The trip to prison

On Tuesday, September 22nd at 2:30 a.m., I was woken up and told that I was going to be transferred, so I got up and packed my stuff.

I left my pod and was brought to the maximum security part of the jail. There I sat in a small one-man cell with six other people that were going to prison too. We must have sat in there for about two hours. During that time, we were fed breakfast.

After breakfast, we were led to a hallway with even more people on their way to prison. In the hall, we were shackled and handcuffed to the person next to us. There was about 20 of us altogether.

After we were handcuffed and shackled, we were lead to a bus. When we walked it was like a 3-legged race because of the shackles. The bus we got on was a big white bus that said ‘Pinellas County Sheriff Transport’ along the side with bars all along the windows.

When we got on the bus, we went through two gates toward the back of the bus where we sat in some uncomfortable plastic seats. The guards that were transporting us were armed with assault rifles.

I’m not sure how long the trip was to Lake Butler, but I’d have to say it was about 4-5 hours and the whole time we had to stay handcuffed and shackled to the person next to us. I tried to get some sleep, but couldn’t do it. There was no way to get comfortable.

This was the beginning of the worst day of my life…