About to surrender to FCI Morgantown any info will be helpfull.... [Archive]

Dag071

09-20-2006, 08:48 PM

Hi,
This is my first post here, I stumbled across the website by following a few links, I think I'll stay a while!
Anyhow, I served time at FCI Morgantown. From 1998 to 2000. This was my first and last prison experience. I'll share with you what I remember, but keep in mind that things do change within the penal system.
I actually grew up in Morgantown, but I caught my case while living in South Carolina. I requested to be near my family and friends and I was granted a self surrender to FCI Morgantown. Growing up, I had driven past what we knew as the Kennedy Center (later to be renamed FCI Morgantown) hundreds of times. From the street out front you would never believe how big this complex actually is. Its down in a heavley treed valley so you can't really see much except the visiting center, which if I remember correctly is also the A&O facility.
Out front there is a gaurd booth, just off the main road. My mother and sister drooped me off, I had just turned 25. From the guard booth I was greeted by a stockey and cocky C.O. He latered turned out to be pretty cool (if C.O's can actually be). Within a year he was fired..thats a whole different story. Sooooo, I was initially checked for contraband and led down to a locker room in the A&O facility. Once there, I was strip searched and given a green one piece jumpsuit and some slippers. I wore the same jumpsuit over the weekend until I could be fiitted for prison kackies at the laundry Monday morning. Once I was processed I was introduced to an inmate who was responsible for showing me around. We walked down a steep set of stairs into the valley where he showed me the differnet units. From what I remember there was the Bates Unit (this is where the RDAP inmates live) and the Alexander Unit. There were three or 4 other units but their names escape me as I never lived in any other that the two mentioned above. Each housing unit hold several hundred inmates and they are split into "wings". Each wing is like a large gym with rows of bunk beds seperated by a six foot high cinder block wall. The bunks are pushed up against the cinderblocks and the top bed is about 1 foot lower than the wall. From the top bunk you can look out over the wing and see every cubicle. There are no doors on the cubes and there is no privacy whatsoever. Each cube is fitted with two 3 foot higher lockers, you'll have to buy your own lock...its highly recommended. There is also a desk with an attached chair that folds in and out. Right outside of the cubes, you can find the TV rooms. Each TV room is fitted with stadium style bleachers and can accomdate about 40 inmates. I think there are 3 or 4 TV rooms to each Unit.
All paths from the units lead to the cafeterea. Each unit is called to chow in a pre-determined order. This weekly order is established every Thurday based upon who has the cleanest unit. The guards litterly come into the wings and then the cubes and check for tidyness. Its pretty competitive as each unit wants to go first to chow. In hindsight I really dont know why this mattered much we were all going to eat and end up doing the same thing aferward. Wait, now I remember why it mattered so much: There is a movie theater at FCI Morgantown. Every week night there is a different PG to PG13 movie playing and those who get out of chow first get the best seats. I avoided the theater with the exception of 2 or 3 times, one of those times Ferris Bueler's Day Off was playing.
Most of the time after dinner I would go to the ball field and run laps or go down to the weight pit and use the outdated free weights. Its possible that these weights are no longer there as the feds has policy of not replacing broken equipment.
A typical day: Wake up about 6am and scurry down to chow (there is no unit order during weekday breakfast). Breakfast was either oatmeal. grits, cornflakes, milk and once a week eggs. Needless to say, more than a few opted to eat from their locker (commissary food).
i was fortunate enough to land a job (everyone works...if thats what they call it) at the laundry. At my job we operated industrial size washers and dryers. There are too many employees at each job so you will sit around doing nothing most of the day. Some C.O.'s will let you bring a book to work...this turns out to be a small luxury. Laundry detail ends right after lunch. From there, time is free to do pretty much whatever until the 4 pm stand up count. Everyone must be in their cube for this count. afterwards, the units are called in order to chow.
After chow, free time. There is a library with alot of books, also a rec room with pool tables and ping pong. At 9pm everyone back to the Units and at 10pm another count. Free time again until midnight. Repeat until finished.
There was not a fence at the time of my incarceration and some inmates took advantage of this. ALOT were caught and it is my recommendation to stay in bounds or else you'll be shipped to a higher security prison...no qustions asked.
All in all, it was not that bad. The worse part was the noise. There is absolutly no privacy and people are very rude at night when others are trying to sleep. Here's a little jail house trick: Cut out 2 corners of a garbage bag. Ball up some wet tissue and place in the corner baggie. Twist tie them shut and place in ears...wallah you now have a set of jail house ear plugs.
Its getting late, so I'm gonna run. Feel free to fire off more questions.
Good luck, 071