the warden signed so I was able to be free again :)