Today is September 2nd, 2026. Today’s lunch was two hot dogs, beans, coleslaw, and cake. Yesterday was a facility shakedown — one of the worst things you have to deal with as an inmate.
It’s usually random. Sometimes it happens because the facility gets a tip, or because there’s been a lot of fights. How it usually plays out: at a random time during the day, a bunch of officers in riot gear run into the unit. I’ve been in facilities where this happened at 4 a.m., and other places where it’s an afternoon thing. Yesterday was after breakfast. They ran in and took us to the gym so they could search the whole unit.
The point of these shakedowns, of course, is to find weapons and contraband. If something’s found in your cell, you’re going to the box — jail within jail. Yesterday, no one went to the box.
The part that sucks about them is knowing some random person is going through your stuff, and the violation of your personal space. Please don’t think your belongings get put back neatly, or even in the same place they were found. Sometimes they leave everything in the middle of the floor for you and your bunkie to sort through.
I’ve been in a place where I lived in a 38-man dorm, and they put everything in the middle of the dorm. We talking nudes of your girl, family pics, and envelopes with addresses on them, for all of us to sort through to find what belongs to who. Straight violation!
Trust me, you don’t want to have to go through these experiences if you could help it. That’s why you have to Move Smart and Stay Free!
-TJ
Behind the Number 
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