Prison journalism: A lifetime inside, a lifetime of fire.Throughout my incarceration, blazes big and small have been a feature of my life.
by Prison Journalism Project
21-07-2023 17:47
in Prison Journalism
An incarcerated writer shares his fearing prison fires.
Image: Pixabay
Prison Journalism Project trains incarcerated writers to become journalists and publishes their stories. Subscribe to Inside Story to receive exclusive behind-the-scene looks at our best stories, as well as author profiles and other insights.
--
Back when I was young, in the late 1980s, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 went down in a ball of flames near Detroit Metro Airport in Michigan. At that time, I lived in a neighbourhood roughly a mile away, so my buddies and I rode our mopeds over to investigate. The carnage was terrifying, so terrifying that my young mind immediately tried to block it out.
But I could never shake the stench of burning jet fuel and human flesh.
Since that day, I've carried with me an unnerving fear of fire, one I haven't been able to shake even in prison. That's because I've encountered fire - and burnings - more times than I care to admit during my 27 years of incarceration.
--
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All those experiences and emotions came roaring back recently when I read an article, published by journalists from the Houston Chronicle and The Marshall Project, about the fire-induced death of Jacinto De La Garza in his Texas prison cell.
The 26-year-old's family worried that he had fallen back into depression or drug use after the pandemic had closed down visitation. Fellow prisoners told the reporters that they had begun to notice him pacing in his cell, talking to himself. In the cell next door, a prisoner said he had heard De La Garza beating on the steel bunk and toilet for three or four days.
--
Later in the evening on Nov. 11, 2021, he lit a fire, slowly adding more fuel, including his jacket and stuffing from his mattress. In the aftermath, a fellow prisoner said, I still sometimes envision him struggling for his life, putting his face in that little window, trying to get air.
MANY KINDS OF PRISON FIRES De La Garza was the second man in Texas to die inside a burning cell in six months. But the Lone Star state is not the only place where fires are a feature of incarcerated life.
In my time in the Michigan Department of Corrections, I've observed simple fires caused by angry and disturbed men seeking attention or retribution. In many cases, I witnessed these men burn trash cans or piles of cardboard and paper, not aware of the danger they were putting us all in.
I was around when one man set a shower curtain on fire, and when another stacked a large pile of paper and clothing on his mattress and lit that on fire. (In both of these cases, I only witnessed the charred aftermath.) I have known of fires caused by prisoners igniting lint-clogged air vents. In my experience, the latter is quite common; the goal is to try to conceal the fact that one is smoking contraband cigarettes or maijuana or some other smokable drug.
In some instances, fires were accidents caused by faulty wiring or misuse of a microwave. I've also seen or known of a number of kitchen fires and a few industrial ones in our prison-run factories. And those are frightening moments. For one, you just never know if the fire suppression and alarm systems are going to work properly. It's been my experience that sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. The prison I am currently housed in - Thumb Correctional Facility - is in the process of updating its fire suppression system after 35 years of a malfunctioning system.
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But even the new one has problems. There is no way, for instance, for an incarcerated individual to set off the alarm. In fact, there's not even a way for the housing unit guards to set the alarm off. A sergeant or someone of higher rank is the only person in possession of a key, and they're seldom in the units.
Fires are sometimes ignited as political acts. In the late 1990s, the Michigan Department of Corrections decided to downsize the amount of personal property we incarcerated individuals were able to possess.
In protest, disgruntled men lit the garbage cans in many of the housing units on fire, flooding the buildings with smoke and forcing the guards to evacuate everyone. This occurred on and off for a couple of weeks.
Like most protests in prison, it concluded when the administration offered some small concession. I have personally experienced this type of fiery protest eight or nine times, in some form or another.
But these acts of resistance hearken back to a history of more intense fires in Michigan prison history. Some of these explosive moments include the riots that took place at three Michigan prisons - Jackson Prison, Marquette State Prison and Michigan Reformatory - in the latter half of the 20th century. In those facilities, anger over prison conditions and abuse by guards led prisoners to burn the facilities' wooden structures to the ground.
ALSO READ: Prison journalism: Never underestimate the underdog
IN SOLITARY, DEATH BY BURNS Many years after witnessing the destruction of Flight 255, in the early 2000s, I was locked in an isolation cell in the hole of St. Louis Correctional in mid-Michigan. I remember it being at the time a state hotspot for suicides. And no wonder; the place was run like a dungeon - and its overlords were cruel.
My first few weeks there, the guards kept dumping my meals onto the floor of my cell, expecting me to eat them. Sadly, eat them I did - after enough days without food you'll eat anything. I'll never forget that first meal after I succ
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Prison journalism: A lifetime inside, a lifetime of fire.Throughout my incarceration, blazes big and small have been a feature of my life.
