DRDC Part I

There are approximately 22,000 inmates in the Colorado Prison System, one of the highest per capita in the entire US. Before being placed in one of the 27 prison facilities in the state, every one of these prisoners is first sent to the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center. Don't let the name fool you, its not a place where weddings are held (at least not the traditional kind). The DRDC is located near downtown Denver and for all intents and purposes is a maximum security facility. Inmates are pooled here from corresponding county jails throughout the state for a couple of reasons-

1. Physical and mental evaluation
2. Issuing of prison clothing 
3. Risk scoring ( minimum, medium, maximum and super max)
4. IQ and GED testing-in other words it's kind of like the NFL Combine for inmates. (and let it be known I crushed it)

As I was loaded up into the DCT (dog catcher truck) from Weld County, I told you I was with 4 other inmates who had all been through this before. I had a million questions about what to expect at the DRDC and some of their answers scared me. The consensus was that the DRDC is the worst part of the entire prison experience-no matter what level of facility you eventually end up at. Everything from the facility itself, to the food all ranks among the worst of all facilities in Colorado. Inmates could expect to spend between 2-6 weeks in the DRDC before being sent out to their actual prison.

The DRDC is organized into 5 pods or areas. Pods 1 and 2 are used for intake, testing and classification. Inmates usually spend

1-2 days in Pod 1

2-5 days in Pod 2

and the remainder of your time in Pods 3, 4 or 5.

Pod 3 is for maximum offenders (the worst of the worst)

4 is for medium

5 is for minimum

Each Pod has an A and a B side consisting of 35-40 individual cells each. Each cell has 2 beds (bunk) a sink and a toilet. So you are looking at between 125-175 inmates per Pod. Pod 3A is unique because it has cells that are considered super max where the cells themselves are enclosed in glass for additional security. The Pods are large open rooms that are 3 stories tall with all of the inmate cells on 2 walls and a guard tower on the one wall. Every cell door is controlled by a computer in the guard tower. The cell doors are solid steel with a small 12"x12" glass window.

Before taking us to the DRDC, the DCT had to go pickup inmates from county jails in Fort Collins, Boulder, and Golden. So in total I spent 6 hours in belly chains riding around the entire Front Range picking up our car pool. By the time we had finished picking up everyone, there were 12-15 inmates in the truck in 3 separate cells. One of the cells was for females and 2 for males. Each area of the truck had large speakers in it and the guards played music at maximum volume so that none of us could have any conversations. By the time we arrived at DRDC I was on the verge of a mental breakdown having been handcuffed and leg cuffed for 6 hours on a steel bench with 4 other inmates with Metallica playing at 140db.

As I stepped out of the DCT in to the garage at the DRDC, it was overwhelming to be surrounded by 25' razor wire fences and guards with guns. They marched us into a line of inmates that was slowly moving through the intake process. The very first task that has to happen as you enter any prison facility is a strip search. You must take of all of your clothes and proceed with what amounts to a game of "twister" in front of 2 guards. The most demeaning part of this whole process is the "human vault check". I'll spare you the details of all the ways the "human vault" can be used, but suffice to say that once you are in the prison system many inmates turn parts of their body from one way streets into 2 way super-highways for many reasons. The fail-safe check that the guards perform is the "squat and cough". I apologize for the visual that this is creating. The test is performed by squatting down for 10 seconds and coughing. This process will apparently hack the combination to the human vault and release contents found therein. As it turns out, my vault was empty but the guards felt inclined to tell me that they have found everything from heroine balloons, syringes, to small caliber pistols. After passing the "sqough" we were required to take showers and then put on our traditional orange jumpsuits.

Once were dressed, they took our mugshots, and we do both the mental and physical evaluations with the doctors. This included a dental checkup where I was told I was the only inmate they had seen that day who still had all of his teeth (such a proud moment). After the dental check we were issued our first set of prison clothing. Colorado prison clothing consists of green scrubs and black boots. I was given 3 sets of scrubs with 4 white tshirts , 4 pair of boxers, and 4 pair of socks. (as an interesting side note, all of the inmate clothing is made by other inmates).

After finishing this process there were 15-20 of us that were placed in a holding cell and told that we'd be waiting there 3-4 hours, After 2 hours of waiting, a guard came in and gave us some bad news-there had been a flu outbreak in the facility and so no inmates were being allowed to move between Pods or move out of the DRDC to their final prison destination. The reason this is bad news is because with no movement of inmates out of the DRDC everything gets backed up into a bottleneck. No testing or classifying can take place so everyone is just stuck---and the worst part of it is that everyone in the facility is on 24/7 lockdown so once you are in your cell, you cannot come out.

Typically in the DRDC inmates are allowed out of their cells for every meal and for 1-2 hours a day for "day hall". Each Pod is setup with 3-4 old school pay phones, 10-12 tables, 4 benches and 27" TV. But under this flu lockdown, all meals will be brought to your cell and you are not allowed out for anything. The other unique complication was that because no inmates were allowed to move between cells we would be randomly placed between Pods 1-5. They started reading down a list to which Pod each of us would go to. They read through the lists for both Pod 5 (minimum security) and Pod 4 (medium security) and did not read my name, and I knew what that meant-I was being put in Pod 3 with the maximum security inmates.

They broke us up into our groups and the guards led us out to our respective Pods. They led me through 3 steel security doors to get into the interior of the Pod. As the guards led me in there was a stack of books on a table and I asked if I could grab a couple. I grabbed the Bible, We were the Mulvaneys and The Girl who kicked the Hornet's Nest. (looking back it was a miracle that I grabbed these books because we were locked down for 4.5 more days and if I wouldn't have had these books, I don't know how I would have made it.) The guards assigned our cells to us and gave us a pillow, a sheet, a blanket, the inside of a pen (actual pens have been used to stab people so they are not allowed), a 2" toothbrush (longer toothbrushes have also been sharpened to stab people so they are no longer allowed), a bar of soap, 3 pieces of paper, a styrofoam cup, toilet paper and a towel.

I was assigned a cell on the 3rd tier-cell 303, which I found fitting for being in Colorado. I will never forget the walk up those stairs to my cell. As you can imagine, whenever you are in a lockdown situation, anything that happens in the Pod becomes interesting to the other inmates-especially new arrivals. So as I walked up the stairs, there was a face looking out of that small 12"x12" window on every cell in the Pod. It was an eery feeling.

I can distinctly remember that there was not one single face that I saw that wasn't covered in tattoos-it was on that long walk up to my cell that it really hit me that I was actually in prison. The guards walked me up to my cell, I stepped in and then heard the sound that I have come to despise-the computerized release of the latch followed by the slamming of the heavy steel cell door.

My cell was just like my first one in Weld County. It had a sink, toilet, and bunk beds. It had a 12"x12" window on the door, and an 18"x18"window on the exterior wall that gave me a view of the women's prison across the way. Fortunately, I did not have a cell mate ( I would later find out that because I was a minimum security inmate I was not allowed to share a cell with a maximum security inmate).

The cell itself was so small that I couldn't imagine sharing such a small space with someone else. The cell was 6'x12'-I could touch both walls when standing width wise. I chose to set my bed up on the top bunk because I wanted to be able to see out the window and see the stars when I laid there at night. There was 2" sleeping pad already on the bed so I used the pillow, sheet and blanket and made my bed.

The guard had left some disinfecting spray to clean the room so I proceeded to spray EVERYTHING down and then use the toilet paper to wipe it all down. I can't even begin to tell you how disgustingly dirty the cell ended up being-it felt great to get it cleaned.

After I finished cleaning I just sat on the edge of my bed and looked around and wondered how I was going to make it on lockdown without losing my mind.

The guard had told me that we would be locked down for a minimum of 4 days-in reality it ended up being the longest 100 hours of my life. Shortly after finished cleaning they announced that they would be delivering out dinner soon. I hadn't had much of an appetite all day but on hearing that dinner was coming, I was immediately hungry and simultaneously anxious to find out what prison food was really going to be like.

I had been told that the food in the DRDC is terrible but you never know...because of the lockdown our food was packaged up in styrofoam containers and delivered directly to our cell. The guards briefly opened up each door and handed us the food, utensils and a cup of water. I sat down at the small desk and opened up the styrofoam container.

There was a roll, some peas and some sort of noodle casserole. It smelled ok and so I opened the utensils and went to take a bite-just as I was about to dig into the casserole, I noticed something that just about made me throw up..sitting on the top of the casserole was a very long black and curly piece of hair. I slammed the container shut and laid down on my bed. 

An hour later it was lights out and Pod 3 went dark. As I lay there I realized I hadn't been alone to pray in 3 days since my sentencing. I immediately got on my knees to talk with my Heavenly Father and for the first time since being sentenced to 5 years in prison, I broke down and cried.

Brandon Stephens, Weld County Jail, Wood Group, Sentenced, 5 Years, Prison, NFL, DRDC, Rifle Correctional Center, Colorado Department of Corrections, Jail, Judge Quammen, Steve Wrenn, Weld County, Executive, Oil, Gas, White Collar, Wood, BYU, Masters Degree, Colorado State University, SWIFT, Firefighter, Wildland, Sawyer, Fire, Inmate, Brandon Stokey, Miracles, Centennial Community Correctional Center, Delta Correctional Center, DRDC, Denver Diagnostic and Reception Center, Felony, Sallie Stephens, Greeley Tribune, Judge Thomas Quammen, DA Steve Wrenn, Weld County Court, Oil & Gas