Week 12 Summary

This will be my last post until I get out on Thursday. At that time I will report on the discharge process and my final few days before leaving BOP custody. I will also continue to post on what it's like returning to "society".

As for prison life this week, it was notable for two events: 1) the commissary was closed due to some sort of computer conversion of the inmate account system and 2) the phones were scheduled to be down Tuesday - Thursday. Everyone was prepared for the commissary. However, a slight miscommunication created quite a bit of inmate anguish with respect to the phone system.

Ms. Lee oversees the inmate telephone system and is responsible for adding new names and phone numbers to your approved list. She is universally liked by the inmates for her kindness and quick responses. Unfortunately she apparently told a number of inmates that when the phone system came back up on Thursday that the 300 minutes monthly quota would be reset for the remainder of the month, effectively giving everyone another 300 minutes for the last 9 days. The minutes would still be charged at 23 cents/minute but most of us don't care about the cost -- we just want the extra minutes.

As a result of this, many inmates intentionally used all of their allotment before the phones went down, expecting a new allotment by Thursday. You know where this is going. There was no new allotment. Ouch.

Fortunately, I rarely act anymore on information from inmates who claim to know how something works around here, especially if the risk of being wrong is a communication blackout for 11 days. I guess there is always the mail. In any case, I still had minutes left.

As it turns out, a memo from Ms. Lee appeared on the door of the phone room, effectively admitting to providing inaccurate information. She apologized and said that she had done everything she could to add more minutes but that it required, literally, an act of Congress!

My favorite part of the memo was that it began: Dear Gentlemen. Reminded me of the intercom announcement by a female voice, clearly inexperienced at making announcements because she prefaced her request with, "Please." We all looked at ecah other and immediately mouthed, "Please?" Trust me, please and gentlemen are not words usually directed at the inmates by COs. Interesting how common courtesies of speech that are taken for granted on the outside stand out like a neon sign on the inside.

Work was fine this week. I guess I am developing a reputation as a hard worker. I was actually taken off my normal detail of weed-eatinig to assist in breaking up concrete sidewalks. They wanted me to swing the sledgehammer because no one else either could or would do it and I am actually pretty good at it. Thus I spent the last 3 days this week swinging the hammer. I'm feeling it now. But with less than a week to go, I have so much adrenaline flowing that nothing can wipe the smile from my face.

As for my departure, so far everyone has been nice and happy for me. I had read that other inmates pull back as a fellow inmate reaches his out date. I have not experienced that. While I try not to bring the subject up out of respect, it is common instead for me to be asked how much time I have left. They smile when I tell them, as if they are vicariously trying to tap into the feeling -- it gives them hope.

I met another new inmate today who read this blog before reporting. He said that he and his wife read it twice and he wanted me to know that it was a blessing and, to his wife, a source of comfort. Made my day.

Finished Harry Potter's Book 6 on Sunday. Can't wait for Book 7 on July 21.

Read Shawshank Redemption, the novella by Stephen King, in one evening ... only 104 pages. The movie is an all-time classic, actually -- and unusually -- slightly better than the book.

It's been great to see my wife this weekend, after 3 skipped weekends while she was on vacation. The prison received the clothing package she mailed, containing what I will wear to leave FPC Pensacola.

I think this week is going to fly by. Only 2 work days left, then "unit run", then ... bye-bye. The only problem is I'm having trouble sleeping now. No problem when I got here, but now that I'm on the verge of leaving ...