(Day 45) CRCI, SFFC and the Pacific Coast...
It's been a long day... in order to beat the traffic through Portland I left the Shalom Centre at 6AM arriving at Columbia River Correctional Institution (CRCI) at 7:30AM as advised by Chaplain Larry Bowen. I was greeted at the front gate by a staff member in a control pod who let me into the sally port. From there I was allowed to enter the yard proper where I exchanged my drivers licence for an ID Tag. An officer processed me through the metal detector and by this time Larry had arrived. The tour of CRCI did not take long. The facility is basically one long hallway (nicely flooded by sunlight) off of which program offices, classrooms and shops and other administrative spaces come on the main floor. And on the second floor 800 men are housed dormitory style on bunk beds. Each inmate has a foot locker and may purchase a TV from the canteen. The TV (6" LCD) is mounted on the end of their bed on a pole and they may watch it...