No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison

by Behrouz Boochani

The system discriminates between the prisons. Sunday is scheduled for Oscar, Monday for Delta, Tuesday for Fox. But, at the moment, the prisoners from Fox can also access the phones every day from morning till noon. They have so much more time than those in the other prisons. This program is not permanent — there are some weeks, for instance, when the prisoners in Fox can’t use the phones at all. The rules and regulations change weekly. Sometimes at the beginning of the week all the numbers are recorded on perplexing schedules. And it is confirmed that, for instance, MEG45 can make a call on Thursday morning at ten past eleven. But this is not always practised. At the start of the following week the rules and regulations might become less formal. Whoever stands in line earlier might get to call. There are times when the telephone queue starts at nine o’clock in the morning. Sometimes at eight. And other times at ten. And telephone time expires maybe at midday. Sometimes at one o’clock. And other times at two. For weeks these rules and regulations seem not to change, but when the prisoners get used to them new rules and regulations suddenly emerge. More distortions within an incomprehensible system; a system that engulfs one’s consciousness deep inside it. The system fragments and disorients the prisoner to such an extent that he is alienated from his sense of self.