Amanda “Mandy” Hiscocks, a G20 activist serving jail time, is writing a blog chronicling her life behind bars.

In her online journal “bored but not broken,” Hiscocks muses on prison time (“my biggest fear is that I’ll become a cynical, nasty person in here”), complains about the quality of the underwear (“the cheapest kind known to humanity”) and dismisses the possibility of early parole (“they want to see remorse, of which I have none”).

Web developer Justin Saunders, whose organization hosts Hiscocks’s site, says her first post had “over ten thousand” visits within the first few days.

“It’s nice that so many people are interested,” says Hiscocks by phone from the Vanier Centre for Women in Milton, Ont. “But it’s uncomfortable.”

She should have known her blog would be an instant hit. Prison diaries are a hot commodity. Earlier this year, rocker Courtney Love, Lil Wayne and U.S. student Amanda Knox, who all spent time behind bars, announced multimillion dollar deals to release their memoirs.

But Hiscocks, in accordance with her anti-capitalist beliefs, chooses to use her material as an educational tool, not a money-making one.

“In this day and age of conservatism, fear mongering and Bill C-10 (“Safe Streets and Communities Act”) it’s really important for us to have a good understanding of who’s in jail and what purpose it’s serving,” wrote Hiscocks in January. “I hope I can contribute to that.”

Last November, the 37-year-old veteran activist from Guelph pleaded guilty to counselling to obstruct police and counselling to commit mischief — or, in the words of fellow activist Monica Peters, “to do smashy-smashy.”

Hiscocks is serving her time in unit 2F maximum security at the Vanier Centre. Leah Henderson, another G20 activist who pleaded guilty, is down the hall in 2A.

“I can see her,” said Hiscocks, “but we’re not allowed to wave or smile at people in other ranges.”

She writes her blog on paper in prison, then sends her entry by mail to a friend who types and posts the entry online.

“Not much has changed since the summer of 2010,” writes Hiscocks in a Jan. 29 entry, “just some little things, like now we get compostable ‘ecotainer’ cups instead of Styrofoam, and instead of real soy milk there’s this horrible smart milk non-dairy milk replacer powder. Kosher, vegan and gross.”

In jail, Hiscocks craves her political news fix. “For someone who used to watch Democracy Now! every day and read The Dominion on a regular basis this is quite a shock to the system,” she writes.

Hiscocks describes her daily routine in a February entry titled “home, home on the range,” deploring the afternoons when the television is on.

“This is the time of Really Bad TV: Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Silent Library, Scare Tactics,” she writes. “It’s painful, and hard to get away from, but I’m getting better at tuning it out.”

Still, it’s not all bad, she writes: “My fears of a shelf full of Harlequin Romance novels and Danielle Steel were unfounded!”

At times, the blog is personal, such as when Hiscocks recalls her cellmate — a loyal Scrabble and backgammon partner — commenting on a lockdown. “We’re not getting out any time soon. And we still don’t know why. As my cellie likes to say, ‘We’re just mushrooms, they like to keep us in the dark.’ ”

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Hiscocks says the reaction to her posts so far has been incredible.

“I’ve had really, really good feedback,” she says. “People seem to love the blog.”