This Week's Tenant

This week's tenant is an artist with a beautiful blog. Please take a few minutes and look around. It features the art of Winsome Gunning. Enjoy!

This Week's Tenant from My Other Blog

Check out my tenant for this week from my other blog, My Major Gripe! She has an attitude that will leave you rolling on the floor splitting your side with laughter. Her unique outlook says what all of us think but maybe just don't have the guts to say. Enjoy!

Flowers In Prison

More than a decade ago our society complained to ourlaw makers that the prison grounds were looking nicer than their yards. The society claims that prisoners should not allowed nor have the pleasure to enjoy a beautiful landscape on prison grounds. Our lawmakers agreed with their contingents and passed a law that barred prisons from growing any type of flowers. FCC Coleman fell into that category and you do not see any flowers around the complex. I love flowers and I truly enjoy gardening and I was missing that. In 1999 the authorities sent me to work at the Powerhouse of the Men facility (Medium). When I got there the place was ugly, so I chose to change the look of the building and I painted the entire building, windows and doors, I waxed the floors etc, etc, after I finished I felt that something was missing so I decided to make a little garden in front of the building. With my supervisor's approval, and some help of other staff and some fellow prisoners I made a small garden with boxwood, lirope, azalea and mexican heather, aloe vera, white limestone and landscape timbers, all perfectly arranged. I took care of my garden on a daily basis, and I enjoyed looking at the butterflyes of different colors landing on the purple flowers of the mexican heather or the lily flowers of lirope. I left Coleman-Camp in 2000 (Due to my hungry strikre) and when I came back in 2003 I was assigned to the same job and my little garden was still there, a little bit abandoned, but still there, then I decides to make a vegetable garden, next to my flower garden and of course I did not have any seeds to grow. I had to come up with a plan, after a few days I choose to grow tomatoes and the plan was to take the seeds from my tomatoes ,instead of eat the seeds I was going to smugle the seed from the dining hall and I did it until one day a staff was padding us down outside the dining hall and I was scared to be caught with the tomato seeds inside my pocket. The officer did not notice the seeds and I was safe. I thought that the risk was worth it when I saw the beautiful tomatoes in my vegetable garden. I shared the tomatoes with my fellow prisoners and I ate the last tomato out of my garden. However, I did not want to take the risk again of smuggling the seeds from the dining hall, so I decided to grow fruits from the fruits they sell to us in commissary. So I grew lemon, orange, avocado and a mango tree, but I encoutered another problem the plants were too big for my little vegetable garden, then I made another space for the fruit plants with white limestone, landscape timbers, etc, etc, nicely arranged. For the last few weeks I have been working in my garden, cleaning, trimming and pruning. Some plants had grown very big like my aloe vera I call her my "Lion King" She gave us two huge, tall gorgeous flowers few months ago. While I was gardening yesterday I was thinking what I was going to grow in my vegetable garden, I said to myself: "I can not steal more tomatoe seeds from my own salad, I can not grow fruit, what I am going to grow?" I thought about pineaples. I love pineaple and the pineaple plant is small and beautiful, but how do I find a pineaple? while I was lost in my thoughts I was trying to comprehend why society is till so harsh with prisoners (first-time, non-violent offenders) what damage or who will be hurt if we prisoners learn horticulture skills while keeping the prison grounds looking nice. I know that social change takes time, but I hope that soon society will change their view about first-time, non-violent offenders, so in the future a prisoner does not have to smuggle tomatoe seeds out of his/her salad and take the risk to be punish for it. We live in a violent society ... look at the news every day besides being away from our family. Why not brighten our day with life's simple and natural pleasures. It is for all of our benefits. I love you all. Yraida (Leo).

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Prisoner Looking for Penpal

I have met a nice, lonely prisoner who is looking for a penpal. He is incarcerated in New Jersey and would like especially female penpals. He is not looking for money or a relationship, just a friend that he can write to. If interested, please email me at prisontalk@hotmail.com and I will give you his address to write him.

No Cinderella Story

Dear friends; one of my fellow prisoner left the following article on my bunk bed, I asked everybody around my cubicle if they saw anybody in my room, nobody saw anybody I do not know who drop the article, some of my fellow prisoners know that I write theis PTO and that I write for some newsletters, so I concluded that the one who wrote the article wish to be hear. Here is her article " NO CINDERELLA STORY" "This story is based on facts seen and experienced in the federal prison system. Location and names are not provided for fear of retaliation against the inmate who wrote the article. The term "Sanitation" means the measures taken to promote health and to prevent disease. In the prison system there is no such word. The word is fictional on a daily basis and only comes into play when we have some sort of ACA inspection and that comes every 3 years. I live in a female prison camp, and I can say that I am throroughly repulsed by the state and condition of our lavatory, bathroom and shower stalls. I live in a camp environment where there are no fences, where in fact we can walk out of here at any given time if we choose to do so. We are nonviolent women and many are professionals. We live here because we have to and have no other choice. At home we choose to disinfect and clean with chemicals that work for us. In the prison the system we are forced to live in circumstances that remind me only of a third world country without the luxuries of chemical cleaning supplies. Our shower stalls are especially horrific. The mold is removed with shampoo and a limited supply of scrubbing powder on a daily basis only to come back again the next day. Some showers were covered in a fibergalss coating and fastened to the walls. The mold is growing behind the fiberglass covering and is growing into the caulking on the corners of the shower stall and cannot be removed with the products that are given to us. There was a time that we were giving us bleach, but they claim it is a safety issue. The word "Safety" is a relative term when the fact is that many of us work with more dangerous things such as power tools, heavy equipment, forklifts, power jacks and many other things that are more a "Safety" issue than the so called "Bleach". The sanitation issue also brings the effects of many mysterious ailments, such as fungus, boils, inflamations, staff infections and a number of strange skin irritations. Never in my life have I ever seen so many ailments caused by sanitation issues. Is it really a safety issue or is it the reality that our federal government, either does not have money to provide us with these necessities or does not care one way or another about our health. I find it a little hard to believe the former. The prison system receives about $23,000 per inmate on a yearly basis. What do they actually do with the money? I know we do not see it. The sanitation supplies are nonexistent and the food is getting worse every day. The medical department is pathetic and that is putting it mildly. Where does the money go and does anybody really care?." I agree completely with what my fello prisoner wrote. I love you all. Yraida

Poems by Yraida

Dear friends I wrote the following two poems and I want to share then with you all.
THE BEAUTY OF SADNESS
Enormour joy I found in my sadness
sagacious feelings sorround my kidness
the beauty of others I see thru my sadness
my arrogance is replaced by compassion and tenderness
my sorrow is full of gentleness
I hug tomorrow with zeal and graciousness

Only when I am sad
my eyes can listen, my skin can see,
my ears can touch and my soul can grow
there is no difference between sad and joy
when you know how to touch your soul.

There, in my sadness stage
is that I can comprenhend and forget
my sister's lack of care
my neighboor's addiction and dulcet
my husband's silence and even wars and rage.

When I am sad
I write with words unknown in my joy stage
I truly enjoy my sadness
because it excentuates my six sense.

THE BIG BLACK SPIDER

The sun is coming out
in front of my window glass
Good Morning Baby!, I said
and she stops her scrawing on the window glass
to make a reply with one of her arms
she is my pet and friend
the big black spider on my window glass.

She is out of her house inside the window base
looking for a bite and to say Hi!
She has grown to such a big size
looking strong and innocent at times
not too long ago she was born from an egg-bag
and she has been my pet and friend from day one.

At lunch break when she hears my voice
she comes to the spot where we talk
I tell her if I am upset, need a hug or a thanks.
I know she understands and feel what is inside my heart
because she either stays or
shapes her arm to say good-by.

When the day is over she is waiting on the window glass
she turns around and moves her feet and arms
like saying I am glad you came back
we talk for a while until I say: "Good Night".

One day I did not see her and I was thinking to end her life
because I had learned as a child that the big spiders are dangerous and wild.
But when I saw her again, I knew she was scared
and I could not kill her.
I do not comprenhend
why I am not afraid of her
I guess because it is easy to talk with her
than the human with whom I share my cell.

I moved far away, I wonder if the new guest
had taken my spider to her end.
I also wonder if time has make me humanless.
It is hard to say and difficult to understand.

I love you all. Yraida (Leo)