What do you do with a locked-in inmate?

or, 141 hours of to-the-cell lockdown, a brief reasoning on why lockdowns lack human compassion.

Well, hi there!

As I think you are aware, I'm a prisoner here in the grate state of Floriduh. There were no typographical errors in the previous sentence: this state grates my nerves.

One thing we prisoners go through on occasion is lockdown. We're already sequestered behind concertina wire, 12-15' fences, barbed wire, held under lock, key, and threats of bodily harm until we've stayed in our Prison Provider Organization's network for their designated period of time. But in our residency, we usually have the option to spend time in our day room, receive tablet charging, attend programs and religious services, and eat our meals at communal tables.

Lockdowns grab all of that, shoves it into a water closet with bunk beds, and leaves us there facility-wide for days at a time.

This is supposed to be used in case of serious events, like an escape attempt, drone incursion, or if severe weather damages the facility perimeter.

We residents are rarely apprised of the actual why we are locked down. We just wear prison blue here, so news to us is not a priority. So when we cannot correlate on our own a plausible reason why we are locked in our bathrooms, we can only dream up that it's a punishment stacked atop punishment.
This sows contempt towards staff, because you now have a body of hundreds or even thousands who cannot communicate with their loved ones beyond the wires.

No communications at all?

Correct. When you're locked down, it can be for up to 72 hours at a time according to the rules. In that time, you can't shower, get a haircut or shave (unless you were one of the 'unlucky' folk who were here long enough ago to buy hair clippers, or use lots of Magic Shave), call your people, use the kiosk to send and receive mail, or (and THIS is fresh new 💩) use your tablet for anything beyond checking the For Your Info app (which informs of nothing of note).
The last item, coupled with the inability to charge your tablet, just confirms you're barred from communicating to your people that you are okay.

72 != 141...?

I did say 141 at the top, and 72 afterward. You aren't imagining things. I just recently went through 141 hours of lockdown. We were told initially that it was a 72 hour run. Previous lockdowns allowed us free use of our tablets until the battery ran flat, so I had planned to wait a day or so before messaging my people, maintaining our typical message cycle. Nominally, our comms would not be affected by these, and I would mention it as an afternote in a message.

However after a boredom-induced nap, turning my tablet back on yielded the absence of nearly all my apps, both state-issued (emessages, ebooks, newsstand - which we pay for full articles, etc) and purchased (Pokémon Emerald, Harvest Moon, etc).

Well, that's alarming. I have no mouthpiece and I must scream.

The rumors suggest it is to fulfill a communications blackout, likely because people without people on the outside on our garbage messaging system (RFC 822 be damned and roll your own, eh, Jpay/Securus?) were complaining they couldn't tell their folks they were okay since they couldn't get to the phones; how come Soandso can message all lockdown?

Our apps came back for a brief period, when we were at the end of our initial 72, but the officers wouldn't roll doors and let us out. I fired off a pair of short, quick I Am Okay grade messages, because my battery was almost flat, and watched my apps disappear again an hour later. We're on a 72 hour lockdown. Again. Back to back, no break from the cell.

Coordinated Crapping Organization

We, that is, my bunkmate and I, share a two-person toilet with bunk beds. The lockdown takes away any semblance of privacy when one must pass a bodily function. In normal times, one of us simply leaves the cell; the other 💩s. During lockdown, we had to coordinate who needed to go the worst, and when they opened the doors to feed or medicate us, the other would dart out the door, then take as much time as possible in acquiring their meal or meds.
This effectively limits us to once a day relief.

Prison food, at least the regular tray stuff, makes that need a little more frequent.
My religious diet plan meal bags... Look. I eat a lot of beans. 11 servings of plain pintos a week, minimum.

We suffered. Sorry about that, bunkie. (It was mutual.)

The lack of privacy to use the toilet, no access to barbers to shaves and haircuts, and no shower access for days is ire inducing.

Having nowhere to walk around is also bad.

Being expected to have your cell and bunk Inspection Ready (bunk made neatly, personal effects stowed, dressed in our Class A uniform) just adds to the punishment.

What could be different?

Lots.
We could abolish prisons.
But, in the absence of that, let's be pragmatic:

Between my bunk and the front door of my dormitory are three very heavy steel doors, capable of holding back a resident not armed with heavy duty power tools. One is my cell door. One is the dorm quad door. One is the sally port door.
A lockdown could have had us in our day room. Keep that and the sally port door secured. Congrats, we are still locked down! We could at least then see the news, know the county, state, and country haven't gone any stupider than it was five minutes ago.
The phones and kiosks are controlled by a remote switch; leave the switch in the off position. Congrats, you have 2/3rds of a communications blackout!
Hide only the emessaging, ecards, and videogram app on tablets. There's your remaining third of your comms blackout!
Offer tablet charging. That means you didn't take away my ADA 'issued' radio (since we no longer are issued dedicated ADA radios) -- hiding the FM Radio app did that. It means I can watch the TV.

But you're prisoners!

Astute observation, that. But let me also point out that we are also still human, and deserve decency and compassion when you're sequestering us for years at a time with hopes that we will be better people upon release.

When you exercise cruelty by kicking an animal at every opportunity, you are training that animal to defend itself from being kicked, possibly at all costs.

How are we different?

(A hint, via my faith: Is further deleterious treatment of a person who has erred, having been sentenced to the punishment of captivity and sequestration for months, years, or decades considered Right Action?)

We live, sadly, in the Florida State Distributed Mushroomery. We are kept in the dark, fed manure, and it's up to us to rehabilitate ourselves.

How you can help:

There's a lot of choices, honestly.

For everyone, everywhere:

Consider reaching out to a book project, offering a donation of funds or books. Even €5, £5, $5, ¥500 helps them send one more order of books to a prisoner, because it helps to cover postage for these organizations.
Spread the word on your socials of choice about these book projects, and draw more good attention to them, because they honestly can use more help.
Know someone whose loved one is incarcerated? If you and yours can find the time to help them with their needs, please do. You might be helping someone's mom in her time of need whilst her son moulders away behind the concertina wire. He might have been her only support.
If you're in the USA, and you have your right to vote, I'm tapping you to put you in play again: don't live for the party line vote. Review these candidates, see how often they do what they say. This same machine you're reading me on connects to a massive search engine or 10; go look them up, please. Use that to push for people fighting for prison reform.
If you're what we call an extraterrestrial, then please, say hello! Let us know we're not alone in the universe, and that we are on stage. Performance anxiety often elicits the best performance out of our species.

Finally, I want to point people over to the Prison Book Project, who maintain a National Prisoner Resource List for the USA. Their list is updated quarterly, and you would be amazed how few prisoners know about this.
If your loved one is behind the wires, send them a copy of this once in a while.

As we ride through 2024, let's try to rebuild our humanity, both within and without.

Be safe, be loved. :)