I’m at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), an institution in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS), participating in the Earned Release Program (ERP). Last night was Monday and it happened to be laundry night but it also was Bible study night sponsored by the unknown group that gave us the gifts Saturday. But I wanted to go learn more. It seems quite a few had the same idea as they had to move it out of the smaller room it’s normally held in. There were 2 leaders who I found out later is called “The Church (In Wisconsin)” of West Allis, WI. But I get the sense they didn’t want to tell us. The Bible Study itself was more of a sermon than a study, based on Psalm 118 and Acts 3. My favorite versus were Psalm 118:17-18 “I will not die but live and will proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord has chastened me severely but he has not given me over to death”. While I was in the study, Tom Dietz volunteered to watch my laundry. I knew I liked that guy! Unfortunately the beach ball that is my cellie, Andre Charles, bounced the other way. For whatever reason he has tamed again. He was upset with me for reasons unknown saying we don’t joke around, we have to be serious. The next morning at count he said there was a “fagg—– who keeps look at him when he sleeps”. I didn’t have a clue what he was referring to of course, but the more immediate problem was the name he called me in front of everyone. Another challenge, this one in public. But I didn’t do anything. A guard’s watching and the wrong word ends my time in ERP. But before we’d go back into the cell, a guard walked up to me and said I was going to the hospital and to get ready to go. I’m sure I was going to get the cancer test results from the PET scan last week. But before I left, another cellie Malik Pearl, warned me I was about to find out what Andre is going to do and I better get out of this cell. I hate to say it cause I’m a little..okay a lot on the stubborn side but I may end up getting out of this cell. Of course, it was time to go, and of course like always on my road trips, the weather was crappy. I got to the University Hospital and got to the inmate waiting room fully anticipating a good report from the doctor. The room was a buzz with the rumors of what Gov. elect Scott Walker was going to do to the prisons and DOC staff. Let’s put it this way, he seems to be following the playbook he followed in Milwaukee County. If so, state employees are going to be hurting. But after the blood work, I saw my oncologist, Dr. Rachel Cook. The good news is my counts are normal. The bad news is there area couple of lymph nodes that are enlarged. Nothing will be done except to schedule more scans to see if they continue to grow. I ate my bag lunch in the waiting room while the guards ate their lunches. After I got back, I sat 3 hours in an empty waiting room, even eating supper there. Finally I got back to my unit where no one in my cell spoke to me. But I’m ok with that. I’ve got bigger fish to fry and I’ve got to deal with my own issues that are much larger in scope than what Andre Charles influences people to do.
Posts Tagged ‘doctor’
Psalm 118:17-18
Posted: March 1, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Allis, Andre, Another, area, ball, beach, Bible, cancer, cell, cellie, Charles, church, clue, Cook, death, Detention, didn, Dietz, doctor, employees, ends, gifts, Hospital, inmate, Institution, Last, Laundry, leaders, Lord, Malik, Milwaukee, MSDF, news, Pearl, Prison, prisons, Program, Psalm, Rachel, Release, results, road, room, Rumors, scope, Scott, Secure, Sermon, Study, supper, System, Unit, Walker, West, Wisconsin, word
My First Community Meeting
Posted: February 1, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: article, beard, Brian, cancer, chairs, comments, Correctional, December, desk, desperation, Detention, didn, difference, doctor, Dodge, elevator, English, events, fairy, food, Fridays, grievances, hall, Heath, Indian, inmate, inmates, Institution, Jail, life, Milwaukee, MSDF, officer, Overall, paper, patience, poster, Prison, Program, Release, room, Secure, Services, stance, substance, System, tales, tier, times, Unit, violations, Waukesha, week, Weird, Whalen, Wisconsin, word, worker
I’m at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), an institution in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS), participating in the Earned Release Program (ERP). Fridays are a short day in the ERP program here. They have something called “Community” at 10 am and then they’re done for the day. Everyone was already seated when someone came and got me to join which surprised me since I don’t start ERP until December 13th. They went through an airing of unit grievances (there were none) and housekeeping issues (there were some). It was at this point that I was called to the guard desk and told to get ready to go to Heath Services Unit (HSU). They have something where an inmate picks a quote and they explain why they picked it. The quote was “Bad things happen in life so that someday something good can come.” It was put on a big poster and hung from the top tier. Then the inmate coming up with the quote talked of why he picked that quote. The group was then to provide comments on what the quote meant to them. The social worker running the group reminded them that if we didn’t participate enough she would hand out paper and make us all write something down. Personally, I would have preferred that but that’s just me. Then the inmate assigned the word of the day or week, I’m not sure which. The word was “oppressed” with the quote “difficult to bear substance abuse made my life aggressive”, which was placed on a white poster on the upper tier next to the other one. Then my cellmate, Brian Whalen, had been assigned to read a current events article and discuss it with comments following. He did well I thought. Overall, the comments being made felt forced to me but I could be wrong. At that point a female guard showed up to escort me and another inmate to HSU. We got on an elevator (another difference of any prison I’ve seen – there were no elevators) and we had to face the wall away from the guard sharing space with carts of food trays being delivered for lunch. I go to our next stop where we were directed to stand with our backs to the wall while another inmate joined us and we continued on. We got to HSU which has a hall for a waiting room with the wall lined by chairs then inside a desk manned by a guard. He called out names to go in. I was seated next to a man of 65 with a long white beard who couldn’t stop jabbering. He was on paper for his 5th DUI and was here for rule violations (using pot) and his parole officer (PO) was trying to revoke him. A lot of the other inmates were discussing Act 28 and the mistaken idea that once they got to Dodge Correctional Institution (DCI) the time they thought they’d be saving under Act 28 would be taken right off the top of their sentence. It reminded me much of my time in Waukesha County Jail (WCJ) where inmates would cling to such fairy tales out of sense of desperation and looking for a reason to hope. I tried to interject and correct the information but one inmate in particular would have none of it, insisting I was wrong. I let it go. I understand the need to hold onto hope. I think false hope actually helped me at times. Weird, isn’t it? Mercifully, I got called to see the doctor. He was of Indian descent and spoke good English. I waited 10 minutes before a word was said while he reviewed my file. He then let me know another PET scan would be scheduled soon to make sure the cancer had not returned and made sure I was still on my antiviral. I returned to my seat in the hall to await transport back to my unit. The man I was next to had grown impatient and started repeatedly asking when he’d be seen because he didn’t want to miss lunch. The guard who brought me to HSU returned to take me back but the guard at the desk lost patience and told her to take him back too without being seen. He knew what that meant. He was getting a major conduct report for being disruptive. The entire way back he argued with this guard almost assuming an intimidating stance towards her. She argued back which was pointless with this guy. Finally, I got back to my unit having a cold pizza burger for lunch and very glad I’m not that loud inmate and looking forward to getting this ERP program going week after next.
St. Elsewhere
Posted: October 28, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Attorney, aura, cancer, chemo, chest, conversation, Cook, Correctional, didn, difference, doctor, elevator, Elsewhere, environment, FMCI, girls, Hospital, impulse, inmate, inmates, Institution, kids, Lake, Madison, Minimum, moments, November, Once, parent, placement, port, Power, Prison, problems, Rachel, room, student, students, System, tendency, times, veins, wasn, Waukesha, Wisconsin
I’m at the Fox Lake Minimum Correctional Institution (FMCI), a facility in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS). I was notified the night before that I would be taking a medical trip the following day. It was a far better way than last time when I found out a few minutes before the trip that I was going. I could swear they read this entry because I was notified 3 more times before the trip this time. It was pretty much like last time on the way up there, except the guard wasn’t real talkative. Today I was in Madison to have the port that had been put in me last November removed. They had used this port to deliver chemotherapy used to treat cancer as veins have a tendency to blow up. This probably was my worst experience at the University Hospital in Madison. Up till now, my oncologist, Dr. Rachel Cook, and everyone else has been top notch. If you ever have cancer, this is the place to go and Dr. Cook is the doctor you want. But today, students were in charge. I had an orthopedic resident and was assisted by someone else who was also a student. They were quite clumsy in applying the local anesthetic, which resulted in some painful moments for your truly as they cut out the port from the left side of my chest. Once it was done, I went back to the minimum security holding room on 6th floor and there were 2 other inmates there. In the course of conversation, one inmate revealed he had 88 days to go to release, but he had been diagnosed with the same type of cancer I had, the one difference being he was stage 2 (I had been stage 3). It was almost surreal listening to him talk about how he was going to get through chemo with no problems (he hadn’t started yet), how he was going to tell the DOC how he should be handled for his placement, and how he believed he would be released early. The same aura of invincibility I had had was present. I tried to get him to listen to me. I explained what it meant to be stage 2. I explained how important it would be to be in an environment relatively clean as your immune system will be compromised, and how the effects of chemo will be felt more as time goes on. But I could tell he wasn’t listening. I have to admit that I was a little envious of him that through the worst of what he is about to go through, he will be with those that love him. But it happened to me like it was supposed to. I really believe that. When it was time to go back to FMCI, I happened to be on a crowded elevator, where there were 2 little girls. I have always been a guy young kids could connect with, and they quickly engaged me in a conversation about how funny someone else looked. They didn’t care I was an inmate. I was smiling when they got off the elevator. My happiness was muted a bit when I saw their parent pull the girls closer to them as they walked. I didn’t let it bother me though. I certainly understand the parental impulse, to protect them from the guy dressed in green. After I returned to FMCI, in mail call that night, was a bill from Waukesha County for the time I was treated prior to coming to prison which wasn’t suppose to happen. One of my sponsors carries my Power of Attorney (POA) which I’m grateful for, and I turned it over to them via mail. It was a full day, with more good than bad.
A Filling Experience
Posted: October 20, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: appointments, attitude, aversion, canal, canals, cancer, Cook, Correctional, Corrections, cost, dental, dentist, Dentists, Department, discomfort, doctor, doctors, encouragement, expense, Experience, FMCI, gate, Health, Hospital, hour, incident, inmate, inmates, Institution, Lake, Madison, Maybe, Minimum, money, Once, oncologist, pain, Paul, Prison, Rachel, referral, room, Services, situation, status, System, Thank, tooth, treatment, Wisconsin, word, words, world
I’m at the Fox Lake Minimum Correctional Institution (FMCI), a facility in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS). I mentioned before that a scan had detected an abscessed tooth. After a week had gone by and a little encouragement from a sponsor not to let this situation be ignored, I wrote a request to Health Services advising them of the referral from my oncologist, Rachel Cook, of the University Hospital in Madison, made to them. Generally it takes the Health Services some time to get around to reviewing what the doctor wrote unless they get pushed. I also let them know I had other dental issues to be addressed. I got up at 5 am as usual and saw my name on the list to go to HSU after count at 8 am. Paul and 2 others also came along who had dental appointments. We had to go over to the medium side but once out the gate we were told to wait for another inmate. Twenty minutes later, we’re still waiting and everyone’s annoyed. Finally, we’re on our way. I got called in first and the dental assistant informed me I would be having a root canal performed. It will take 3 visits. Today they’d “file it down and put antibiotics in there”. I don’t like dentists and I’ve heard bad things about root canals. The dentist appeared, a man in his sixties, and asked me if I wanted the tooth pulled or do a root canal. No, I don’t want it pulled! They numbed me up without incident and he did what he was supposed to, I guess. I went back to the bullpen (waiting room) and awaited the others to finish. The last words of the dentist were I’d experience some discomfort and you should “just handle it”. I laughed to myself. Dentists in the real world don’t talk like that but they mean the same. They just word it nicer! The next part is in 2 weeks. When everyone was done we stopped at Property, picked up 2 more inmates and their property who were transferring to the minimum side, which took at least half an hour. Once I got back, everyone asked what was going on and when I told them a root canal, they reacted like it was so painful. So far, I don’t get it. Maybe I will come to pay for my presumptuous attitude over the next couple of appointments! I am in pain but its tolerable. At least something fulfilling (no pun intended – wait, yeah that was intentional :)) will come out of my time at FMCI. In case you were wondering, this process won’t cost me anything. Normally, it would have cost me $7.50 co-pay out of my funds here but because it was a referral from my oncologist, I wasn’t. The other dental work I need I will get charged the co-pay. I’m sure many of you wish all you had was a $7.50 co-pay for dental work but as I’ve noted before inmates make very little money – forty cents an hour at most before I came to FMCI. I’ve never been allowed to work, first because of the illness and now due to my temp status. But I’m grateful for the treatment for cancer and medical care. Had I not been incarcerated, would I still have gotten treatment in time, especially with the aversion to doctors I have? There’s no way to know for sure. But I’m grateful for the medical care, the time and expense involved to the Department of Corrections (DOC) and the taxpayers of Wisconsin. Thank you very much.
West Side Story
Posted: October 8, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: arrival, bunk, contraband, Correctional, desk, doctor, fact, FMCI, haven, inmate, inspection, Institution, Jerry, Lake, Maury, Minimum, mood, news, officer, Povich, Prison, problems, reaction, relationships, Side, song, Springer, Story, sugar, System, thirst, walls, West, Wisconsin
I’m at the Fox Lake Minimum Correctional Institution (FMCI), a facility in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS). It was quite the day. Pops went to the hole after the put off inspection took place. No one is quite sure how or why they happened to pick him to have his bunk inspected. But as it turned out he had every kind of contraband he could get his hands on – hooch, tobacco, etc. when they tore apart his bunk. In fact, 3 hours after inspection the guards were still going through his things and getting them boxed up. Everyone has long known he was engaged in things but we turned a blind eye. I did get called to see the doctor today and I asked them to make sure he had blankets. When I was in chemotherapy I remembered how cold I got. They were noncommittal. I thought if these are the compassionate ones he’s in trouble. But in all fairness to them, it sounds like his problems predate my arrival by a considerable amount.
Then this morning I saw something I’ll probably never see again. I got up at 4:50 am and as I approached the desk I saw an officer… and an inmate…. singing together! They were trying to figure out a song title and first she (the officer) would sing, then the inmate, then the two together. I grinned from ear to ear. I’ve never seen such a sight! They must have seen me grinning, because the guard commented that she never sees me sing. She is correct. As others will attest, when I sing in the shower the water goes the other way! They don’t want to hear me sing. But I said nothing. I don’t really want, well really its that my default position is to not pursue personal relationships, in general, not just with blue shirts (guards). So that’s probably a defect in my personality.
Then tonight I got some great news! They are finally going to let me have my property! Which includes my electronics like my TV! Finally! I’ll be able to NOT watch Maury Povich and Jerry Springer if I choose! And I’ll get to listen to NPR when I want.
Finally, I got to get canteen after awhile. Can you imagine the reaction of a man dying of thirst given lots of water That’s right, yours truly is on a bit of a sugar buzz! It’s just because I haven’t had any sweets for a long time. I’ll settle down tomorrow. But for now, it’s good to be me.
Like I said, an eventful day it has been. I’m going to go bounce off the walls and actually be sociable for awhile. Now that’s a mood that rarely strikes me here!
If your wondering about the title to this entry, there was a scene in the production of “West Side Story” that had a cop and a character singing together. Which after this mornings duet inspired me to name it so.
Life in Wisconsin Prisons and Beyond 