You wanted to know what life is like in the SHU. Well, in a word or two, or three, how about drab - or monotonous - or better yet, enervating (which means to deprive of nerve or force or strength or destroy the vigor of). Basically the SHU does that to you. It's affectionately known as the spirit breaker. Truthfully, I don't know the true meaning of solitude until coming to the SHU. You are basically put away on a shelf and forgotten about back here. I'll describe the basic set up here. Well, there are two separate facilities, C and D. D facility has 10 units and C facility has 12. Each unit has six sections, or pods, A through F. Each pod has eight cells. Four on top and four on bottom. The doors of each cell and the space right next to the door (a total of about 8 feet at the front of your cell) is completely open. It's in the shape of iron honeycombs. So you can talk to the other inmates in your pod, but it's usually very quiet because the Eme and AB gang leaders keep it that way so they can study. Some pods don't have members I them, but most do. There is an exercise yard in each pod that we can use daily. It is all concrete, about 20 feet long and 10 feet wide, with an iron mesh gate on top of the approximately 20 foot walls. Half the roof is covered with a fiberglass cover and a small opening for the camera. The sun could not shine onto the yard if it wanted to. We shower three times a week. I'll enclose a sketch of my cell, which is the same as all the cells. Basically it is very bleak back here, no sunshine, very quiet, extremely cold, and desolate. I do understand the need to remove some inmates from general population for security reasons, but the SHU is not the place for anyone, not even for the guys who stabbed me. The environment here is so mentally draining. You are eventually forced to adhere all of the worst qualities from this place to your own personality. You are forced into racist views, violent ways of thinking, and the list goes on. I came to prison with zero racist views. My fiancée on the streets before my arrest was black. You end up almost disliking everyone of a certain race just because they're “enemies” of your race. I've fought diligently not to succumb to that type of idiotic thinking. I've succeeded, but most people don'tÉ.In answer to some of the other questions in your letter about the SHU, you only go to the yard one cell at a time. If you have a cellie you can go together, but most people who have cellies alternate their yard days so they aren't around each other 24/7! As for the lights, you can control them from your cell but the guards have the ability to make them stay on all the time.
