Friday morning on this second day of May, 2025. As much as I may want to stay in bed, I push myself to get up and get ready. There was rumor it would be a half day of work today for us, so a lot of ground to cover this morning.
I am on the first work-call move over to Education, spread my good morning cheers to those around me, then walk straight to the back where our Re-Entry department is located. A few minutes later “Nic” comes in and we begin our day going over what is going to be our first Re-Entry event of this year. Several Halfway-House personnel and Probation Officers will be attending to provide useful information to all those releasing in the next year or so.
At the 10am move we are all headed back to the units to wait for lunch. I head to my room to find two print-outs the case manager put on my bed so I could post them in the unit for him as I do every week which show the results of this week’s inspections and provide us the schedule of what day our unit is able to buy commissary, what day we have visit, and in what order our unit will be called for our meals.
While we wait, I sit in my room to read my daily devotionals. I have heard this several times, “be quick to listen and slow to speak”, but have never heard someone recite Colossians 4:6 which reads, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer”. This is amazing, and another verse I will keep close to me. Food may not have good taste without salt, so we need for our conversation to have “good taste” seasoning it with salt, so we “may know how to answer everyone” and our “conversation be full of grace” so we could live a peaceful lifestyle amongst each other.
As soon as they call lunch, I head out the door, no Rivero with me, as he is still in bed. It has been eight days now that he is in pain, and there is no assistance from medical besides being given medications. I see our unit officer outside and ask him to please make sure we get the food trays for Rivero and Cabrera in our units; he said he would find out. I arrive at food service and see the officer in charge, and as i grab my tray I ask him about the two trays for our unit, and he tells me to find him after I eat, so I could take them with me.
I grab both meals in their to-go containers, and take them with me back to the unit. I take one tray to Cabrera, then over to the Glasshouse to give Rivero his meal. I stay a little while with him and then hear the move being called, which was weird because they said we wouldn’t be working after lunch, but just in case, I grab my things and head out the unit over to Education, where I find the door open and walk in.
Several guys are there working in the Leisure Library, and some in the Law Library; I notice the doorway to Re-Entry is closed and the lights are off, so I continue over to where the Education clerks are, and I sit down to help them with some paperwork. By 1pm we were all asked to return to the unit, as Education was being closed for the rest of the day. I arrive in the unit and find Aquino preparing food in our room. “This is for dinner, so don’t think it’s for now” he tells me which means I need to find a snack because looking at his preparation is making me hungry, so I grab some saltine crackers and top them with mayonnaise.
I lay down in my bed and take a nap all the way to the 4pm stand up count. I get down from my bed and stand next to my roommate. The officer comes around and I can see her writing something down in her notepad as she passes rooms where guys are not standing. As she is concludes her count in the Glasshouse she says in a aloud, “What do you guys not understand about stand up count, you need to be standing, not staring at me while you lay down or sit on your bed” and she leaves the Glasshouse.
My roommate grabs our food and separates it into two bowls, and we sit in our chairs to eat while watching television. A few minutes later, several SIS officers come walking into the Glasshouse, and doing rounds. I notice one AIC come into the Glasshouse with an angry look on his face, and as he passes behind me, I turn my head and see he is walking towards his cubicle, where he finds one of the officers sitting on his upper bunk. The officers yell for all of us to leave the Glasshouse saying if we disrespect officers, there will be consequences. I stand up with my bowl and radio in hand and leave the Glasshouse. Poor Rivero is still in his bed; at least they didn’t bother him, but he laid there through the shakedown. The officers went room to room throwing items over the veranda onto the bottom tier. All the chairs on the dayroom floor were flipped over, radios there were left on the chairs went flying, cups that were left on the floor by chairs were spilled. This was a disaster, and from our understanding, it was because of certain people not standing for count and this one guy verbally disrespecting an officer.
Once the officers left, we all returned into the Glasshouse to find our messes. In my room, my mattress was flipped sideways, items from my locker dropped down on the floor, some spices up over my locker onto the locker of the room next to mine. Thankfully it was not as bad as I thought it would be, except for my two mango drinks I purchased from commissary a few weeks ago, were taken, but somehow it was brought back to the unit and one of the guys gave it to me. Time to clean up, stress levels are all over the place. As I tell myself this is all part of God’s plan, as other guys around me are complaining and arguing about what happened, I continue to try and stay strong telling myself, “Eddie, it can always be worst, be thankful, be grateful, leave it in God’s hands.”
We just noticed the television power cords were also taken. To me this is actually a blessing, this way there won’t be anyone up late making noise as they watch television through the night. On my way to the phone to call mom, then over to my room to grab what I need to shower. Walking to the shower, I stop by Rivero’s room to see how he is doing.
Done showering, back to my room to put my things away, dry my feet and hang my towels, I hear some guys talking about the televisions. I turn around to see them putting the power cords back on the televisions.
Nothing on that I care to watch at the moment, so I head up to Bethune and Garcia’s room to talk for a bit while we wait for the night count. The two officers walked through; most guys were standing. The same guys who never stand, once again were sitting down. This ends my night. Going to sit and watch the rest of “Gutfeld” on Fox News, then going to sleep.
Thank you God for this day and for all the great things you had for me. I want to pray for my family, friends and loved ones. I want to pray for those who are going through any health issues; “Pito”, Rivero, my roommates family member, and others. Please God continue to guide us in Your plans for our lives. I can’t wait to see what you have in store for me dear Lord. I pray for taking care of me and watching over me at all times. Thank you for my new role in the Re-Entry department here and that it will allow me to help those who are nearing their time of release. Thank you God for all you do, Amen.
Eduardo Luis Valdes
02499-506
May 2, 2025
22:37
