Author: Trigger Cat
Anyone can go to prison. That’s the first thing I need you to understand. I was working, paying taxes, paying off a student loan, supporting my community and church. My crime was non-violent, no victim, no harm done — only to myself. I was minimum security. And then I walked into Pulaski State Prison in Statesboro, Georgia, and I saw drugs for the first time in my life.
I expected order. Stability. Instead I saw inmates walking around with no officers present. I saw violence. I saw neglect.
I was there from 2023 through July 2025. Two years that I will never forget.
The security bubble was empty. There were no officers stationed in the dorms. We went for hours with no supervision. When something happened — a medical emergency, a fight, someone overdosing on K2 — other inmates had to call their families and have them call the facility to send help. That’s how we got help. We called our mothers.
The fighting was awful. Multiple fights at one time. Blood, urine, and other fluids left on the floor. Some of these fights lasted more than thirty minutes. The victims didn’t want to seek medical help, so they managed their wounds themselves. Sometimes they had no choice. Many were sent to the hospital.
And then we were punished. The entire dorm. Mass punishment. We’d lose commissary for the next week. We’d be put on lock down. The ones fighting? Most of them didn’t get commissary anyway. So the ones being punished were the innocent ones.
We had something called block movement — that’s when we were allowed to leave the dorm to go to school, medical, group, mental health appointments. First block was at 7:50 a.m., second block at 10:50 a.m., Monday through Friday. Ninety percent of the time, no one came to get us. We missed very important appointments. Medical. Dental. Education. The facility was missing so many mental health appointments they had to assign an officer to go to each dorm to get people. That’s how bad it was.
On May 15, 2024, no officer came for first block movement. We missed medical, dental, education. At second block, Officer P wouldn’t let anyone leave the dorm. Again, appointments were missed. May 16, Officer Williams said there was “no movement.” He did that often. May 19, no officer came for first or second block. We missed everything.
And when we did leave the dorm, we had to sit outside for hours before an officer would come and let us back in. That meant we sat out in extreme cold, rain, with no bathroom, for however long. I remember one time an inmate was outside waiting to be let in. A huge rain came and she got drenched. It was awful to watch her snuggle as close to the building as she could to try not to get wet. After the rain moved on, an officer let her in.
On April 22, 2024, me and other inmates were locked outside the dorm from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. It was cold — we had no jackets at this time — and the wind was freezing. We had to use the bathroom. We had no water to drink. At the same time, two laundry workers were locked in our sallyport. We kept asking Mrs. Mapp and the warden to let us in. We were repeatedly told “hold on.” The warden and the others — Officer Bright and Deputy Warden Mohagany — left us and went back up the walkway.
Often inmates didn’t have a bed because the bed they were assigned already had someone sleeping there. Inmates just took the beds they wanted. Sometimes an inmate would bully her roommate out of the room so she could have it to herself. That happened often. When that happened, an inmate didn’t have a place to sleep. She was forced to sleep in the day room or room with other inmates, usually on the floor either way. I saw up to five inmates in one room. Two slept in the bunks and the other three slept on the floor.
Inmates were extorted and bullied. When staff were told, they did nothing. We had to take up for each other. One day a young, very small inmate was being extorted. Officer Bright was told about it and even given the approximate time of the phone call. Nothing happened.
Each dorm was divided into two sides — side A and side B. Most often, the officers would leave the doors between them open and unlocked. When that happened, you had entire dorms mingling with no supervision. Some dorms have up to 192 inmates.
On November 25, 2024, commissary was being delivered. An inmate from the other side of the dorm came to my side and stole a store bag off the floor. She took it through the sallyport to her side. Sergeant Bright came to the dorm and did nothing. The doors between the two sides remained unlocked.
January 15, 2025, about five people jumped on one inmate. One inmate threw 180-degree water on the victim. January 13, an inmate was assaulted by four other inmates. Locks were used to strike the victim. She was assaulted because of a debt she owed. January 17, an inmate assaulted another inmate. January 23, an inmate was assaulted for not paying her debt. January 28, two inmates got into a fight. January 29, an inmate was assaulted because she didn’t pay her debt.
In case you didn’t know, there are drugs and cigarettes in prison. The debts I’m talking about are for weed, meth, cigarettes.
These assaults were brutal. The aggressor used locks, pipes, mops, brooms, wooden sticks, a screwdriver. The sky is the limit.
And then we lost commissary. February 10, our entire dorm lost commissary because two inmates got into a fight. February 23, our commissary was taken because some inmates weren’t sleeping in their assigned rooms. May 5, our dorm was placed on lock down because there was a big fight involving several inmates. The dorm also lost its commissary. May 26, Deputy Warden Mahogany came to the dorm and told us to “get it together” or our commissary would be taken. She pulled our dorm rep to the floor and told her — who is an inmate just like me — she “needs to fix this.” Really.
We never knew when we would eat. Breakfast could be anywhere from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. Lunch was from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner was from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Often we would go eight to ten hours between meals. When we did eat, the meal wasn’t even enough to satisfy a toddler.
The only way we knew it was time to eat is when an officer came to the dorm and yelled “breakfast.” If you didn’t hear the breakfast call, you missed breakfast. If it was a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, you missed breakfast and lunch.
We ate sandwiches four days a week. On Wednesdays, we had a sandwich at lunch. On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, we had a single sandwich — dry bologna or peanut butter — for lunch. We got our lunch sandwich on our breakfast tray. If you didn’t go to breakfast, you didn’t get your lunch sandwich. We took the lunch sandwich back to the dorm and ate it for lunch or whenever.
Here’s what I mean by inconsistent. March 12, 2025: breakfast at 6 a.m., lunch at 3 p.m., dinner at 5 p.m. March 13: breakfast at 7:30 a.m., lunch at 2 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m. March 21: breakfast at 4:15 a.m. — our lunch, a peanut butter sandwich and a banana, was on our breakfast tray — dinner at 2 p.m. March 22: breakfast at 8 a.m., lunch on our breakfast tray, dinner at 4 p.m. You are hungry and you have no idea when you will eat or if you will eat. This is awful on your mental health.
The food portions were very small. Not big enough to fill a toddler. Everything was an ice cream scoop size. Sometimes we got lucky and got maybe a half cup. Diabetics ate what everyone else ate. There was no such thing as a diabetic diet.
April 21, 2025: breakfast at 6 a.m. — oatmeal, maybe a cup, two turkey patties the size of a silver dollar, one piece of white bread. April 22: breakfast at 6:45 a.m. — oatmeal, about a cup, some kind of meat gravy, half a cup, a piece of white bread. Lunch at 1:15 p.m. — sloppy joe, maybe three-quarters of a cup, two pieces of white bread, pinto beans, and dry lettuce. Dinner at 4 p.m. — scoop of spaghetti, pinto beans, greens, dry lettuce. April 25: breakfast at 4:45 a.m. — grits, half a cup, two sausage patties the size of a silver dollar, small biscuit. Lunch — a dry bologna sandwich was on our breakfast tray. Dinner at 2:30 p.m. — vegetable-meat soup, white rice, and northern beans. Small portions, of course.
We ate a lot of raw cabbage, grits, white bread, beans, canned potatoes, and canned carrots.
I take life-sustaining medication. January 22, 2025, no a.m. pill call. I missed my medication. January 26, no a.m. pill call. I missed my medication. February 4, no a.m. pill call. February 6, no a.m. pill call. June 15, 2024, no a.m. pill call. September 10, at breakfast, we were told “no pill call at this time.” However, no one ever came back to the dorm to get us. I missed my life-sustaining medication.
April 19, 2025, the fire alarm in the dorm sounded for fifty minutes. An inmate called her mother and had her contact the facility to have the alarm turned off. I cannot tell you how loud this alarm is. It easily causes hearing loss, not to mention what it does to your mental health.
May 4, at 9:05 a.m., the fire alarm sounded. Officer Anderson came to the dorm at 9:56 a.m. She contacted main control to stop the alarm. It stopped ringing at 10:01 a.m. May 9, at 9:10 a.m., the fire alarm sounded. At 9:30 a.m., Officer Kendrick was letting some inmates in the dorm. He contacted main control to stop the alarm. May 9, at 12:05 p.m., the fire alarm sounded. It stopped at 12:40 p.m. No one came to check on us. May 20, at 10:50 a.m., the fire alarm sounded. It stopped at 11:25 a.m. No one came to check on us. May 29, the fire alarm sounded from 9:01 a.m. to 10:18 a.m. June 1, from 10:31 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. June 4, from 1:02 p.m. to 1:33 p.m.
I cannot begin to tell you what it is like to listen to that alarm sounding. It is so loud my ears start buzzing and I feel like I am going to have a panic attack.
An inmate who was in the infirmary for seven days said she didn’t shower or brush her teeth the entire time. She was sent back to the dorm with nothing. Her personal effects were stolen while she was gone. We gave her hygiene and personal items so she could shower and brush her teeth. When the officer removed the inmate from the dorm, a bag of items was taken for the inmate. However, those did not return with her. When she was returned to the dorm, she only had the clothing she was wearing. She was sent back without a mat, so she had to sleep on the metal bed.
We never had yard call or recreation. Many of us were on vitamin D supplements because we never got sunlight. For the first two and a half years of my sentence, my dorm was unable to go to the library. When we were finally allowed to go, the officers wouldn’t let us leave the dorm because that meant they had to come back and let us in.
The facility is an open facility. We had no raincoats, so if it was raining, you had to decide if you wanted to get soaked and eat or get meds.
In 2024, we received our winter jacket on December 15. When you enter the facility, you rarely get any additional clothing. You can put in a clothing request and you might get a few items or you may never hear back. If you do receive some clothing, it will be well over a month before you get it.
For well over a year, we had a massive water leak in the dorm. We had to mop up water two to three times daily. When I left, the water was still an issue. Probably still is. June 20, 2024, over and above that water leak, there was standing water on the far wall of the dorm. There was a leak in the wall and water was running into rooms. The inmates were getting up the water with towels, daily, as we had no mop. This went on for three weeks. We were told we only had one maintenance man.
You will never understand how hot it gets inside a tin can. Some windows in the rooms will open. However, most will not. Even if you are blessed enough — I was not — to be able to purchase a thirty-dollar fan, it only circulates hot air. You will never understand how cold it gets inside a tin can. We were only provided one blanket and it was thin. You can put in a clothing request for a sweatshirt but you probably will not get it. At one time, I remember having on four shirts trying to get warm.
Our chemicals were watered down. We got watered down bleach, pine scent, and citrus scent. How are you supposed to sanitize with watered down chemicals? Because of all the fights, all our mops, brooms, and mop buckets were destroyed. We asked lower-level staff as well as the administrative staff for new supplies and they were never provided. Inmates had to soak up water with towels.
Many rooms didn’t have hot or cold running water. Some had water running that couldn’t be turned off. God forbid if you had issues with your toilet. The room next to me had a stopped-up toilet for weeks. Officers and administration were told multiple times. Finally, the ladies got it unstopped themselves.
The locks to our doors didn’t work. Meaning, we couldn’t lock ourselves in the room. Well, you can lock yourself in the room but you will play hell getting out. It requires an officer to manually use a key to open the door. There were several incidents where inmates were locked in their rooms for more than twenty-four hours because an officer refused to unlock the door. These inmates missed meals, meds, and appointments.
April 27, 2024, three inmates were locked in their rooms for over twelve hours. At 5:30 p.m., Captain Roberts, Officer Slappy, and Officer Hobes were told these people were locked in their rooms. Only after shift change did Officer Barnett, who was bringing the kitchen detail workers back to the dorm, unlock the door. This was about 7 p.m. Other inmates had even called their families to have them call the facility to try and get help.
September 17, 2024, two men from the fire department were in the dorm. I showed them where our fire extinguisher was housed. It was housed in a small room with the door welded shut. When I left, it was still in that room with the door welded shut.
I had to stay eight months longer than I should have because I needed a class parole wanted me to have and the counselors didn’t get me in the class in a timely manner. I was unable to use any of my Performance Incentive Credits. One PIC point means one month knocked off your sentence. I had eight PIC points. After I took the needed class, I was able to close my case plan, which was six more PIC points. I left with fourteen PIC points that were never used. I earned those and was unable to use them.
The thing that bothers me the most is when I was in court, the judge, DA, and my lawyer signed off on my probation provisions permitting me certain conditions. However, parole is not allowing those conditions. I have to wait until I roll into probation for those conditions to be honored. Therefore, life for me is a struggle. I see now why so many people return to prison. This system is not designed to reduce recidivism. It is designed to enhance it.
Many people think prison consists of hardcore criminals. The truth is, there are normal, hardworking people there who made one minor mistake. They have to suffer like you would not believe.