Day 65 - 8/26/21 - Thurs
- mainemoviepirate
- 4 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Journal Entry:
“Happy Birthday, Brother, no matter where you are… Up at 5:30 AM. Tried to do HLR Drink, but the ‘Dining Room’ was locked. It is the only place I can get drinkable hot water. Welcome to Camp Devens: Where total Inconsistency is our goal! At least for ten minutes, then our goal will change. F*cking place. Focus, Cereal. This World, This World, This World. Day 65. But who’s counting? Nice opening rant for my Journal. Had my HLR drink at 7:05, now it’s 7:22, and I am sitting in the Common Area. Looks like it might be a nice, if not hot, day. In true Camp Devens fashion, I go to lay down and Ping! The big lights come on. I get up and start to write in my CubiCell, and off they go. Okay, then I learn they were shut off because of the heat. Ten degrees hotter in here when they are on. That’s going to make a huge difference today. Now I’m in the library working this Journal and probably Walking Distance. Use the time wisely, write, write, write.
LUNCH: Bone-In chicken (Got two, ate both), sweet potato wedges (very good), beets (ate), Salad (ate).
Called Steve, he actually answered. Then he said snail mail letters is the only way we could communicate about the appeal. Then, after the very brief phone call, he accepted my email request. Huh? Anyway, I’ll stick with a letter. It will be easier to save copies of what I send him. Good practice for doing my own legal work, if it comes to that.
After the Call, my mind was on the Direct Appeal:
The Fair Use Jury Instructions
The Enhancements and actual restitution dollar amount.
The Jury Question: ‘Unlawfully’ in the Indictment.
SUPPER: Chef Salad (Put some in reserve for Fish Friday), potato-like stuff (gross). Going to keep the chicken for tomorrow and will make a delicious wrap for lunch.
Still roasting hot outside and inside. Got another card from Ro-Ro, got to send some back. Think I’ll head over to the movie room, also known as the dining hall.
‘You’re in my seat’: Mission Impossible and all sequels. Good one to do, create several pages.
Bloodshot—Saw it before, or most of it. Decent action/sci-fi.”
Notes for Day 65 (Four Years Later)
The entry is a great representation of what most of my incarceration time was: boredom wrapped in the barbed wire of frustration. From the beginning of the day, with the struggle to find drinkable water and light to read or write by, to the middle of the day trying to communicate with my legal representation. Even prisoners have a legal right to adequate legal assistance. When that becomes a struggle and a mystery just to find a way to communicate with your lawyer, there is something seriously broken with the system.
The final thing I want to say is about the heat. It was like an oven in that warehouse of people during the summer. The sweat rolled right off me all day long. There were rumors that the prison actually had industrial Air Conditioners somewhere on the complex, but they just hadn’t gotten around to putting them in. Much later, at Lewisburg, I saw proof with my own eyes: right outside where I worked at the power house, there were dozens of industrial roof Air Conditioning units, rusting in the elements. The power house Boss said they had been there for years. I asked, “Why haven’t they been installed?” My Boss replied, “You know you’re at the BOP, right?”
So, imagine the tax dollars that were spent on A/C units across the BOP, and how many of them are just sitting there, basically rotting in the elements. Just more proof that this incarceration system needs serious reform, and now. Mission Impossible, indeed.
