Pitchess Detention Center

"Detention Center"? Let's call it what it is okay, jail, a prison. The word "Detention" reminds one of staying after school because you were late for a class or something. This is not a place you ever want to come, as a visitor and especially as an inmate.

I was here some weeks ago, visiting a friend who had never been in jail before, I could only imagine what he was going through. Sometimes in life we make decisions, out of anger, out of passion, call it what you will, a momentary loss of control can cost you your freedom, maybe your life, but enough with the philosophy on with the review.

I have never set foot in a prison either as an inmate or a visitor, and I must say the experience was very strange. The environment here reminded me of so many things, many times it felt like I was in a hospital, I also felt like I was in an airport, I felt like I was at the DMV, I felt like I was at the zoo, seriously combine all those things and that's what this place feels like.



TIPS :

- you need to come early, the processing, and the waiting all in all will take about 2 to 3 hours, visiting is only allowed on weekends and the max visiting ours you can spend is 2 hours, not a day, but the entire weekend. So you can understand why the processing of visitors takes so long.

- leave your cellphone in the car, you can stand in line, get to the end the guards will not let you in if you have a cellphone and no they will not hold your cellphone for you.

- bring water with you and a snack, waiting in line burns a lot of calories.

- you have to know the inmates processing number, you can't visit  just knowing his first and last name, that won't cut it,  you have to now the prisoners processing number.

After the processing you have to wait for a bus, once you board the bus it will take you to the actual building of the prison. You get off, your placed in a long hallway, and I mean long hallway that is hot, smelly, and  loud. You wait there until they call out the inmates name and then you just follow the crowd. They assign you telephones stations, where you sit behind brakeproof glass, yeah you see stuff like this in the movies and on TV, I'm telling you its really weird.

My friend is out, thank God! He spent just under 2 weeks in prison, still the stories he told about it, it's something I would never what to personally experience. For my friend who has never been to prison before, he's man enough to pay his debt to society and not blame anyone else for his actions, he's taken full responsibility for what he did and did his time like a man. Prison to me is like being berried alive, the lesson I've learned from my friend and his situation, you better think before you act.