Were you allowed to alter the suit?
Absolutely not. This is an extremely oppressive environment. The Corrections Officers look for any excuse to "roll you up": give you solitary confinement and an extra day of jail. If they don't have an excuse, they'll push your buttons to try to get a reaction and then cuff you.
Were you allowed to take supervised trips outside to the library or was there one there one site?
No outside trips. Elmwood is a short term prison for up to six months sentences. There was a library "on campus" with donated books, mostly adventure, sci-fi, and law.
Did that particular library have an unusually large collection of Suess books?
No, they had none. An unusually large collection of self-help law books.
If you were to find such a collection, would you allow yourself to read through some of those books that you had as a child even if the other patrons there might think you are a bit silly?
Absolutely not. If the inmates didn't like you, they... took matters into their own hands.
Without hesitation. It would require a conscious effort to care about the other patron's view of me.
"patron" is not the operative word here. The inmates have their own social structure and rules. I'm a white guy, so I was in the "Wood Car"; I was a "wood". Blacks were "brothers", Asians were "chinos", and Mexicans were "home boys" because they ruled the place.
I was almost in trouble for giving my dessert to a brother, when I should have given it to my "car leader". They gave me a "first day" pass on that. Respect is a big thing in jail. But, since I was over 45 yo, I was "off the hooK" for most of it because I was an "OG" (Old Guy).
Early on, the car leader said I needed a street name, so I offered "Rock Steady" and they loved it. So, I was called Rock Steady the whole time. They thought my educated-sounding speech pattern was cute and innocent. So they would teach me "trash talk". Someone asked me something and I said "no" and the leader says "Say, 'fuck no'", so I said "fuck no" and they all laughed. As if I never never cursed before.
I survived all of that. Then a year later, I had too much to drink on an empty stomach and fell asleep in my seat at a Warriors game. The next thing I knew I woke up in the downtown Oakland jail for an overnight. Well, I was ready for it. I was in there with 4 black guys that got DUIs that night. We joked and laughed and talked sports. They thought it was really funny that I didn't remember my arrest, "... for all you know, you could have run onto the court during the game".
Rule #1: Never ask "What did you do?", ask "What are you in here for?"
