My time at BCC was long enough to see most of the injustices that are rampant there and short enough to know that I wouldn’t wish that place on my worst lip tattoo perth. I am Dennis Morehead Jr and I was sent there for charges that were meant for someone else but because I was easily accessible and those people were not, the charges were put on me. I was taught from a young age that no accidents happen to the children of God and I knew that He would allow the truth to come out eventually. The true purpose of my being there was to tell people who I would never meet otherwise, that God cared about them. I was sent to give hope to the hopeless. To be love to those who may have never met love in person. This all sounds good until everything that you were accustomed to having and depending upon is stripped from you and what’s left is who you really are. I found out first hand that in this system, you are guilty until proven innocent. And you were treated accordingly.
The intake process took about 6 hours before I was escorted to my cell. For anyone that was not familiar with how this works, like me, it felt like an eternity. The not knowing what to expect was almost like torture because the only thing I knew about prison and jail was what I saw on TV or in movies. I was never around criminals to hear first-hand of what this process was like. When it was my turn to walk into the back area , I was instructed to go to this single shower area/stall and strip. Open your mouth. Lift your tongue. Raise your arms. Show me your palms/back of hands. Lift your nut-sack. Turn around and lift up one foot towards me. Lift the other foot towards me. Spread your cheeks. Squat and cough. I watched too many movies so I bent over and the guard yelled squat, squat, not bend over. After that I was asked if I wanted to shower or get dressed into the tans, t-shirt and karate shoes that were provided for me. I chose to take a shower. The guard provided soap and a hand towel and walked away with my clothes and personal items. When I was finished he directed me to go into the next waiting area.
There are way too many people in this one little area waiting for our names to be called. No seats and barely enough space to sit on the floor. The conversations that were overheard just confused me even more. Some guys talked about what medications they say they are prescribed at home so that they could be doped up inside there. Then others say not to let them perform the TB test so that you can be put into quarantine and have your own cell. The problem with that is, until you agree to receive the test you are confined to that cell 24 hours a day. Still there were others that were trying to be bullies. Because of this my head was spinning, to say the least. Should I be the tough guy that I grew out of or should I be who God wanted me to be and let Him shine? Should I let it be known right now that I’m the man before somebody tries me or just trust God when He told me that He would protect me the whole time I was inside? And then my name was called to come into the office.
