The next paragraph...

...in My Road Home:

Two hours later the cell door is open again and cheese sandwiches, wrapped in cellophane are brought in. I pick one up, I can barely look at it, much less eat them. The bread is soft, mushy & wet. The cheese is a color I have never seen before, it has kind of a greenish look. Ugh. I glance around, doesn't seem to be bothering anybody else; they're all eating away happy as could be. I quickly learn an important rule; you're in prison now, forget everything you were used to out in the real world. Unless I want to starve I will have to eat this type of food sooner or later. I manage to take a few bites. Then I sit, and sit some more. All of a sudden some career criminal comes over and asks if I'm going to finish my cheese sandwich. He looks like he's going to take it regardless, so I hand it over. A few hours later my name is yelled out, "Let's go Byrne, we got to hurry up and get you on the 3:00 p.m. bus to Rikers." Apparently the 3:00 one is the last bus each day heading out there, so it's either that or stay in this holding cell all night, I don't know which one will be worse. About 30 prisoners are lined up waiting to board, the sun is shinning, it's a hot and beautiful summer day. It means nothing to me though. As boarding begins I'm to be shackled at the ankles & wrists with the guy standing next to me. As luck would have it, standing next to me would be Carlos, a methadone addict coming off a 5 day binge, who hasn't bathed in God knows how long!! He was anxious to inform me that he "hasn't taken a shit" in 4 days." Carlos and I grab the very last seat in the back. The bus temperature must be in the 100's, I don't see a single window open, just hot air being blown around by a fan that barely runs. The huge metal gates of the Manhattan Detention Center open up and the bus begins it's journey to "the island" as Rikers is commonly referred to. As we inch our way through Chinatown, young boys, on their way home from school, spot the "prison bus" and begin to mock and taunt us. Through the windows I can hear and see them yelling out stuff like, "Losers, you guys suck, hope you die in prison, etc......" I just can't believe this is happening.