On a Thursday, two weeks ago, I am leaving work at Unicor and I look at the next day’s callout and see my name for R/D. I wonder why because there is a rumor going around that they are gonna ship out all care level 3 people, people with walkers or that are mobility challenged, on breathing machines or have medical care needs that can’t be addressed in Aliceville. I still do not know why specifically I have been transferred to Carswell, TX because I haven’t seen medical here.
You see Aliceville doesn’t have anything but 1 Dr. that you see on TV, a couple of nurses, and an ambulance service that is 45 minutes away. Outside medical trips are far and few because they don’t have the staff to do transport there either. I should know, I was approved for a CT Scan w/contrast in Jan. of 2023 and it was finally completed in Jan. 2024.
Friday morning I report to R/D and I am told “You are packing out, bring your stuff.” I have 3 lockers to go through…my regular locker, my hobby craft locker, and my legal locker…I report at 10 a.m. to pack out. They start going through my things and I hear, “you can’t take that”, “you can’t take this.” I bring things back to the unit and back to recreation and give them away. I probably lost close to $100 worth of property.
When they are packing my legal stuff the lady says to me, “You have 32 legal books, what do you need 32 books for?” I say “I am sorry I did not sit on my ass for the last 20 years and made something of myself while here in prison.” She says we’ll pay for you legal papers but you’ll have to pay for those books or else donate them.” I say “No you’ll pay for those to, give me a LT.” The LT shows up and goes through my books and asks her “What the problem is.” She says “There are 32 of them”. He says “They are all legal books ship them.” She was pissed, but I got all my legal books.
I go to work to say goodbye to everyone. People start crying, I start crying. I hate to cry. I get to spend a weekend with my friends/family. They make a cheese cake and food. We watch a movie. Monday morning at 2 A.M. they come get me for my trip.
There is no medical there at 2 A.M. so I can’t get my motion sickness medication. I know this is going to be a horrible trip. I get sick if I am a passenger in any type of vehicle. Been like that since I was a child, Dramamine is my best friend, and I have no medication waiting for me. 20 minutes into our trip I start getting sick. 6 hours later I am rung out and grateful that I am at the transfer center in Oklahoma. My sugar is 365 from my trip. I am a bad traveler.
I walk in to the transfer center and see tan walls, peach colored doors and mint colored trim. There are at least 100 other women waiting to go to their destination. I am exhausted and just want to sleep, but I have to put something into my stomach so I eat the bag lunch they give, make my bed and fall asleep.
5:30 in the morning they come to give me my insulin. I am still high even though I took insulin the night before. I know it will take a day or two for it to get back to normal. I fill out a sick call form to try and get motion sickness medication for the part of trip. I am turned down. The next Tuesday they come at 2 A.M. again, but this time its for a 4 hour bus ride to Texas. And if you said, “she puked,” you’d be right.
At about 9 ish we pull into this complex that looks huge. There are multiple buildings that are at least 4-5 stories tall and grounds that look a good 1/2 mile long or longer. They take us through this maze to get to their R/D department and put us into these brick rooms that are freezing. They start yelling out names and take us to a different room. Time to “cough and squat” and change clothes, than back to the cold room. We see medical, unit team and are assigned housing space.
I have a lower tier lower bunk pass and am assigned a room in 2 North. My Bunkie is a 79 year old lady that is probably going to die here because she has longer sentence. Who gives these sentences out to little old ladies anyhow? I know several people here and they give me clothes, hygiene and shoes. Thank the Lord for that.
The next day I go exploring. This place is as big as it looked. The Officer at Recreation recognizes me. Ms. Walker says “You are going to teach classes for me here. I need a good teacher. Come see me on Sunday.” I say “Okay” and show up on Sunday.
Today is Monday. I have just gotten done at the Labs where they took 5 tubes of blood and made me pee into a cup. They are running the normal test, except for 1, Pregnancy. Really? I am 55, haven’t had a period since 2016, and don’t have the parts to get pregnant again. “If I am pregnant” I tell her “I am carrying the next Jesus”. She says “It’s mandatory.” I think, “Waste of Govt. money.”
Tonight I go over to Recreation and start a project to show them so that she can have an idea of what I can do. I have started 3 classes already and signed up for several more. I will still continue to fight for my freedom but in the meantime I will make the best of this situation.
