TDC intake and Goree quarantine

 It is absolutely terrifying to get booked into TDC. We were taken to the Walls Unit in Huntsville, which is a men's unit.  It's all kind of a blur. One thing stands out; when they were taking my information they had all of the names i have used and asked which one i wanted to be listed under in TDC. I changed my name back to Kiser after divorcing Jim but that was a choice so I chose Cooper. I think they didn't care because I would just be known by my TDC number to them. 

From the Walls Unit we were taken to Goree. This would be the last year that Goree was a women's unit.  The feeling entering Goree has a heavy finality to it.  Six steel doors slammed and locked behind me as I was lead to quarantine.  Quarantine was a row of cells in the lowest level behind Death Row. We were taken to a room of showers,  stripped and hosed down with hot water. Then we were coated head to toe in camphor phonique to kill any parasites we might bring into the prison.  I don't know if it really works but I know that it is torture.  It burned and we had to leave it on for a week while we were locked in quarantine.  We were given white prison jump suits,  a white dress amd ugly black shower shoes but if we were wearing sandals or tennis shoes we were allowed to keep them and we were locked in individual cells.  We could talk to those near us through the front bars and some through the vents.  The second day everyone was given a small white bag of Bull Duram tobacco and if a guard was in a good mood they would give you a light.  I remember one guard was kind. She was young and had dimples like mine and she must have missed the day of training on how to treat inmates,  like we were dirty animals,  for real!, but this one not only gave me a light but even talked to me a little bit. I only remember one girl besides Donna Green from quarantine.  I don't remember he name but she was very young,  very pretty,  and the only one there on a "Shock Probation ", 6 months in the penitentiary and then Probation.  I was definitely jealous!! We all were.  There was only one woman on Dearth Row when I got to Goree and I don't remember her many at this moment but I remember that every time the lights flickered in Goree someone would say "The goes _______!" 

Day 3 I was taken to be evaluated for placement in the prison.  I was taken to a room with a long table with prison personnel seated around it including the warden and assistant warden. I was seated at one end of the table and the questioning was long and grueling,  everything about your life and then details of your criminal history. Then there was a long pause while they all spoke quietly along themselves and then the warden asked me,  "Can you type?" I said, "No, not really" and she shuffled the papers in front of her and said. "Someone like you will end up dead or in the hospital if we place you in somewhere like the Laundry or Kitchen so I'm going to ask you One More Time. CAN YOU TYPE??" I said "Yes! 60 words per minute!!" (And I would type faster than that by the time I was paroled!!) I was taken back to my quarantine cell to wait for the move.

Goree is divided into maybe 6 blocks that were named after flowers. I don't remember exactly how many there were or what they were all called, but I was taken to a block called Caladium and assigned to a 4 woman cell. When I shuffle into the common area I was immediately surrounded by the women in there who weren't at work.  They circled me and a big black woman stepped up looking me up and down and she said,  "What we gonna do w'chu?? You're not black, you're not white, you don't even have the fucking decency to be Mexican!!" I looked around at them and did what I had learned to do.  I sang. The song. They all started laughing and it broke up and I was shown to my cell where I met Fayrine Wright, my new mother.  Fayrene had got the "bitch" sentence for credit card fraud.  The Bitch in Texas is a life sentence for a third felony offense and hers was barely a felony.  $50 is the misdemeanor cut off to make credit card fraud a felony and Fayrene's 3rd offense was for about $50.50. She was appealing her sentence but for now she was serving Life.  Fay taught me everything I needed to know to survive and loaned me all of the little things like soap and shampoo and OMG coffee!! I still LOVE  the smell of Maxwell coffee!! That, Ban Roll On Deodorant, and Jergans Lotion were the only things that smelled good in Goree. 

There was a language to learn, too.  I forgot most of it.  I know that a woman who was a gay/male type was said to be "walking hard". Maybe more will come to me a I write this and maybe there is a Goree journal somewhere in my room. I know most of them have been lost,  they were all orange spiral notebooks...