danielle
12-21-2002, 09:22 AM
This is the story of when my uncle Horace was extradited from Montana to Mississippi after an escape. After his unexpected death, his daughter gave me copies of all of his prison writings. This was among them and I still have a hard time reading it.
**********
MY JOURNEY IN CHAINS
I was an escaped convict living a peaceful life causing no one any harm. I worked daily making an honest living for myself and the woman I lived with until one day she became angry and reported me to the authorities. I was arrested and put back in jail. Here I was kept in confinement for three months. Then the state from which I had escaped eight months previously came for me.
As the other men in jail watched in "disbelief" how I was chained up. As I looked into their sad eyes I think I felt more sadness for them than I did for myself. I had a long journey ahead of me back to Mississippi. With a chain around my belly then hand-cuffed to It so I couldn't lift my hands. Then I was put in leg chains so I could only make short steps like an old man who can hardly walk. The deputy sheriff and the officer who came for me put me in the back seat of the patrol car to take us to the airport some 60 miles away from this small town in Montana. As I looked back there stood the other men at the windows with the sadist look on their faces I believe I ever saw, yet they were waving bye to me.
On the way to the airport at Missoula, Montana. The local deputy ask the other officer would I be treated okay and given plenty of food on the trip. The officer assured him I would be given three good meals a day! The deputy even gave me some of his money and told this officer he wanted to be sure I had enough to eat!
As we entered the airport, I was taken inside. There the security officer wanted to know if he should lock me up until time for the plane to leave. But they said no since it would only be a short time before the plane would arrive. As I hobbled over to a chair to sit down the people would stare at me like I was some "freak", yet I suppose I did look out of place there, with all those chains and locks on me.
As we boarded the plane we were taken to the back of the plane to be seated. As we were airborne I looked down into the darkness of the mountains and thought to myself how long will it be before I can come back home to my kids and grandkids?
As we arrived at Portland, Oregon, the officer took me outside the terminal to a waiting prison bus. There was two more officers there, and they greeted me with more chains!! I was chained to another man with a three foot chain and another padlock! I was so weighted down with chains I could hardly move, but this is what they wanted anyway. The bus was equipped with a toilet in the back. Up front there was a heavy wire screen with a door which had a padlock on it, this separated us from the officers. All the windows were locked and had the heavy wire screen over them plus iron bars. There was no heat or air conditioning on it either. The officers had two bunks built in up front so they could sleep when they wanted to. They also had a refrigerator and a microwave oven up there too, so they could cook and make coffee.
There I started the most miserable six days and nights of my life! Chained to another man sitting up for one hundred and forty four hours, with very little food and almost no water during this six days and nights.
There was ten of us on the bus as we left Portland. We traveled south toward California, we traveled south toward California stopping at different jails along the way to pick up prisoners and drop off some. The bus would hold a maximum of thirty six prisoners. Sometimes it would be almost full and then it would be down to ten or twelve. As we traveled on I would see a lot of country that I was familiar with since I had traveled a lot in the past. Me being a truck driver by trade I was used to riding a lot but not in this condition. The next morning we entered California zigzagging back and forth across the state from one town to another. We hadn't had any food or water all night. But they finally stopped to buy our breakfast. I thought "Oh Man" we are gonna get something to eat. But when the two officers came back I was more than disappointed! They came down the isle of the bus giving us two of those small doughnuts like you buy out of the grocery store in a bag, the ones with the white powdered sugar on them! About the size of a half dollar coin. Also they gave us a small Styrofoam cup of coffee, little did I know that this cup of coffee and one more would be all that I would get for the remainder of this miserable journey in chains.
"The Florida Prisoner Transport Service" has some of the most cruel officers I have ever met. These officers would eat and drink in front of us and then laugh or cuss us if we asked for anything. For lunch and supper they would wait until they could find a Me Donald's hamburger place. Then they would buy us one small hamburger and give us a small cup of water, that sat on the floor of the bus in a plastic milk jug so you can imagine how hot it was. By the next day I thought to myself can I ever complete this miserable journey in these chains? By this time my ankles were raw, my belly was sore and my wrist were raw every little movement would hurt. My handcuffs were fastened to the chain around my belly so tight that when I did get something to eat or drink I would have to bend my head forward as far as I could then pull up on my chains hard, then I could barely get my food and water into my mouth. My shoulders were hurting because I had sat in this position so long. We weren't allowed to get up and move around except to go to the toilet in the back of the bus. Then your partner had to go with you and stand in the door while you
used the toilet.
As we entered San Francisco, it was night. The lights of the city were beautiful to look at. As we were crossing the San Francisco Bay Bridge. This helped to relieve a little of the tension and pain that we had. We stopped at the city jail one prisoner was taken off there and another one picked up, A Filipino woman. She was chained to a man like anyone else! There was also a man and his wife on the bus. When I got on at Portland they were chained together too. To the officers in charge of the bus this made no
difference to them that the women had to go to the toilet with whom they were chained to.
As we continued our trip farther into California it got hotter and hotter even though this was in November. When we went into Los Angeles to exchange some prisoners there, I witnessed some very cruel treatment to a man there. The bus was driven inside a compound much like any prison, high chain link fences with razor wire on top of them. As we sat there waiting for the exchange to be done, the cops were bringing men in off the streets of the city. As they were booking this one man they began to beat him with their night sticks. He would beg them to stop but they continued to beat him until he could no longer move. This poor man was so bloody he looked like a butchered animal! Then the cops picked him up and bodily threw him into a van and drove away with him. As I sat there on that bus hurting, hungry, thirsty, and tired. I thought about that man they had beaten so badly and the way we were being treated, and said out loud "This is America The Land Of The Free" where the cops can kill you whenever they want to and nothing is ever done about it.
After we left Los Angeles we headed for Las Vegas, Nevada. It must have been at least a 120 degrees as we crossed the Mohave desert. By this time the bus stank so bad you could hardly breathe. The toilet had filled up and ran over on the floor! The floor was covered with trash from where we had eaten our hamburgers. We ask the officers to clean it out and dump the toilet. But instead they stopped and bought a fan to keep them cool. They even turned the fan so it would blow all the stink back on us. By this time I was so sore from all the chains I just didn't give a "damned". As we continued on the heat became more unbearable. The sweat would run down into my eyes and burn them. I couldn't wipe it out. All the raw places on me from the chains hurt and burned. My mouth and throat was so dry I couldn't swallow. At this point I was definitely ready to try for another escape! I began to work loose the little piece on the zipper of the fly on my pants. The man I was chained to ask me what I was doing. I told him if I could get this damned thing loose and make it work for a key to the handcuffs I was gonna take out them guards when they opened that door again! He almost panicked. He said, "Please don't do that, they will kill us!" I ask him what's the difference we are gonna die anyway, the way these damned guards are doing us. He said "I won't run with you!" I said okay, but if I can get these irons off my hands you better be ready to run or die! Because I'm leaving this damned bus if I can get them off.
I finally got that little piece of metal loose! As I would bend it trying to make a key he would beg me to stop. I kept on until my fingers were raw and bleeding. At this point I had to stop because the Nevada state troopers were alongside of us with the blue lights flashing. The bus pulled over and stopped. Then these two state police walked up to the door and began to question the officers of the bus. When they found out it was transporting prisoners one of them came inside. When he looked at the way we were chained up in there and the smell of it, he held his nose. This trooper ask the"guard, what in the hell he thought he was doing He told these guards that he wouldn't treat animals like that. After they talked a few minutes the troopers told them to make their stop at Las Vegas and then to get out of the state of Nevada and not to come back again. When we got into town we sat there in the boiling sun for two and one half hours. When the two officers came back to the bus they talked in low voices. Then one of them said lets get out of here.
While sitting there in the hot sun my mouth and throat was so dry I couldn't hardly swallow. My mind was on those cold cokes and water up front in that refrigerator. I thought to myself, now I know how the people who crossed this desert in the old days felt! Going for days without food and water in this terrible heat. How many times I wished I was back in Montana where there was plenty of cold-cold water. When we left up there it had already snowed and the weather was nice and cool. But here we sat near the hottest
place in this country "Death Valley". How many people must have died of thirst and hunger in this desert in the past. I would ask myself, how much longer will these inhuman office make us wait for a small cup of water? Finally we began to move again. This time toward the "Hoover Dam" oh they, the officers had to do their sightseeing as we traveled along.
By the time we entered Flagstaff, Arizona, it was late at night and cold. The roads were icy and dangerous. There had been a light snow and as it melted it froze on the road All our personal things were in the storage compartment of the bus. We ask these great law abiding citizens that were in charge of the bus to stop so we could get our coat to keep warm since there was no heat on the bus. They stopped and bought them a small heater to keep warm by plus they put on their coats but "refused" to let us have ours.
By this time I just plain didn't give a damned if we all froze to death. The ice had got thick on the inside of the windows too. So here we were from one extreme to another.
First the "Heat" then the "Cold". We even begged them to stop and put us in a jail for the night so we could wash up and get some sleep. But again we were cursed and told to keep quiet. Everyone was so tired and sore by this time there was nothing else we could do. As tired as I was I couldn't help but feel sorry for the man and his wife chained together. She was a big "FAT" woman and he a small man. This woman being so fat and like the rest of us she couldn't take a bath. Well, when they would shuffle down the isle of
that bus and pass by me I would almost "heave" she smelled so bad. That poor man had a better stomach than I did. As we continued along the icy roads that night I actually wished the driver of the bus would lose control of it and we would crash into something. That way we would be taken to a jail someplace then we could get warm, wash and eat. But that was only wishful thinking. So our journey in chains continued into southern Arizona through New Mexico.
As we entered El Paso Texas I was at it again! Trying to get them damned handcuffs off. As I looked at the Rio Grand River I knew if I had them chains off I would cross that river and never return again to these cruel people! This so-called land of the free with all it's justice. Across the great state of Texas we came a tired, thirsty, hungry, and dirty bunch of prisoners treated worse than a bunch of dogs. By this time I didn't care anymore. I hurt so much my shoulders felt like they would fall off. I thought I would be glad to get back to prison at least I would get out of all these chains, so I thought.
When we got to Denim Springs, Louisiana we were met there by the Highway patrol and the local sheriff to exchange prisoners right on the highway. Then when we entered Mississippi, we were greeted again by the highway patrol but this time they took me and two more men off the bus. There on the side of the road. This was at night. So I thought to myself, this is where I get the hell beat out of me for the escape I had pulled almost a year ago. But they didn't. Instead they secured my chains even tighter. But I didn't feel the pain so much by now. Then they shoved me back on the bus. When I shuffled back down the isle of the bus the other prisoners said how could they treat you any worse after this trip? Now the leg irons and bracelets I was wearing had my ankles and wrist bleeding! I just said let the s.o.b.'s have their fun. Remember this America, where people are free and the law is just and merciful isn't it? Anyway we moved on into Alabama. Now I began to think they were taking me to a federal prison in Florida. Even
the other prisoners thought this. Some began to say man these people are going to kill you. But they didn't. When we got to a little town in South Alabama I was transferred to a van then came back into Mississippi, and headed North to "Parchman" the state prison. When we finally got there and entered the gates, I said, " Well if I'm not killed within the next few hours I have a chance!" We were then taken to receiving. Immediately there we changed clothes. The man in charge remembered me. He said, "You escaped didn't You?" I said yes. He asked me where I was caught and the whole nine yards and so on.
When I took off my clothes, he said my God how long have you been in those chains. So I told him. As he walked round me surveying my leg, waist, and wrist , he said that's cruel. When he asked me to lift my arms above my head I couldn't! They had been chained down to long. So he said that's okay! Just try to work them some. As I did little by little they began to move After we were finished there we were to taken into the cages where we were to sleep, assigned a bunk then into the showers. And believe me I didn't get in no rush to finish that shower. After that we were taken to the chow hall to eat. By this time I would have eaten out of the garbage cans! The next morning I even eat yellow grits. I was still hungry. By now I had began to feel better and thought I would survive.
I began to ask questions about where I would be housed at. But got no answer. So I thought what the hell do I care at least I can move around and I'm not chained up any more. After two weeks there I began to wonder what they were up to. All the others had been moved out and new ones brought in. But then I was called to move out. When I asked where to? What camp? I got no answers! This had me worried, because when you leave there they tell you what camp you are assigned to. Well I found out when they came for me. "Lockdown" at U/29-A that's maximum security! Only one place was harder than this, and that's “Death Row". So here I was in a 6' x 9' cell, a bunk, toilet and washbasin in it. So you can imagine how much room I had left to walk in. I had 15 minutes a day out of that cell to shower and shave! My food such as it was. Was pushed under the door three times a day. So here I was in the hole for how long I didn't know. While in this confinement I lost a lot of weight. It was pure hell in there , with no one to talk to or nothing to do but read what books I could get, and that I had to do while I was out for the 15 minutes a day. Yes I finally made it for 7 1/2 months without going crazy. Which I can't say for some of the men that was there! I have been awakened at night with someone screaming. They just couldn't handle the confinement. Then they would be taken away to the state hospital for the crazy. One man cut his wrist twice before they finally took him away! I felt sorry for this man. A big tough man he was! But not when he left. They didn't need the chains for him anymore, because he was like a little child when he was taken away.
One day the sergeant, a big black man came and opened that steel door to my cell and ask me this question. I was the oldest man in this confinement, so most of them called me
"pop" anyway . He said, "Pop how can you be so calm and handle this confinement the way you do? When so many of the younger men have to be taken away to the state hospital crazy as hell." Well I just looked at him for a moment! Then I said, "I keep my mind busy, I read what books I can get, I write letters to people, and I have a lot to do when I get out of this prison. So I keep my mind busy." My main problem was that I would get so weak I could hardly walk because of lack of exercise.
Now I work 12 hours a day and keep busy and hope one day to be free again before my grandchildren grow up, so that I can spend some time with them while they are young. Since I have been here I have another grandson! I haven't seen him yet but I hope to soon. I have learned one thing,"through my journey in chains". People in general just don't give a damned about you once you have been put in prison! They don't care if you have changed or not! You will always be a "convict" to them. Even your friends and relatives seem to forget about you and who you are. There is much, much more I would like to write about, but my writing is limited. Just maybe one day someone will "care" and help me to put a book together!
This is true a 144 hours in chains from Montana, to Mississippi. Then 7 1/2 months in a 6'x 9' cell.
by Horace Hubbard
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MY JOURNEY IN CHAINS
I was an escaped convict living a peaceful life causing no one any harm. I worked daily making an honest living for myself and the woman I lived with until one day she became angry and reported me to the authorities. I was arrested and put back in jail. Here I was kept in confinement for three months. Then the state from which I had escaped eight months previously came for me.
As the other men in jail watched in "disbelief" how I was chained up. As I looked into their sad eyes I think I felt more sadness for them than I did for myself. I had a long journey ahead of me back to Mississippi. With a chain around my belly then hand-cuffed to It so I couldn't lift my hands. Then I was put in leg chains so I could only make short steps like an old man who can hardly walk. The deputy sheriff and the officer who came for me put me in the back seat of the patrol car to take us to the airport some 60 miles away from this small town in Montana. As I looked back there stood the other men at the windows with the sadist look on their faces I believe I ever saw, yet they were waving bye to me.
On the way to the airport at Missoula, Montana. The local deputy ask the other officer would I be treated okay and given plenty of food on the trip. The officer assured him I would be given three good meals a day! The deputy even gave me some of his money and told this officer he wanted to be sure I had enough to eat!
As we entered the airport, I was taken inside. There the security officer wanted to know if he should lock me up until time for the plane to leave. But they said no since it would only be a short time before the plane would arrive. As I hobbled over to a chair to sit down the people would stare at me like I was some "freak", yet I suppose I did look out of place there, with all those chains and locks on me.
As we boarded the plane we were taken to the back of the plane to be seated. As we were airborne I looked down into the darkness of the mountains and thought to myself how long will it be before I can come back home to my kids and grandkids?
As we arrived at Portland, Oregon, the officer took me outside the terminal to a waiting prison bus. There was two more officers there, and they greeted me with more chains!! I was chained to another man with a three foot chain and another padlock! I was so weighted down with chains I could hardly move, but this is what they wanted anyway. The bus was equipped with a toilet in the back. Up front there was a heavy wire screen with a door which had a padlock on it, this separated us from the officers. All the windows were locked and had the heavy wire screen over them plus iron bars. There was no heat or air conditioning on it either. The officers had two bunks built in up front so they could sleep when they wanted to. They also had a refrigerator and a microwave oven up there too, so they could cook and make coffee.
There I started the most miserable six days and nights of my life! Chained to another man sitting up for one hundred and forty four hours, with very little food and almost no water during this six days and nights.
There was ten of us on the bus as we left Portland. We traveled south toward California, we traveled south toward California stopping at different jails along the way to pick up prisoners and drop off some. The bus would hold a maximum of thirty six prisoners. Sometimes it would be almost full and then it would be down to ten or twelve. As we traveled on I would see a lot of country that I was familiar with since I had traveled a lot in the past. Me being a truck driver by trade I was used to riding a lot but not in this condition. The next morning we entered California zigzagging back and forth across the state from one town to another. We hadn't had any food or water all night. But they finally stopped to buy our breakfast. I thought "Oh Man" we are gonna get something to eat. But when the two officers came back I was more than disappointed! They came down the isle of the bus giving us two of those small doughnuts like you buy out of the grocery store in a bag, the ones with the white powdered sugar on them! About the size of a half dollar coin. Also they gave us a small Styrofoam cup of coffee, little did I know that this cup of coffee and one more would be all that I would get for the remainder of this miserable journey in chains.
"The Florida Prisoner Transport Service" has some of the most cruel officers I have ever met. These officers would eat and drink in front of us and then laugh or cuss us if we asked for anything. For lunch and supper they would wait until they could find a Me Donald's hamburger place. Then they would buy us one small hamburger and give us a small cup of water, that sat on the floor of the bus in a plastic milk jug so you can imagine how hot it was. By the next day I thought to myself can I ever complete this miserable journey in these chains? By this time my ankles were raw, my belly was sore and my wrist were raw every little movement would hurt. My handcuffs were fastened to the chain around my belly so tight that when I did get something to eat or drink I would have to bend my head forward as far as I could then pull up on my chains hard, then I could barely get my food and water into my mouth. My shoulders were hurting because I had sat in this position so long. We weren't allowed to get up and move around except to go to the toilet in the back of the bus. Then your partner had to go with you and stand in the door while you
used the toilet.
As we entered San Francisco, it was night. The lights of the city were beautiful to look at. As we were crossing the San Francisco Bay Bridge. This helped to relieve a little of the tension and pain that we had. We stopped at the city jail one prisoner was taken off there and another one picked up, A Filipino woman. She was chained to a man like anyone else! There was also a man and his wife on the bus. When I got on at Portland they were chained together too. To the officers in charge of the bus this made no
difference to them that the women had to go to the toilet with whom they were chained to.
As we continued our trip farther into California it got hotter and hotter even though this was in November. When we went into Los Angeles to exchange some prisoners there, I witnessed some very cruel treatment to a man there. The bus was driven inside a compound much like any prison, high chain link fences with razor wire on top of them. As we sat there waiting for the exchange to be done, the cops were bringing men in off the streets of the city. As they were booking this one man they began to beat him with their night sticks. He would beg them to stop but they continued to beat him until he could no longer move. This poor man was so bloody he looked like a butchered animal! Then the cops picked him up and bodily threw him into a van and drove away with him. As I sat there on that bus hurting, hungry, thirsty, and tired. I thought about that man they had beaten so badly and the way we were being treated, and said out loud "This is America The Land Of The Free" where the cops can kill you whenever they want to and nothing is ever done about it.
After we left Los Angeles we headed for Las Vegas, Nevada. It must have been at least a 120 degrees as we crossed the Mohave desert. By this time the bus stank so bad you could hardly breathe. The toilet had filled up and ran over on the floor! The floor was covered with trash from where we had eaten our hamburgers. We ask the officers to clean it out and dump the toilet. But instead they stopped and bought a fan to keep them cool. They even turned the fan so it would blow all the stink back on us. By this time I was so sore from all the chains I just didn't give a "damned". As we continued on the heat became more unbearable. The sweat would run down into my eyes and burn them. I couldn't wipe it out. All the raw places on me from the chains hurt and burned. My mouth and throat was so dry I couldn't swallow. At this point I was definitely ready to try for another escape! I began to work loose the little piece on the zipper of the fly on my pants. The man I was chained to ask me what I was doing. I told him if I could get this damned thing loose and make it work for a key to the handcuffs I was gonna take out them guards when they opened that door again! He almost panicked. He said, "Please don't do that, they will kill us!" I ask him what's the difference we are gonna die anyway, the way these damned guards are doing us. He said "I won't run with you!" I said okay, but if I can get these irons off my hands you better be ready to run or die! Because I'm leaving this damned bus if I can get them off.
I finally got that little piece of metal loose! As I would bend it trying to make a key he would beg me to stop. I kept on until my fingers were raw and bleeding. At this point I had to stop because the Nevada state troopers were alongside of us with the blue lights flashing. The bus pulled over and stopped. Then these two state police walked up to the door and began to question the officers of the bus. When they found out it was transporting prisoners one of them came inside. When he looked at the way we were chained up in there and the smell of it, he held his nose. This trooper ask the"guard, what in the hell he thought he was doing He told these guards that he wouldn't treat animals like that. After they talked a few minutes the troopers told them to make their stop at Las Vegas and then to get out of the state of Nevada and not to come back again. When we got into town we sat there in the boiling sun for two and one half hours. When the two officers came back to the bus they talked in low voices. Then one of them said lets get out of here.
While sitting there in the hot sun my mouth and throat was so dry I couldn't hardly swallow. My mind was on those cold cokes and water up front in that refrigerator. I thought to myself, now I know how the people who crossed this desert in the old days felt! Going for days without food and water in this terrible heat. How many times I wished I was back in Montana where there was plenty of cold-cold water. When we left up there it had already snowed and the weather was nice and cool. But here we sat near the hottest
place in this country "Death Valley". How many people must have died of thirst and hunger in this desert in the past. I would ask myself, how much longer will these inhuman office make us wait for a small cup of water? Finally we began to move again. This time toward the "Hoover Dam" oh they, the officers had to do their sightseeing as we traveled along.
By the time we entered Flagstaff, Arizona, it was late at night and cold. The roads were icy and dangerous. There had been a light snow and as it melted it froze on the road All our personal things were in the storage compartment of the bus. We ask these great law abiding citizens that were in charge of the bus to stop so we could get our coat to keep warm since there was no heat on the bus. They stopped and bought them a small heater to keep warm by plus they put on their coats but "refused" to let us have ours.
By this time I just plain didn't give a damned if we all froze to death. The ice had got thick on the inside of the windows too. So here we were from one extreme to another.
First the "Heat" then the "Cold". We even begged them to stop and put us in a jail for the night so we could wash up and get some sleep. But again we were cursed and told to keep quiet. Everyone was so tired and sore by this time there was nothing else we could do. As tired as I was I couldn't help but feel sorry for the man and his wife chained together. She was a big "FAT" woman and he a small man. This woman being so fat and like the rest of us she couldn't take a bath. Well, when they would shuffle down the isle of
that bus and pass by me I would almost "heave" she smelled so bad. That poor man had a better stomach than I did. As we continued along the icy roads that night I actually wished the driver of the bus would lose control of it and we would crash into something. That way we would be taken to a jail someplace then we could get warm, wash and eat. But that was only wishful thinking. So our journey in chains continued into southern Arizona through New Mexico.
As we entered El Paso Texas I was at it again! Trying to get them damned handcuffs off. As I looked at the Rio Grand River I knew if I had them chains off I would cross that river and never return again to these cruel people! This so-called land of the free with all it's justice. Across the great state of Texas we came a tired, thirsty, hungry, and dirty bunch of prisoners treated worse than a bunch of dogs. By this time I didn't care anymore. I hurt so much my shoulders felt like they would fall off. I thought I would be glad to get back to prison at least I would get out of all these chains, so I thought.
When we got to Denim Springs, Louisiana we were met there by the Highway patrol and the local sheriff to exchange prisoners right on the highway. Then when we entered Mississippi, we were greeted again by the highway patrol but this time they took me and two more men off the bus. There on the side of the road. This was at night. So I thought to myself, this is where I get the hell beat out of me for the escape I had pulled almost a year ago. But they didn't. Instead they secured my chains even tighter. But I didn't feel the pain so much by now. Then they shoved me back on the bus. When I shuffled back down the isle of the bus the other prisoners said how could they treat you any worse after this trip? Now the leg irons and bracelets I was wearing had my ankles and wrist bleeding! I just said let the s.o.b.'s have their fun. Remember this America, where people are free and the law is just and merciful isn't it? Anyway we moved on into Alabama. Now I began to think they were taking me to a federal prison in Florida. Even
the other prisoners thought this. Some began to say man these people are going to kill you. But they didn't. When we got to a little town in South Alabama I was transferred to a van then came back into Mississippi, and headed North to "Parchman" the state prison. When we finally got there and entered the gates, I said, " Well if I'm not killed within the next few hours I have a chance!" We were then taken to receiving. Immediately there we changed clothes. The man in charge remembered me. He said, "You escaped didn't You?" I said yes. He asked me where I was caught and the whole nine yards and so on.
When I took off my clothes, he said my God how long have you been in those chains. So I told him. As he walked round me surveying my leg, waist, and wrist , he said that's cruel. When he asked me to lift my arms above my head I couldn't! They had been chained down to long. So he said that's okay! Just try to work them some. As I did little by little they began to move After we were finished there we were to taken into the cages where we were to sleep, assigned a bunk then into the showers. And believe me I didn't get in no rush to finish that shower. After that we were taken to the chow hall to eat. By this time I would have eaten out of the garbage cans! The next morning I even eat yellow grits. I was still hungry. By now I had began to feel better and thought I would survive.
I began to ask questions about where I would be housed at. But got no answer. So I thought what the hell do I care at least I can move around and I'm not chained up any more. After two weeks there I began to wonder what they were up to. All the others had been moved out and new ones brought in. But then I was called to move out. When I asked where to? What camp? I got no answers! This had me worried, because when you leave there they tell you what camp you are assigned to. Well I found out when they came for me. "Lockdown" at U/29-A that's maximum security! Only one place was harder than this, and that's “Death Row". So here I was in a 6' x 9' cell, a bunk, toilet and washbasin in it. So you can imagine how much room I had left to walk in. I had 15 minutes a day out of that cell to shower and shave! My food such as it was. Was pushed under the door three times a day. So here I was in the hole for how long I didn't know. While in this confinement I lost a lot of weight. It was pure hell in there , with no one to talk to or nothing to do but read what books I could get, and that I had to do while I was out for the 15 minutes a day. Yes I finally made it for 7 1/2 months without going crazy. Which I can't say for some of the men that was there! I have been awakened at night with someone screaming. They just couldn't handle the confinement. Then they would be taken away to the state hospital for the crazy. One man cut his wrist twice before they finally took him away! I felt sorry for this man. A big tough man he was! But not when he left. They didn't need the chains for him anymore, because he was like a little child when he was taken away.
One day the sergeant, a big black man came and opened that steel door to my cell and ask me this question. I was the oldest man in this confinement, so most of them called me
"pop" anyway . He said, "Pop how can you be so calm and handle this confinement the way you do? When so many of the younger men have to be taken away to the state hospital crazy as hell." Well I just looked at him for a moment! Then I said, "I keep my mind busy, I read what books I can get, I write letters to people, and I have a lot to do when I get out of this prison. So I keep my mind busy." My main problem was that I would get so weak I could hardly walk because of lack of exercise.
Now I work 12 hours a day and keep busy and hope one day to be free again before my grandchildren grow up, so that I can spend some time with them while they are young. Since I have been here I have another grandson! I haven't seen him yet but I hope to soon. I have learned one thing,"through my journey in chains". People in general just don't give a damned about you once you have been put in prison! They don't care if you have changed or not! You will always be a "convict" to them. Even your friends and relatives seem to forget about you and who you are. There is much, much more I would like to write about, but my writing is limited. Just maybe one day someone will "care" and help me to put a book together!
This is true a 144 hours in chains from Montana, to Mississippi. Then 7 1/2 months in a 6'x 9' cell.
by Horace Hubbard