Here's something I bet you don't know...

When you walk in the door, you strip off everything you are wearing. There may or may not be a demoralizing body search here? You supposedly are provided what you need (the very basics) or so you think. If a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, shampoo and, a brush aren't part of the basics - who made this list?

Once changed into your white jumpsuit and canvas slip-on, they give you a roll containing five pairs of men's tube socks. Here you will also find your bedding, four rolls of toilet paper (this is your allotment per week for all paper products), a blanket (1), five pair of grandma panties, and five sports bras. You will now carry these with you until you arrive at your final destination. No pillow, that's contraband.

The following workday, you will be provided with two mens slacks, one mans belt, two mens dress shirts, and three men brown t-shirts. Again, you have a pair of canvas slip on's until you get your mens steel-toed boots, but then you must surrender the slip-ons.

You are unable to wash your body, your hair, comb it, or change into anything but men's dress clothes. There are no toiletries provided whatsoever. In the nasty bathrooms, you will find some very haggard looking blow driers and curling irons. If you are lucky, you will find a flat iron. You must shower daily - but with what?

When you enter the showers, you will see the mold and dirt everywhere. Not just on the floor. The tile on the walls is most likely staying where they haven't come out because of the mold between them. The floor is filthy, and shower shoes need to be worn to avoid fungus and other problems, but they don't provide them.

Eventually, I took over big sisters at a time when many of the ladies were sent to a new prison in Pekin. So about 75 ladies were leaving, and I was able to collect a lot of things they were not allowed to take with them.

It is alarming how little anyone cares about what you have when they take it from you. An inmate who gets transferred needs to repurchase most everything - like more mens gym shorts, mens socks, make-up, deodorant, shampoo. This comes up when the woman learn they cannot take most of what she has with her, and you have to start buying it all over again once at the new place. Each commissary charges you 15% on everything you purchase for a general fund?

The definition of contraband is possession of items where you don't have a receipt to prove you paid directly for the item. So with every donation of tennis shoes, decent boots, t-shirts, shorts, sweats, hair products, left-over shampoo, or even hair color, all are considered contraband for me. Even though I am donating it to other ladies in need, and it was all donated to me.

I was preparing goodie bags with a pair of shorts or sweats, a t-shirt, a pair of tennis shoes, toothbrush, toothpaste, shower shoes, and maybe a brush for new arrivals. At any moment, I could get a shot or go into the hole for making and providing these packages. Once the women trusted me, stuff showed up at my locker for goodie bags all the time. It became almost overwhelming, but I knew it helped.

For self surrenders, it was a lifeline to anything that made them feel normal. For the groups transferred through buses or ConAir, it gave them anything until their boxes with their limited goods arrived. It seems like when you move prisons; you get there, then your items show up about two weeks later. Of course, your possessions get checked out at every destination. You don't know what is going to make it. It is a very unsettling situation.

But for the self surrenders, it allows them to fit in a little sooner and not stand out in their bright white jumpsuit. You are assigned a bunk bed, a locker, and your bedroll, and everything you own must fit into that locker. Shoe boxes and other items you can use to organize things are godsends. All you want to do when you arrive is make your bed (which has to be made at all times anyway) and take a shower and change. You need these basics to do that, and so often, they are not available.

Did you see me mention hygiene products? No. They first arrived to be provided in the camp during the summer of 2018. So you are allotted a limited supply of Kotex, tampons, panty shields, and the like. And I mean a limited amount. The problem is some of these women have been doing drugs, and it has wreaked havoc on their bodies. They need more products than the usual person. One of my bunkies had been on her period for a year. Never mind the fact that medical wasn't doing anything, but how was she supposed to manage with a small supply of products provided once a month. This situation created some heartbreaking scenarios.

Without changing a single law, there is so much that can and needs done for women in prison.

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