Folsom Prison Blues

Hello!
I had quite the adventure yesterday! Instead of going to Santa Elena Health Clinic like I normally do, I decided to go with my friend Jamie to the local prison. For those of you who don’t know, this last semester I participated in a project where I helped educate men in Spokane’s maximum security prison about a disease called Rhabdomyolysis and how they could be prevented from getting this disease through safer, and smarter, exercise practices. We also taught them a little on how to organize their own personal routine to fit their own goals, as far as exercise went. Anyways, the men their had their uniforms, a white t-shirt with jeans, and it was very institutionalized in a sense that you knew you were in a prison. The walls were white, there was barbwire surrounding us, and huge electrically padlocked gates. Peru is COMPLETELY different.

Firstly, you knock on this little door and the guard slides back his window (much like the doorman in the Wizard of Oz) to see who you are and if you look trustworthy enough to pass. You check you bags like you would at any other prison, and get patted down by the female security guard running the desk who then puts a stamp on your arm allowing you to pass to the next checkpoint, where you get yet another stamp before you can walk through these black barred gates. You have to walk through the men’s side of the prison in order to get to the women's, and it was weird to see them just walking around in plain clothes, so no uniforms, hanging out by the gates to get from one area to another. The basketball court on the men’s side is used only for making the fabric for the women to embroider on, and it didn’t seem like it had been used in a very long time to actually play. Finally, you pass through two more gates to enter the women's yard.

There is a little concession store selling lots of junk food as you enter, which I think contributes the most to the poor dental health of the kids that live there, and then you see a court yard about as big as maybe a quarter of a soccer field filled with women working. They have to work to stay in the prison, if they choose not to embroider, make jewelry, or make the fabric they are sent out to do manual labor, so most choose to do the latter and stay within the courtyard. The women, like the men are all in plain clothes, and their children stay with them inside the prison until the age of five, at which point they are sent off to another family member and to public school. Out of 156 women in this prison only 12 are in for something other than drug trafficking, which is huge! That means that about 93% of the women in there have some kind of connection to drugs!
Well I have to go and get ready for placement today, I am headed back to Santa Elena! So, I better go get some breakfast, apparently we are have fresh strawberry, banana, pineapple juice! I love you guys and I miss you!
-Caity