Behind Bars

I've been obsessed with the details of life in prison ever since my sister's friend spent five years at the Utah State penitentiary. He was the one who said you were allowed two plug-in appliances or electronics in your cell. I have been musing for years what two plug-ins I would choose. Probably a laptop and a television.

Sunday night I found myself browsing through the Orientation Booklet from the Federal Prison in Dublin California. Here's a detail I loved: you may have a hobby (but not oil painting) and you may have a finished product on your bed and one item in progress. After that, you send finished products home. I guess prison authorities don't want cells filled with crocheted afghans.

You can shop at the prison commissary once a week at a prescribed time, and you may not spend more than $295. a month. No money is passed. You have an account that someone on the outside has to maintain.

You have to be up and dressed and your bed made by 6:30 in the morning.

You may subscribe to magazines but cannot keep any older than three months.

At Dublin, they wear khaki, not orange.

I am very fond of khaki.