My initial destination was to a provincial institution “Central East Correctional Centre” located in Lindsay, Ontario. On arrival, I went through the admittance procedure, which included giving my medical history, along with all the prescription medications that I was currently taking. The reason for getting the information about my medications so quickly during the admittance procedure was so that they could get this information sent immediately to their pharmacy so that I would receive my medications at my cell the next time the nurses made their rounds. I made the mistake of bringing all my medications from home. Do not bring yours. You will never get to use them. Mine were put away in my “Red Bag”. Which is where all my personal belongings are put until I would arrive at my “Mother” institution. My medications must have been thrown out prior to my receiving my contents of my bag. I never received them and they never were shipped back to my home as I had requested. I then had my photo taken, along with a full set of fingerprints that went into my criminal record file and registry. I received a “Wristband”, which included a black and white photo of myself along with my Otis number, a pin code and the number of my “Red Bag”. I needed to have this “Wristband” with me at all, times to identify myself to all the jail staff. The admittance procedure continued with a body x-ray scanner to detect if I was concealing any hidden items on my body or clothing and then a further strip search was done to make sure that I was not concealing anything in my body. I was then given a bag, which included my jail clothing and bed sheets and a “Spork” which was the only utensil you were given to eat all your meals with. It was a combination of a spoon and a fork, which was made of a soft rubbery plastic. It was made like this on purpose so that no one could use them as a weapon. They take some time getting use to using. You were to have it for your entire stay at this institution. I received institutional clothing which consisted of 3 pairs of blue boxer shorts, 3 pair of beige socks, 3 orange t-shirts and 1 orange jump suit which had a large Velcro strip running down the front to make it easier to get in and out of. I also received I pair of navy flat boat style slip on shoes. I received a “Shower Roll” as well, which was replaced approximately every 3 days that comprised of 3 of each freshly laundered clothing items as above rolled in a fresh towel. The other items I received were toiletry items, which included a bar of soap, 3 toothbrushes, a tube of toothpaste, a tube of shaving gel, a stick of deodorant and a roll of toilet paper. Replenishments of all toiletry items were brought into the unit usually once a week and were left in paper bags in the “Common Area” for inmates to take as they needed them. I was given a couple new paper bags to have in my cell for using as a wastebasket every few days.
Darko!
Ottawa
