Journal Entry: Robert Jesenik-10/25/2024-Journal #43

Journal Entry

Saturday, October 19

Should be a great weekend with beautiful weather and my daughter and her long time boyfriend visiting! Since they were flying up this morning, I had time for an 8-9 am workout, chilly outside on its way to 80 today!

We had a lovely time chatting till closing around 2:45, and then they were off to a nearby winery for tasting, its becoming a Jesenik family and visitor ritual:)

After lockdown at 5, watched the full Georgia/Texas game hoping Texas would lose so my Ducks become #1. Sure enough, great game and Georgia did it! In-between I did go back and forth to the email finishing editing a 2255 court filing for a guy I’m helping try to get a new attorney and trial. For prison life, about as good a day as you’re going to get.

Sunday, October 20

The kids came back first thing until 11 ish, so had another wonderful time with them. Two weeks out till the election, its interesting to see how 2 well educated, intelligent thirty somethings are so successful, yet how little they and their generation is focused on the election:) Its clear that generation has been sheltered and can’t appreciate how risky this world can be. Based on TV one would never get that!

Hit church afterward till 2. Then outside 2-3 on a nice sunny afternoon for an hour, back outside on a beautiful evening 6-7:30. No wind which is so rare, combined with gorgeous sunset. Too bad its dark so early now as they shut down the track 20 minutes after we get outside, then its weights only. Once daylight savings time changes they close the track all evening.

Ended Sunday with NFL, nice to see Russell Wilson do well for Pittsburg. I think I did pretty well in the pool, will see tomorrow night after the 2 games.

Busy week coming up. Hopefully will see draft of my appeal, plus I’m supposed to get a letter from A Better Tomorrow updating things, which will be great to hear!

Last week they started daily cell inspections under the auspices the ‘Warden” will be doing spot checks prison wide. Good one!! Its pretty frustrating as per BOP Policy, we should only have one person in a cell if they are under 65 feet in low security, we are 54 ft. With 2 larger male adults its crowded, but they want the same ‘storage” policy as if one person, everything in its place so to speak. It just makes things inconvenient as you have to jam everything into the locker or under the bunk where no one sees, then pull out a couple hours later again. Rinse and repeat…. On Friday, they wrote up 3 Hispanics who weren’t complying, probably couldn’t comply with all their stuff:) Even those writeups will reduce your good time credits toward early release by the way.

Monday, October 21

No fog and commissary, great combo! Only took till 9 am today which was 90 minutes for commissary, not bad. And their inventory is mostly replenished, which was much quicker than I expected.

Productive typing day all day, and still hit library 12-1 and worked out 2-3. Getting the 2255 typed for my client:) Another poor Hispanic gentleman came up to me today. About 35 years old, in for 4 years, three left to serve. Turns out in 2019, his then one year old daughter had eye cancer, had it removed and has a prosthetic eye now. Requires a lot of ongoing treatment for that, even now, plus she has some other issues at age 6. Apparently his wife is depressed, doesn’t work, broke, and hasn’t taken the daughter to any appointments this past year. He tried a compassionate release which the Warden rejected. These guys generally have such poor writing skills, even if they can speak English. Here the Warden was justified based on what was provided in my view. Now the inmate wants me to help him take it to the courts with a form 2255. I really do feel sorry for these guys, its almost like they’re in a foreign country with lack of understanding the language, which I know can be scary for anyone.

Tuesday, October 22

Another beautiful morning and pretty productive day! At library 9-10 and worked on that inmates release for his daughter. Had a follow on call with his step daughter getting court information he didn’t understand. Finished getting the 2255 typed for the other gentleman. And lots of my stuff typed today!

Two good workouts, 2-3 and 5-6:30 as well. Reading a great CIA type novel by Richard North Patterson, Exile. A well researched novel by him, 2007 ish, about the Jewish/Palestinian conflict. Their imagined Israeli Prime Minister is assassinated in SFO during a visit and of course all that comes from that. I’ve learned a lot about what happened in the 90’s impacting today’s situation. Hard book to put down!

Learned I tied for second in our football pool this past weekend. So close yet so far…. Still haven’t seen my draft appeal, makes me feel like I’m stuck in neutral waiting and writing….

Wednesday, October 23

Looks like the class I’ll be assisting teaching starts next Monday, 2-3, for 10 weeks. Some sort of personal financial class, “Practical Money Matters”, so things like budgeting, credit cards, renting an apartment etc. Full class of 25, will interesting to see how many show up and/or pay attention!

Delivered the 2255 to my Mexican friend for his “ineffective counsel” filing today. Will see if anyone cares. No evening Yard tonight, so did a 12:30-2 workout on a gorgeous afternoon.

Still nothing from my attorneys.

Thursday, October 24

For such a beautiful start, not the best day that’s for sure. Started when we couldn’t go to the yard at 8 or 9. Turns out guards found some contraband in the Yard this morning, apparently dropped by a drone. These idiots that do this just screw things up for all of us. Heard they ended up sending 10 guy’s to the SHU after the investigation:) Now the two units normally outside during construction couldn’t go outside. One ended up in the gym all day and one in the movie theatre auditorium. Sounds brutal to me! Then on the electronic bulletin board there was a memo stating due to the contraband, the Yard will be closed for 7 days to everyone as punishment. That’s brutal, no outside or exercise for a week. Of course now education announced they will be closed tomorrow as well for some administrative planning BS. They were closed 4 days last week, think they could have done some planning then by chance? So basically stuck in the Unit all day Friday/Saturday. At least I signed up for the Library Sunday 7-12 🙂

To top it off, went to Bible study 12-2 only to learn its being cancelled as well. The Head Chaplain has lost 3 of 5 new hires,they quit and I can see why, so not enough staff for all they do so cutting back on everything. I could write a whole page on how they allocate their manpower but don’t think that will help anything. Lovely….

And finally, came out of our 3:30-5 lockdown to find the computers and phones down. Not sure what the good Lord is doing or allowing to be done, but at least Thursday Night Football wasn’t cancelled:) Can only imagine what Friday will look like. Turns out when they investigate, they shut everything down to dump data and prohibit outside communication by suspects etc.

Friday, October 25

Well we weren’t disappointed when we got up, nothing has changed with computers or phones. I wonder how much election coverage I can take on TV today:) One of these days I hope someone explains why the inmates as a whole get punished for someone attempting to sneak in contraband/illegal? What is it I’m specifically supposed to do or improve myself to avoid this punishment for 7 days ? Nothing, absolutely nothing, I’m not the DEA!

Given the phone and PC’s didn’t get fixed today, that means soonest is Monday. Without Yard and Library, makes for a long day/weekend! Fortunately I got a great nap after lunch to move things along:) And luckily tomorrow is a lot of football!

Writing this journal has been a good way for me to express things I really can’t say inside here. But even after just 2 days of this unproductive nonsense, I feel my motivation to do things begin to slip. Maybe because I know there are at least three more days, if not five still coming of no outside, I don’t know? One thing I can say is thank God I wasn’t here during Covid. Compared to this , this is nothing. The stories I’ve heard about months of lockdowns, plus stuck in cells/2 showers a week only to boot are horrific. Thinking back how I was at home watching Netflix complaining about not going anywhere seems pretty trivial in hindsight!

Praying for Freedom and Liberty and to see my Family and Friends soon! BJ