EXCLUSIVE: “You can’t use the bathroom without it being out in the open in a lot of places, it’s just stuff you deal with that should never be normalised that becomes part of your normal day”, says ex-inmate Ian Eastman
Ian Eastman spoke to the Daily Star about life inside
Life in jail is brutal, with rampant hunger, public poos and screws looking up your derrière, a convicted felon has said.
Kentucky man and recovering drug addict Ian Eastman spent around three years in and out of county jails in the US after committing petty crime to pay for his habit, and has experienced a wide range of what the system has to offer. Dad Ian also said that finding a routine is key to passing the time, but lamented the horrific things you have to get used to inside that people ‘should never have to normalise.’
“When you first get in, if you’re arrested from the street, or you turn yourself in, or even if you’re on work release, they will make you strip down,” he said. “You know, they look inside of you they make you squat and cough, it’s not ok. It’s not an ok feeling, the things they make you go through”.
Privacy is one of the key changes in life inside (stock)
His longest stretch was eight months, and was clear that a good routine is the key to making it through. “To pass the time the quicker you get a routine [the better]. You get a lot of sayings in jail,” he said. “You only do your first day and your last day, you don’t think about the ones in between.
“You get a routine and you just stick to that routine. Personally I would just get up, I’d exercise, I’d read – you know I’d put down a book a day in there depending if the library was decent enough to have books in it – and then walk. I’d try to exhaust myself so I could pass out and get to the next one.”
When it comes to how well inmates are treated, he said it can depend on different factors from the wealth of the county, to the human being wearing uniforms around them.
Ian explained that often you’d run into the same faces in jail, and would make friends (stock)
“How I was treated, it depends on the different counties,” Ian explained. “There’s one [jail] here, it’s known they’re just broke so they’d do things like short change the food portions so you feel like you’re starving in there because each prisoner is allotted a certain amount of money for food – well if they shortchange some of the portions they’ve made some of the money they’ve lost back, ‘cause who’s going to care? [You’re] just people in jail. That’s not every jail but things like that do occur quite often unfortunately.”
He continued: “In the county jails it’s very different from what I’m told [it’s like] in prison and it really depends on the county. Guards are just people – some people suck and some don’t.
“As far as getting along with other inmates, it was easy for me because – even if I don’t want them to – people always come up and want to tell me their problems. If you go enough times you start to run into [people], you essentially makes friends in there. It’s a weird experience thinking back on it. It’s been eight years since I’ve been in jail. It’s not a great place honestly.”
Many of the counties are broke (stock)
But for Ian, some of the greatest horrors involve invasions of privacy, and the speed in which your brain gets used to them.
He added: “You can’t use the bathroom without it being out in the open in a lot of places, it’s just stuff you deal with that should never be normalised that becomes part of your normal day. If you’ve got to use the restroom – one or two – it’s going to be out in the open. At best you’re going to have a little concrete wall barrier.
“You’re always on camera. You’re told when you go to bed, you’re told when to eat, when to go outside. You have to ask permission to do just [about] anything really. You know you don’t get to wake up when you want to and if you don’t want to eat you have to eat otherwise they’ll put you on a list and you’re monitored. If you don’t eat for a certain number of days they can say something’s wrong with you and they can throw you in what’s called a turtle suit, which is essentially to prevent self harm and you go into an isolation area.
Ian said you’d often be left starving (stock)
“If you get in an argument or a fight you go to the hole, which is complete segregation, you’re completely by yourself. And if you do have a bad guard that is messing with you, you can’t stand up for yourself because that is one of the biggest charges there is, it’s essentially like assaulting a police officer, if you do anything to a corrections officer, no matter what they’ve done to you.”