Saturday, April 12th
Today was quite the exercise day! Great workout 11-1 during lunch, only 100 guys outside which allowed me easy access to all the weights. Back outside 6-7:30, bit windy and cool, but got lots of laps in on the track.
This morning made good progress on Steve’s 2241 court filing, where we’re trying to get his 2 incidents reversed so he gets First Step Act credit. Then worked on Andrew, who is also fighting for First Step Act credits on a BP-10, where the BOP is “interpreting” in an expanded manner his plea agreement to deny eligibility. Always something here that’s for sure. Not sure how people who want to help from the outside can even do it given the access and awareness issues? A real issue for our ABT non profit some day.
After getting in at 1, was able to capture a TV and watch the Masters for 2 hours, what a pleasant surprise! Rory and DeChambeau on Sunday, should be fascinating, PGA vs. LIV!
During the day, a legal newsletter came out in some folks email, so we learned Trump just hired a new BOP Director, Billy Walters III, from West Virginia. He oversaw 6000 inmates, basically what we have here at Lompoc. Hope he has scalable management skills! His first action apparently, was to reverse a recent BOP memo reducing everyone’s Second Chance Act(allows 6-12 months home confinement at the end of sentence) to 2 months maximum due to “budget savings”, which makes no sense? I’ve already observed how this memo has messed up several guys release dates this past 2 weeks. Crazy! I’m sure more to come soon!
Sunday, April 13th
Another quiet 6-9 am on Sunday morning, able to get lots typed and written. The guys all laugh at me spending $70/month(including printing) on email:). Most spend $10-$20. Couple of my “black” pals think I’m smart because I type so fast compared to them:)
Unlike last year, I was able to watch the Sunday Masters from 11-12 and 2-4 and that good finish/almost mess-up by Rory McElroy. In-between went to church 12:30-2 as well. Felt pretty tired today after all my “exercise” yesterday, so took it easy with golf. I did make it to the Yard 6:30-7:30 and power walked the track which felt good.
This next week will be a power “writing” week as pretty caught up on typing. Focus on ABT book,1-2 blogs, and some legal research on cases.
Monday, April 14th
Made it to the library 9-10:15 to get a bunch of legal stuff copied and and work on the 3 guys I’m helping. Copout for a poor Mexican guy with major eyesight issues and not getting any treatment since 2019. And the gent who was wrongly denied his FSA credits. The BOP “interprets” his sentence structure as similar to an ineligible offense because they can, without policy or statute support, even though his actual sentence is eligible. Kind of like a judge deciding to interpret instead of follow the law only to be over turned later on appeal. Somehow our justice system thinks this is the preferred way to deal with improper rulings, but I don’t understand how this works when a judge or agency does it intentionally?? Thats why I’m a big fan of tacking overturned rulings over a 5 year timeframe and getting rid of the worst 5% offenders, including bureaucrats:) The third gent has the interesting situation of being held in state court for three years, has the charges dropped at the state level, so the feds can charge him interstate which brings a lnger sentence. But the BOP gives no credit for time served while he waited at state prison. Time for me to learn a new area of the law!
Got caught up on all my stuff, so A Better Tomorrow book is priority beginning Tuesday. A 72 year old inmate who works in the library kindly invited me to sit in his conference room where he has one of 2 desks, plus 3 tables where inmates can come in and watch an educational movie, whatever those are:) At least its quiet in here, so thinking perfect room to write in. Then of course the guard posted today the library will be closed tomorrow!
Outside 1-2, good solid workout on the track. Went in 2-3 as wanted to go out 5-6:30 during chow. So made tuna sandwich at 4 to have protein boost for outside. On the hallway walk to the outside, a bunch of guards pulled several of us over and sent us back to out unit for not having our ID in our hand. That’s never a thing after 3 pm, but it is today:) So they accomplished their goal of taking otherwise motivated guys and making them not productive so they just sit around. But they got their jollies. Good on them! So spent the evening reading my 6 newspapers from last week I finally got, which of course means the mail room didn’t follow procedure, but that’s ok for them:)Same with my legal mail:)
Tuesday, April 15th
Tax day! Guess that’s one perk being in prison, I didn’t get a 1099 for $45,000 for all the free benefits I get here:) That’s right, the average inmate costs $45,000/year. Because the BOP runs so much overtime, its actually 5% higher, or $2000 per inmate than it should be. I could write a book on excess labor costs in the BOP for what its worth:) They say they need 6000 more guards nationally, but if the 33,000 guards were 20% more productive or better scheduled(with less duplication of people), they wouldn’t need OT or more people. Not sure how I got off on this tangent, except maybe last evening experience with the guards:)
Solid productive morning today, finally working on Section IV of the A Better Tomorrow Book. Felt good to get into it. Tomorrow will try and finish that Section. Just one more section after that!
Outside 1-3, hitting June gloom now, 65 and morning clouds with little wind. I really enjoy the no wind part. 65 is plenty warm without wind:)
One of the better dinners of the month, beef and broccoli got replaced with ground beef spaghetti. Seems we’re having that 2-3x week now, apparently due to “budget cuts”. Maintenance didn’t even have enough money in is budget to pay the working inmates their $20. Guess we’re fortunate compared to other locations, as some are having severe toilet paper shortages:)
Even though we don’t have commissary for 2 more weeks, my cellmate snuck in today with his maintenance supervisor. So I scored a package of Columbian coffee which will help me go the distance with my morning coffee. The reason its 3 weeks between commissary is they are short 50% of their guards, so only 2 cashiers which lowers how many inmates they can process a day. So we got bumped an extra week….
Wednesday, April 16th
Another day, another week forecast of 65/45, June gloom, no wind. I love it! No fog,perfectly comfortable.
I’ve really settled into a comfortable routine. 6:30-7:30 am, write, 7:30-9 shower/quiet reading, 9-11 more writing or typing or library. Chow , email till 1, Yard 1-3. News till 3:30 lockdown till 5, chow or outside at 5, sometimes outside or movie at 6:30. Other than the normal flareups or late moves, I can plan accordingly.
Today was a normal schedule. At 9 went to the library to weigh the birthday package with the 3 bracelets for my daughter in law and grand daughters. One of the inmates who work there gave me 3 small index card holders that normally go inside the cover of library books(the old fashioned little brown sleeves that used to hold index cards with initials and dates of who checked out a book and when:)) and package each bracelet. Yes that’s what our library still use in case anyone wonders! The scale says 3 stamps, I’ll use 5 to be safe. Never know around here….
Researched case law for the guy held 3 years in state jail for state drug offense I previously mentioned. Brutal to be in jail for 3 years and get no credit for time served and have the feds fight it. So many of these gotchas out there, and our system/people who run it just aren’t friendly/inclined toward fairness or justice. I’m not a fan of drugs by any stretch, but if I hear one more time about Lady Justice and we’re a country of laws and order and no one is above the law….
Solid workout 1-3 outside this afternoon. Wanted to go out 6:30-7:30 again but the 3 guards were here and didn’t open the Yard so no go.
Had a jolt while reading tonight. Laying on my bunk reading, I saw something moving on the floor. Sure enough a big cockroach ! He/she came out of a small 3 inch slot at the toilet base. Besides being gross,the thought of it walking around our cell at night while we’re asleep was more than I wanted to think about! We see them around the showers and floors regularly, but not coming out from the toilet. Fortunately we have 3 inch bars of soap about the size of the slot, so I jammed one in there. Guess I’ll find out if cockroaches like soap or not:)
Thursday, April 16th
Have my Threshold class today. I’ve actually come to believe its a useful curriculum and we are fortunate to have a good teacher from the outside. He was actually our guest Pastor Sunday as well, gave a way better message about Easter than either of our chaplains could ever hope to. Reflecting on last weeks topic on conflict and personal relationships, one of the issues inmates have to really learn to deal with is actual or perceived loss of one’s credibility on the outside with family and friends, and as a result, lack of influence. A lot of guys feel that with their wives, especially if they have kids and parenting issues arise. I heard that in some form consistently as we went around the room, and I know the feeling myself. Its a real thing, one we all have to learn to accept and navigate like it or not. That’s but one example of a benefit of this class, understanding that your circumstances are “generally normal” as compared to others.
After my morning and quiet reading, finally had my legal call following up on oral arguments and got to listen to the first 13 minutes of the recorded hearing. My attorney is really impressive just listening to her present to the judges! Got lots of context from her on the hearing itself. After listening, I didn’t feel that the justice questioning my attorney was that harsh, regardless my attorney nailed her response each time!
Had class 12-2 again. Focused on victims from our crime and taking responsibility and understanding the ripple effects on community, friends etc. Its actually a good process to reflect on how I’ve treated others over my entire life, so getting some really good benefit from this content. Given my appeal for an unfair trial, its an interesting “escape” to consider all this, unfairness of the trial yet victims balming me. I definitely feel bad and responsible for the end result here, especially for those I know personally, many who were long time friends or business associates. And clearly there are things I wish could have been differently. But $.95 on the dollar recovery and 14 years seems so unfair(set aside the fairness/appeal of the trial itself), especially when I see other sentences of way bigger amounts and less recovery.
After lockdown/chow, went outside 6:30-7:30 for a powerwalk, felt good at least getting some exercise. With Easter weekend starting tomorrow I know the main focus will be exercise as not much else to do!
Friday, April 17th
Nice to have a normal uneventful day. Able to do my regular schedule, so lots of writing/editing on A Better Tomorrow book and other stuff. Outside 1-2, was kind of low energy today so came in early. Maybe because I woke up at 4:30?
Back outside 6:30-7:30, bit windy and cool, but still nice to get out. Was going to do just a couple laps and then weights, but this newer guy from Long Beach wanted to chat, and my cell mate Mike and Steve also, so the 4 of us kept a decent fast pace while chatting. Mark’s only in for 6 months , but is outside all the time. This time he’s in for the red laser escapade, aiming at a police helicopter a few miles away. He just finished 5 years supervised release by the State of California after his parole, where he couldn’t go more than 50 miles from his home for 5 years! Seems like a good guy, his parents seem normal, just lost his way as a kid and now as an adult. Now he’s 19 going on 29(actual age 49) with his maturity, and lack of life skills. really tough and sad situation for him and his parents I’m sure.
Praying for Freedom and Liberty and to see my Family and Friends soon! BJ
