On time on lockdown the officers searched the cells and took all our property from us, everything. We knew this was illegal, but what can we do, they carried us big time at Victorville. Sometimes we would be on lockdown for a month, come off for a day and then go right back on for another month.
Then you had people like me who just couldn’t take it anymore. We had to wait eighteen months, incident report free, before we could transfer. This was devastating to a lot of us. And then when it finally came time to transfer, the case manager would put a management variable on you. This meant that you couldn’t transfer. It was a way to hold you there. Sometimes it would take three years for a management variable to come off.
You had people checking in (going to the hole) just to get away from that place. In order to check in you had to say that you feared for your life on the compound and they would put you under investigation in the SHU, Special Housing Unit, for up to a year, sometimes longer just for a transfer. Some people sat in the hole for nine months just to get transferred, then they would get transferred right across the street and have to start the process all over. Either go on the compound and stay shot free for eighteen months or sit in the hole for nine more months. You know how they felt.
Victorville was one of the worst, if not the worst situations I’ve been in. That ain’t no joke, you could lose your life or your sanity any seconds. But I came out clean. I held my own, kept my dignity and respect and made it out of that hellhole. So when you think your situation is bad, just look on the bright side, you could be in Victim-Ville, with a bunch of Mexicans who want nothing more than to stick a shank in your neck.
Article Appeared @http://www.gorillaconvict.com/2014/04/life-inside-victim-ville-lanard-miller/