Switzerland: everyday is the same

I open my eyes; it must be 6:50am. I stay in my bunk until I hear the whistle that opens the locked door which keeps the cells closed and isolated. When I hear the whistle, I empty the thermoses of hot water under the bed and refill them with hotter water to prepare breakfast. Normally, in the previous day’s meal you receive a small packet of coffee, Nesquick, margarine and jam, which you can use with leftover bread to make breakfast.

At 7am sharp, a guard opens the door and shouts “hot water”. It’s when I leave the cell with the two thermoses, mine and my prison mate’s, to get hot water to prepare our breakfast. Honestly, our breakfasts are privileged, because when we work we have money to buy good coffee, good tea, biscuits, butter, boiled eggs, some fruits, etc. But we have to pay for that. They don’t give us sugar, so we always have some packets that we buy to give to the new girls that arrive.

After the hot water, the supervisor walks around for “requests” and that’s when we need to indicate everything that we need. For example, toilet paper, forms, paper and envelopes, needle and thread, bikes. I ask for a bike everyday, so I can do some sort of sporting activity, since we have less and less work on the women’s unit (Champ-Dollon is a men’s prison). There are some workshops where we sew, draw, read and make bracelets. It’s not a job per se, but for participating we receive 16CHF per day, about 300CHF per month. Since November, there have been numerous guards who are “sick”. It’s a type of strike that they do because part of their salary was taken away, but undoubtedly the ones who suffer are the prisoners ourselves, because of the fact that there are no guards to supervise the workshops, which means that we have to stay in our cells for 23 hours, except for the hour “walkaround” at 4pm.
We eat at 11am.
We have dinner at 5 pm.
In the beginning, it was hard for me to get used to the schedule, but after a year here, I’m now used to it.

The quality of food is acceptable, although there aren’t many fruits or vegetables. Everything is fried, refried and “recycled”.

During the day, if we don’t go to the workshops, I dedicate myself to writing (I’m preparing a book of poems), painting in watercolours or mandalas … After the meal at 11am, I try to take a short nap. I use to fall asleep while reading something. Afterwards, we have an hour-long walk around the courtyard. Then, they serve dinner and later, some television and reading. Every day is the same.