In 2009 animal rights activist Jordan Halliday spent a few months in Cache County Jail for refusing to testify in a grand jury investigation involving the animal rights community in Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. He was later released and charged with felony criminal contempt of court, something he could be given more jail time for. Cache County Jail is located in Logan, Utah and seems to abide by common jail regulations, limiting visiting time and instituting programs like Alcoholics Anonymous and Music Therapy for the self-betterment of inmates. Jordan Halliday, a man who has spent actual time at the jail can help us see what real-life inside the jail is like:
“My time at Cache County Jail wasn’t so bad. When I think of the way animals are treated and the reasons why I am out there demonstrating, protesting and informing the public on their behalf, it makes jail seem like a luxury.
The corrections officers at Cache County Jail weren’t the nicest people. They declined to provide me with vegan food and only gave in after I’d refused to eat for nearly a week and enough people called in and begged that they feed me. Even then I only received unflavored beans practically every mean (including breakfast). Honestly I think the number one reason they gave in was because they didn’t want a dead prisoner on their hands. But even after all that it still wasn’t terrible.
I was there during late winter through early summer. This meant we rarely got a chance to go outside. My typical day consisted of cleaning my cell, playing card games, writing/drawing, reading books, and watching television. The housing was divided into pods. Within each pod there were 12 cells (small compared to Salt Lake County). They then had two people to a cell for a maximum total of 24 people. I lived in the Federal Pod for the majority of my stay.
The other inmates in the jail were pretty decent, minus a few incidents. Cache County was a pretty laid-back jail. Everyone there had a story of why they were innocent, I believed a few of them, but the majority of the stories made me laugh. People were really nice to me when they heard (via the television) with what I was charged. They viewed my charge (alleged resisting a grad jury), as not snitching. I wouldn’t agree with this view but I didn’t complain. Not snitching (ie: not helping authority) is a very important rule amongst prisoners. So I was well respected, even though I had no previous jail/prison time under my belt. This made my first jail experience easy. Apart from various types of immaturity displayed by some inmates, it was pretty easy to keep my sanity. I received letters almost every day from people that supported me, which definitely helped. I wouldn’t consider jail a fun place, but it (Cache County Jail) isn’t as bad as the media makes jails out to be.”
