Upside / Downside

As most of you may have noticed I posted yet another mailing address to add to the confusion. Please don’t worry as long as the mail was sent to North Kern State Prison, Delano CA 93216 and has my name along with CDC number, it will be delivered to me regardless of the post office box numbers. Much to my surprise I received a letter from my mom with the 5004 post office box number. I really thought my mail would be delayed a few days because of my move; however, this certainly does not appear to be the case. I am not sure if I should write this but I will anyway; barring any unforeseen circumstances (meaning if I mess up) I should stay in this dormitory until I am transferred to the next stop so please don’t worry about the mailing address.

There are upsides and downsides to any situation. Although it is hard to fathom prison having an upside but I have decided to view of the positives of my current move. However; I will list the downside which lags far behind the upside. The downsides of my current move are; I did build a rapport with my bunk neighbors; I won’t know what happened to my bunk neighbor who went to the hospital last Saturday evening, I do hope he will be okay. I did get into a routine and was starting to feel more comfortable as each day passed. I was able to trade my food freely with several o my bunk neighbors. Those are the downsides and now here are the upsides.

The upsides include everyone in this dormitory is over the age of 35 and doesn’t have anything to prove. There are o loud mouth youngsters trying to earn their prison stripes. This dormitory is so much quieter after 10:00pm then my previous dorm. I am able to walk freely throughout the dorm and I have already spoken to more people in the last two days than I have in the two weeks I spent in the previous. My bunk is located toward the very back of the gymnasium and there is an open space to the right of the bunk. This open space is where many inmates workout and even though there aren’t any weights or exercise equipment available these workouts are very effective (more on this later). The food from the chow hall is very hot and even though it is the same food served throughout the prison it certainly tastes better hot.

The lights do stay on all night long after all this building was designed as a gymnasium (as evidence of the basketball court lines that are drawn on the floor) however; the lights are in the ceiling about 30 feet from the ground. These lights are bright enough to read all night long but dim enough to allow sleeping. As I reported before my sleep habits are poor at best; however; my new bunk has an entirely different mattress pad. This mattress pad is four times thicker then my previous pad so the pressure on my kidneys has been minimized. The showers at my new dorm are anything but hot which is a downside. It will take some getting used to (if at all possible) because unlike my previous dorm where the showers had hot water this is non-existence here. It also is much warmer here so the cold shower does feel somewhat okay.

I am not sure if I want to say I am comfortable here because no matter how the dormitory is designed this is still prison. However; moving to my new dormitory was without any anxiety. I have also finally met someone who has similar charges to mine. I was starting to think I was the only white collar criminal in the prison system of California. This inmate is a little older than me (55 years old) and his sentence is one year longer - 5 years. His dollar amount was much higher - $3.2 Million. No don’t worry I am not going into the justice system doesn’t make any sense discussion because I have exhausted this topic at nausea.

As I was speaking to this gentleman and discussing his case my ordeal was nothing compared to his. His charges stem from 1994. Yes, that is twelve years ago. Talk about having an albatross around your neck for what would seem like forever. Long story short; he was originally put on probation and due to a technicality (I do believe him) he violated the terms of probation. Because he violated his probation he should have received ten years; however; the District Attorney (not in Riverside County) made a mistake on his paperwork thus cutting the ten-year sentence in half.

More importantly I inquired how long he has been here at the reception center. He has been here since June (a little over 2 months) and he has seen his counselor. His charges as I mentioned with the exception of the dollar amount are very similar to mine so I was curious what the recommendation of the counselor was, meaning where did the counselor refer him to on his next stop. He showed me his paperwork from the counselor and it has referred him to Fire Camp. Before I or anyone else gets too excited he has not been definitely sent to fire camp because until the announcements are made it is not definite. However, this is good news because at least there is the possibility for me. Also he did tell me placements for fire Camps take longer than any other facility so I should plan on being at the reception center (here) for three months. Yikes!

I do want to get to the next stop sooner as opposed to later; however; if I have to wait another month (this would be November) to get into a Fire Camp, I will wait. Once I get to a Fire Camp my sentence is reduced to 35% of the full term which means the sooner I get there the sooner I can be back with my family. Please keep saying your prayers because I really want the Fire Camp.

As I mentioned previously my bunk is located near the area where many people workout. This morning I got up at 6:00am and did my push-ups and sit-ups just like any other morning. My bunkmate had already left to go work in the kitchen (hopefully I will be working in a few days) so I didn’t have to worry about waking him while doing my exercises. Unbeknownst to me my two bunk neighbors watched me doing push-ups until my bunkmate came back from the kitchen. The two neighbors were commenting on my push-up technique to my bunkmate. They did say all of this in good fun. My push-up technique is a little different then most because I go for endurance as opposed to strength. I go all the way down but only go halfway up which allows me to do 150 push-ups in a set. I did not know that these types of push-ups were not acceptable.

My neighbors told my bunkmate so my bunkmate took it upon himself to put me through a workout later on in the day. This workout consisted of 123 “burpees”! I hope I am not the only one who did not know what a burpee is. I asked what is a burpee and bunkmate gave me an example. It is the same as a squat thrust which starts standing up then going to a down position to start a push-up, doing a push-up all the way down, all the way up then bringing your feet forward and standing up. My bunkmate would do one then as he came up I would do one, 123 of these. I was able to keep up and actually got a good sweat going for the first time in a long time. After we were done I told my bunkmate to let me know anytime he wants to workout because I will gladly workout with him. He told me this was only just a warm-up. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s workout.

It seems there are some people on the outside who certainly know the prison rules much better than me. In the letter I received from my mother she referenced a “Form #106”. Apparently this form is a questionnaire for approval of visitation. From what I understand, I will get this form when I get to wherever it is I am going. If I do get a fire Camp there will be two transfers. One for the training which is 2-4 weeks at length and the second stop is the actual camp where I will be stationed. I cannot send out these forms until I get to my final destination. This means if I do get a Fire Camp, I cannot have visitors until December. However; if I do get a Community Correctional Facility (CCF) I most likely could have visitors as early as the end of October. Of course, I will keep everyone posted as to my whereabouts and when I get to my final destination I will send this form out to the appropriate parties.