I’m at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), an institution in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS), participating in the Earned Release Program (ERP). I have a lot to cover and not a lot of time to do it. The rec room issues continued as my ERP group member Russ Johnson didn’t make a lot of friends here when he told those wanting him to share the exercise bike that he couldn’t help it that he had a million dollars and they didn’t. Some wanted to pound him but what saved him and many others in these situations is everyone is so close to getting out now nobody wants to risk an altercation and get thrown out. Many such as Johnson knows this to be the case so they are taking their verbal shots and act tough thinking their won’t be consequences. Sometimes I think people just shouldn’t play with fire because one of these times a stray, irrational spark might burn them. On Tuesday our ERP group leader Ms. Grey appeared shortly after 9:30 am. Today was devoted to the study of heroin. The first videos shown were Heroin, What Am I Going To Do? A Hazelden production and Heroin and other Opiates again featuring Dr. David Ohlms. At the end we had time for discussion and ERP group member Augie Prescott inquired about his Interstate Compact to allow him to return to Alabama to allow him to do his extended supervision (ES)/parole there. An Interstate Compact is an agreement on a process between different states that allows parolees to move across state lines and reside there. Unfortunately in Prescott’s case, his paperwork remains out of order. His presentence investigation and criminal complaint is missing. Without these items, the compact won’t happen at this stage, it’s really too late. He’s upset because Ms. Grey and his parole officer (PO) here have known about this since he got here and nothings been done. I don’t blame him for being upset. I asked again if she had called Sal’s House, the halfway house in Waukesha I’m considering and she said she still hadn’t done so. She said an agency called the TOP program was coming in to give Waukesha County people a presentation related to a program called Wiser Choice in Milwaukee County. We just are getting the impression she doesn’t want to do a heck of a lot. In the afternoon we saw an extremely compelling video entitled Black Tar Heroin The Dark End of the Street that followed the lives of several heroin addicts in the late nineties. It was brutal in its honesty in describing the horror of heroin addiction. I’d highly recommend for anyone just getting into trouble with it. In the middle of the video ERP group member and cellie Larry Sands got called out of the room. After a brief discussion (heroin wasn’t a big issue in this OWI ERP group) we got out and got our mail from guard Ruth Barthowski who is kind enough to hand it out right away. I got word from my sponsors that my biological father’s family had emailed again. We’ve been writing back and forth since they found me but we’ve always danced around any issues up to this point. Not this time. They indicated they wanted to know. I told them most of what I’ve told you. It seems none of them knew what had gone on as my biological father wasn’t in touch with them at that time. I feel…. okay with it. I mean if I can tell it here I can do this. I am nervous on their reaction. I won’t lie. When I saw Sands he told me what was going on. He had gone to see the psychiatrist here and told them how Ms. Grey had pushed him on his grief issues (when he read his auto) and such. They weren’t at all happy and told him that was improper. They’d be talking to the unit manager and that he shouldn’t fear retaliation from Ms. Grey for talking about this. You’ve got to give Sanders a lot of credit for speaking up, for saying what many have wondered about. I have no idea on how this will turn out. She doesn’t like it if you disagree with her much less something challenging her methods.
Posts Tagged ‘dollars’
Still Cancer Free
Posted: September 22, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: accident, Andre, announcement, appointment, birthdays, blog, blood, cancer, cell, Charles, construction, Cook, Correctional, cost, Detention, dollars, Fire, food, free, friend, Google, granite, Health, highway, Hospital, hour, inmate, Institution, insurance, Intake, June, legs, Madison, midst, Milwaukee, months, mood, MSDF, neck, noise, officer, pails, Peters, Prison, Program, Rachel, Release, remission, room, Roscoe, Secure, shouldn, situation, Still, supper, System, Tetrazzini, truck, turkey, Very, waist, Wisconsin
I’m at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), an institution in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS), participating in the Earned Release Program (ERP). It was about 8:30 am when I heard the announcement to report to the officer’s station. I knew what it was for. I was going to Madison to get the results of the PET scans from last week to verify the cancer remains in remission. It was also the first day we saw guard Roscoe Peters since former cellie Andre Charles left. After giving him the key to my cell off the string around my neck, I went down to intake and again began the process of being strip searched and being bound with chains on my arms, legs and waist. The thought occurred to me, this is probably the last time prior to my release in June, that I’ll need to be strip searched. I hope so anyway. It’s an indignity I’m still not accustomed to nor do I think I ever will be. Of course, in keeping with what normally seems to happen on these trips for me it’s not…normal! It was raining very heavy and about 19 miles from Madison on I94W we encountered a huge traffic back up. We moved no more than 5 or 6 miles over the next hour. We finally came up on the accident scene. Fire had consumed a truck carrying thousands of pounds of beef. I’d hear later no one died thank God. We got there and I sat in the inmate waiting room. Very few were there this time which I was grateful for, as the noise was at a minimum. There was one inmate there who had 57 days left to release. He’d suffered a cardiac arrest and been brought back by the staff at Red Granite Correctional Institution. He was complimentary to them in how they’ve cared for him and the quality of their work. It was unusual to hear an inmate say such things. I went up for my blood work and got in to see my oncologist, Dr. Rachel Cook. She walked in and something I hadn’t noticed before, she was very pregnant. I told her I hoped it went well. She let me know the spots that were seen last time were either gone or ruled out as cancer. My next appointment for scans will be in 6 months instead of the 3 months that had been done. In the midst of the happiness I felt, there was a bit of a reality check. I needed to call her directly before my next appointment if I don’t come up with health insurance as these scans cost several thousand dollars. Not only would it be nice if I find a job with good health insurance after I’m out its imperative I find health insurance to ensure I see more birthdays. It shouldn’t be that way but that is the reality of the situation. But I didn’t dwell on that. I even told Dr. Cook about this blog, saying a friend wrote in her blog, thanking her for her care of me and what terms to Google to find the blog. I wanted to avoid alerting the ever present guards in the room. So Doc, if you find this blog, again, thank you! On the way back not only was it raining heavy, the winds were going crazy blowing pails and such from construction on the highway into us. But we got back fine. After another strip-search I actually got back to my cell pretty quickly. Ironically we shouldn’t have hurried. We had Turkey Tetrazzini, probably the worst meal here, for supper about 4:30 pm. If we’d gone slower I probably would have gotten another bag lunch at the hospital. But nothing would break my good mood, not even the horrid food. I’m healthy and I’m going to stay that way!
As Normal As It Gets
Posted: December 15, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Additional, airport, area, arrangement, artists, bunk, buyers, chaos, Chris, Christian, church, confinement, Correctional, courage, desk, desperation, dollars, February, FMCI, folks, Fond, Greer, guys, Institution, kids, Lake, length, life, luxury, Minimum, Normal, office, officer, opinions, organization, Parole, People, Prison, punishment, receipts, room, sellers, Several, System, Texas, ticket, times, Tomlin, Where, wife, winners, Wisconsin, worker
I’m at the Fox Lake Minimum Correctional Institution (FMCI), a facility in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS). The fallout from the institution wide shakedown has continued. Several times a day people are paged to report to the social worker’s office from the guard desk. When the page comes from the guard desk and not from Ms. Greer you know this isn’t going to be a visit to that office that will end well. People are going there for ticket hearings and are being told to bring property receipts with them that prove the confiscated property belonged to them. Bunk confinement of varying length is the normal punishment. Every once in awhile someone actually wins a hearing. You know they did as they celebrate like they scored a touchdown. Slowly but surely life is returning to normal. Somehow the smokers managed successfully to hide tobacco though I hear the asking price for a rolled cigarette has gone up to four to five dollars of canteen from two to three dollars. Clothing bought from the catalogs that was lost is the biggest issue for folks as buyers and sellers are trying to get together on a price. Where am I at on this? My little routines I hang onto to preserve some organization from the chaos around me at at times my mind can sink into serve me well here. Additional clothing or property just for luxury sake would disrupt the routines I’ve developed. I know that sounds weird but if you’ve been reading awhile you’re used to it by now. Occasionally the guys laugh at me because for many things I do everyday I do them like clockwork. I don’t care if they laugh. Their opinions matter little. It’s usually good natured. One of the guys I’d call one of the winners around here is being released Monday. A strong Christian who was liked by all he is one of those guys that has a personality that can light up a room. He’s headed to Texas where he has a wife and church to support him. Originally FMCI would have taken him via bus to Fond Du Lac, WI (thirty miles away) and let him off at a bus station as they do all who are released and have no one to come get them or some other arrangement through a Parole Officer or something like that. He wrote to a church in the area just out of the blue and someone responded indicated a willingness to pick him up here and give him a ride to the airport. How cool is that? That’s the kind of courage I need to learn. We also got a new guy in who opened up to me out of the blue. It seems he was approved for Act 28 release but the judge in his case had denied him. They have to let him go in February, and when I pointed out to him he most likely would have been on electronic monitoring for 6 months had he gotten early release, he indicated he didn’t care. He’d been down for eight years and the only thing that mattered was getting home to his kids. Inwardly I smiled. I so understand that desperation and desire. Finally, congratulations to Chris Tomlin, one of my favorite Christian artists, on finally getting married this week. I wish the very best to him and his new wife!
Life in Wisconsin Prisons and Beyond 