What is Really Going On?

When I heard about the fourth member of my class transferring, I wondered what really was going on. I needed to talk with the old coach but had to wait until the morning. Also, according to one of the inmates who has completed the FTP class and wants to go to the same camp I would like to go to – he had his mother call the Lieutenant at the Fire Camp and found out there are openings for members of my race “all the time”. This news made me somewhat happy yet I am still befuddled about my status. All the walks and talks ended but I was with an inmate last night whowas in my FTP class and he is older than me and has been “down” for almost 3 years. He has overcome many obstacles to get into the fire camp program and now he is in the same boat as me – we are both anxiously awaiting out transfer. He has a very interesting story as his wife and he were sentenced on the same day almost 3 years ago. She has been in the woman’s firefighting program for almost all of that time and she has 3 more months to go. Her sentence was actually longer than her husbands but because she has been involved in the fire camp program she has saved almost 18 months on her sentence. Since it has taken her husband so long to reach fire camp, he will only save 4 months and be out this time next year. As he told me all of this he seemed very calm and both of their charges had to do with drugs.

There are some amazing stories inside these prison walls and it is so easy to cast judgments on people because of being in prison. However, everyone in here is a human being first and foremost. I have serious flaws which led me here, but I am not a bad person just like this inmate I spoke with last night. Yes, he is flawed and made a mistake but I saw a husband and father, as we spoke not a convict. I hope and pray he will be all right when he is released and based on out conversations I think both he and his wife will be fine.