Sequestration News

The effects of the sequestration have infiltrated the USDB!

For the past decade, despite rising costs and inflation, each inmate has been authorized to spend $35 on health and comfort items each month. To order, an inmate has to have a source of cash. Some are sent money from family & friends and others have jobs in the prison, such as the laundry detail. There are a lot of inmates who don’t have jobs and don’t receive money from outside – so they’ve never gotten health and comfort items. Perhaps for those poor souls, the recent cuts won’t make much of a difference.

People have already been able to buy fewer and fewer items as the years go by and costs rise. Now, the $35 allowance has been lowered to $25 and all food items have been stripped from the list. No more goodies.

I also hear that now all inmates must have over a 10 year sentence in order to come to the facility. In some ways, this is good news. It should staunch the flow of inmates that continue to overburden the facility’s capacity.

There’s still a rumor of an imminent Federal Exchange, but those should become less necessary if the rumors are true and fewer convicts will come here. I don’t know where those with lesser sentences will go…maybe straight to federal prison?

 

Another Parole Hurdle

My letter to the parole board is hard to write. In it, I express remorse, but the parole board will know that I’m in the process of appealing my ruling which indicates I don’t agree with the charges on which I was convicted. I’m sure this sort of thing happens all the time…but it’s hard to imagine the parole board looking favorably on those contradictory actions, even if they are common.

I also have to include a plan that shows where I intend to live, work, and receive therapy during my parole. I have to collect letters from family & friends (thankfully, that part won’t be too hard), potential employers, and therapists so the parole board knows my plan is feasible. I’ve managed to get a remarkably generous letter from an employer who is willing to hire me immediately. Getting a therapist to take me on, however, is proving difficult.

I’ve sent letters to multiple therapists in a few locations and I get roughly the same response from them all: they’re confused about my situation and reluctant to provide a letter stating they’ll take me on as a patient. My letters are often returned or never answered. A friend of mine has called a few providers directly and explained my situation in detail, but even he has had no luck finding a place willing to write a letter saying treatment is availalbe to me. This is a critical component of my parole package. It’s critical to many parole packages, so I can’t imagine why people aren’t more familiar with the process. Just another example of the crazy rules that govern this twilight zone I now inhabit.

Arts & Crafts

After a long and grueling wait, I finally received the supplies I ordered for the craft shop. After three practice runs, I made a leather book cover for my son’s boy scouting manual. I’ve exceeded my admittedly low expectations. I think I actually carved a passable fleur-de-lis on the front. I progressed pretty rapidly from there. I’m currently making him an attache case that will be all leather. I’ve even included some decorative elements. Go me.

Sprout of Hope

My appellate attorney tells me I have solid grounds for an appeal. Not a slam-dunk, but it’s something!

He said he can’t promise me anything and my kind of case is one of the hardest to get over-turned. That dampened my spirits a bit, but I’m not surprised. He also told me that he would have never waived the jury panel (as my lawyer suggested I do – so I did) because the judge who heard my case has a track record of being extremely prosecution biased. Great news…about a year and a half late.

Bottom line: I have two long shots at parole and almost three years in confinement before I’m through my appeals process.

Big sigh.

Every day that goes by makes it more difficult to maintain a positive outlook. I’ve been incarcerated for almost two years now. Worst case scenario, I’m in here another two years. There comes a point when my guilt or innocence is completely irrelevant…I don’t know if I’m at that point yet, but I feel it looming. The fact is, I’m a convict now. My life is irreversibly changed. Even if my case is overturned in appeals, I don’t think I could return to the military and rejoin the ranks of the soldiers I used to care so deeply for. I’ve built up so much animosity that I don’t think I’d be able to function in the job I loved that I was ripped out of. I don’t know what my future will hold, but I’m thankful for the friends and family who are still standing beside me.

Paying for my own Knickers

‘Tis the season of budget cuts (seems like it’s that time all year-round lately…global warming?).

The USDB is tightening its belt even further. Inmates now have to purchase their own undershirts & underwear. We used to be able to exchange worn out clothing…no more.

In the dining facility, they’re no longer serving peanut butter during meals. They said peanut butter is available on our ration sheets, so they don’t have to provide it. One small problem: items ordered via ration sheets are meant to be kept in your cell. You can’t take them into the mess hall and you can’t take things from the mess hall back to your cell. No more PBJs. Okay, when I write that down, I realize it seems trivial, but nothing is trivial in here. The days are long and boring. An inmate’s entire world exists within the confines of this chain-link fence. Your daily PBJ for lunch can end up meaning an awful lot to you if it’s become a staple of your diet.

48 hours in the USDB

Went to visit Russ this past weekend and he told me I simply had to check out the latest episode of “48 Hours.” I’ve never watched the show, but Russ said he’d heard it was about someone in the USDB and it was causing quite the furor since it aired (the inmates apparently all watched it). Turns out, the episode was about SGT Brent Burke who is serving time for the murders of his (soon-t0-be-Ex) wife and mother-in-law.

Here’s the full-length vid from CBS’s website: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50141188n

Court drawing of SGT Burke in Court Martial
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/2300-18559_162-10015782-7.html

After watching, I was left wanting. I wasn’t completely convinced Burke had been wronged. The civilian courts declared four mistrials, they didn’t declare him innocent. That sounds like something procedural kept going wrong and I’m not going to hang my hat on a rule not followed to the letter.

I recently read Errol Morris’ A Wilderness of Error about the trials of Jeffrey MacDonald (an absolutely stunning book – I highly recommend). Upon finishing, I was dumbfounded and convinced of his MacDonald’s innocence. I cringed most of the way through the book as Morris detailed time and time again how lawyers, judges, and the court system failed MacDonald. There were times when I felt like I was reading a broken record – the same terrible mistakes kept happening over and over.

I didn’t have the same feeling after watching the 48 Hours segment – indeed, I was reminded that a similar 60 minutes segment that aired in 1983 about Jeffrey MacDonald got his case all wrong. So I checked out 48 Hours’ Facebook page to see what people were saying about the segment.

Well, according to a few commenters on the Facebook page (some of which linked to actual court documents, which I liked), CBS didn’t tell the whole story. In fact, it seems they may have left out some pretty key details. (Did Burke really get sent home from Afg. early because he threatened to kill his LT??) I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. It’s hard to tell a story that spans nearly six years in 42 minutes, so obviously some heavy editing needed to be done.

Still, it’s an interesting story and I urge people to watch if only to get a feel for the nature of military courts.

May the Odds be Ever in My Favor

I just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy. I wish it would have lasted longer. It took me four days to get through all three books.

Would I rather be a Hunger Games contestant or incarcerated? Hmmmm….that’s a really hard question.

Two and a Half Strikes

I decided to retain a civilian appellate attorney, in spite of the repeated advice of many inmates here. The thing is, I haven’t had great experience with military lawyers and I’ve been in the appeals process for four months now but have yet to hear one word from my appointed military appellate attorney. His/her silence doesn’t inspire confidence.

The civilian attorney called to talk to me before he even received my court transcripts. Dare I allow myself to plant a seed of hope?

Parole is a separate process from my appeal and it’s about time to begin preparing my parole packet for the parole board. Given that my clemency board occurred six months after it was supposed to, I have little hope of a timely parole hearing. Even if it is timely, my chances of parole are slim. Parole boards hinge primarily on a few factors: the prisoner’s salient factor score (see p. 36 in linked .pdf), admission of guilt and expression of remorse, and a fulfilled treatment program. My salient factor is higher than my actual sentence, so that’s a strike against my parole. I’m not going to admit guilt, though I’ve expressed remorse over the pain I caused (half a strike). And I’ve had zero treatment while incarcerated (2 ½ strikes) – not for lack of trying.

According to my treatment plan, I was supposed to start anger management classes last May and then being Reasoning and Rehabilitation in September. I’ve not started either. No one’s even told me how long my training is postponed. I’ve now been here nearly two years and haven’t been able to attend a single treatment regimen. So yes, my chances of parole aren’t great. Nevertheless, I have to try. I have to get out of here and begin rebuilding my life and I’d make a million parole packets to do that.

U.S.D.B.edu

It’s been a while! Lots to catch up on, so let’s get started.

I’ve been working towards my MBA while I’m in here and I’m finding it quite difficult to push my schoolwork through the prison system. I have to send my academic work out through the USDB education office. The last time I tried to mail something out, the academic officer (a prison staffer) took 17 days to acknowledge receipt of my work and walk it down to the mail room. The mail room is 50 feet from the academic officer’s office. Seriously? I can’t complain…I mean I literally can’t complain. Ugh.

Meanwhile, I’m getting nasty-grams from my “school” (which isn’t even accredited) that say “There will be no extensions!” I can’t believe this “University” is so harsh re: semester extensions. Aside from being pretty shady, the school has some punctuality issues of its own. They didn’t mail me my coursework until three weeks in to the semester. Too bad it’s the only one that offers a paper-based Masters program.

I’d like to think that even though I’m incarcerated, I’m progressing in life just a little bit. It would be good for my soul to think that. Too bad the only school I can attend while I’m in here is so worthless.

Quiet Riot

A recent visit with Russ left me feeling a little leery about the future of the USDB. I wrote previously about the change of command that occurred at the prison. The new boss made seasoned guards wary and keen on enforcing rules that had been allowed to go lax – for a variety of reasons, but largely due to their impracticality. Though the rules weren’t changed per se, their enforcement was and that caused some quiet unrest among the prisoners according to Russ.

The change of command also meant an influx of new guards (military police) unfamiliar with the culture of the USDB. Most of the new guards are young and inexperienced and are taking their positions of authority a little too seriously according to a few inmates. Russ reports that the influx of guards has come in small waves and each new wave is responsible for training the wave that comes after. Soldiers who’ve been on guard duty for roughly two weeks are “training” their fellow privates. Russ says it’s going about as smoothly as you would expect it to.

While some of the seasoned guards are taking the rules a bit more seriously, some of the new guards who have yet to conceptualize the USDB’s delicate prisoner-guard relationship are nonchalant about rules and timelines that the prisoners take very seriously. I’ll let Russ explain:

“The evening guards consistently call the recreation periods late which short changes the prisoners rec time. Each housing unit is scheduled for 65 minutes in the weight room four times a week. There is an NCO who’s supposed to direct the movement of inmates over the guard radios. The times never change and only one housing unit is allowed in the weight room during each 65-minute block. So when the NCO forgets to announce the rec time or, more commonly, the guards aren’t listening carefully to their radios and don’t hear the rec call, then the inmates have two options: they can stand patiently by the guard desk and hope that the guard realizes a rec time hasn’t been called, or they can engage a guard and ask directly. Engaging a guard in this manner is tricky – especially now. The guards are young and don’t know the rec schedule and their newfound power has gone to their heads a bit – so they’ve responded dismissively. “They’ll call it when they call it.” or “That’s not my job.” Every time they call rec time late or fail to call it at all, that’s time the inmates will never get back. It’s not like the prison is going to comp us a weight room session that we missed because the guards weren’t paying attention. Stuff like that is SO important when you’ve got nothing else. The inmates are getting really frustrated. But if they show their frustration at all to the guards who aren’t calling rec time properly, they risk getting written up for disrespecting a guard. That charge carries punishments that include losing custody grade (e.g. moving from min. to medium custody) and also goes on your parole record which allows a parole board a convenient reason to deny parole for bad behavior.”

Russ thinks the inmate frustration coupled with the guards’ inexperience and attitude are turning the USDB into a pressure cooker. Not to mix metaphors – but there’s more. The icing on the cake is that a couple of alleged “ring leaders” from the August 2010 riot at the USDB have been returned to general population. They were “heavies” back in the day and their re-entry into gen pop has caused some interesting ripples in the current social order.

Current heavies and these old-time heavies are speaking privately. The rest of the inmates observe their hushed conversations and it makes the whole place buzz like a poked bee hive. No one knows what’s going on and everyone has suspicions. Russ also has his and he’s worried about the mental state of the old-timers. They’ve now spent years in max security where they were locked in a tiny room for 23 hours a day. He can only imagine where their heads are after that kind of isolation.

Russ thinks the most likely reason for bringing the old-timers back into gen-pop is so they can be transferred to a federal prison. I guess it’s easier for the USDB to hand off a medium custody inmate than a max custody one.

Regardless of reason, their presence is causing a stir that, on top of the new guards and new command, is troubling.