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November 26, 2004
Letter from Club Fed 11-21
Last time I wrote, we had just returned from our ordeal at Yazoo City, Mississippi. Hurricane Ivan cleanup here lasted about 3 weeks. It would have gone faseter if all 850 inmates had returned, but with only 270, there was more work than laborers. That number has now decreased to about 255, a combo of group finishing their time and 3 or 4 getting shipped for various reasons. There are all sorts of rumors flying as to when the camp will begin to fill up again. Until it does, there is major contention between the Camp and (Eglin) Air Force Base. The only reason that the Camp is on the Base is to work. The Base General has made it quite clear that if he doesn’t have his workers, he has no need for the Camp. Scuttlebutt has it that the Air Force has brought suit against the BOP for the loss of its workforce. They have had to hire outside contractors to fill the gaps and are charging the BOP for every nickel! More of your tax dollars down the drain.
Remember my “cushy job?” Well, it’s gotten a little less cushy. My 6 hours per day has now increased to 8½. I’ve gone from 24 hours per week to 39 hours. Most of my time has gone to cleaning up the mess left by the 575 inmates who were reassigned to other facilities. Imagine having to wash, size, fold and sort 2400 pair of pants, an equal number of shirts, 500-plus winter coats, countless thousands of socks, t-shirts, underwear, not to mention the several thousand sheets, blankets and pillowcases! All of this done by yours truly and the other guy assigned to the laundry (Cary’s note: The “other guy” is a former CEO of a major retail corporation). All in all, I must say we’ve done a hell of a job. Another 2 or 3 weeks and we’ll be finished with that nightmare. Rumor has it that we’ll see our first shipment of new “vacationers” before the last week of December. I hear it should number between 30 and 40. I don’t expect any more until March, when the grass starts to grow in this part of the country and the need for landscape personnel becomes acute.
Some good news! I began my Drug Abuse Program 3 weeks ago. That means thte light at the end of the tunnel is grown to more than just a pinprick. My paperwork has already been revised, and, barring unforeseen circumstances, I’ll be at the Dania Beach Halfway House on or about October 7 of the coming year. That means, at this point, I have less than 11 months to go. In retrospect, the time has gone quickly, albeit not quickly enough. The pressure on Cary has been tremendous, and I have all the confidence in the world in him, but look forward to being able to help reomove the pressure cooker lid. That in addition to resuming the life we have together. With the grace of God, I will have learned a few things about life and my relationship with myself and others, and will come out of this a better person.
As I may not update this again until after the Holidays, let me wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas and a Safe and Healthy New Year. Next year, I will spend these holidays with friends, family, and my loved one in person.
You can email Michael at
Posted by Bastique at November 26, 2004 10:32 AM
Comments
Cary and Mike,
First off, thanks for blogging Mike’s stay in “club fed”. I found your blog via Prison Pete’s although I'm relatively new at reading blogs. I sympathize with you and the way you must have to deal with relatives like “Marsha” who think that everyone in prison deserves to be there. Of course, in a perfect world that would be true. We all know what a far from perfect world it is; particularly when we’re talking about the Federal Prison system.
A bit about me: my name is Frank, I live in Seattle and I’m 51 years old. I’m a veteran of addictive behavior so I can relate to both of you. Me = alkie and my "A" is AA. However, I’ve often felt that the A is only the end result of a lot of other addictive behavior. Terrible to be still trying to figure yourself out at age 51!
Mike’s situation interests me greatly because I have a good friend in club fed. In fact, he is “vacationing” in Yazoo. Keep in mind that I didn’t know this person before he entered prison and I have never met him. We have become friends through written correspondence and through an occasional phone call.
Kyle (not his real name because I don’t want to put his name in your blog, but you can ask via email if you want to know) went down in 1997 and he is sentenced until 2013. This was for Marijuana trafficking and an extra add-on ‘bonus’ for gun toting. His sentence is the very kind of sentence that was recently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in a Washington State case. They are currently huddling trying to figure out what to do about their own decision given that it may impact thousands of federal prisoners.
Anyway, thanks again, I’ll be reading.
Posted by: Frank at October 1, 2005 8:56 PM
I've been wondering how things have been going in Club Fed these days.You should write more.....life in Club Fed is SO MUCH different than state time....at least THIS state,that is.Texas is a REAL bummer...but I would imagine Fla. isn't much better(as far as the state facilities go).
How interesting....I just recently blogged about my cousin that never really had issues w/ bringing her girlfriends to Thanksgiving or Christmas get-togethers,and then I read about how others often have a hard time bringing their partners.Of course some of my closed-minded family members whispered behind their backs,but do you think Becky cared? lol...NOT in the least.They never groped or fondled each other in front of all the kid's.....but I secretly wished that they would do something totally freak-ish in front of my old-closed-minded-Aunts....lol...THAT would have given them something to talk about! hee hee
But Becky was just Becky....she didn't care what they thought.It's just really nice to hear about a family like yours that doesn't judge you and welcomes anyone with you.
That's cool,
T.
Posted by: tammi at October 1, 2005 8:58 PM