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’s Friday and most everyone in our group is on edge awaiting news that their release paperwork has been returned by their judge having graduated the ERP. It’s been 7 days since then. Past groups that have graduated have always had more progress on getting people their paperwork than we have. In addition, Milwaukee County has always been the slowest in processing this paperwork for past groups even though the courthouse is literally across the street. My paperwork returned from Winnebago County on Wednesday and it’s a couple hours from here. ERP group member Dean Stark became the first of the 10 of us to be released. He left with no boxes just some papers in a bag. I would be the next to get some news. My C15 form authorizing MSDF to release me was sent by my parole officer (PO) Helen Gaither. But the order was postdated for Wednesday June 22nd. As our ERP social worker Ms. Grey informed me I admit to feeling disappointment at first. I was hoping against hope to get released today or since Monday isn’t possible, Tuesday at the latest. But as Ms. Grey walked away from me, I realized though I’m not getting out when I want, the fact the guesswork when I’m being released has been eliminated which rarely happens in this program. As she left me, ERP group member Kevin House inquired if there was any news. She told him “not to worry about it, you’re not going anywhere”. You may as well have kicked him in the stomach because those words didn’t hurt any less. What is she thinking? This seems humorous to her, how the rats in the cage keep trying to find the way out. We spent the rest of the day talking amongst ourselves off and on about what might be happening that is preventing the rest of the guys in our group paperwork from being processed. At supper I again noticed the guard on duty reading my Green Bay Press Gazette before I got it. Oh well. At mail call I was delighted to again hear from my biological family. My cousin expressed concern that I stay in touch after my release. Are you kidding me? I wrote back. I’ve spent years looking for them. No way am I going to stop talking to them. They like the idea of me visiting over Thanksgiving if I can arrange it. They also want my phone number too which I should get when I pick up a cell phone on my way to my new home for the moment in Menasha, Wi. I also heard from my friend Jill who has been following this blog almost since it started. She is from Australia and has become a good friend. She invited me to Sydney, Australia! Of course, I suspect this would violate my parole! But maybe someday. I also want to see Israel and the West Bank someday as there is so much there related to my faith. But that will have to wait too. The day ended with ERP group member Scott Dietz again talking to his sister and again the same result. No action on their cases. Everyone says it doesn’t bother them but their eyes betray them. I am grateful that it will soon be over.
Posts Tagged ‘supper’
It Looks Like Wednesday
Posted: January 12, 2012 in UncategorizedTags: action, addition, Australia, Bank, cell, Courthouse, cousin, Dean, Detention, Dietz, disappointment, fact, faith, friend, Gaither, Gazette, Grey, guesswork, Helen, hours, House, Institution, Israel, Jill, June, Kevin, Looks, member, Menasha, Milwaukee, moment, MSDF, news, officer, papers, paperwork, Past, Prison, Program, rats, Release, Scott, Secure, Stark, street, supper, Sydney, System, West, Winnebago, Wisconsin, worker
Bad Attitude
Posted: November 22, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: attitude, ball, breakfast, Brian, cell, cellie, cereals, consequences, Corey, David, dayroom, Detention, didn, door, essay, facial, goals, Grey, headphones, hours, inmate, Institution, Later, leftovers, Malik, Milwaukee, MSDF, news, patience, Pearl, Peters, Pewaukee, Phase, Prison, Program, reaction, Release, Roscoe, Secure, skills, song, supper, Sussex, swamper, System, Todd, trays, violation, Whalen, Wisconsin, 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). It was another odd Tuesday. I went out in the dayroom to await the beginning of our ERP group but hours went by before we learned our ERP social worker, Ms. Grey, was not coming in that morning. We did this song and dance again in the afternoon until about 2 pm until we learned there would be no group at all. We don’t know why at this point. The news for me on Tuesday involved my swamper job. Counting trays, ketchups, mustards, cereals and milk are a critical part of the job to get right. I had told my fellow swamper David Sussex not to talk to me when I was counting. He of course did anyway. I was annoyed but I didn’t say anything. The look on my face must have communicated my feelings however as he told me he was through with me if that was going to get me angry. And of course, my count was then off. I tried to explain to him I was not angry but he wouldn’t even discuss it. I’m thinking to myself, whatever, I don’t really care. I’m then told he discussed it in his ERP group. Apparently at supper I missed cleaning a table afterwards and one of his group members came to my cell to tell me about it. Normally, one would see this, grab a towel and clean the table. A gain I didn’t say anything but my facial expression must have told the story. I would observe them both later on conferring with each other, and they normally don’t. But my big mistake was showing signs that they had succeeded in getting to me. I resolved not to allow that to happen anymore. I used to be really good at that. Have my people skills been degraded that much since I’ve been locked up? On another note, Tuesday was the final day for cellie Corey Ball prior to release. He clearly is nervous about the uphill struggle that awaits him upon release. He found a place to go with a relative in Pewaukee. He insists he’ll be in a bar Wednesday night partying and he’ll be in touch. Regardless, I wish him well. He had a lot of trouble sleeping as one might expect that night. The next morning Sussex said he wanted to sit down and talk at some point. I said sure that’ll be fine. What else am I going to say? I really have no desire to talk to him. Right in the middle of breakfast, guard Roscoe Peters told Ball to pack up, give him his cell key and they were coming to get him right then. As I finished cleaning the tables he was by the door. He looked as stiff as could be. I told him to breathe and its all going to work out. He smiled and said I hope so. Then that was it. He was gone. Since it’s Wednesday, there were no ERP groups. I wrote my Phase 3 goals and objectives essay on patience which probably will be published here later, not because it’s good but because it shows how at a loss I am to explain my attitude as of late. Later that day Sussex decided he was going to take an extra banana from the leftovers from supper. I just threw the bananas and said whatever. Sussex said I was crazy. He might be right. Normally, I’d never react like that. Later on, I’d go apologize to him for my reaction as well as to the inmate who pointed out the dirty tables. I felt much better after doing that, like a load lifted off of me. Even if they did wrong, I had no right to react like that. The night ended with our cell getting tossed because cellie Brian Whalen left his oranges from lunch in plain view of the passing guard. He then tossed the cell next door, where 2 recent ERP graduates, including former cellie Malik Pearl, resides. The guard got his key stuck in the door. One of them offered to get his key out if he didn’t toss their cell. This just served to infuriate the guard. Pearl and an inmate who shares my table at meals, Todd Knight, got conduct report for altered property. Knight had altered his headphones to share them with Pearl. when he watched TV which is a rule violation. Pearl isn’t upset at all as he’s leaving soon. Knight, on the other hand, has got 4 months left, and will suffer the consequences for trying to help Pearl.
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!