I’ve been in Texarkana for three weeks, and it’s been a cultural change from my experience at Morgantown. While the campus is pretty much a large field with a few sheds offering little activity, the inmates and officers are extremely laid back. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a prison environment, but there’s only 1 officer assigned on-duty in the camp for 200 inmates. The ratio in Morgantown was about 1 officer per 20 inmates. Each prison has its own unique culture (sometimes called politics in a low, medium, or USP). Politics usually means that there’s a hierarchy consisting of gangs or racial divisions. While prison politics could become quite complicated among inmates, the idea is to keep some semblance of order. When I was in Oklahoma, I wrote about being in a cell-block consisting of gang drop-outs. This means those guys were not accepted in the political circles for whatever the reason.
While the prison culture in Texarkana might be laid back, hints of racial division exist. This division is only prevalent during seatings…yes seatings. The dining hall and the television room have an undercurrent of “pre-arranged” or “preferential” seating assignments. For meals, the dining hall has 12 very large tables: equally divided three ways among, whites, blacks, and hispanics. The same equal divisions exist for the large television room with 3 rows among the respective three groups. These seating assignments are not written in stone. Some guys will sit wherever, and there’s no divisions within the living quarter. I live with an older white guy, a younger black guy, and a younger hispanic guy. Some guys joke that we should welcome an asian guy to the cell since we are all so diverse. From what I’ve experienced so far, there is no real racial divide or prison politics guiding the culture here, which is a huge relief. *Aside: For any English proofers – yes, I know Hispanic, Black and Asian are supposed capitalized nouns, but I intentionally chose lowercase lettering for all descriptors to underscore no racial differentiation.
Another aspect of prison culture is the “black market.” This is my term for the under-dealings to obtain contraband. Morgantown referred to this as “getting something from the hill.” The preferred currency for barter or obtaining items and services are stamps. Yes, a book of genuine U.S. Postal Service stamps, which you would normally purchase for Christmas cards. Most prisons use stamps as a form of currency, and Texarkana is no exception. While pouches of tuna/maceral fish were preferred in Morgantown, stamps are the preference here. One book of 20 stamps is referred to as a “flat” and costs between $4.00 to $5.00 per book. Does that pricing seem odd? Currently, a book of 20 “Forever” stamps will cost about $14.00 from the post office. Since prisons have a plethora of stamps with guys who have been serving very long sentences, the books of stamps matriculate from higher security level prisons all the way to camps. Given the supply versus demand market concept, there are a lot of flats (aka books of stamps) floating around Texarkana, which keeps costs below market value.
What possibly could one “flat” be used for? A quality haircut, a service to have clothes individually laundered, a pint of ice-cream, a few fried chicken-tortilla wraps, or whatever extra little thing you might crave…wait you could even use them to actually send mail. So, yes, the world here is flats. So, if you’re mailing something home, you’ll get one heck of a deal with 20 stamps for only $4.00 or $.20 per stamp! How would someone even go about obtaining flats? Well, guys often trade off commissary items or some other novelty for stamps, so they just continually circulate like dollars. Often, inmates ask for loved ones to receive CashApp or Venmo payments from other loved ones to help secure these stamps. It’s a fascinating aspect to prison and one that could actually be quite lucrative for some inmates, especially if they have some service or access to an item that is wanted.
Over the past week, my family celebrated two life events…my nephew’s high school graduation (Congratulations, Brady!) and my dad’s 84th birthday! While missing these important moments tug at the core of my soul, I’m hopeful that it will all soon be nearing an end within the year. I really appreciate you taking the time to check-in with me. I’m doing well, am safe, and am acclimating to my new crib. As always, I wish you and your loved ones a wonderful week and continue to be mindful of any little miracle in your life 🙂