I’m at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), an institution in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS), participating in the Earned Release Program (ERP). This past weekend confirmed what I already knew about a few things. I knew cellie Larry Sands has a bit of a backstabber in him so it didn’t surprise me when new cellie Jose Michaels let me know he wasn’t my friend. Sands and cellie Malcolm Johnson had asked me to take a turn to ask Michaels to turn off his radio at night. I had agreed even though it doesn’t bother me all that much as I’ve been using earplugs. But it allowed him and I to have a pretty in-depth conversation. He has been in prison many times since 1990, never being free for more than 90 days at a time. He’s a skilled mechanic and had gotten busted on drug charges. But he is a thoughtful person and considers himself a skilled psychologist and has little time for those who talk behind others backs or so he says. Sands likes to criticize me when I’m not in the room, his favorite issue being that I think I’m so smart. I don’t really care to be honest. Speaking of being out of the cell, I actually played ping pong this weekend and I even actually won a game! I beat Kevin House one game, but lost 2 others to him as well as to Sands and Michaels. Les Simon is having trouble adjusting. His impression is that it feels like a mental hospital. It’s not too far off to be honest. I helped him with a bag for his laundry but somehow he got in a tiff over the laundry procedure with others. He’ll be ok though. Monday came and it was eventful. Right off the bat group members John Lloyd and Larry Sands got their rules for community supervision – the rules given by the parole officer (PO) which we will have to live by after our release – given to them. Being that both were from Milwaukee County, they had a large number of rules, including banning cell phones and being put on the ROPE Program. It allows police officers to enter your home at night and check for violations of rules or laws. Lloyd was extremely unhappy with all the hoops as he called it they were making him jump through. I do believe he is also as crabby as I had been. Sands took it in stride though clearly he was unhappy too. I’ll be getting my rules soon so I’ll be going into more detail on those then. Then I asked if our ERP social worker Ms. Grey, had the printout of the graduation project. She did not. She made it clear no work on the board for the ERP graduation ceremony could happen until she got back the week of June 6th. Of course, the group didn’t like that. She then went to do PO calls for Sands and Lloyd while we watched Chalk Talk on Alcohol Revised by Father Martin, which incidentally is very informative. After they returned, she dismissed us for the day, saying there was nothing to do. She told Sands and I to return to our cells which was fine by us. But he was unhappy Ms. Grey wouldn’t do anything to help him with his warrant after he had the nerve to ask the PO for help with the situation. But we figured we’re largely done with group. Ms. Grey goes on vacation Thursday and PO calls will dominate this week. The following week she is gone and the next week is graduation. At the afternoon session, we sat in the dayroom and it got noisy. Guard Roscoe Peters had told us to quiet down. Shortly after Ms. Grey returned calling us back into group. She told us she had been ordered to do something with us during the afternoon session. Although many groups are left unattended for hours at a time, we figured Peters snitched on her as there had been bad blood between her and the guards and well really everyone else as well which if you’ve been following along you’ve seen. So back in group we went, this time watching a video from HBO targeting teens, warning them about the dangers of drinking and driving. It actually wasn’t a bad video. Meanwhile cellie Malcolm Johnson got back from HSU with a lower bunk restriction. It meant either Sands or Michaels would have to give up their bunk, as they were on lower bunks. Neither was happy. But Sands had volunteered before to do so and now changed his mind which infuriated Michaels. Peters decided not to do anything as both went down to make their case to him. Sands and Johnson worked out a deal to switch bunks after next week but didn’t tell Michaels as they were sore at him still over the radio issue. They want him to stew over losing his bunk. But this whole thing isn’t about the radio, it’s jockeying to see who is running things in this cell. It’s not me I’ll tell you that as I’m not getting involved. I smiled that night after seeing movie advertisements on TV that will be coming out after I’m out. There are so many things I’ve missed the last two years that I can’t wait to do again.
Posts Tagged ‘violations’
Turn Off The Radio
Posted: December 7, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: advertisements, alcohol, Although, blood, bunk, bunks, cell, cellie, cells, ceremony, Chalk, conversation, dangers, dayroom, depth, Detention, didn, drug, father, friend, Grey, Guard, hoops, Hospital, hours, House, Institution, John, Johnson, Jose, June, Kevin, Larry, Laundry, laws, Lloyd, Malcolm, Martin, Michaels, Milwaukee, movie, MSDF, Neither, officer, officers, person, Peters, Prison, procedure, Program, radio, Release, restriction, room, ROPE, Roscoe, Sands, Secure, session, Simon, situation, supervision, System, talk, teens, tiff, Turn, vacation, violations, wasn, week, Wisconsin, worker
Guard Trick Could Have Backfired
Posted: March 4, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Abuse, addition, Ander, Andre, assignments, breath, Brian, Casarjian, catalog, Change, Charles, Christmas, Conduct, conversation, Could, Criminal, December, Detention, didn, Edition, expectations, Freedom, Grey, Guard, Guide, Harvey, headphones, Improvement, impulse, inmate, Inner, Institution, Jack, Kenneth, Koss, Malik, management, Marcus, medication, Milkman, Milwaukee, mood, MSDF, opinion, pastime, Pearl, piece, Power, Prison, Prisoner, Program, Publications, radio, Release, Robin, room, rules, Sage, Secure, self, situation, Strategies, substance, System, treatment, Trick, vacation, vacations, violations, Wanberg, Whalen, Wisconsin, workbook
I’m at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), an institution in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS), participating in the Earned Release Program (ERP). Shortly after count last night, the Koss headphones I bought off the catalogs, a plastic piece by the right ear just fell off making the ear piece unable to stay connected (Jack L. Marcus catalog #2168). I got them while at JCI several months ago and they take a considerable pounding since I never listen to TV or radio without them. I spent the rest of the night after shaving my head wearing those headphones being careful not to touch them once I got them on my head lest I cause the headphone to fall. It’s unfortunate it happened right before Christmas break where TV viewing will be a major pastime. With Christmas right around the corner (today is December 23rd) guard and staff vacations have started which means we have staff unfamiliar to us. I asked them for an order form and catalog so I could order the headphones but were refused. While waiting for lunch, my cellies, Malik Pearl, Andre Charles, and Brian Whalen had a long but productive conversation. Andre went on and on about how those in his ERP group upset him with how they act. He finally came at me and wanted to know what I thought. I took a deep breath and told him the problem was him. His expectations of how these people act is what has created this problem. In addition, I told him his anger management isn’t the problem but he has a rage issue, and that he needed medication for mood stabilization and impulse control. Finally, I told him I worry someday he will kill someone before he was even aware of what he’s done. Everyone in the room was stunned by what I said but Andre said I was dead on accurate and thanked me. But he asked why Whalen never had issues with him. It’s because Whalen does everything he can to appease him while Malik and I would not. Whalen even agreed with this opinion. For once I thought I handled this situation well. We had count after lunch and Andre came out without his ID or yellow smock. Normally, they let this go but these new guards did not. After count cleared, one of the guards showed up and told him to pack up as he was doing to the hole for these violations. He was patted down, and Andre was clearly getting angry. After going through his things, the guard announced he was “fu—– with him as he had them by not following the rules”. Relieved he didn’t go to the hole he returned to his usual loud self. But this guard had played a very dangerous game. What if Ander had flipped out over losing his ERP over his trick? Getting kicked out of ERP can mean additional years an inmate may have to sit in prison. I believe Andre to be fairly dangerous and this guard was by himself and didn’t know Malik or I. Fortunately, it ended ok …this time. At 1 pm, Ms. Grey joined us and gave us new books. On was “Houses of Healing: A Prisoner’s Guide to Inner Power and Freedom, 5th Edition”, 2008, by Robin Casarjian and another workbook, “Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse Treatment. Strategies for Self Improvement and Change” by Kenneth W. Wanberg and Harvey B. Milkman, 2006, Sage Publications. We will begin assignments in this next week while she is gone on vacation. Ms. Grey also gave us a whole bunch of worksheets. The load is getting heavier no doubt. But I am confident I’ll keep up.
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.
ERP On The Ropes
Posted: January 28, 2011 in UncategorizedTags: Andre, brain, Brown, bunk, cell, Challenge, coordinator, Courtney, crew, December, Detention, didn, Evaluation, Forget, Gerrish, Health, history, incarceration, inmate, inmates, Institution, Jeff, life, Malik, Malike, member, Milwaukee, MSDF, Pearl, policy, Prison, Program, psychiatrist, rehabilitation, Release, Ropes, Secure, System, ticket, violations, Wagner, Wisconsin, younger
I’m a the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF), an institution in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS), participating in the Earned Release Program (ERP). The media mistakenly keep calling this program “Early Release Program” thinking that is what ERP stands for. It doesn’t. I stands for “Earned Release Program”. Got that cleared up? Good. 🙂 Well, last night was horrid for me, not just because of the usual reasons, but the mattress that was on my bunk when I got here was extremely thin so my back is extremely sore. I figure I’ll eventually get used to it. Forget about asking for a new one, you’ll just get laughed at. The other 3 cellies went to program about 8 but Andre returned about 10. It seems the program coordinator had seen him wearing his shower shoes instead of the standard issue blue slippers, said something to him about it, another younger inmates laughed at him, and he snapped at him, then at the coordinator, who then told him to go to his cell for the rest of the day. Andre was very worried they’d give him a ticket for disrespecting staff and that he might get kicked out of ERP for this. He also has had a history of a lot of warnings for various violations. He reminded me a lot of me as he paced the floor and how the anxiety junkie completely ruled him at this point. As it turned out, he was stressed for nothing, not even getting a warning. Andre felt like he needed to stop being friendly with other inmates as it is what seemed to give this younger inmate a license to “act the fool with him”. But I filed all of this in my brain as what not to do once I start on December 13th. The psychiatrist of the jail stopped by our cell asking how we were doing. Malike Pearl asked what would happen if he went back on his meds. She replied he’d be dropped from the program and moved to another floor. I didn’t know that about Malik. But I’ve covered what I think of this blanket policy. The staff member who did the evaluation yesterday brought the mental health information on Brown County for when I get out. It was good she didn’t forget.
On TMJ4 today, Jeff Wagner, Courtney Gerrish and crew talked about how they wanted to see the ERP eliminated because someone high on heroin killed someone else, and they had graduated from the ERP. I wonder if they know these are the only programs I know of (Challenge Incarceration Program as well) that actually pretend to do any kind of rehabilitation. I wonder if they read this blog. I wish they would as they would see life isn’t always black and white. But I’m praying I sleep better tonight and thank God for getting me into ERP when he did. I’m not sure it’ll be here all that much longer.
Hooch Is Not A Dog
Posted: October 6, 2010 in UncategorizedTags: Admission, advantage, bathroom, bread, Brodie, Correctional, Corrections, crime, Department, desk, disadvantage, Dodge, downside, Evaluation, exception, FMCI, foot, Hooch, human, ingredients, inmate, inmates, inspection, Institution, island, Jackson, meals, Minimum, obstacles, places, possibilities, Prison, rehabilitation, shirt, shirts, sizes, Supervisor, supervisors, System, times, Unit, units, upside, violations, Wisconsin, yeast
I’m at the Fox Minimum Correctional Institution (FMCI), a facility in the Wisconsin Prison System (WPS). We were suppose to have an inspection today. Basically a white shirt (Supervisor) comes by and at the minimum security level is basically just looking for obvious rule violations or bunks that are unclean. But it got cancelled because there was two bags of hooch (homemade alcohol made with yeast, bread and other ingredients) found in Unit 10. We suspect it really didn’t affect the amount of time available to do the search but its a Friday so it was a good excuse to call it off. The guards everywhere I’ve been are by no means overworked and this place is no exception. The guards have a disadvantage here in that they are much more visible in everything they do. They don’t have a covering over them shielding them from inmate view like they did at Jackson Correctional Institution (JCI) or have distance from inmates like they did at Dodge Correctional Institution (DCI) Admission and Evaluation (A&E) units. We see when they have two to four times the serving sizes for meals that inmates have or when they spend a lot of time surfing the internet, reading books or being really noisy themselves. I’m sure other places did this sort of thing but its just not visible to us as much. The upside for inmates is they largely leave us alone here. Guards rarely leave their island desk except for the forty foot walk to their bathroom. The downside is that inmates who are loud, intimidate others or take advantage of others rarely get checked (put in their place). We do have snitches here, like any other facility and every once in awhile someone goes to the hole based on that information. But like JCI and DCI, guards don’t want to be bothered as a rule. But like other places I found exceptions to the rule. The Property Department Sgt. seemed genuinely interested and wanted to help if he could. But for the most part, Lt. Brodie, the main white shirt, and the guards, just don’t care about anything that concerns us. I suspect after they work as guards awhile we become less than human to them. I’m sure that’s probably true everywhere too. Like I’ve said before, I’m not out to get the blue shirts (guards), white shirts (supervisors) or the Department of Corrections (DOC). I’m here to do my time for my crime for which I’m guilty. I don’t think rehabilitation is the responsibility of the guards or the DOC, but rather the inmate. If you’ve followed along, you’ve seen how far I’ve come in the time I’ve been incarcerated. I’ve done it by minding my own business, working on myself and staying focused. When I slip, I do the very opposite of those things. This blog, my sponsors and many of you have played a big part in that. But guards and prison programs can’t do any of that for you. It would be easy for me to blame guards, the DOC, JCI or DCI for impeding the changes, but needed to be made, but ultimately it really isn’t their job to make these choices for me. Can they frustrate or aggravate me? Oh yeah. You’ve read about it. But that won’t stop me from seeing through the obstacles and the possibilities that lay behind them.
Life in Wisconsin Prisons and Beyond 