An interview with Michelle Theer: 'Life in the joint'
Q. What's life like here?
A. Pure hell.
Q. Have you adjusted at all?
A. What is adjustment?. . . I don't believe in our justice system, I don't believe there's justice in our legal system, not after what I saw at my trial.
Q. Do they keep you in a cell, or do you have you in a barracks type of set-up?
A. It's like a barracks. . . two people to a room.
Q. You have rooms within a barracks?
A. Yes. . . bathroom down the hall, shower down the hall, day room, a TV.
Q. Now, why did they put you in isolation?
A. They [prison officials] claim here that they were misquoted. And, let me tell you, they won't give me a straight answer about why I was kept in isolation for so long. So, don't ask me, ask them.
Q. How long were you kept in isolation?
A. Eleven weeks.
Q. And what is isolation like here?
A. He–lllllll.
Q. What do you do?
A. The inner circle of hell. You don't do anything. You sit in a hot, unair conditioned room that's infested with ants. You get your meal three times a day slid through a slot in the door. And, that's about it. . . .
Q. Is it a cell with a toilet, bunk?
A. [She nods, Yes.]
Q. How long were you in here before they put you in isolation?
A. When I got here. . . December 3 [2004]. . . .
Q. How did you end up in isolation?
A. Well, everybody that has a sentence over 15 years has to do 45 days of a long-term adjustment. . . but I get treated differently than everybody here so, of course, I did 11 weeks.
Q. Why do you get treated differently?
A. I don't know, they seem to get special enjoyment out of punishing me, extra hard.
Q. Who is responsible for that?
A. I don't know, but you know what they–[expletive] rolls down hill, so, whoever started it, I don't know how high up it started. . . but–
Q. What do you do with your days here?
A. Well, I work in the clothes house, where we hand out uniforms to new people when they get here, and, I have arthritis in my hips, and. . . I have a medical waiver for no standing over four hours that I've gotten from three different doctors, but apparently it's more important that I work in the clothes house because every time I get this medical waiver, they still put me back in the clothes house where I have to stand all day.
Q. You are having a hard time adjusting here?
A. Uh-huh. . . I wasn't raised to live in prison. . . I don't have the upbringing. Oh, there's some people here who were raised for prison life, trust me. All their life. . . they were trained just for this kind of life. . . .
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