Saturday, July 29
There really is nothing to do on Saturday’s other than be outside 7-9 am, 11-3, or 5-8. So at 12:30 I did a 90 minute workout then showered 2-3 before the 3:30 lockdown. Movie tonight was ok, nothing great, but at least got out of the Unit.
Walking the track this morning, my mind wandered to all the pain and suffering in this world. Even the Shatarma book I’m reading is full of violence and death in India and Afghanistan etc. I mentally started going down the track of why God allows this pain and suffering, letting the evil one play with my mind. Eventually I overcame all those thoughts remembering God is love, uses all circumstances for good, and I need to lean on my faith , not try and have all the answers.
Ironically when I was doing my morning reading afterward, there it was in my Daily Bread devotional. A story of Elsie, struck by cancer, survived barely, leaving her immobile. As she prayed to God ” what good can I do, I don’t have much money or skills and can’t walk. How can I be useful to you?” Well she found a couple migrant home cleaners she needed, and begun slipping them a little extra food and money whenever she could. In time friends did the same for her, enabling her to bless others in turn. As it says in John 4:19, we love because He first loved us. Boom, answer to my question! Clearly I was focused on the wrong question:)
So I wrote the above midday, but I guess God wasn’t done with me. This evening, our Saturday night movie called Woodlawn was Round 2! A great movie and true story of the mid 70’s, say 1973-77 right when I was in high school. The story was about a black kid(Tony Nathan, who became NFL running back for Miami for 10 years)) in high school during the heights of segregation in Alabama, and all the battles the black students faced on a daily basis in school. Plus for Tony, being a great athlete and football player, all the discrimination he faced on the field and otherwise. Ashamedly, its the exact same time I was in high school having an epic experience with tennis and my best friend Kurt,pretty ignorant of all that though we heard about it a little bit from time to time.. Long story short, a community leader rallied the football team to forget discrimination and rely on a relationship with Jesus. What a transformation for the team and community, even their arch rival, all becoming believers. Tony went on to be a star running back at Alabama and then the NFL as mentioned above. As you can imagine, I was thinking Romans 8:28″ God brings all circumstances together for good”. Wish they made more of these kind of movies, and yes Lord, message received!!
Sunday, July 28
Just love Sunday mornings when I can go to the Library at 7 or 8, skip 9:30-11 lockdown and be productive, work till 12:30, then church till 2. Sure makes Sunday’s fly by!
Should be interesting week for Derek with seeing how BOP handles him. My sense is Tuesday they move him to camp, while they negotiate settling his Lompoc lawsuit. Will be interesting to watch, though I dread the thought of losing a very good friend inside this place.
This week I’ll try my new schedule with mooning 8-9 workouts after 2 hours of writing, then library after lunch. Workout again after dinner.
Monday, July 29
Well so much for my new schedule! NO yard all day till 5 as 2 units were outside all day for their fire sprinkler renovations. Its so silly not to let the rest of us come out as a normal weekend volume is all it would be for the same amount of staff like a typical Saturday! At least its quieter here than the library with everyone there so will keep my 7:30-9 writing slot here for now.
Confirmed on the home front and with my daughter that my mail is making it through, which is comforting.
Derek got confirmed he’s moving to camp, but doesn’t know which one and when. Should find out in a week or two. Will be interesting to see how his Lompoc ADA litigation is resolved. I will certainly miss him, he’s became a dear friend, someone who I can do some good with once we’re both out. After a month of thinking about it, we decided to add Veteran’s to our ‘ A Better Tomorrow Model”. Our thinking is some are in need of many of the media and small business services we are going to offer, are already in society and ready for help, which in turn gives ABT the ability to ramp up various pieces of ABT quicker. We’re thinking the prisoner side will be slower to ramp, given they have to finish our book and program homework, get released, reestablished and so forth. I sure hope my appeal is successful as it would be wonderful to be able to push this forward next summer and beyond! You can guess what’s in my prayers:)
Tuesday, July 30
Helped my cellmate calculate his First Step Act (FSA) credits this morning. Looks like BOP shows he has a violent gun charge based on an erroneous pre sentencing report, so he’s getting that reversed which makes him eligible for FSA. Funny how they used a presentence report to load his profile, not the sentencing order? If BOP calculates his FSA credits properly, he would be eligible for halfway housed/home confinement now, as opposed to end of his sentence in 2035. Its a big deal. One of the issues with BOP in calculating credits is they only base halfway house on your actual accrued credits to date, not total expected credits including half way house duration. Its an inconsistency in the FSA statute that needs to get litigated and resolved for all our benefit. Until last months Supreme Court’s ruling on Loper, reversing Chevron deference, it was hard for an inmate to challenge. Total potential credit calculation is important as we earn 6 months each year while in half way house. So if we have 3 years accrued, and we earn 6 months each year going forward in a halfway house, that means we only use 6 months of accrual plus the new 6 months each year. Thus 3 years accrued allows double or 6 years actual half way house time, not limited by the 3 that’s accrued. Without allowing this approach, BOP’s method results in ALL ones time in half way house earned credits being wasted and not used. Impacts me as well. My 11 years remaining drops to 5.5 years total until halfway house/home confinement for example. Hopefully someone will have this litigated and resolved by then or I’ll have to!
Spent a couple hours on the book this morning as well, can’t wait for 19 more days until my email suspension is over so I can begin typing in earnest.
Good news is that Derek learned today they are trying to move him next door to camp. Now if only I could get there due to my medical needs. Was nice to take a day off from working out and let my body rest, so went to the movies and saw SALT, a well done CIA/double agent action packed film!
Hearing rumors we are outside once again tomorrow due to the fire sprinkler project-guess we’ll see!
Wednesday, July 31
As I end Month 7 here, things seem to have fallen into a consistent rhythm for me. Besides three chows a day, and lockdown 3:30-5 Monday-Friday, one’s schedule really comes down to morning, afternoon, evening blocks and what to fill them with. Exercise/yard and library/law research are 2 options, a class or a job the other. Or staying in the unit and writing,doing email/typing, reading in your cell, or TV. Oh and 3 movies/week afternoon or evening.
To date a lot of my time has been legal stuff focused, but that’s dwindling. Really all I have is pursuing my medical treatment via several legal methods, and making sure my FSA credits are being properly calculated. But they don’t matter if I win my appeal, and if I lose it I have 3 years to make sure legally they are correct, so no real rush there.
So basically my medical legal tactics, writing the book plus journaling and blog are going to be my focus area going forward, with Yard for exercise,library to get out of the unit, and movies 3x a week. Thankfully football is starting the next week for 6-7 months which will take up some of the slack:)
The only real wild card in the above is library not opening for some reason( seems to be 1-2x a week each week for some reason),or a fight in the Yard so no Yard for a few days, or overall prison lockdown. All 3 keep us more trapped in either the unit or cell depending on how severe, Combining these with how poorly the guards coordinate moves of any kind of schedule are the frustrating piece for all of us. Any move can be between 30 minutes early(so I miss) to 45 minutes late( so we just stand there waiting), so lots of wasted time either way. I’ve heard consistently from inmates other prisons never operate like this, but for some reason that’s the modis operandi here.
Thursday, August 1
Nice to have an average day, cleaned up 2 chapters of the ABT book, watched first NFL preseason game of 2025 season! Doesn’t get much better than that:)
Got back my BP-9 administrative appeal and rejected again for the same reasons. I had cited the specific policy statements why the Administrative Remedy Coordinator was wrong in my recent submissions, but she clearly didn’t read it or is ignoring it. I’ll speak to my counselor, but it probably time to skip this location and appeal to Regional Office. Hurry up and wait as they say, meanwhile its 6 moths since BOP was informed and 11 months since I was diagnosed with my serious medical condition that can cause irreparable harm if not treated, and so far haven’t/can’t treat it. The good news is after Region, I have other options to try, so stay tuned!
Derek and I spent 90 minutes on the operating plan for ABT, key activities for Year 1 when we’re out plus details around streaming show. Think ‘Shark Tank for Vets” and eventually for felons. Phase I will be vets as we don’t have to wait couple years for felons to read our book etc., to have candidates. Exciting stuff!!
Friday, August 2
Solid day today, productive plus good evening workout. Highlight of the day was that I scored an onion, tomato, cilantro, so my cellmate cooked us a rice bowl with fresh ingredients plus chicken(heat up pre packaged) and couple good sauces. Outstanding to have food with flavor:) We have a couple food sources now, so should become more frequent I hope!
Finalized our 2026 ABT Business plan and budget today. Goal will be to fund 8 small businesses who go thru the “Shark Tank” process. We will focus on 4 markets in California. The candidates will post a video proposal on YouTube, viewers will vote on recommendations, and then we will invite 40/each location to present and film a TV show. Seven episodes so we get on to Amazon Prime and Netflix. First season will focus on Veterans, then Offenders Year 2 to give that group more time to prep. The business will have the capital to launch which is awesome!
Excited for tomorrow as my girlfriend /partner in life will be here for both days this weekend!!
Praying for Liberty and Freedom and to see my Family and Friends soon! BJ