Jail is a scary thought.  The full-time criminals probably don’t sweat it much, but most of them will do all they can to not go back to jail.  For my 3rd DWI, I was given 15 days of weekend jail.  This is my experience and if you have an upcoming weekend jail in Denton County, this might help ease your anxiety.  I was a complete basket case leading up to my first weekend.  I tried to find any information I could about what to expect, but I couldn’t find anything, so I wanted to put something out there for others to read.

Weekend jail for Denton, TX usually consists of you checking yourself in late on Friday evening.  Your PO will set the time you go in, so hopefully yours gives you a late check-in.  What you are ultimately doing is turning yourself in.  You will then sit in jail until Monday morning, typically 5:30 am when they will release you.  You will get 4 days served, even though you are only there 3 nights and 2 days.

When you check yourself in, you wait for an officer to come get you and you go into a room where they have you take all her personal belongings and put them into a bag, including your shoes (hint: the fewer personal items you go in with, the faster you will get out upon release).  They will give you jail slippers at this point.  Then you are taken into the booking area where they will put you in a metal scanner and scan for any metallic or other items.  After the scan, they will have you sit in the holding area.  Guys on one side and girls on the other.  From what I’ve been told, this holding area is quite nice compared to other county jails.  There are TV’s on the wall and chairs to sit in.  While this sounds not so bad, now let me get to why this time absolutely sucks.

The Denton County Jail holding area is absolutely freezing cold.  An officer told me the reason was for arrested individuals who came in angry.  The cold calms where if it was warm or hot, it would make matters worse.  My PO told me ahead of time to dress warm.  You can wear long johns under sweats and sweatshirts…yes, it is that cold.  And you will still freeze.  Whatever you do, don’t wear a hoodie because they will make you take it off and put on an orange jail shirt, which you’ll freeze in.  It’s next to impossible to sleep because you’re in a hard chair and can’t lie down.  Here’s the kicker, expect to be sitting there for HOURS.  When I say hours, the fastest time I was able to get through holding was 15 hours.  The longest I sat there was 29 hours…freezing.  During your time sitting in the freezer, you will be called up at random times to do fingerprints, mugshots, see the doctor…if you take medicine you need while in jail, tell the doctor at this point, and you need to bring in your rx bottle to prove you have that medicine prescribed to you.  One of my meds I never got because their process is a little slow.

The first weekend I went in, I was fine sitting in there because I had no idea what to expect after.  Will I be beaten up, stabbed, or forced to do something I didn’t want to do … movies have given county jail a bad name.  What happens after you are completely booked in is you are dressed down into the wonderful jailhouse orange pants/shirt.  This is a little uncomfortable because they check cavities if you know what I mean.  But after you are dressed down, you are taken with a group of others to your “pod”.  Each pod is supposed to be segregated by charge so violent individuals aren’t mixed in with people like me who had dwi’s.  I’m not sure how well this followed because I was in a pod with some long-timers.

The pods in Denton County are a big square room with bunk beds on two sides with toilets/showers on both sides.  In the middle is the common area with 2 televisions and chairs/tables.  At the back of the common area is the guard’s desk.  There is a guard on duty at all times in your pod, so you’re not just thrown to the wolves where anything can happen.  You feel a sense of safety with a guard always in the pod.  In the back corner is the outdoor area where people will work out (no weights or anything) and a lot of wall ball games.  When you first get to your pod, you are assigned a bunk.  You get a mattress and blankets.  Don’t expect to be comfortable because the mattress disappears when you lay on it and the pillow is built in so you basically are laying on a metal bunk with a couple of layers of vinyl between you and the metal.  If you are a side sleeper, expect your hips to hurt after laying on one side too long.  The blanket works enough because thankfully it is not as cold as the holding area.  If you are a top bunk, it’s not easy getting up and down from it…FYI.

The day goes like this…

  • You are woken up at 5:30 am for breakfast.  Yes, the food is absolutely horrible.  The cake isn’t bad.  Eggs are okay.
  • After breakfast be sure to check the whiteboard to see if your bunk is assigned to cleanup duty, if your bunk is assigned, it’s time to clean up the tables and chairs, plus vacuuming.  If you are not cleaning, you return to your bunk where most everyone goes back to sleep.
  • Once cleaning is done, you are welcome to get up and go watch TV, but again, most go back to sleep.
  • Lunch will show up around 10:30 am.  Food gets worse.  Usually some sort of beans or rice or starchy food.
  • Once everyone is done, clean up starts with assigned bunks while everyone returns to their bunk.
  • Once cleaning is done you can watch TV, play games, and go outside and this continues until dinner which is around 6 pm, if I remember times correctly.
  • Same scenario, clean up with everyone in their bunk, then return to TV, games, outside, or whatever you want to kill time with.
  • Bedtime comes along around 9:30, but I think it depends on the guard.  We were up one night until 10:30 and in bed by 9:30 another night.  Again, these times might be slightly off, but you get the picture.

Now I can only speak to the pods with guys, but nighttime is quite interesting.  If you are a light sleeper like me, especially since you are in jail, prepare yourself for the nonstop farting and snoring.  It’s like guys were trying to fart as loud as possible.  It was hilarious and annoying at the same time because it was hard to sleep.  The guard remains in the pod all night and they constantly patrol the entire pod.  I never once felt unsafe in the 4 weekends I served time.

The main part of weekend jail is just managing to kill time.  It drags extremely slowly.  I read a book.  I would occasionally call my wife on the phone.  They even have tablets that you can kill time on.  You need to create an account and put money on it to do things on the tablet, but there are games, music, and news you can read.  The guys who have been in for a while have lots of commissaries and will eat their own meals in between the jail-served meals.  It’s pretty amazing the setups some of these guys have as far as snacks and food, even drinks.  If you are a weekender, commissary isn’t an option due to it happening during the week.

If you choose not to eat the meals, which I rarely did, you can make friends by just getting your tray and asking if someone wants it.  Food is like money in jail.  Sometimes guys will offer you a commissary for your tray.  I never accepted anything, only gave my trays away.  It’s also a thing that you don’t ask people why they’re in jail.  I don’t think it’s as bad as people make it out to be, but I chose to never ask anyone.  For the most part, everyone I experienced was nice and respectful.  A few shady guys, but they never spoke to me.  I had read somewhere that county jail was like adult 24 hour daycare.  I agree with that statement 1000%.  If you have weekend jail in Denton, this is what to expect.