Saturday, September 28
Nice to have a day without any hiccups to the schedule for once! As I approach September 30, thought I’d status my goals from July 6th to measure progress. I’m afraid I was a bit optimistic and will be needing to shift my goal date from 9/30 to 12/31:) Oh well , at least I know where I stand!
* Run 2 laps in 8 minutes
– haven’t tried due to my symptoms, but last jog attempt felt better. Will try harder now
* 200 pushups/day- 80-100 now
* 120 sit-ups /day – 40 or 80 every other day
* In medical treatment for my auto immune
or filed compassionate release
– neither but counsel preparing letter
* filed appeal- will be mid November now
* filed for Canadian Transfer Treaty
– prepping now but can’t file until appeal process done next summer
* ABT letters to 30 Influencers- not sent
* Speak Spanish sentences- class teacher/students all quit:)
* Get caught up from 3 month email suspension- Done!
* consistently post blogs- 11/1 target
* New Goal:
First Step Act credits tracker/challenge issues
Definitely made progress, but lost some ABT momentum not being able to communicate with Derek. Most legal goals seem to drag and take longer are out of my control as well. As my legal appeal winds down, will have more time to focus on remaining items
Sunday, September 29
Two days in a row! Normal Sunday schedule which was nice. Library 7-9, church 12-2, outside 6-7:30. Not sure why or what triggers this, but the past few days I’ve really felt like a caged animal, just wanting to get out of here. Everything and everyone just bugs me right now. I know I need to be menetally strong, so am fighting it, but its there. Doesn’t help to constantly see the hypocrisy of our government 24/7, imprisoning U.S. citizens while letting hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, some bad criminals, roam free with no consequences!
Last night got a weekly legal newsletter email stating BOP just changed policy and wont let emails inside with more than 10 names on the address list. If this stands, will just further cut us off from the world of information out there. No more legal news, church/faith newsletters, or any email newsletters.
Maybe my mood is because I’m hitting the 9 month mark this week, or maybe something else is bugging me. Just have to see.
Monday, September 30
Nothing like a good night sleep! Fog count till 10 am, so I decided to start writing in my cell on top of my storage locker. My journal is more of a daily thing, but haven’t done my blog for a few months between the suspension and typing catchup on email. But I’m pretty fired up on some BOP related topics, and have the bug to write some more again, so I’m starting a series titled ” Facts of Life in the BOP.” I intend it to be constructive, factual, and solution based. With my work related to the appeal and even medical treatment winding down, I have time to write the blog plus the ABT book. We’ll see what people think. I hope this will also help A Better Tomorrow connect with media and other influencers relating to prisoner success and what’s required.
Had a nice track session from 9-10 and then shower/lunch and more writing. Fairly productive rest of the day typing prior journals from August:) And a beautiful evening for a workout 5-6 followed by 2 Monday Night football games. Best part of course is I won the pool for the weekend, 4 stamps paid 50!!
Tuesday, October 1
Waking up today to an Israeli ground attack into Lebanon, terrible after effects from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, nd a VP debate at the end of the day. Oh forgot the 45,000 east coast dock worker strike. What a mess, all in the middle of an election, crazy!
Here it is October, and we’re hitting a week of 80 degree weather, no fog with beautiful sunrises and warm mornings. I’m doing 2x a day workouts as long as I can with this weather. Of course, most of the prison inmates are outside in the mornings now as well!
Hitting my stride on the blog finally! Also met with my counselor to get a BP-8 to challenge when I go from 10 days/month credits to 15 days/month. For some reason BOP doesn’t change their policy or software when courts rule a certain way, so when I asked management here, they recommended I should pursue this method.
Last few days really have been cranking on typing, posting three book reports and 2 weekly journals. Almost caught up from 3 months suspension:)
In the library today, someone from Education asked me if I wanted to teach a class? Looks like I will be co teaching an entry level personal finance class Monday’s 2-3 pm for 10 weeks, which is fine by me. Will show another productivity for my case manager. When he mentioned they were launching 3 new classes I told him I wanted to launch a new class, so he referred me to the head of education. I met with him, the same guy who delayed this request last May, and told him what happened to refresh him, and he asked for the package again. Hopefully the timing is better this time!
Skipped my evening workout and watched the VP debate, given all the fireworks from the morning.
Wednesday, October 2
Not sure why, but something clicked for me this week attitude wise. End of last week I wasn’t in a great space, but all of things feel calm, clear, and I’ve been very productive. Kind of strange but I’m not complaining:)
Had 2 workouts today, 9-10 and 6-7:30. Another gorgeous 80 degree day and no wind which is great but strange. Made the evening beautiful and the sunset was spectacular.
Otherwise stayed inside 10-5, writing and typing. Almost only 30 days behind on my journal typing which is the buffer I want to keep. After all this typing the past 45 days I’m getting the urge to write again, so pouring myself into the blog. The series on what to expect/prepare for prison is almost done. The next one on prison reform will be a long series, from sentencing , to judges and prosecutors, BOP culture and operations, etc. Hopefully ABT will have its site up by then and can link to Prison Professors where they are being posted. I’ll probably write 5 blog posts, build up a backlog, and then begin posting so I always have a buffer to edit from time to time and then post. I sure hope some of the Influencers ABT will be sending letters to will see them to provide some further context. Stay tuned!
Thursday, October 3
I know I sound like a broken record on this, but it is so unproductive for the inmates, and annoying to me, to schedule out a day and then with no communication the guards shake it up for no reason, at least one they communicate. Today was one of those again. No 8 am move to the Yard, so now I can’t go at 9 to workout. So I showered at 8 and flipped my plans from afternoon to morning to go to Education at 9. Of course at 9 they called Yard anyways so I missed that, walk to Education, only to be sent back as they are closing at 9 for the construction workers, Ughh… enough of that:)
So after getting back to the Unit, I decided to write my blog till chow. The guards then didn’t call a 12 or 12:30 move so we couldn’t go to 12 pm bible study for some reason , so I just took a nap:)
Knowing we had a lousy dinner of two lousy hot dogs, I made a tuna sandwich at 4 and went outside 5-7:30 and did track and weights and after walked the track for another 45 minutes on a beautiful evening. Came back and watched fourth quarter of Tampa Bay beating Atlanta( or so I thought), ended up losing so , 0-1 going into the weekend!
During the game an illegal Hispanic came up to me asking I could help on his BP-11, a final appeal to BOP Regional General Counsel. Funny how they just come to me that way out of the blue. Poor guy, he’s probably 40, has some form of septic ulcer/cancer, hard to say, and can’t get any real doctor treatment. So he’s appealing his rights. Just a little reminder that everyone has a story, here legally or not. Its so inhumane and discouraging at some level. But all one can do is self advocate and persevere in this environment, and I’m happy to try and help!
Friday, October 4
It’s my girlfriends/partner’s birthday so Happy Birthday to her!! Just bummed I can’t be there for and with her! She has 6 days of friends and family celebrating with her, so it should help ease the pain:)
As I tell her, every day I wake up and think about what I can do to get home, and today is no different. What was different this morning was my quiet reading time , two of my devotionals really spoke to me. The first was about having faith in the WORD, and to not get distracted by circumstances or pain/suffering. As it says ” You pray and establish your witness. That’s your part. If you do it, God will back you. And when He backs you, everything has to either get in line or get out of the way.” The next devotional reinforced this with ” I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. I prayed as firmly as I could for my appeal to be 100% successful and to have my girlfriend/partner drive up and pick me up at the gate next summer! No ifs, ands, or buts. I just hope God’s plan and will for my future are the same as mine:)
Was at Education 9-10 where I got my BP-8 typed for the new First Step Act issue on my credits. Really unfair and unfortunate we inmates have to stand our ground for what is legally ours as opposed to the BOP just doing it on their own. In this case, its about what I mentioned above, when do we start earning 15 days/month credits vs. 10 days/month? The law and BOP Policy both state” has maintained a consistent minimum/low risk of recidivism over the TWO most recent assessments”. To me and the Courts it means two assessments or 6 months after the first assessment. Somehow the BOP programmed their software for meaning “during” two consecutive assessments so at end of second assessment/beginning of third assessment, which is 365 days as opposed to 180 days. This costs any inmate 5 days /month for 6 months or 30 days/1 month of credits. Its not the end of the world, but still a real number. And more important, the BOP is making its own interpretation of the law, as it seems to do quite often. Its quite unfortunate that after 6 years of the First Step Act being approved by Congress, BOP is still not operationally consistent with the law, thus the BP-8 process etc. One would think its not lost on BOP that maybe 75,000 inmates eligible for these 30 credits/days less in confinement at $4000/month per inmate is $30 million that could be saved as well!
We had an 85 degree, 12 mph wind afternoon, so got a nice leisurely walk on the track 2-3 pm before lockdown. My cellmate made burritos for us so we could skip the meager dinner and then watched my Oregon Ducks trounce Michigan State on national TV the rest of the evening!!
Praying for Liberty and Freedom and to see my Family and friends soon!
