"Hail to the speaker and him who listens! May whoever learns these words prosper because of them! Hail to those who listen!"
—Havamal

06/18/18

Dear Readers,

Howdy! Many blessings to all!

Well... let's go over some recent changes. Several weeks ago, my friend Ben was transfered. He was my best friend here and the person I hung out with the most. Ben's "security level points" were for a Low, and this prison is a Medium. Your points go down over time and with clean conduct (i.e. no "shots").

You don't really have a choice in this and you can request where you'd like to be sent, but the BOP can send you anywhere. Ben wanted to go to Elkton, OH (if anywhere), but he ended up being designated to Ft. Dix, NJ. He definitely did not want to go there. Ben would have preferred to stay here, but they don't give you a choice in the matter. He would have had to receive enough "shots" (incident reports) so that his points went back up to Medium without causing so much trouble that they'd want to transfer him to another Medium just to get rid of him.

It's supposed to be a privilege to be sent to a Low. "Oh, you have Low security points, so we're going to transfer you to a low security prison! Woohoo!"

NOT! It's still got a fence around it. But instead of cells, where you can have some semblance of privacy, most Lows have open dorms with cubicles. I think you can seal your outgoing mail (unlike here) and perhaps people can send you books in the mail directly (ours have to come from a business). Oh, and I think you can watch TV later (we're locked down at about 9:15 PM. Ugh). But I'd much rather have a cell than be in an open dorm with a bunch of screaming idiots.

Another screwed up thing about the BOP is that Ben and I have been best friends. We're going through the same stuff and will face the same issues in the future. We have (or had) a mutual support system.

So, guess what? We're never to contact each other ever again. We can't write or email directly 'cause it's against the rules. In order to write him, I'd have to send a letter to a third party in the real world who would then have to forward that letter to him. And if we got caught, we would likely receive an incident report (the third party wouldn't face any problems, it's not against the law). Furthermore, when we get out, we're not supposed to associate with other felons.

now, if you've been reading my blog, you'll know that I have ZERO outside help except perhaps some penpals who barely know me. So my support system is fellow prisoners whom I'm not supposed to have any contact with. So if you're like me and your so-called real world "friends" have dumped you, the system is set up to make things as hard as possible for you; it's setting you up for failure.

Another recent change is that after ten weeks of having the cell to myself, I got a new cellie. I have mixed feelings. He's an okay guy, but he's a slob. He leaves stuff laying out 24/7 and has a clothesline set up in the cell. This cell has never looked worse. I'm not like many institutionalized guys who are obsessed with cleaning, but I do put my stuff away—at least during business hours—so staff doesn't have a reason to gripe. I will definitely not miss Patrick, my cellie, if he ever moves out.

I have so much more to share, but I have taken too long to write as it is.

Until next time, I wish you...
Love and blessings,
Kelly