Warning: The content contained within this article features imagery which readers may find disturbing
Are you a “franse” or an “indota” in prison? If you are a “franse”, then you do not get any privileges in the room. I was sent to prison for crystal meth and was sentenced to six months.
Life in a Crowded Cell
There is only one shower in the room, and there are more than sixty inmates who need to use it in the morning. If you are a “franse”, you need to wake up early to use the shower. If you sleep in, the “ouens” will hit you, or you will have to clean the room and toilet for the whole week. Every newcomer must clean the floor of the room and the toilet. You have to stay clean here, which means washing your clothes every second day, especially your underwear, or you will start to itch from white lice they call “skieties”.
My second sentence
The second time I was sentenced, I knew the drill of prison. I understood what to do in the morning when the “ouens” got up to “sabella.” Then, the “franse” must go and stand in the toilet while the “ouens” do “sabella.” Every day, a different “franse” gets the chance to clean the room. You have to sweep the floors and mop them when it is your turn. If you do not want to do it, you have to be ready because the “ouens” will hit you, and you cannot complain to the wardens. When the prison doors close at night, the “ouens” have all the time to do whatever they want to you. That is why you need to respect them because this is not your mother’s house.
I do not encourage anyone to go to prison for the first time because this is not your mother’s home. They say it is a rehabilitation centre, but the drugs move around as freely as they do here in the outside world.
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This project in collaboration with RESTORE currently works with formerly incarcerated young men in the communities.
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