"It's certain doom to stare behind you and wonder at the paths you didn't take. There is only one path anyone needs to walk, and that's straight ahead of them."
—James Clemens, Witch Star

10-11-17

Dear Readers,

Howdy!

Well, this past Thursday was my birthday. My 13th b-day in prison. For a bit I allowed myself to wallow in the depression of my life, but was able to overcome it. I actually had a better b-day than last year and got a few really nice cards.

A couple of bad things did happen on my b-day though. Unfortunately, I had a dental appointment which was no fun, of course.

The other bad thing that happened is that they started making everyone wear boots all the time during business hours instead of tennis shoes as we've done for years. WTF? It's f-ing ridiculous.

I was told via inmate.com (the "rumor mill") that this is a new directive by the newly appointed Director of the B.O.P., some idiot general who was appointed by Trump (go figure).

Punishing us further by forcing us to wear boots has absolutely nothing to do with rehabilitation and serves no useful purpose at all. It's just plain stupid.

This institution has a lot of sex offenders (SO's), and many of them have talked about their extremely long sentences and how they'll be in prison until they're in their 50s or 60s (if they don't get a lifetime commitment) and they will have nothing—nowhere to live, no chance of getting a job, and harrassed with all of the restrictions.

Many of these guys have said that they plan on coming back to prison as a result. Their lives are over, and there's no way to build their life back as a senior citizen with a sex offense, so they may as well stay in prison.

What does that say about the justice system in America? There is nothing to live for after going through all of this. If you get out young and maybe just have a drug charge, it's possible. But for all these other people, their lives are over.

So, did everyone hear about the solar eclipse this past Aug. 21st? I had been looking forward to it for months and planned to make a day of it outside in the rec yard. Well, guess what? Instead, the staff here kept us in our units after lunch and during the [redacted] of the eclipse, we were locked in our cells from 2-4:30 PM. This was for "our safety." Are you kidding me? In the meantime, the staff all went outside to view the eclipse.

There is NOTHING about prison which makes us better people.

Until next time...

Love and blessings,
Kelly