Interview w/ ‘Magdelena’ after getting out of DCDF, 5/29

“Oh, yeah, we knew about the protests. People in the women’s pod–if they could see what was going on–were very happy that people were out here protesting. You’re in there and you’re suffering and feeling terrible and bored and angry and all of a sudden there’s people out there holding signs and making noise and it’s for you? What’s not to like? Those who were in a single cell and couldn’t see were saying through the walls: ‘What’s going on? What’s happening out there?’ But we could see it, and it made us feel good.

…The lockback is just awful. I mean, they have a lot of people coming into the jail with a lot of anxiety, more and more all the time. These are people who are really stressed out and anxious when they’re out here. And then you’re in there and they have you looking at the same walls, the same four white walls, for hours upon hours at a time, it causes you to get more anxious, to get crazy or more crazy.

There is nothing they can say that it’s for or that it’s good for. They’re saying it’s for safety–hell no. It’s not about safety at all. It’s for keeping total control, for making people zombies. There ain’t nothing good that can come out of this lockback and a whole lot of bad…”