Categories
Life

King, Superman, and Zucchini

3/29/24

Friday

8am

Commissary day. I’m worried about King. He sounded awful when I talked to him yesterday. Superman sounded indifferent. I hope King goes to the doctor today. Of course, it’s Good Friday, so they’re probably closed. He was stuffy and coughing, and when I asked him how he was, he said, “I don’t know.”

Poor kid.

I wonder how Tiger is doing. I think about her a lot.

Oh no. 

Daisy got her parole paperwork, and she won’t even be reviewed by parole until 8/25/25. She gets no time served for parole because she absconded. 

Letter from my mother:

Jess

March 20, 2024

I can’t believe I’m writing to you in jail again. We tried talking to social workers and your PO to no avail. I was sure you would be able to see it coming this time and avoid a psychotic episode. 🙁 I tried to send $ but after three days, they cancelled the transaction. I had Aunt Sweetheart send $30. You should have it by now. I will try to put money on your phone.

If you know how long or where you’ll be, please let me know. The court changed the custody hearing to 4/26.

What happened to the stuff you had with you (clothes) in CLarion? The boys are home sick today but getting better. Jaxon has a sore throat virus. Doctor tested but all tests were negative. Henry was fine yesterday but bellyache today. They’ve been really healthy this winter except for now. They are looking forward to Bingo at school next Wed. night. Henry won $20 and a T-shirt last year.

I made zucchini muffins today and Jaxon ate four. He is feeling better. They went to a “dance” last week and had a great time. No dancing, really, just running around and eating. It’s a fundraiser for the sixth grade trip. I think about you a lot and send out wishes to the Universe for your safety and peace.

Love, 

Mom

Categories
Life

Bared Teeth and Blood Dripping

The Loop 2024–Issue 2

P.4

“P.S. Positive News: the ‘Victory Garden’ at the Veteran’s Services Unit here at SCI Muncy grew and donated over 3,500lbs of produce to the Central PA Food Bank and the Culinary Arts class in the prison.”

Um…right…but they don’t give any fresh produce to the inmates, of course.

3/28/24

Thursday

12pm

Motorcycle, 

We’re waiting for lunch. It’s very boring here. Commissary comes tomorrow. I can’t wait for my radio. Thank you for working with Gem to get money to me. I appreciate it. It sucks to be here without money. I’ll try to make it last as long as possible. I hope you’re doing okay. I’m worried about not having a place to live anymore. I don’t want to be two hours away in a halfway house. I guess you can’t do anything about it.

8:30pm

Sometimes I want to scream

When the helplessness consumes me

Eating away at my soul with bared teeth

Blood dripping, chewing at my shredded psyche

Tearing at my bones

It doesn’t help to wonder why this happens

It helps to think of your big hands

And the way you reach out to touch me

Whenever I walk by

It helps to think of the rumble

Of your deep voice

And the way that you whisper

That you love me

To send shivers

Through my body

It helps to think of the way you

Open car doors, store doors

And the doors of my heart

It helps to think of you wrapping

Your whole body

Around me in a hug

And the sincerity

In your blue, pure eyes

When you say my name

Like it was always yours

To say

Love, Justine

Categories
Life

Snakes, CYS, and SWAT Teams

When the boys were about a year old, my friend Felicia from the EB community lost her 16-year old son to Dystrophic EB. Also, bizarrely, there was a set of twins born to a neighbor of hers, one of which had EB, and they were struggling to care for him. They already had one set of twins who were six years old, so their hands were full. I decided to go to Lancaster, PA to see Felicia and the new baby, and offer my support. I took the boys with me. My friend Folly had loaned me her car. We stayed for three days, during which time I taught the new family how to take care of their new EB baby. 

However, the boys were refusing to sleep in this foreign environment, so I got very little sleep. The second night, I had a migraine from stress and not sleeping, so Felicia gave me a Percocet, which I gratefully took. 

The boys and I then headed home. 

My bipolar symptoms were in high gear because of not sleeping, and although I didn’t know it, I was in a full-blown manic phase. My apartment was a wreck. I had left dirty dishes in the sink, and there were clean clothes hanging everywhere because my dryer was broken. I called my friend Din to see if he could fix the dryer, and he came over. 

The boys, once home, fell immediately to sleep. I laid on the couch and also tried to sleep, but I was so uncomfortable and stiff from driving for five hours that I couldn’t sleep. My brain was also running wild with delusional thoughts.

Din noticed that I was having trouble getting up the stairs, and offered me some of the joint that was in his pocket. I thought about it and decided that it was harmless, as the boys would be sleeping for at least two hours. 

I smoked a little of it.

Around this time, a teenaged boy appeared in the front a lawn that I shared with the neighbor tenants–we lived in a duplex–and began trying to mow the lawn. This was no easy feat, because the grass was nearly a foot high, and all he had to work with was a rickety old push mower, which kept stalling, while burping out big clouds of black smoke. This was also creating a huge amount of noise. I tried to tell the neighbor, a young woman with a three-year old of her own, that my windows were open and I couldn’t shut them because it was 80 degrees outside, and my kids were sleeping and my son was asthmatic, so please stop with the mowing, which wasn’t doing any good anyway.

This somehow devolved into a screaming match about the 10 pit bulls she had in her house and how my kids couldn’t play outside safely anymore. She called the police and told them that I was harassing her.

The policeman, Officer Copperhead, came, and when I asked him why he was there, he screeched, “Well, I wasn’t going to write you a ticket, but NOW I AM!!”

He did.

By this time, Jaxon and Henry had woken up. They scooted out on the front stoop (they were developmentally delayed from being preemies and weren’t yet walking) to watch me carry stuff from our “vacation” from the car to the house. They were wearing only diapers because it was so hot.

The neighbor called CYS and the police this time to report that my boys were “running around outside naked unsupervised,” none of which was true. The police came again and wrote me a ticket for misdemeanor child endangerment.

I was livid.

CYS came and interviewed me and took pictures of both of the twins.

Then they demanded to come into the house.

This was the last straw, as far as I was concerned. I’d had an Early Intervention teacher in my apartment that morning, and it was still a disaster of a mess. Also, legally, I do not have to let them in my house and I know this, so I said no, deadbolted the door, and took the twins upstairs for their bath. It was almost bedtime.

If they wanted to see the inside of the apartment so badly, they could come back tomorrow, when it was cleaner.

NO.

The local police then called the state police, who flooded my front yard in riot gear with flashing lights. 

I didn’t know this.

I was giving the boys a bath.

When I came back downstairs, my phone was ringing.

I answered it.

It was Copperhead, screaming that he was going to take my kids. 

Then, in slow motion, I saw the deadbolt lock on my front door turning to open.

I dropped the phone and ran for the door, throwing myself against it.

Categories
Life

No Fucking Kidding

Tuesday

March 26th, 2024

2pm

I went to the doctor here. She exclaimed, “You just left here in November?! What happened??”

I explained what happened.

Then she and the nurse both shook their heads sadly and agreed that “the system is broken.”

Um…you work for the system, ladies. Without people like you, there would BE no system, duh.

5:30pm

So…I went to push Ms. Grumpy Crabass to insulin, and when I came back, there was no dinner tray for me. So I don’t get a dinner. Then douchebag Officer Dickeydo (because his belly hangs out more than his dickey do), called me for the trash, even though it’s not my day. Then they called Med Line in the middle of my phone call with Henry, so I didn’t even get to talk to Jaxon at all. Then I asked Burgundy for a cigarette because I felt like my head was going to explode, and she seems to be ignoring me completely. It’s been hours, and she hasn’t come with one, even though I’m willing to pay back double for it.

8:20pm

Right out of the blue, Burgundy just gave me a whole speech on God and forgiveness.

Huh.

She thinks I’m still disappointed about being here (I am), but that I’m coming out of my shell slowly. She thinks I should examine my situation and find out where I went wrong so I can learn something from it.

She’s probably right.

Thursday

3/28/24

9:10am

Newspaper:  Altoona Mirror, March 22, 2024 article:

“House committees address playground, online safety” by John Finnerty excerpt:

“The Children and Youth Committee also approved House Bill 285, which would specify that incarcerated parents can’t lose their parental rights just because they are behind bars. 

Committee Majority Chairwoman Donna Bullock, D-Philadelphia, said there is estimated to be about 80,000 children with incarcerated parents. Rep. Rick Krajewski, D-Philadelphia, the prime sponsor of HB 285, said that, “Taking steps to help incarcerated parents remain involved in their children’s lives is beneficial for both the parents and their children. Inmates who are able to remain connected to their families do better re-adjusting to life outside of prison when they are released, said Krajewski. And children of incarcerated parents stand to benefit, as well, because the trauma of losing contact with a parent can lead to mental health struggles and may make the child more likely to run afoul of the law too. 

‘We cannot allow the already immensely difficult hardship of incarceration to become the sole reason for the shattering of families,’ Krajewski said in a statement released after the committee vote.”

3:20pm

Mail:

“As recorded on March 27, 2024 the Pennsylvania Parole Board rendered the following decision in your case: Detain pending disposition of criminal charges.”

No fucking kidding.

Categories
Life

These Boots Were Made for Walking

Monday

March 25, 2024

8:06am

Parole again this morning. A lady said to me while I was walking by in the Day Room today, “Excuse me Ma’am. You’re beautiful.”

Aw! That was so nice!

9:20am

I went to Parole and they had me sign the same exact paperwork again. They said the date was wrong?

What?

I feel like they’re being weird and that I shouldn’t have signed it. I don’t trust this lady, the on-site Parole Agent.

I’m calling my lawyer at 9:45am. Well, hopefully he’s still my attorney.

Then I went to have an EKG. While I was walking back, another lady said, “I didn’t know your hair was so long! You have to wear your hair down all the time!”

How very nice. I’m getting a lot of compliments today. I wonder why.

10am

My lawyer is somehow not on my approved phone list anymore. I have no idea why. I put in another phone list.

3:30pm

I keep having the feeling that I want to write something meaningful in order to get my feelings out, but I don’t have any idea what to say. I got two messages on the kiosk from my mother and Gem. My mother apologized for lying to me about whether I was going to jail or not. She and my father knew before I did and I yelled at her in a letter. Gem didn’t say much except she can only store a little bit of my stuff from Paul’s because they don’t have the room.

I said thanks.

My life is such a disaster.

Maybe I’ll ask my parents to store my shit.

Gem always says things like, “I’ll do whatever I can to help you,” and then this happens when I ask her to. I should be grateful for what I have, I guess. 

But what is that?

Nothing, really.

Stuff. 

Clothes.

Kitchen things.

A whole lifetime and nothing to show for it. This is why I don’t write. It’s all the same garbage bullshit. 

Wah, wah, wah, Jessica has a horrible life.

What the fuck else is new.

8pm

Sooooo…….I talked to the boys. King stayed home from school today with a cough, and my conversation with both boys went better than a couple days ago.

The Gem messaged me and said that Motorcycle is selling my things online. So, I call Motorcycle and he says it’s just a couple of pairs of boots that I don’t wear.

Like——-what?!!

Did he think that I wouldn’t notice? Or that no one would tell me?? I cannot believe him.

Of course.

Right when I say I’m okay with being monogamous and everything, he does something that demonstrates in a ginormous way that I cannot trust him at all.

I hate my life.

Then, of course, he gets mad, says he hates Gem (which is the only way I get money in here), and asks if I really think he would do anything to hurt me.

Um…YES.

 I am sitting in prison because of you, douchebag.

What am I supposed to do with this?

Nothing.
There is nothing that I can do.

Oh, and he called my attorney, but says I need to call him.

And Stryder messaged me that he doesn’t understand why I am in here.

I don’t either, dude.

I don’t either.

Categories
Life

Neither here nor there: musings from the other side (of the razor wire fence)

Categories
Life

motorcycles and monogamy

Sunday

3/24/24

7pm

Well, this day is almost over, thank God. When will I stop having to say that? Will my days ever be good? This cycle never ends. This cycle that often seems devoid of hope at all. I guess I should feel lucky that I don’t have an LWOP (Life Without Parole) sentence like all of the people I just read about. They would probably tell me what Sassypants in Cambridge Springs told me: “Do my time and THEN complain.” She had spent 30 years inside at that point. 

It’s rumored that she murdered two of her children, but according to her, she never had any kids at all. Who knows what the real story is.

I cannot wait to get a radio. It helps with the depression.

In other news, Motorcycle wants to be monogamous again. I always wonder why he only feels this way when I’m in prison. 

Oh well. 

I don’t care. 

I will.

It’s about time. I’m too old for non-monogamy anyway. I wrote him a letter telling him I would.

Categories
Life

lupus and daisies

Saturday

3/23/24

8:45am

I’m a wheelchair pusher today, so I took Ms. Grumpy Crabass to the Library. I was able to get a book, so there was an upside to walking in the rain. I have to return it on April 6th. Another one of Ethan’s death anniversaries in prison.

10am

I called the boys. We didn’t have much to say to each other. I wonder if I’m losing them like I lost Lilly.

That didn’t take long.

Ten must be the magical age where they begin to hate.

12:15pm

We got searched. No problems, thank the Lord. Now they’re taking somebody’s stinger, which is a contraption people cook with.

Did I mention that I feel like shit today and I’m having a lupus flare? I just want to sleep all day. This book, about people serving Life Without Parole (LWOP) sentences, is very depressing. Although I feel like I should bear witness to their suffering, instead of giving up on the book like a coward.

I cannot get comfortable.

I’m sad, depressed, and I feel like shit. And it’s raining to boot. Why is it always raining?

***********************************************************************

INTERVIEW

“Daisy”

Age: 41 years

Female

White

7 children from 7-22 years old

From Somerset County

History of trauma and abuse?

Yes, watched a lady get stabbed 17 times when daisy was 14

Father drowned when she was 8

Had had five abusive relationships–last one—> Met ex in 2019, extremely abusive, stalked Daisy to get to know her, then tried to kill her several times during the course of the relationship. They met after Daisy’s first incarceration–started incarceration cycle

History of addiction?

Yes, started using at 14–weed, cocaine, then coke/crack until 27, alcoholoc from 27-35, then from 35-present-meth

Had periods of sobriety, went to rehab twice to stay out of jail

Never has gone to rehab voluntarily

History of mental illness?

Yes–attempted suicide at 15, diagnosed with Battered Woman Syndrome, ADD, PTSD, depression with mania, night terrors

How much time have you spent incarcerated?

Off and on since 2019

How were you treated by the court?

“They just assumed I was an alcoholic…I was fleeing my husband because he had tried to kill me…I had the kids in the car. The cops didn’t care that my husband was abusive, they just wanted to know where he was. They said if I was going to leave him, I already would have. Now he’s taking his case to trial and they’re bringing up the abuse. He raped our daughter. There was a no-contact order and they put us in the same jail.”

Charges?

2015–DUI third tier, Child Endangerment

2024–Simple possession, Possession with Intent to Distribute, Hindering Apprehension

Paid private attorney or public defender?

Public Defender

Plans for the future?

“I don’t want to get high. There’s no support for women in my county. I want to work in a field that creates healthy support systems for women. I’ve missed a lot of time with my kids. I want to go home and be a better mother to my kids. I have to get out of Pennsylvania. I’m going to have a grandchild while I’m in prison. I’ve missed two graduations.”

What do you do for fun?

“I paint furniture and pictures. I make wreaths and garden. I like to grow things.”

Categories
Life

The big, scary, humiliating incident

Friday

3/22/2024

9:45am

Of course, as soon as I called Motorcycle, they started calling Commissary, so I had to get off the phone again.

Tyrant.

Jesus Criminy,

This CO is a total asshole and won’t let people get on the phone even though we’ve been without a phone for two whole days.

Jerk.

Only people with a phone time, and I didn’t do a second signup because I was irritated and tired.

Ugh.

Even though I got the Abilify shot at the beginning of the month, they started giving me the Abilify pill anyway.

Whatever.

I may as well enjoy the increased mood stability before they take away the rest of my psych meds. I wonder if there’s such a thing as Abilify poisoning.

Got commissary. It’s the only bright spot in this life, except for contact with the outside. I wrote my boys. Gem wrote me a short note on the kiosk and told me my lawyer’s phone number, if he’s still even my lawyer. I guess I have to call him and find out. I’m going to read about Nostradamus and the end of the world.

Seems appropriate.

Daisy went to lunch and didn’t have her ID, so they sent her back to the unit. So now she didn’t eat breakfast or lunch and has no commissary. I said to the lady next to me, “She doesn’t know where her ID is. So they can just starve her??”

“Yup,” said the lady.

They keep calling me for wheelchair pushing today, even though it’s my day off. Luckily, I haven’t had to go yet, because someone else has volunteered or I’ve been in the bathroom, but damn. There are OTHER people who are pushers for today.

Fuck.

I get paid $0.20/hour AND I get no days off??

Burgundy turns out to be kind of a jerk. She continuously tells us lies with a completely straight face, then laughs at us when we believe her. I’m starting to think she’s a sociopathic dickhead.

Daisy still seems pretty cool. She has told me a lot about herself and let me interview her, which was cool. I haven’t had freeze-dried Maxwell House coffee since December, and it’s fucking up my stomach. That’s fun when you’re trying to interview someone with your stomach making fart noises the whole time.

Jesus Christ.

I finally plucked my eyebrows (with a string) and was able to put mascara on, which made me feel marginally more human. At least I got real toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, and deodorant from commissary, which super suck to live without.

I keep writing the boys these generic letters: Hi. I miss you. I love you. It snowed here.

Bye.

Ugh.

I really hope they don’t disown me like Tiger did. That would also super suck. I really don’t know how to explain this to them. How do you tell a 10-year old (or two) that sometimes your brain goes crazy and tries to kill you? It’s hard enough to tell the adults in my life! I had to throw away the notebook I had at Clarion Psych, so “The Big Scary Humiliating Incident” hasn’t been discussed here yet.

I’ll give you the basics (as told to me by Motorcycle), because I have no memory of these events, as is what usually happens with my psychotic episodes:

I saw my boys sometime before the end of February and became very depressed and distraught afterward. Motorcycle said that I didn’t snap out of it like I normally do. I have custody court coming up 3/11/24.

At some point after this, my depression turns into mania, and I stop sleeping and eating and become delusional. I am convinced that right now is the End of Times and that I have to go get my boys so that we can be together for the End of the Earth so that they aren’t scared. I try to convince Motorcycle that he needs to take me to my parent’s house. He refuses, citing that he won’t be the reason that I go back to jail. I start walking to my parent’s house in bare feet and a sundress in 30 degree weather. This is February 27th, 2024. Someone calls the police on me for trespassing. I fight with the police when they try to arrest me. I am taken to the ER by the police in handcuffs, which I am screaming about. The hospital sedates me and subsequently discharges me the next day to Motorcycle, who asks the hospital why they are discharging me, as I am clearly not normal. The reply is, “Well, she’s just delusional.” I go to Motorcycle’s house. He leaves me alone. I leave the door wide open, and start walking to go get my children, as it is still the end of times (obviously).

At some point before I leave, I drink some wine. This is now February 28th. Motorcycle comes back to an empty house and calls Gem and Paul, who also don’t know where I am. Paul calls the police and reports me missing. The state cops come this time, tase me twice, and charge me with the second set of Disorderly Conduct/Resisting Arrest charges. 

Nobody calls CRISIS or an ambulance. This time I am voluntarily discharged to Clarion Psych, where I stay for two weeks to recover and get well. I come to (out of my blackout) at Clarion Hospital, get my meds adjusted, and am discharged to my parole officer, Mr. G., who arrests me for having new charges on parole. He gives me no technical violations, but says, “We can’t have you getting hit by a car,” as the reason for the arrest.

After a week at Clarion, I am furious with Paul and Motorcycle for never calling CRISIS and for not having me hospitalized sooner, as I was clearly blackout psychotic. At one point, Motorcycle and I had a conversation about how God speaks through me and that I have special powers. He said he, “Almost laughed,” instead of helping me. I told him I could never trust him again. He apologized profusely. I haven’t spoken to Paul since, except to tell him to give my things to Motorcycle and Gem.

When I called my parents to tell them I was going to be arrested, they told me that they already knew, but hadn’t told me because they “didn’t want me to worry.”

This is my “support system,” which seems to be full of crappy people who refuse to help me.

I have now been to jail because of Elizabeth, Stryder, my parents, Paul, Gem, and to round it out, Motorcycle, who I never thought in a million years would betray me.

All of them did.

And these are people who have been given explicit instructions by me as to what to do when I start talking and acting crazy. And NONE of it involves calling the fucking police. Motorcycle says he now knows what to do and it won’t happen again.

Fuck.

What do I have to do to get these people to listen to me??!

4pm

I just looked at the Call-Out, and I’m on for Parole again on Monday. Hopefully they’ll cancel it, since I saw them on Thursday.

The two women next door and Burgundy are talking about how funny it is to encourage people to kill themselves. And Burgundy is SUCH a good person and “no one can steal my joy” and all of that other nonsense.

Fuck.

Why is it always the worst people who are convinced that they are the best people??

#jailculture

And they always seem to be sooooooooooo religious, too. They hold God in front of them like a shield while talking shit about all of the “bad” people around them. Judgy Wudgy was a bear…

Did I mention how much I hate this place?

Oh, and Motorcycle can’t find the five newspapers that I am missing a paycheck for. They were in my briefcase, and now they’re gone.

There goes $400.

Fuck.

I guess I should be grateful for the fact that I didn’t smash my whole laptop, like the last time I was psychotic three years ago. Dropped it on a sidewalk in the rain and left it there.

Ugh.

Burgundy looked at her monthly statement, and at the end of January, there were almost 1,000 inmates here at Muncy. She also told a story about how she wanted SSI, so she made up a story and called 911 and told them that the voices in her head were telling her to kill everyone in her mother’s house, including a child. After an ambulance came and took her to the hospital, she changed her  mind and said she went home, but somehow, in the midst of this, got approved for SSI. She now says that she has a giant check waiting for her in Harrisburg. I don’t believe a word of it.

She reminds me of Zi in Cambridge Springs Prison, who knew she was going to be a famous millionaire in the next five years. She also thought that she wasn’t delusional. Now Burgundy is talking about how the government is going to microchip all of us.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm….okay.

I feel like this is another one of her stories to demonstrate how stupid the White bitches are.

Some lady in Med Line just asked me if I shined my boots. I said, “No, I’m just new.” Then we got in trouble for talking in Med Line. I said, “Oh, sorry,” to which the CO snapped, “Don’t be sorry. Be QUIET!” Everyone here prides themselves in being mean, it seems. I feel like that’s all that prison is–standing in lines and getting yelled at. 

Or doing both at the same time.

This older lady, Roadrunner, walked up to me the other day and said, “Hi hon! I wish you were my roommate!” And now she races to walk with me and Daisy to sit with us at meals. No, at Med Line tonight, Burgundy announced when Roadrunner walked by, “OH! There’s your BUDDY!!” 

I am literally beginning to hate this woman.

This is like the biggest Mean Girl’s Club ever. I fucking hate this place. I’m exhausted. Like–this is way worse than Cambridge Springs. Not the food, not the CO’s, but the inmates! I get the feeling Burgundy goes around and talks shit about me every chance she gets. Like–what the fuck did I ever do to you, bitch??! This is not good. This is not good at all.

Oh, God, what did I ever do to deserve this??

Burgundy also sells Gabapentin and offered me some, but I think it was just to get me in trouble.

I have a chronic stomachache from being here and being stressed all of the time. I’ve never seen Burgundy take Gabapentin, and it seems weird that she would offer them to a new person. Of course, then she asks me for my Mobic. If she was in so much pain, why wouldn’t she just take her own Gabapentin?

When I walked into the bathroom earlier, Burgundy was in there talking quietly to someone, and then they both shut up and left when they saw me.

God Almighty.

Categories
Life

Neither Here nor There: Musings from the Other Side (of the razor wire fence)