Journal Entry: Robert Jesenik-12/04/2024-Journal #49

Journal Entry

Saturday, November 30

Weather continues to be mild-sunny high of 70, low 45. Not bad for Thanksgiving weekend, and same is forecast for reminder of next week! Given the long weekend and having filed my appeal(well my attorneys did:)), my time should really free up. So I pulled together a list of to do’s for December, crazy how much is there for being in prison and with no fulltime job or ability to do anything but Yard, TV and Library.

Ongoing all Month- Daily Journal, Blog, Book Reports, Type ABT Book, Section III , Write 2 remaining Sections of ABT Book

Prison Related- update my release plan and copy books reports for January meeting with case manager(semi-annual)

Legal

– get other defendants appeals and read
– review all my medical folders- appeal, injunction etc.
– help other inmates

Medical

– have my attorney write BOP office of General Counsel to get treatment plans plus move to camp earlier
– have Canadian Consulate send letter of support
– send them background information
– send most recent blood work results to my daughters to get to my son to get to my Dr.

Miscellaneous
– have my son assist me in signing up for DOGE as a volunteer
– write/send Christmas cards
– Get presents mailed
– write letter to Lane
– write blog on “Why bad things happen to good people”

Better get to work!

Solid morning writing/typing till 8, 8-9 workout, lockdown, 11-12:30 workout. Brought a bunch of samples of my journal, blog posts, PowerPoint for A Better tomorrow business plan, for Jeffrey, and walked him through all of them so he can perhaps start writing, posting and build up his own content. That led to a conversation of goals and a business plan for him, so he is going to expand his homework on personal excellence and goals to include first 3 years out of prison plus now write a plan for his comedy business. Hopefully these examples show him the WHAT and HOW to do that. Tomorrow at church I will bring him the book, ” The Sentences that Create Us ” from Pen America the non profit, to help learn about writing a comedy skit etc from prison. We then discussed his not liking to answer more strategic and theoretical questions on goals and book authors and so forth needed in Prison Professors workbooks like Plan for a Successful Release from Prison. To frame my response I asked him if he had ever had a college education, already knowing the answer. Then explaining that reading, writing and critical thinking are all skills you get by doing work like answering these questions, and he can then use those new skills and thoughts in his business and life. Sort of like gold medal gymnasts or any athlete, they still have to do lots of things beyond the sport, like study film, study their technique, even pushups that are foundational etc. That resonated with him so will be interesting to see how he responds going forward.

He also brought a friend Marcus over, who he has been speaking to about me, and he listened in as well. Turns out he has plans similar to A Better Tomorrow and our in person residential model where we train life skills and job assistance capability. He is bringing out his plan and give to me Monday. Sometimes I feel like this is really why I’m here, as God reveals’ these steps so slowly. Offsets the times I feel like I’m being punished by Him even though deep down I know that’s not the case.

Afternoon was college football, and after lockdown at 4:30, Oregon vs. Washington and Texas vs. Texas A&M. Not a bad evening, definitely the most relaxed I’ve been watching an Oregon /Washington game in years, 49-21:)

Sunday, December 1

I can’t believe I’m writing December, like the year is almost over. I could swear I got here a couple months ago, I remember that day so vividly!

Another gorgeous sunrise, and will be nice day and week as well. Tried to go to library at 7, but I think no guards available as nothing moved till 8. So went 8-9 to get reloaded on books to read and help Steve get organized to file his BP-11.

Picked up a very good Grisham book, so read 9:30-12, hard to put down. Was feeling tired all day so just took it easy , skipped church since the guards were so late with the move(instead of 12:30 was 1:15), so would only have been 35 minute service. Walked outside for fresh air 2-3, perfect sunshine. Chatted with an American Hispanic guy, about 35 while we walked. Nice guy, he had given me a devotional to read a few months ago. Anyways, he is leaving day after Christmas. He could have left with his credits 7 months ago, but the case manager never processed his paperwork back then as it takes 4-5 months for parole to confirm you have a home confinement location which is satisfactory. Somehow the case manager forgot/didn’t change the address, so he is getting out and halfway house only has room for 30 days due to capacity issues and still no approved home confinement location. So home confinement is now 6 months hotel pus food allowance to allow time to find a job and get new location approved. Incredible:)

Rest of the evening spent watching Sunday Night Football and listening to coverage about Hunter Biden and his pardon. No surprise to me, but sitting in prison and hearing the justification by the President of “unfair treatment” being the basis for doing so seems so corrupt on many levels. Apparently he’s the only person the DOJ has treated unfairly:) No one is above the law is such BS. Guess we can add him to the list of exceptions. From an inmates view, all the President had to say is ” I’ve received thousands of pardon requests, my team has been working hard to review them, and I’m announcing 200 pardons including my son. That’s it. Instead it comes across as purely selfish and self serving to inmates (and the country from what I see on TV) based upon what I’m hearing inside here. I’m sure its motivational to so many of these guys’ who already feel screwed by the system and that its rigged…..

Monday, December 2

Today is the first day I didn’t have to do anything on my appeal. Feels peaceful, knowing there’s nothing I can do to impact my potential freedom until the 9th Circuit rules later next summer.

So, after some admin cleanup stuff this morning on a cold, but clear 36 degree morning, went outside 9-10 to get a good workout in.Then started typing Section III of our book which I haven’t spent much time on since September when Derek left to camp. Back at it now that ABT is in high gear. Also fired off a journal and another blog post on “Facts of Life in the BOP”. I’ve only got 2 posts written waiting to post, so better start writing again. Generally like to write one, and work on 2-3 different ones a week thereafter. Off to the library at 2 to teach class, but the move was late at 2:20 again, so we had a 20 minute session:) The topic this week was credit, all you can learn in 20 minutes:) Statistically this still counts as “programming” by the way.

After lockdown watched Bo Nix/Denver slip by Cleveland. Another ex Duck quarterback beats Jameis Winston, just like the 2014 Rose Bowl:)

What a fiasco the Hunter Biden Pardon has become. As I said yesterday, all President Biden had to do is pardon a few hundred people plus Hunter and everyone would have dealt with it. Now he’s defending “he trusts the DOJ” while criticizing his son’s unfair prosecution”. How does that work? I heard a black commentator on TV open up this morning about his brother being unfairly treated let alone how many others in the black community? Guess it’s how they must be feeling, seeing white power vs. the powerless? I’m white and even feel that way:) Having been in prison, I now have a much better appreciation how every President /Governor should prioritize the “fairness ” issue. Especially for first time offenders. I’d wager 10% of the 2.3 million incarcerated people were unfairly treated, that’s 230,000 Americans, not including family members and friends that were also impacted. And that’s an annual number! I just shake my head when I see the energy of this government to rescue 5 hostages from China or 5 from Hamas. But in a sense these folks are hostages as well, and even worse as its their own government detaining them!

Tuesday, December 3

Well, here we go. Woke up to fog, even though was 36 last night, and should be 72 today. I’m afraid the fog will be kicking in quite often now, but is been a beautiful fall fog wise. So lockdown at 7!

Really can’t make this up, so I’m writing about it for therapeutic purposes. Four months ago in August when I finally saw a doctor for my autoimmune and he wouldn’t accept a copy of my doctors letter, he decided to cancel my Vitamin D prescription. A few years ago my blood tests showed me pretty low Vitamin D, and now I take 3x a week, and I can really feel the difference , energy and brain clarity wise. Well that doctor decided decided to cancel my prescription since my Jan 2024 labs when I got here showed me at the high end of the range for Vitamin D. Not lower it, cancel it! So in October when meeting with the Assistant Health Services Director and Head Doctor, they agreed to reinstate. When that didn’t happen,I saw the Assistant Health Services Director at lunch, and he stated the same thing, high end of range. Again. So today, rather than fight it, I went to sick call at 6:15 am and asked the nurse if she would help. Thankfully she did and I got it renewed, 4 months later! When there’s a will….

Tried to type after lockdown, but not really into it. Seems like a bunch more emails to family and friend keep using my 15 minute slots. I guess I never fathomed finishing the Appeal would make me feel so “lethargic’ towards other things, but it seems to right now. Guess I’ll see how long this lasts:) Outside 2-3 then inside the rest of the afternoon/evening.

My cell mate has really gotten into making leather goods in the hobby shop, and in our cell. He hand cuts and hand sews purses, handbags, wallets and wine bags. Sometimes just out of peoples scraps as well! He can also buy $2-300 of leather wholesale every 2 months so ends up piecing together the new plus scraps. So I had him make 5 wine bags for each of the 4 kids/sig. others plus my girlfriend. They shipped today so will be interested to see what they think!

On the good news front, after an 8 month wait list, finally got into a psychology class, Alcoholics Anonymous. This is a step toward being accepted to the RDAP program if I’m still here. That program, about 600 hours, takes a year off our sentence plus is probably useful from an educational perspective. Tomorrow is first session:)

Wednesday, December 4th

Another fog count, plus woke up to DIRECTV being out so no news this morning:) Hope BOP paid this bill!

This morning another Hispanic gentleman with pretty good English skills came up to me and wanted some advice. Its basically the same issue as Steve, he has a drug sentence and guns sentence, but his are concurrent, different than Steve. Haven’t seen that before, so will see if he can get First Step Act credits as the gun charge is eligible. The law isn’t specific on the topic of one sentence being eligible and one not, but BOP has used a policy that the law must be read with a 1984 law about combining multiple sentences into one for ‘Administrative Purposes”, and thus takes the position ALL aren’t eligible. Now with Loper case overturning deference to what Agencies say by a judge, I am curious to see what courts say. So I’ll help him with the remedy process while beginning research on the case law.

Another morning fog lockdown until 9am. Finally got into typing mood again after a week of lethargy after filing the Appeal. So I’m cranking on Section III of the A Better Tomorrow Book. Need to also type a weekly journal. Next will be writing time-both for my blog and the book. Really feels like a weight off my shoulders and no rush for time on anything instead of fighting the BOP internal scheduling machine for “moves” and everything being late all the time!

Walked outside 12-1 as I had my first Psychology/ AA meeting at 1. Been on the waitlist for 9 months, and finally a spot opened up. By the time everyone got there its 1:25 so only went for 30 minutes. A lot of the guys I know are in this 25 person session. Apparently they have 2 of these sessions, and go every other week. This will hopefully be educational, and also help me qualify for the RDAP program, which is the year long drug and alcohol program.

Skipped dinner and at 5 went outside for a good 5-6:30 workout. Fortunately our DIRECTV came back on at 4, so got my normal 7-8:30 slate. Rumor is the bill really didn’t get paid:)

Thursday December 5 and Friday December 6th- out of space here:)

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