The Idaho Maximum Security Institution is a place where most men spend roughly twenty-two hours a day locked inside their cells. It is also a prison where gangs have long influenced much of the culture. Many of the men housed here are considered gang members, and with that comes an unwritten set of rules known as the convict code. As cliché as it may sound, I can say from experience that this code is very much alive within these walls.
The general population in A-Block is divided into two types of housing units: hard walks and soft walks. Men affiliated with gangs are typically housed on the hard walks, while those without gang involvement live on the soft walks. For safety reasons, the administration has traditionally kept these groups separated.
There is, however, one area in A-Block where inmates, including gang members, can work, participate in programming, and spend more time outside their cells. That place is called the Incentive Walk. It also gives residents the chance to earn an exception that may allow them to transfer to a medium-custody facility.
I lived on the Incentive Walk for five months, and during that time I attended S.H.I.F.T. every week.
The Incentive Walk was a new initiative created by the administration in an effort to bring together men from both the hard walks and the soft walks. To almost everyone’s surprise, it actually worked.
Gang members lived alongside men with no gang affiliation. Christians lived beside Muslims. We talked together, ate together, played basketball and handball together, and, perhaps most importantly, learned how to coexist in peace.
But I firmly believe that without S.H.I.F.T., none of it would have been possible.
S.H.I.F.T. became the glue that held everything together.
It gave us the chance to truly get to know one another. It created a space where trust could develop. What was shared inside S.H.I.F.T. stayed inside S.H.I.F.T. There was an understanding that allowed men to speak honestly without fear that their vulnerability would be used against them.
Most of us carried ourselves with a hard exterior. In prison, that is often necessary. But S.H.I.F.T. found a way through those walls.
For me, S.H.I.F.T. allowed me to look beyond reputations, gangs, labels, and prison politics. It helped me see the person underneath, to see people’s hearts, their minds, and the hopes they still held despite everything.
The more we talked, the more we realized how much we had in common.
S.H.I.F.T. didn’t just hold the Incentive Walk together.
It brought us together.
In a place designed to divide people, that may have been its greatest achievement.
John