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From Orientation
for X.
III. Daily Routine - Exercise Period: In line with health goals, prisoner shall be
exercised to maintain heart, lungs, basic muscle tone, and general health. The procedures also emphasize our control
over her life and her submission to it.
Remove
breakfast items from vicinity, then remove buckles from stretcher. Remove blindfold. Order prisoner to stand. Allow prisoner her first 15 minute “free
period” for mental and physical health reasons.
(See Health Section below.)
During this period prisoner is allowed to stretch and relieve herself in
nearby toilet facility but is not allowed to leave immediate area. Prisoner commonly will spend some of this
time in some kind of Catholic prayer devotional. While the state discourages this kind of
activity, no amount of torture in the past has prevented the prisoner from
doing this, so we now allow her do so.
However, she must enter the cage (see Cage Section below), because this is the only place where she is
allowed to pray.
When her
time is up, unlock the cage and order prisoner out. March her to the exercise area. Remember to use standard prisoner transport
procedures (see General Section above).
This means blindfold and guard’s arm grips. MA will examine prisoner on arrival at
exercise area. Remove blindfold. For each exercise remove shackles from hands
and feet as necessary. MA will supervise
all exercise activities.
a) Jumping Jacks.
She must extend arms and legs to furthest possible. When she jumps to outward, feet must land as
far apart as possible. Hands must touch
at top of arm’s arc. When she jumps to
inward, feet much touch and hands must be against her sides. Exercise shall be performed at the rapid rate
prescribed by MA. Guard shall stand
behind prisoner and whip her for each failure or infraction.
b) Sit-ups.
Prisoner shall sit on ground with wrists crossed behind head. Cuff them.
She must keep hands in that position throughout the exercise. Lock prisoner’s feet in stocks. Push prisoner down to the ground to make her
lay down with knees bent and up in air.
Order her to sit up and touch elbows to knees. Prisoner finds this exercise difficult and
painful so keep it short. Remember that
these exercises are only to keep prisoner healthy and strong enough to endure
her captivity, not to get her strong enough so that she gets ideas of self
esteem.
c) Treadmill.
Prisoner shall walk until ordered to stop. MA will adjust speed from slow walk to fast
sprint. Guards will beat prisoner each
time she falls off. At conclusion of
this activity, prisoner will be winded and sweating heavily. Give prisoner towel to dry herself and water
to drink. Prisoner is not allowed to sit
or kneel down.
d) Push-ups. Prisoner must keep back and legs straight
throughout exercise. When down, nose
must touch ground; when up, arms must be fully extended with no bending elbows.
e)
Cool Down. Shackle legs
and cuff her hands behind her back.
Blindfold her. Order prisoner to
walk around the area in that condition.
Prisoner has great fear of falling due to the many times guards have
tripped her or caused her to run into things.
While the ground in this area is sandy, you should still be careful of
injuring her.
* * * *
Yesterday
we forced X to stand up. -- How odd that
after only a few weeks of working here, even I have come to think of her as
“X”! At the end of her push-ups, X is
gasping for air and hardly able to stand.
Tension on her legs and arms shows that she is aching throughout her
body.
The
Orientation Book’s description of the Exercise Period makes it sound like
something from a high school gym class.
In reality it is an opportunity for brutal torment.
“Time for
cool down,” the head guard said. While I
put the chain on her ankles, other guards held her arms behind her back and put
on the handcuffs. Then I took her
blindfold. She knew what was going to
happen next. She stood there
groaning. She begged me with her eyes to
help her, while knowing that I could not.
The expression on my face told her that.
She nodded in acceptance. I
lowered the blindfold over her head, placed it over her eyes, and adjusted the
nose guard. While doing so, I touched
her face. Her cheek was damp and hot. I resisted the urge to wipe it with a
towel. I knew what the other guards
would do.
“Does this
mean that I can lay down now and go to sleep?” she asked. “Jokester,” the head man said and zapped her
with his electric tazer in the back of her leg, behind the knee. She yelped and fell down. The guards laughed and picked her up. “Stand up!” we yelled at her as she struggled
to regain her balance. Then we walked
her.
She
staggered forward, trying to keep her balance.
Even with her blindfold on, her terror clearly showed on her face. “Ahh” came from her mouth, quite
involuntarily. It wasn’t quite a scream
but more than a moan, more like a continual wail. One guard lashed her with a leather strap on
her back. “Quiet!” he demanded. “Glup, Glup,” she wailed as she her conscious
mind tried to stop making noise while her fear insisted on continuing. More beating was unable to resolve the
struggle and in the end the struggle of mind versus fear was a draw. Her body collapsed onto the ground.
“Let’s give
her the ‘Run Around’”, the head guard said.
The other guards grinned. One
picked her up. She is small, so it
wasn’t much effort. We formed a
circle. He pushed her to me. Blind, hobbled, and exhausted, she went
forward but immediately started to fall.
I caught her before she could do so.
With my two hands around her torso, I spun her around and pushed her to
the next man. He then did the same. We threw her in random directions. She was continually falling. Even if she had been fresh, she would still
have been unable to regain her balance because she was always caught, spun, and
then pushed/thrown before she could do anything.
Between the
challenge of catching her, spinning her round and round, and groping her body I
actually had fun despite myself. And I
could not find any opportunity in the daily routine so far for the murder.
* * * *
From Orientation
for X.
III. Daily Routine - Exercise Period: At conclusion of exercise period, take
prisoner back to the cage. MA to examine
her.
The Cage:
This is the holding pen for the prisoner while punishments and other
activities are being prepared. It’s
dimensions are 6 feet long, 4 feet wide, and 5 ½ feet high. This means that the prisoner is able to lay
down with 10 inches to spare and stand with 3 inches to spare. It hangs from a cable; it’s floor is 6 inches
off the ground. Space between bars is 3
inches. Inside is a chamber pot for
prisoner’s toilet needs.
Before
placing prisoner in cage MA will perform medical examination. Make prisoner drink water to ensure that she
is fully hydrated. Unless prisoner is
being rewarded, her hands and feet must be shackled while inside cage. If prisoner’s hands are behind back, move
them to front.
Open door
of cage and order prisoner to walk into it.
Then close and lock the door.
Cage is located in nook of prison grounds where walls limit prisoner’s
visibility to immediate area. Once in
cage, guards should not speak. Should
prisoner’s emotional distress become extreme, summon MA.
Also inside
the cage are a Bible and a small plastic rosary (a Catholic prayer
gadget). These are included for the
prisoner’s mental health. These are the
only personal items that the prisoner is allowed to have. She is only allowed to have them inside the
cage.
Prisoner
receives lunch and dinner in the cage.
Watch closely to make sure all food is eaten and water drunk.
* * * *
I like my
cage. This surprises me. The guards usually leave me alone while I am
in my cage. Sometimes they poke me with
sticks through the bars but since things are worse everywhere else, I accept
this.
The bars
define a space. It’s kind of my space,
the space behind the bars. Nobody else
goes behind the bars but me. In my space
is a bowl. This is my toilet. Sometimes they put water and food in my
space. And finally in my space are my
things. There is a rosary and there is a
Bible. They weren’t my things before my
arrest. But they are now.
When they
poke me with sticks, those sticks are invaders, aliens from another space, aliens
from outside. The sticks hurt, the alien
sticks, the invaders from the outside into my space.
My
things. My space. There’s still a piece of the world that is
mine. My space. My things.
My body. My soul.
I pray the
rosary. The touch of the beads reminds
me of my existence. I can pray without
the beads but the touch of them makes me remember that they’re my beads. My things in my space.
When my
eyes are blinded, and my ears are plugged, and my hands tied so long that they
grow numb, I remember the feel of the beads and the sight of the Bible. And I’m reminded that there’s a God, my
God. That invisible book where my
thoughts send these invisible words may not be real but I know God is. Everybody has a friend in Jesus and that
includes me, too. I’m still a person.
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