Plot: Alison and Brittany have differing opinions about one of their fellow inmates on death row, but when the time comes, they, along with the rest of the block show their support and, believing that justice had not been carried out and that there had not been a fair trial, join in with the rebels in causing mayhem.
-x-
The tension in their cell block was unbearable.
Brittany had told her that in Chester County, there were select units. Each unit had four cell blocks. They were housed in the minimum security unit. Next was the maximum security unit. When Brittany had been sent to solitary, she was housed in the Secure Housing Unit, the highest security unit in the facility, with the exception of the fourth one.
Death row.
There were three inmates that lived in the death row unit. All of them were due to be executed some time within the month. One of them, Miranda, had been housed in cell block H before she committed the crime that had landed her in death row.
Brittany said that inmates on death row are kept in isolation, like permanent solitary confinement. They are locked in their cells twenty-three and a half hours a day, only given half an hour for showers and exercise. They have restricted visitation and they live in soundproof cells and never have any contact with another inmate.
While Alison agreed that it sounded like a horrible way to spend your last days, and was against the death penalty, when she heard the crimes Miranda was convicted for, decided that it would be justice.
Brittany disagreed.
While they didn't fight over it, they did get into heated discussions.
-x-
"The phrase is an eye for an eye, Britt. A life for a life, if it's a brutal murder, or it's a child or something like that, it's fair."
"So if you get convicted for a murder you never committed, you wanna be executed?"
"They can't go for the death penalty for me because they can't prove premeditation. It's not even on the table."
"If they murder someone, they should get life without parole. You can't put a price on life Ali."
"They took one but, so why should they get to keep theirs while an innocent person is dead?"
Brittany sighed. "Nobody is beyond redemption Ali."
Alison could think of one person that was. "What did Miranda do anyway?"
Brittany's demeanour changed. She ran a hand through her hair before responding. "She was incarcerated for armed robbery and aggravated assault. When she got here she was a very angry person. She was sent to solitary that many times, it was unbelievable."
Alison hadn't experienced solitary, Brittany had taken the blame for the incident in the dining hall and they had narrowly avoided getting in trouble many times ever since.
"Then one day," Brittany continued. "She lost it, and stabbed an inmate with a shank(1) and ended up killing her. So she was tried extremely unfairly, it was never brought forward that the inmate had attacked her first or that the inmate was the one who was in possession of the shank. So therefore it's unfair. She is going to die when she shouldn't."
Alison thought this through for a moment before saying, "Okay I agree, that's a load of crap."
"Exactly."
"So when is it going to happen?"
"Friday, unless she gets a stay."
"So what will happen if she does get executed?"
"Utter fucking carnage."
Alison couldn't believe what she was hearing. Self defence was about to get a woman killed because the trial was bogus. She was fully on Brittany's side on this one, no execution should take place.
They probably would have discussed it for hours on end but a guard showed up to inform them that it was their turn for exercise.
-x-
"It's going to happen Ali. She's been given her 72 hour notice."
"Well what can we do?!"
It was three days later and Alison had been receiving more information on Miranda's case and the more she heard about it, the more infuriated she became with the injustice that was due to be carried out in three days time.
"There is a plan…" Brittany said carefully. "To raise hell. With each day that goes past that it's not called off, we get worse and make their life more difficult."
"I'm in, let's go." Alison said instantly.
"Wait, there's something else you should know." Brittany states. Alison turns fully to face her and gives her friend her undivided attention. "Death row is the one thing that inmates unite on. No matter what bad blood is between us, it is a common understanding that we put that aside when it comes to death row."
Alison's eyes widened. "You mean we will be forced to have a truce with -?"
"Yep. Alexis."
-x-
Alison and Brittany headed to the laundry room as per the arrangement between prisoners who were willing to fight for Miranda. They had passed a message through the whole cell block using the fishing technique(2). The plan was to go to work in the laundry as usual, and when the guard shift changed, use the time to have a quick and coded discussion to decide their plan.
When they arrive, their feet were shackled as always, as a precaution to ensure they wouldn't run or misbehave, before being let into the laundry.
When they entered, several of the inmates nodded towards them, silently asking them if there were in. Alison and Brittany both nodded back, a silent signal that they were in.
They went about their work, folding the washing and the placing it into piles. Brittany was a bit of a neat freak, so she was also making sure they were in size order. Alison had joked that Brittany probably made sure everything was in alphabetical order as well, Brittany had simply replied with 'I'm pretty sure one of my books was not in it's alphabetical place before I was arrested. It's bugged me my entire time here.'
The inmates all worked in silence, as was the procedure. Alexis and Brittany shared a hostile glance, before giving a small nod. They both knew they had an understanding. They were still enemies, this did not make them friends, they were simply going to work together to try and make a difference. Once this was over, war would proceed.
Finally the guard shift changed, and when the new guard and the exiting guard stopped to talk outside the laundry door, the inmates saw their chance.
"What's the plan?" Brittany whispered to the small circle of inmates that had congregated in the corner of the room, out of sight of the door.
"We have 3 days, so for day one, we have made an arrangement with the rest of this unit. We are going to start off relatively slow, as it gets closer, we go more extreme." A redhead woman said.
"So what's the deal for today?"
"Decoration."
Each inmate shared a nod, Alison was a little confused as to what 'decoration' was supposed to mean and how it was supposed to raise hell in protest of what was about to happen. It sounded like they were going to stick paper flowers and birds on the wall to try and give the place some life. She figured Brittany would fill her in later.
"We'll need to do something about the cameras. If they manage to see who is the one causing trouble we will get thrown in the hole." Alexis said after a moment's silence.
"Isn't there some black electrical tape in the repair warehouse?" Another inmate piped up.
"I know someone who works in there, we should be able to get our hands on some." Rosie Wallace, an inmate who was serving 5 years for possession of cocaine, added.
The others nodded.
"So," The redhead, who Alison assumed was acting as sort of a leader in this regard. "Grab some old sheets from the cupboard in here, stick them in your clothes. They're thin enough that they won't be noticed by guards. When you get back to your cells, hide them. At dinner time, get some ketchup packets and hide them also, I'd recommend your underwear or in your bra. Use them to write on your sheets. Then when it's communal rec time(3), half of us will disable the cameras and distract the guards and the rest will run to the cells and collect the sheets and put them up."
"What about random cell checks? If we get caught with this stuff we're fucked." Brittany said.
"Who's in the cell closest to the entrance?" The redhead asked. A large, middle-aged woman puts her hand up. "Right, if you see guards coming, yell 'Death comes knocking'. If you hear that, hide the stuff. These guards won't do thorough searches without a reason, such as a tool going missing or something like that. When you're not working on them, hide them in the little space in the wall vents. They never check there."
Alison looked over towards Brittany, her friend gave her a slight nod, letting her know that she knew what they were talking about and how to open it.
"One last thing ladies," The redhead spoke again. "This doesn't make any of us friends. I don't like any of you, I don't trust any of you. However I know that it's a pact that we have that when one of us is going to be murdered, we stand together. So don't think this makes us best buddies or anything," She thought for a second, then added, "Oh, and if anyone snitches, they'll be fishing your limbs out of the drain pipes."
The new guard then entered the room, and the women returned to their work, slipping old sheets and pillow cases into their jumpsuits discreetly as they went.
-x-
Later on, Alison was writing on the old sheets while Brittany kept a lookout for any guards, using the concept of doing push ups as a reason to stay near the cell door. Alison had finished making a perfect red handprint on the sheet with the words, "Blood on your hands" on it and was now trying to secure it in the space behind the bed while Brittany gave hand signals to the inmate keeping a lookout in the cell directly opposite from theirs .
Being in prison as long as Brittany had, she had learned the prison's form of silent communication. She was already experienced in sign language, with her brother Ben being deaf, so it hadn't taken long to pick up on the inmates secret communication channels. The main ones that were used in Chester were coded letters and hand signals.
Brittany and their neighbour finished their discussion and Brittany walked over to help Alison put the grate back in place.
"Rec time is in an hour. Someone managed to get the tape so we are good to go." Brittany informed the blonde.
"Have the guards caught on?"
"Not so far, we might actually pull this off."
Alison chuckled, before noticing that Brittany's gaze was fixed on something outside their window, a thoughtful expression on her face. She followed her friend's gaze and saw her staring at the building that could be seen out their window. It was a small building, with it's own security fence and rec yard. Though, Alison had never seen anyone go in or come out of the building in the three months she had been incarcerated. She turned to her friend. "Is that where they are?"
Brittany nodded. "I just…I was just thinking about how much worse it would be if it was you in there."
Alison's heart clenched painfully in her chest, not just for Brittany's pain in imagining Alison there, but also her own pain in picturing Brittany on death row.
"We don't have to worry about that, Britt. Neither of us can be sentenced to death." Alison said slowly, moving cautiously to take Brittany's trembling hand in her own. "And we will do everything we can to make sure that nobody is killed in there."
A loud voice boomed through the corridor, "Death comes knocking!"
"Fuck." Brittany muttered as she quickly picked up the ketchup packets and flushed them down the toilet while Alison furiously scrubbed her hands to remove the red stain from them.
Two guards were walking along, peering into cells but not actually inspecting them. Alison turned to Brittany, confused. "What are they doing?"
"Looking for someone." Brittany responded. "They obviously want to catch them before rec time."
-x-
Slightly later than usual, the guards came around and unlocked the cells and directed the inmates outside into the rec yard. Alison and Brittany took their positions and waited for the signal.
"This had better work, I can't go back to the hole." Brittany mumbled darkly. She knew it was a risk and that she had volunteered, but the thought of going back there had her shaking uncontrollably.
"You won't, all we have to do i-" Alison was cut off by the sound of yelling as about eight inmates began to have a brawl in the middle of the yard. The other inmates began to scatter and head towards the doors while the guards ran to stop the fight. "That's the signal!" Alison said excitedly. "Let's move."
"Go get the sheets with the others, and don't wander off alone!" Brittany warned.
"Will you be alright?" Alison hesitated, she had known that Brittany was part of the camera disabling team and she was going to be a fetcher but she was still worried.
"I'll be fine, go!" Brittany said in a tone that left no room for argument. Alison took one last look at her friend before making a beeline for the door to their corridor.
She followed the other designated fetchers into their cells and retrieved the sheets and scurried towards the hallways that they had worked out, as planned. Her and Brittany, along with Alexis and a few others were doing the guard room corridor. It was one of the riskiest, but Brittany and Alexis had insisted that they be the ones to do it. Alison wasn't sure why, but she was sure the two of them knew what they were doing.
When she got there, Brittany and Alexis were standing on chairs, just finishing up taping the cameras, making sure to be out of their line of sight as they did it. Their bodies and hands were contorted rather uncomfortably to ensure that the cameras wouldn't catch them and blow the whole operation.
"Need some more over here." Brittany said to Alexis, who threw the roll a little harder than necessary, but Brittany caught it in her right hand all the same. She put a small strip of tape over the bottom of the lens before jumping down and jogging over to where Alison was. "Okay just hang them up and then we'll go to our cell like procedure when a fight breaks out."
Alison wasted no time sticking some tape to the banners and sticking it on the wall, stepping back to make sure that it was not on an angle. Alexis finished hanging hers and with a small nod to the girls, they all sprinted off towards their cells.
They made it back without any problem, Alison doing an overly dramatic dive for her bunk, and Brittany opened her sketchbook and began furiously scribbling on a spare page. The doors were locked and the girls waited for the fallout.
-x-
Several hours later, the sound of chains clanging together and cell doors opening let them know that their little stunt had been discovered.
Two guards walked to their cell door and began unlocking it. "Inmates, up against the wall, time to shackle up."
This was odd, usually all they had to do was cuff up for things like this. Which was one set of handcuffs on their wrists. Shackles were normally used for visits, changing cell blocks, or having a meeting with a non-inmate. Alison and Brittany complied, what choice did they have? They allowed the guards to chain their wrists before kneeling down to have the ankle cuffs secured and attached to the chains around their waists. Brittany had an extra set of cuffs attached to her wrists, since she had recently been in the Secured Housing Unit, along with a black box slipped over the locks to ensure she didn't tamper with them. This was compulsory to all inmates who had been in solitary in the last six months.
They were helped to their feet and led out towards the rec yard. When they got there, they noticed that all the inmates from their block had been shackled the same way, with some of them having extra restraints like Brittany. They were made to line up and be counted, before the warden walked out to the front, a stern expression on his face.
"Ladies," He started in a booming voice. "We seem to have had a breakdown in discipline today." Some inmates shared glances, smirks on their faces. "This kind of behaviour is unacceptable."
He took a step forward towards them. "I know how you girls are feeling, okay? I get it. One of your own is about the be executed and it doesn't seem like the trial was fair. So you're a little mad, might wanna cause some problems? It won't help anything. There is an appeal underway, that's all there is to it."
This was a load of crap and everyone knew it.
An appeal wasn't going to do anything, the only hope was a stay of execution.
"Ladies, I know that you all have strong feelings about this, or you wouldn't be trying to make my life miserable. I understand that you're all upset, which is why nobody will be going to SHU for this. But if we have another incident, there will be consequences."
There was silence for a moment. Then the sound of chains hitting the concrete with force was heard, everyone turned to see the redhead, who had given them their instructions in the laundry, lifting one foot of the ground, and stomping it back down, causing the chains to make a loud clanging sound. She repeated this over and over, and slowly, more inmates began to join in.
Alison and Brittany shared a quick look, before doing the same. Before long, all of the inmates were stomping their chains onto the concrete, creating an almost deafening noise. It was an act of defiance, as well as a show of support and solidarity for Miranda.
The warden stood stunned for several moments, before directing his officers to stop them. He raised his gun towards the sky and fired a round off, the sound startled several of the inmates. The guards then advanced, Tasers raised and yelling at the inmates to get on their knees. Roughly half of them obeyed straight away, including Alison and Brittany. Some waited for several moments before complying, and some, including the redhead, continued. The guards rounded these last few and led them off towards the SHU. The rest were sent back to their cells.
-x-
"We're not giving up are we? Despite what the warden said?" Alison asked Brittany, who was once again at the cell door signing to the other inmates. She relayed Alison's question through hand signals and quickly received the reply.
"Nope." Brittany responded.
"So what's the plan?"
Brittany turned back to the door and signed the question, the other inmate responded instantly.
"It's quite simple; we riot."
Alison looked at her like she had grown two heads. "But that's suicide!"
"There will be too many of us for anyone to be individually punished."
Alison nodded, not entirely convinced but willing to participate regardless.
-x-
"When you said we were going to riot, I didn't think you meant like this!" Alison yelled over the sound of glass breaking, inmates yelling and rubber bullets being fired from the guard towers the next day.
"Shut up and throw." Brittany yelled back as she handed Alison a chunk of concrete. Alexis and her cronies had been kicking it out of the walls since the riot had begun and they were now throwing them at the windows. The plan was to continue until either the guards regained control or there was a stay.
Alison and Brittany knew that this was not going to get a stay of execution, but they were making their voice heard. It was a miserable place, prison, Alison and Brittany only had each other for comfort. Sometimes it wasn't enough. They both missed their mothers dearly. One would sometimes wake up at some ungodly hour to hear the other silently crying, and would scurry off the bunk to comfort her. They both thought of how awful it would be to be locked up on your own, knowing that you were going to die, with nobody to comfort you when you cry. That's why the two were doing this.
The alarm sounded, and a rubber bullet hit Alison square in the shoulder while tear gas was being spilled into the yard. They didn't need any more reason to get the hell out of there. They sprinted back to their cell amongst a sea of other inmates trying to avoid the gas.
-x-
Emily burst through Spencer's front door, relieved to see all three girls there unharmed. Though now she was confused. "Why the SOS?" Instead of answering, Spencer just pointed to the TV, where a news broadcast was playing. The headline read 'Riot In Women's Prison Over Imminent Execution'
"It's Chester, Em." Hanna said sadly, "It's their cell block too. There is no way they aren't involved."
"Guys…" Aria muttered, eyes fixed on the screen.
Everyone turned to stare, and saw a fly over of the prison yard, the camera zoomed in and Emily immediately recognised a mop of blonde hair and brown standing next to her by a broken window. Alison's hand flew up to her shoulder as the bullet hit her. Brittany grabbed her hand and they bolted towards the block entrance.
Emily didn't realise anything that happened after that, her ears were pumping with blood and her face was turning red with rage. "They shot her." She whispered furiously, so quietly that the others were scared.
"It was a rubber bullet, Em. It would have hurt but it wouldn't have broken the skin." Spencer quickly stated.
"Doesn't matter," Emily muttered, grabbing her keys and her phone from the counter and walking swiftly towards the door. "They shot her."
"Where are you going?"
"Em, don't go there. They'll be in lockdown."
"You'll only make it worse!"
She didn't hear any of this, all she could think about was Alison and Brittany. She had to make sure they were okay. Nothing else mattered.
-x-
"This is the last straw! I've tried to be patient with you women but you are really starting to push it! This is going to cost a fortune in damages!"
The inmates were once again shackled and lined up in the yard. The ones who had been in solitary were this time wearing weights on their shackles. This new incident had ignited extra security. The warden was red faced and screaming at them and the inmates were also furious, Miranda had been denied her right to a pastor in her final moments.
"What's the last straw is this disrespect for a woman who's life is about to be stolen from her! Denying a pastor? For what reason?!" Someone yelled from the orange ranks.
"I don't think it's fair either but there is nothing I can do. Now stop this madness before someone gets killed." The warden responded grimly.
"Someone is about to be killed. That's the point!" Alexis shouted back.
"Look," The warden tried to reason. "I'm on your side. I really am. I'm trying to stop the execution, but they won't even consider my appeals. You're just making it harder for me. So please, stop this and I give you my word I will do everything I can to get a stay." The warden gave Alison and Brittany a meaningful glance, they were the most level headed and reasonable of the lot and he was hoping they would talk some sense into the others.
-x-
"You know, for trying to stay under the radar, you two really suck at it." Emily scolded. The prison had been put on lockdown but in return for their cooperation, the warden had granted this visit with Emily for the girls.
"We can't just let this happen. It's wrong." Brittany countered.
"I know," Emily agreed, "But my priority is you two. So please, for my sake, stay out of trouble."
Alison sighed, "Alright, Em. For you." Brittany nodded.
Emily smiled sadly, "I wish I could take those off you." She muttered, gesturing to their handcuffs , which were securely fastened to their wrists, and the table.
Alison shrugged, "Yeah well, as troublemakers-in-chief, they're extra careful with our block now." They had new rules, they had to be cuffed whenever they left their cells now, their paid jobs in the facility were off limits until the lockdown ended and their showers were now supervised. Brittany described it as a 'Power Trip on Steroids' from the guards. Alison just thought it was ludicrous.
Emily glanced around quickly, the guard supervising them was looking the other way. She took advantage of this and leaned forward over the table and pressed her lips to Alison's fiercely, gently sliding her finger under Alison's handcuffs and stroking the red skin softly.
Alison hummed into this kiss, and allowed her eyes to close for one brief second, relishing in the feel of Emily's lips on hers before the brunette pulled away. Alison blushed profusely, remembering Brittany was here. She turned to her friend, and was touched to see that Brittany had turned her body to stare out the window in order to give the girls some privacy.
"I'm going to get you two out of here." Emily said determinedly, bringing both girl's attention back to her. "I swear it."
Brittany smiled gratefully while Alison softly whispered "Thanks, Em."
"What even happened to cause the riot?"
Alison turned to Brittany, knowing that she knew more than the blonde about what was going on. "A 72 hour warning was given to an inmate on death row who used to live in our block." Brittany explained. "The trial was rigged and she doesn't deserve to die since her actions were in self defence, the deceased was the one to bring the shank, and she attacked first."
"So what did you do?"
"Well, first we made banners with things like 'blood on your hands' and 'execution of justice' and the like. Someone made one that said 'who brought the shank?' and we hung them up in the hallways and doors." Brittany gave a little smirk. "Then we got in trouble and nothing happened so we rioted."
"How long is left?"
"12 hours. Execution is set for midnight."
"Well, please " Emily begged. "Stay out of trouble."
"Don't worry, Em." Alison promised. "We will."
-x-
"Psssst!"
A hiss from across the hallway had Alison and Brittany bounding from their bunks late that night. They raced over to the cell door to see their neighbour signing frantically. Brittany gasped.
"What?" Alison asked quickly, feeling her heart beat quicken. "What's happening?"
"They're moving her, it's happening now." Brittany responded. Alison felt her stomach drop, everything had been ignored, nobody was going to stop this. It was happening. Their neighbour then signed again, which Brittany translated for Alison. "They are adding insult to injury by walking her though all the blocks. Fucking pricks," She added darkly. "So we are going to say goodbye and make one last stand."
"How?"
Brittany turned to the neighbour and signed the question. When the response came, Brittany turned to Alison. "Go to the table." Alison did, going to stand by the metal table with Brittany following. "When the others start, we will bang our hands on the table in sync."(4)
Alison nodded, and they waited. Then they faintly began to hear the sound of banging, growing louder and louder by the second. They began to bring their hands up and force them down onto the table, making a loud banging noise that was being echoed through the entire cell block. Everyone was banging in synchronisation, the noise was deafening. Alison could faintly hear the sound of chains amongst all the banging and looked out the window to see a skinny young woman with long brown hair being led along the corridor, heavily shackled and escorted by four guards, all of who had a hand on her.
"We won't forget you, Miranda." Brittany called as she passed, causing a guard to turn to glare at her.
"Shut up, inmate!" He snarled. Before shoving Miranda forward roughly. The noise slowly began to die down once they had left the block.
-x-
Alison had never understood when people said they 'had never heard silence this loud' until now. The tension in the air was unbearable. It had been roughly an hour since Miranda had been led through their block and she was wondering wether or not the woman was still alive anymore. She didn't like the chances that she was.
Brittany, hearing a noise from their neighbour, walked to the cell door. The neighbour, with a grim look on her face, gave two hand signals before walking away from the door and towards her bunk. Brittany turned to Alison slowly, a look on her face of anger mixed with grief.
"It's been done."
Alison hung her head, and let a stray tear fall. She hadn't known Miranda and probably wouldn't have liked her if she did, but she felt so sad for the girl's family, having a loved one taken in the most unfair circumstances and it being called 'justice'. "It's not fair."
Brittany shook her head in agreement. "There are still two people in there. They will come soon."
Alison looked up with fire in her eyes. "We will fight again."
Brittany nodded. "This isn't over, they will pay for what they have done."
-x-
Well there you have it, the first Jailbirds One-shot. You'll notice I put some footnote numbers in there, you'll find them below! Would you guys be interested in part 2 for Death Row or should I just leave it? I actually did a lot of research to try and make it as accurate as possible. Send me prompts! For Jailbirds or just Emison! I'll do anything, I'm not uncomfortable with anything. Let me know how you like this! Love E, xoxo
(1): A shank is the term used by correctional officers and inmates to describe homemade weapons in prison. Shanks are normally very small, sometimes only being a few inches in length, but are very sharp and could potentially be fateful. Shanks are normally made from small parts of metal, melted down plastic, even paper and toothbrushes can be made into weapons.
(2): The fishing technique is a used in many prisons today. Inmates attach a note to a string, usually pulled from their uniforms, with a small weight on the end of it, and carefully fling it under their cell door to the cell next to them, the receiving inmate uses a pencil with a hook on the end of it, usually made with melted down plastic, to retrieve to note. Using this technique, a message can be passed from one end of the prison, to the other.
(3): Communal rec time is when inmates are permitted to hang out with all the other inmates in their cell block out in a large rec yard. This usually only happens once a week in high security prisons and more frequently in low security. Communal rec time is a privilege and can be taken away and no inmate is allowed to engage in it during lockdown.
(4): This actually happens today, inmates will bang loudly on tables, doors and walls as a way of saying goodbye to the condemned who are being led to the execution chamber, and as a mark of respect.