Note:
The writer is outraged by the conditions, all of which have been corroborated by others. The legend of the juice alone, told time and again, is something that should warrant investigation by some of this city’s civil-libertarian types. The writer has been in the jail for more than 18 months as a pre-trial detainee–yet another outrage, but not exceptional.

Hello!

My name is ______. I am a detainee held here in this crazy place Durham County Jail! This is my first time here. I had no record or trouble. My charge is accessory after the fact of murder. But anyway I am a cool laid back black man 23 years of age. I have never seen anything so horribly wrong in my life! First off I’ve been here 18 months and I must say this place is dirty! There’s yellow stuff that looks like pee or sometimes brown feces on the walls! On top of that our plumbing system is very bad! Some toilets gargle up and bring a bad sewer smell! On top of that we have these bad gnats that fly in our rooms from the sewer drains being backed up. We have no hot water in our rooms and only our cold water button works. When asked for maintenance to fix it they call them, but the maintenance people just look at the problem then promise to come another day! On top of that we are forced to drink this so-called “Juice” that actually has a chemical in it that can cause cancer! People who worked in the kitchen (other inmates) have said the container has a skull with bones on it! It says on the warning sign that it can cause cancer! The guards here have even admitted that it’s true! But it gets worse! They play with our time to come out from lockback time. The women come out at the right time but we don’t! Then we ask ‘what’s the hold up and they claim it’s transfers of people going on. But no one comes! The guards here be beating on the inmates here! The inmates may defend their cause when right but without violence, but the c.o.’s can’t take it and start calling back up to beat the inmate! It’s been like this the whole time. There’s much more also. My friends in the church here also want to write to you. I really can’t wait to expose all these jail secrets. The food here is horrible too. We supposed to get milk but they stop us from getting it! Saying we get cheese instead but we don’t get cheese everyday neither! We eat “fake” food literally! The “burgers” are really like soy or something. We get chicken twice a year. We mostly eat beans, rice, cornbread, and mash potatoes with fake meat. All we really want is real food that other jails have! I hear our food supply comes from Aramark. Maybe you guys can research what they “claim” to “feed” us. Anyway, please write back.
Sincerely,
___________

P.S. We heard y’all protest! It rocked!