From Dragonfly: Making 100

I've mentioned before that we have inspection weekly in our unit. Every unit does. It is done by someone who works in psychology (from what I've been told). Not sure the connection. Anyway, we never know what weekday we will be inspected. And, while formal inspection can happen any day, we have an informal inspection by our C.O. every day. So, here's what we need to do to prepare for inspection:

1) Every bed MUST be made properly. This means that our covers are tucked under the mattress smoothly on all 4 sides. Any sheets/blankets not already on the bed, must be perfectly folded and piled at the end of the bed.
2) Shoes not being worn, must be under the bed and against the back wall. One laundry bag per inmate can also be under the bed and out of site.
3) Our lockers must be closed and locked.
4) There are hooks/string outside the lockers. We can have the following hanging using separate hangers on the hooks/string: One fully pressed uniform, one towel, a winter coat. That is all. Everything else we own, MUST be inside our locked locker.
5) Our unit must be dusted; this includes windows, the bars on our windows, top of lockers, top of personalized picture boards, the built in table and stool, and our bunk beds.
6) Our floor must be swept and mopped.
7) Our trash can must be emptied, cleaned out, and turned upside down.

From 7:30am-3:30pm Mondays-Fridays and from 9:30am-3:30pm Saturdays-Sundays, our rooms MUST be in this cleaned shape. If we were to lie on our bed, we must lie on top of our fully made bed. Those are the rules. Every person in the room must help with the cleaning. My days are Saturday and Sunday, because I am the only one in the room with a M-F job outside the room (they are all usually still asleep when I leave for the day). We all make our own beds and lock our lockers.

The formal inspection starts with a score of 100. If something is found wrong in any room they check (random checks), the score is lower. For the last 3 weeks, we have had a perfect 100, but prior to that, we were usually down around 95 or 96 (not good!). In addition to searching the rooms, formal inspection looks at the bathrooms, laundry room, atrium, TV rooms, etc. Nothing is off limits in the unit. For these reasons, many people work as "orderlies" in the unit. They are the people who sweep and mop the common areas, clean off all our tables, wash all our showers and toilet areas, clean the laundry rooms, empty large trash cans, and ensure all public space is clean. Two of my roommates, Army and Braids, work as orderlies. They usually have to clean their area 2x/day, as well as whenever we know that the inspector is on their way.

Our daytime C.O. stresses our cleanliness a lot. For that reason, she does a daily check of our space. If anything is out of place, she will choose to do a "locker check" as well (where she unlocks our locked locker and goes through it looking for contraband). This is a very scary thought for many inmates. They may have food they didn't purchase, craft projects without permission, food from the kitchen, weapons (hopefully not), too many books (yes, we are limited), too many shorts/tshirts (we are limited there as well), etc. If she finds something we are not supposed to have, she confiscates them. If we can't prove we are supposed to have the item(s), they are gone forever. Therefore, a good inspection is important every day.

Our C.O. seems to be having difficulties with the inspector this week. For that reason, the inspector has said that he will come EVERY DAY for formal inspection. So far, he's checked it out twice. This is stressful on everyone in the unit. Our weekly score is important - it decides our order for the following week's meals, and, therefore, access to all other places on campus. Being able to eat early in the rotation can mean a difference of 1 1/2 to 2 hours some nights. Until released for our meal, we are locked in our units. Not sure if a daily inspection will yield a 100 for the 4th week in a row, but I can say that the stress of the daily clean seems to be on everyone these days!