Saturday, August 24
Wow, totally surprised to wake up and see College Game day at 6 am! For some reason I thought there was one more week until they start, but I’m very happy to be wrong!! Plus 2 games as well, I feel my productivity dropping as I write this:) Amazing how prison can mess up one’s head as to the calendar that’s for sure.
Pretty lazy day with football and all. But I did get 2 workouts in, 12:30-2 and 6-7:30 which was good. The weather these past 8 weeks has been perfect- not above 75 with 10- 15 mph breezes during the day, 68 in evening during workout with the wind dying down to 3-5 mph. The winter version of this wind is plain cold, coming off the cold ocean, plus 20-25 mph all the time from noon-10 pm,which when combined with 60 for a high is just plain cold!
With Derek leaving, some of the people who asked him legal questions have started coming to me, assuming his legal knowledge must have rubbed off on me since I was his friend:) As annoying as some of these guys can be at times in the Yard or Unit, I’ve decided to help them as best I can, though it can take a lot of time. A Better Tomorrow will offer this exact paralegal help once we can get it up and going anyways, so good to better understand the needs for myself.
I’ve come to appreciate more about attorney’s justifying in their minds helping criminals, especially drug dealers and murderers, as many of us wonder how they do it? For me, reading how a guy brings 5 kilos of meth into the U.S. gets busted, it just feels like a bad person doing bad things that doesn’t deserve anything from the U.S. Afterall he’s helping try to kill Americans and then spend 20 years in public housing(prison) with 3 meals/day, clean clothes, running water, some medical care etc.
But then there is the human side. A lot of these guy’s are dirt poor, uneducated, not necessarily trying to do harm, just trying to earn enough money to provide for their family. Then you hear how their attorney, often times a public defender, never met with them or helped translate/explain legal things, and all of a sudden they’re doing 20 years+. That’s what makes me want to step in in and try to help, not that they’re likely to succeed on a new attorney/trial or sentence reduction, and so I do. The human condition definitely can be unfair as I witness. I just wish our country wouldn’t incarcerate these first time offenders for 20 years. If they would be offered to help law enforcement, and they do help, just give them a few years and deport them. Second time offenders is a totally different story. That’s why my compassion begins to kickin, I guess similar to how attorney’s must somehow rationalize as well.
Typing up my medical history here for a court filing today plus a bio for the ABT site. Definitely different to write about work/family/community service plus being incarcerated on a bio while trying not to scare everyone!
Sunday, August 25
For some reason I really like Sundays of all the days of the week here in Lompoc. They’re kind of like a real world Monday to me, with Friday and Saturday more like a typical weekend on the outside. So library till noon, church 12-2. Then either outside for an hour or phone calls to the East coast fam or football. Everything went smooth today, though I was outside at 6 pm and 2 guys got into it, so we were called in early and a total lockdown at 7:30. Oh well…..
Monday/Tuesday, August 26
Boom! My first official commissary after 90 days of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” around here! My “personal shopper” got me in at 6 am way ahead of the masses and ahead of Wednesday, our Units scheduled time. All for $5:) Of course that ended the next day when a bunch of Hispanic’s saw me come back and tried to sneak in the next day and upset the commisssary guards, so he stopped the 6 am for everyone. Really can’t make this up…
At 8 we went outside till 3, but I like coming into the library 12:30-3 to get out of the sun and be more productive. Helping another illegal with his paperwork (ineffective counsel) so he can get it typed and mailed this week.
With Derek gone, really focused on the book plus typing so much from the past 12 weeks. Met a guy here who should be our first candidate for FSA conditional credit to qualify for halfway house. Will try out several legal arguments so he can get to halfway house 6-9 months earlier.
Wednesday, August 28
Daily out of our Unit at 7:30-3 now. Messes up my ‘Zen” in the morning, rushing now to shower, pack everything for either outside or library. Really takes away from email typing time as can’t do anywhere else. Plus always seems to be some hiccup to the routine around lunch. One day at 10 we are in the Yard as everything is closed. Then one day we go early to lunch direct from the Yard and back. Another day they jam 400 of us into the gym(holds 250) for 20 minutes before chow then to chow and back to the gym for 20 minutes and back outside. Another day same thing but into the movie theater instead of the gym, before and after chow. Anyways, makes 10-11:30 non productive, let alone an adventure:)
Today I had a legal call at 9 am, so luckily the Yard guard was very helpful letting me off the Yard to see my counselor to take the call. Good news the legal team is energized, on top of the issues, and passionate. There are 3 attorneys working on the appeal, 2 fulltime, one halftime. Once filed I can share more specifics.
Really starting to miss Derek. There is literally no one in my Unit that I have meaningful things in common with, the one 67 year old guy is still in the SHU. I guess thats what prisons about, taking your freedom and liberty away.
My attorney wants to wait until after the appeal filing to discuss next steps on my medical treatment. I’m basically no where on the treatment, even the diagnosis front as my doctor hasn’t ever received their request for medical records. Crazy….
Thursday, August 29
Switched things up today by going outside 7:30-12 and doing 2 hour workout then, and library 12-3. The plan was to watch the first college football game of the season tonight at 5, Colorado/North Dakota State, but I did cardio 5-6 and then came in to watch the game.
I’ve made good progress helpng two guys with their legal stuff- one getting his 2255 written/typed to replace ineffective counsel I mentioned previously, and a BP-8/2241 to help someone get all their credits toward sentence reduction and home confinement now, instead of waiting till next spring per his case manager. Its amazing how much training these case managers need, or discretion they have without training or oversight. Or maybe they do and its intentional? One thing I find amazing is that a federal court in say New Hampshire can direct BOP to calculate dates a certain way, but they don’t do/implement it enterprse wide. Its not fair to their management, nor the inmates. BOP ends up keeping inmates longer than they should, in an environment of understaffing and overcrowding and tight budgets. It seems if they would just follow the laws, they would lose 5-10% of the 165,000 populationm and their staffing shortage would be 5-10% better. Win/Win in my book!!
Friday, August 30
Switched schedule up and went to the libary in the morning, and outside from 10-3 since its Friday:) Beautiful day but a lot of sun, even with sunscreen.
The library was productive helping the 2 guys with their filings. Have to admit I enjoy helping people that way. Working with attorneys all these years, I’ve always relied on them, but here I’ve really learned how to do my case and case law resarch using my own methods and analysis. It might sound boring, but reading a case ruling by a judge, applying the law to a set of facts or finding related cases is quite interesting. My dad always wanted me to be an attorney, too bad I didn’t listen:)
Ran into an inmate on the grass field inside the track yesterday. A civil attorney from San Diego. Spent an hour talking about BOP, legal stuff an so forth. Seems like a good guy, nice to have someone with similar backgrounds to chat with. He should be out this fall, and as I shared with him, now, if his credits were calculatd properly. He asked I show him the calcs which I will do later this week.
This is Friday afternoon before Labor Day weekend. I normally dread long weekends as we are short staffed here, library is closed, except for Sunday. Risk is more lockdown and cell time. But this time I have so much catchup from having so much out of unit time I’m kinda looking forard to it!!
Praying for Liberty and Freedom and to see My Family and friends soon! BJ
