Saturday, November 28
Got up first thing and spent 6:15-7:45 on the 3rd section of the appeal. Getting close on finishing my notes, but need more thought so won’t send yet.
After getting ready for my kids/grandkids visiting from Florida, we met from 9-1:30. What a fantastic time! The 2 girls were so good, I had only expected them to last till 11:30. The 5 month old new born is just so happy, smiling all the time. Really never even ever cried. Her older sister is such a good girl, and when she tired around 11, I cuddled her and held her for 45 minutes while she slept leaning against my shoulders. As I’ve said a few times, the hardest part of prison isn’t all the facility based crap, or food, or cells, its really the separation from family and friends. And its for both sides, those on the outside as well!
2-3 got outside for some good exercise, though I could have used an extra hour. Lockdown 3:30-5 then same routine as last night- 20 minutes football, 20 minutes typing appeal notes till 8:30 pm. One last round in the morning and then should be ready to send!
Sunday, November 24th
Tough start to the day. Our cell door has been finnicky and getting stuck, and finally broke when the guard opened it at 6 am. The opening mechanism failed so we couldn’t get out. After 20 minutes, the guard was able to open it manually with a manual winch. Finally coffee! While summarizing my notes, the fog rolled in at 7 so fog lockdown. With our cell door broken they had us move to an dirty empty cell for 90 minutes. What a pain… Only had I known what was to come:) All the while stressing about when lockdown would be over so I could still make it out for the visit again at 9 am. Brutal…
Thankfully the family got thru visiting sign in by 9:15, so I got called right away. Whew! Second day the kiddies were a little more tired:) Plus the little 5 month old was teething a bit so more crying and less smiles. But just to spend 3 more hours together was all I could ask for. Made for a great weekend!
Had 2 good workouts 2-3 and 5-6:30. Probably last day of really decent weather. With our cell door issues, had to do the 3:30-5 lockdown and sleep in the dirty cell. Guard was clear, if not fixed tomorrow, we have to move into that cell permanently. Ughh… And its not even 55 ft., its 50 ft., 10% smaller if you can believe that’s even possible!
Monday, November 25th
Woke up at 5:45 in my new cell, it was dirty and hot for some reason. I’m used to clean and cold:) Hopped on the computer and there were 7 full length emails(15000 characters) from my attorneys wanting my review. So I hit print and planned to go to the library at 7:30 where the printer is.
7:30-9 at the library editing the emails. Also helped Steve finalize his BP 11 so he can mail tonight to Washington DC. Now we have to do a second one this weekend for his UA mess.
Made five, 15 minute calls(that’s the limit) to my attorneys from 9:30-2, as I have to wait an hour between calls. Couldn’t do a legal call as my counselor is on vacation this week and this facility doesn’t have a centralized process for legal calls. Apparently all 3 of my trial attorneys plus 3 appeal attorneys did final edits over the weekend as well. I’m definitely grateful for their passion, talent and work effort!
Back to library 2-3 to assist teaching “Practical Money Matters” class. Today’s curriculum was “How to Purchase a House”. Why they want us to teach a bunch of broke inmates this topic is beyond me:) On top of it, apparently due to budget cuts, we can’t handout copies of the material, all we can do is write on the whiteboard. At least its not a chalk board:)
Back at 3:10 to learn that maintenance never came back to fix our door. I know, shocker. That means we now have to move to the new dirty cell before the 3:30 lockdown. Fortunately I had paid an inmate stamps to clean it at 1 pm, just in case this nightmare occurred, so it was much better clean wise. But it’s so damn small. Sounds silly, buy at 50 ft., 4 feet makes a huge difference for 2 guys my size. Its supposedly for 2 PISA’s who are generally smaller 5′ 6″ guys, 160 lbs. So annoying… Ironically the BOP policy is minimum 65 feet for 2 people in a cell. Not only do they NOT follow their own policy, they have a bunch of busted doors to make cells unusable thus reducing capacity to boot! Good luck finding motors for these 80 year old doors as well!
Rest of evening a little NFL plus organizing everything. One busy day. Called my girlfriend/partner around 7:30 and she was in Newport Beach with the Florida gang, always makes me happy when they can spend time together, even without me. Plus tomorrow evening she’s having her kids/grandkids plus these 4 over for early Thanksgiving dinner as well. Pretty awesome!
Tuesday, November 26th
Commissary this morning. Went to sick call at 6:15 this morning to get a copy of my recent labs. Seemed ok to me, we’ll see what Doctor says in January…..
At 8 am I got a call to go get legal mail, my last package having three sections of the appeal. Just in time as they are filing tomorrow:) Then went to commissary, back at 9:30. Spent 1.5 hours reading the draft and sending a brief email. I realize I’m biased, but the team has done an amazing job laying out the trial errors, simple to understand, and what seems like good law to me based on my prior research. I know these were the issues, it should never have gotten this far, so will be fascinating to see how 3 fresh sets of eyes see it. If its about praying to obtain a reversal, rest assured that won’t be an issue!
Went outside 1-2 for a workout, even after a night of rain it wasn’t too wet and the temp was mild. But right at 2 when we were coming in, the temp dropped and felt like rain again, whew!
Spent 2-3 doing final organization of my things in our new cell, what a pain. At least its livable for a couple weeks until things hopefully get fixed.
Sunday evening in the Yard working out, Jeffrey(40 year old inmate from LA) handed me his homework from Section I of our book, A Better Tomorrow. He had to do work on defining his personal excellence, goals,etc. plus several chapters in Michael Santos’ workbook, Planning for Success After Prison. I read all of it and was really surprised and pleased how much he applied himself after the rocky beginning. Funny how just seeing one person benefit off one section of the book was so motivating for me. Now that I know Derek has his next section done, and I’m done with the appeal, I can really jump back into it!
Surprise Surprise. Coming back from the library at 7:30 pm after my workout, the callouts for tomorrow showed me to be at R/D-inmate receiving and departure at 10 am. That was a shock! I had no idea I might be leaving, was it even true? So began my night and next morning thought process and preparation, and of course, no one to ask and confirm!
Wednesday, November 27th
Spent half the night thinking about moving next door to camp, or heaven forbid, being transferred somewhere like Minnesota where its freezing all the time. These transfers are totally out of inmates control. Crazy what goes through ones mind. Packing, returning half finished legal projects to inmates I was trying to assist, paying stamps for past laundry service to date, and so forth. Then we only get 2 nylon bags to pack up everything with; clothes, legal docs, books, left over commissary(just went yesterday so lots). So I decided to go through all my stacks of legal docs to see what I don’t need. What a pain, and I don’t even know if its for sure that I’m leaving. All I know is that there are 6 guys with me on the callout for 10 am to R/D, all from different Units so we can’t even speak to each other and confirm.
Finally around 8:30 am, saw my case manager and he said I wasn’t going anywhere that he was aware of. Knowing sometimes they don’t even know everything going on, I was still wondering, but maybe at a 20% probability. To make things more interesting, the fog had to roll in late so we locked down until 9:40. At least that allowed me to get through all my sorting/organizing into stacks in case I had to pack quickly. I’d decided to go to R/D without packing, and if true, would race back and pack in 10 minutes.
As typical, went to our Unit door at 10 to leave for R/D,and since there wasn’t any moves going on, guard wouldn’t let me go. So, I’m pleading with him, not wanting to miss my window of opportunity and he could care less, believe me! He wouldn’t do anything to help. Finally at 10:30 the guard from R/D came to our Unit and told the guard he was looking for me. I just glared at my guard(like he cared:)) like “I told you so” and left. So I asked the other guard what was going on, and turns out I’m NOT leaving:) All for nothing!
The good news was that the Canadian consulate was visiting 6 inmates who are Canadian citizens, all trying to treaty transfer to Canada. Since I’ve requested an application, they invited me as well. Why meeting in R/D I have no clue, instead of visiting room. We all sat in a holding cell and then met 1-1 with 2 ladies from the consulate. Had a 30 minute chat, they got to know my story and will advocate for me on my Health issues, supporting my attorney’s efforts. Have to admit, pretty nice to have a government care about its citizens, what a concept! I can’t formally file my application until after my appeal is ruled on next summer, but at least I can start prepping the application. There is also a DOJ approval to begin with, which will be the hardest. The main purpose here is getting health treatments, which I know will never happen inside the BOP. I know Canada generally, and even in their prison system, is much more humane.
Worked out 1-2, then lockdown. After dinner started Steve’s BP-11, final appeal on his 60 day SHU, 6 months no phone or commissary or visitors, all due to not being able to pee in 2 hours. At 67 with prostate issues, and never had his intake by BOP Medial in almost 2 years,he should be a slam dunk with the Office of General Counsel, but we’ll see. This is his second BP11 this week we will have worked on, crazy…
My girlfriend/partner had an early Thanksgiving for her and my kids/grandchildren from Florida tonight. Sounds like the 8 year old and my 2 year year old granddaughter didn’t stop playing/laughing all night! So happy for all of them, sure wish I could have been there, that’s for sure!
Thursday, November 28th
Happy Thanksgiving! As I sit here and write this, its an interesting range of emotions I have. Not being with everyone last evening, and then again today at my daughters in San Diego. Especially just having filed the appeal yesterday reading everything that was allegedly wrongly done. I just hope and pray this Thanksgiving and Christmas are the one and only I have to spend away from the family.
I have to give the FCI Lompoc II team credit today, as compared to Memorial Day, July 4th or Labor Day, Veterans Day, MLK day. They were staffed much better and tried much harder on the meal. we had turkey (good tasting), ham (not so much), stuffing, mac/cheese, green beans, pie and Sprite, and first time ever, could take leftovers back to our cell.
While this morning’s schedule became a fog lockdown, at least we got outside 1-3 and 5-7:30 which I did 1-3 this afternoon.
Spent a big part of the evening working on the BP-11 for Steve while watching NFL, about as good as I can enjoy waiting 15-20 minutes each time for the email to let me back on:)
Was really happy for my daughter doing her first Thanksgiving for10+ people. Sounds like it came out excellent and everyone said so!!
Friday, November 29th
Started and ended the day finalizing edits for Steve’s BP-11. Will be interesting to see the Office of General Counsel for the BOP address its lack of ever giving him an intake exam or reading his pre sentencing report highlighting his prostate issues, given the incident he had with the urine sample. Especially since they gave him medication and he has passed every test since.
Had a great track workout 8-9, lockdown 9:30-11, and then back outside for weights 11-12:30. Not a bad way to start the day! While outside I ran into Jeffrey, the inmate reading our book draft and doing homework. I complemented him on his efforts, and asked him about what he means about a ‘ Convict Comedy Club” as a goal? I didn’t realize he fashions himself as a comedian. He believes there is so much natural content in prison, he’ll never run out of material. His role model is Dave Chappelle, and he wants to do his own act, pus YouTube plus run a business platform enabling others to post their convict comedy. We agreed to pick up on Sunday and discuss in the Library.
Rest of the day was inside, Steve’s BP-11, NFL and college football with Georgia’s game-8 OT!
Praying for Freedom and Liberty and to see my Family and Friends soon! BJ
