Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Please print my letter in the Time on the Line newspaper.

Not What I Thought.

This is my first period of incarceration and hopeful by the time that this edition of the paper goes to press, I will be released. But to look back there are some memorable experiences that I will carry with me and to some degree treasure. There are some others, which I will leave within the confines of these walls.

To look back at my first introduction to the "St. Johns lock-up," and "Her Majesty's Penitentiary," I can still remember the uncertainty that prevailed within my mind. But my feelings of doubt quickly subsided for my perceptions of prison life were rather false and negative, the barbarians were gone and John Wayne's movies were exactly that.

I was first sent to the penitentiary in St. Johns as a remand inmate awaiting trial and sentencing. Although, it may have a cold look from its outside walls, I found its housing units very clean and accommodating. It is not home but it is far from the gloomy picture of a brick wall, iron bars, and a bucket in the corner. Staff are extremely helpful, rooms are kept in a respectable nature and the recreational unit has a t.v., phone, showers and mini kitchen. Inmates are provided with a movie at night for their recreational enjoyment.

After being sentenced to seven months of incarceration, I was informed by Classification that I was a candidate for the "Salmonier Correctional Institution." If I was asked to depict Salmonier without making reference to prison, I would refer to it as a work farm with a living quarters for its hired hands. Salmonier is a minimum security division and in order to serve your incarceration period there you must be willing to work, be cooperative and be a well-disciplined inmate.

Salmonier, has many benefits ranging from freedom to education to therapy. lnmates at Salmonier are not locked in their rooms but do have certain rules to which they must conform. Outdoor activity is very prevalent and it is an environment which allows an inmate the space to work, live and relax in the beautiful outdoors.

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