I
watched all of this happen while I was laying in my bed on the far wall. I knew there was going to be a chain but didn’t
think that I was on it, so I was reading a book to wind down before I went to
sleep, just as I did every night.
After Miss Parker went back out, I walked over to where the other inmate was talking to a couple of guys and asked him if he was on chain. With a smile, he said, “not me, but you sure are”. He went on to tell me who two of the other three were, but he didn’t see who the fourth one was. He also said it was an airlift and that they would be sending for us at 6 am.
So
now that I was leaving, it was time to get my pictures and other items that I
wanted to keep ready to send home. As
well as give out stuff to people who asked for it when I leave. I got done organizing all of that at about
1am. I also talked to my neighbor about calling
a few people first thing in the morning to let them know that I had left.
I got all of that done, plus said some goodbyes (possibly forever) to some guys who I had grown close to. I’m going to miss a few of them a lot.
I
wanted to get a few hours of sleep before the very long day that I knew was
ahead of me. I laid down and tried to
sleep, but it never came. I was at peace
with leaving and only just a little bit nervous about the unknown of what was
ahead of me. But for some reason my
pulse and blood pressure were up…I guess it’s my reaction to being a little
nervous and even excited about finally getting to my designated yard.
After about 4:30 or so, I decided to just get up and finish getting ready. Just then breakfast showed up and I was planning on just staying up after we had our breakfast anyway. We had eggs, salsa, black beans, cheese, oatmeal and a tortilla. I had eaten light the day before and I was planning on eating light again that morning now that I was on chain. Once we leave, bathroom breaks are rare and not very fun so it’s a good idea to plan ahead, lol. So, I just ate the eggs and a little bit of the oatmeal. After that I went and took a shower as I had no idea when the next time would be that I’d have the chance to shower again. I also brushed and flossed my teeth thoroughly for the same reason.
At
5:30, I noticed that an inmate was already on a tablet. I thought that they didn’t come back on until
about 6:30 which is when the phones come on.
I decided to see if they had shut off my account yet and they hadn’t, so
I was able to send out a message to the same people that I had asked my neighbor
to call.
I heard that there were 70 people on the same chain that morning (it turned out to be 60) so I knew that there was a chance that it would be later than 6:00 when they came for us. I figured that our unit would be the last one to be processed out due to the fact that we are PC and they wouldn’t allow us to mix with GP. I was right, so at 6:30 I checked to see if my phone account was still working, and it was! I was able to spend about an hour and half talking to my wife and got to talk to my girls too before they went to school.
Finally, just after 9:00 we were told that they were ready for us, so we followed Ms. Bingham out, giving a few fist bumps on the way out. Including one to my favorite CO, which is a huge no-no, lol. I’ll leave that person’s name out for now.
R
& D is where we are processed in and out of a facility. I hadn’t been in there since July 2nd when I
went from the SHU to H-unit. It has two
rooms, one with two big holding cells and one very small one, along with an
office and an open area with a door and a few pieces of furniture. The other room has one big holding cell, a
few more desks and another office. We
were first put in the second room in the big holding cell, but they had about
ten females that were also on chain and they hadn’t pulled them out yet. Behind the office in this room was a hallway
that went around it where they would usually have people wait to be seen by medical
on the way in and out. So, they decided
to put us four from my unit over in that hallway while they continued to process
us, and they brought the females into that holding cell. Just like PC, they have to keep the females
as separate from everyone else as possible.
Eden is a private facility, and they have a contract with the Marshal
Service so a lot of what they have to do is part of their end of that
contract. (From the time of arrest until
the arrival at a BOP prison, we are in the custody of the US Marshals.)
The
rest of the chain which was about 45 GP inmates were all in the two large
holding cells in the first room. As soon
as they were done and loaded onto a bus, they moved the four of us into one of
those holding cells to finish processing us.
Once we were over there we were uh….thoroughly searched, changed into our street clothes, and secured with cuffs, shackles, and a chain around our midsection that secured the cuffs close to our stomachs. Because we were on an airlift, we didn’t have to wear the “blue box of death”! The blue box of death is what I call the plastic box that is placed around the chain between our cuffs which covers up the keyholes as well as severely restricts any movement at our wrists. It also adds a lot of discomfort as they tend to dig into our wrists. I think that some of the officers enjoy that part of it. But for whatever reason when we’re going to be on con-air it’s not required. I’ll gladly go on con-air to avoid the blue box of death!
There
was one last inmate who was in the SHU that they brought out last to be
processed. He was in the SHU for
fighting with some Pisces inmates from what I understand. Once we were all processed (which took maybe
and hour and half? – at this point I had lost any sense of time) they loaded us
onto our own bus.
The
four of us were in the back section which normally holds about 30 inmates. There are also two cages back there which is
where the inmate from the SHU was put.
He’s a younger Hispanic gang member and he’s been my neighbor here until
last night and I’ve not had any issues at all with him. He would have actually been fine with us, but
it’s policy. The front section of the
bus, which holds maybe twelve inmates, is where they put the females.
The other bus held the other 45 or so inmates so it must have been absolutely packed. No thanks! Our ride was relatively peaceful, which was a lot different than I expected.
We
went from Eden to the Midland International Airport. The trip was only supposed to take about 2.5 hours,
but it took us over 3. At one point the
lead bus pulled off of the highway and stopped on the frontage road. This is something that never happens unless
they have a very good reason. Even if
someone has a heart attack, they only have certain places where they are
allowed to stop. I never found out why
we stopped for that long though.
We
got to the airport around 2:30ish pm.
There were already busses and vans lined up waiting for the plane to
arrive. It was supposed to land at 3:10
but because of high winds it didn’t come until around 4:00. This gave us time to eat and use the
bathroom.
First
it was potty time! They let the dude in
seg go first. They let him out of the
cage to walk back where we were to use the bathroom, then the four of us were
allowed to use it. As each of us were
done, they moved us to the front of our section so that they could let the
females go back there and use it. It was
very awkward to be this close to females after we’ve not been allowed to be
anywhere near them for so long. It’s
almost like church camp, lol. Us four
and the guy in seg are all respectful and we’re also not dumb so there were no
issues at all.
Next,
we got to eat our lunch, Johnny sacks.
It’s a brown bag with four pieces of bread, two pieces of turkey
bologna, one piece of “cheese”, four cookies, an apple and a small water. The last Johnny that I ate on a bus, I only
had about ten minutes to eat until they said we were done and had to throw them
away. So, I ate and drank fast! They had an extra bottle of water and no one
else wanted it so I took it.
Once
the plane arrived, all of the buses and vans got into place. First, the plane was unloaded, and those
inmates were put onto the waiting buses and vans which were probably all going
to different places. Next, they unloaded
the GP bus from Eden. They had about
five Marshals outside to search each inmate before they were loaded onto the
plane. Next was the females and then us
four and the dude in seg were last. All
of this took a very long time. It was
probably almost 6:00 before I got onto the plane.
Con-air
has always had a bad sound to it in my opinion.
I’ve always expected it to be a horrible experience. It was actually the best leg of the trip by
far. It’s a regular plane except for the
first few rows on the left were gone and a row of seats facing the back were there
for the staff to watch all of us thugs.
Also, the tray tables were gone.
The seats were comfortable, and the other inmates kept to
themselves. It was like a normal
flight. I even dozed off a couple of
times and when I woke up it felt like a normal flight with the exception of the
cuffs and shackles.
When
we were about to take off, an inmate a couple of rows up and to my right got up
and attempted to change seats to an empty row.
One of the staff members yelled for him to sit back down. They have zero tolerance on con-air for
obvious reasons. He told the staff
member that he would have to kick his ass to make him sit down because he
couldn’t have anyone sitting behind him.
This dude had obvious mental health issues but again, they have zero
tolerance. Two staff members wrestled
him back to his seat and buckled him in.
Later, a female staff member came and talked to him as he was still having a hard time. He was obviously having a panic attack, but he was also being very respectful as well. I believe he honestly thought if someone were behind him that he would be killed. The female, who had some common sense, allowed him to move to a row without anyone around him. We were all thankful for her compassion.
Once
we got to the OKC airport we were offloaded and put onto two buses. We were no
longer separated from GP at all with the exception of the females who got a
van. The bus that I was on was packed
full.
The
bus ride was not fun. I sat next to a
guy that was in our unit at Eden for about a week. I didn’t know him well because he mostly sleeps
a lot. After I sat next to him, a bunch
of “white boys” sat around us. White
boys are white guys who conform to the prison mentality and practice prison
politics. They have no tolerance for SO’s,
snitches, or homosexuals. They are the
reason I had to be in a PC unit at Eden and the reason I have to be very
careful here and in the BOP. Because I’m
white, they would target me if they knew who I was. The Mexicans and the blacks wouldn’t really
bother me at all. Each race polices
their own people. Prison is extremely racial. I was blessed in Eden to be in Delta, and we
all got along fine in there.
The bus driver put on a mixed music station and cranked the volume, making an already out of control crowd noise even worse. The loudest guys were having to yell at their homies to be heard. Lots of fun! But we were pretty much ignored the whole time and it was fine.
Once
we arrived, our bus pulled into a garage area and we were offloaded. First, we were given a medical examination
which consisted of being asked if we were having any emergency medical issues
at that time. This was after climbing
off a bus in cuffs and shackles and waiting in line. That should have answered that question,
lol.
Next,
we walked through the compound until we got to one of the two Delta units. We still had our shackles and cuffs on, and
they had been on for almost twelve hours at this point. They weren’t too tight or horribly
uncomfortable, but when you walk with shackles on, they rotate back and forth
around your ankles a little bit with each step.
Each step at this point was pretty painful.
On
our way over to Delta we were told to pick a cellie. The guy from Eden Delta and I agreed to it
immediately. Another guy and I who had
spent the past 8+ months with and who I had grown close to were going to stick
together, but we got split up at the OKC airport. (He ended up catching chain the next day from
the OKC detention center to his California destination.)
In
Delta we were put into two-man cells and our restraints were finally removed. Next, we were strip searched again and given
clothes, bedding, and hygiene along with a jacket and a property bag. They told us we could sleep as it would be a
few hours before they took us to our actual unit.
Not
long after that, Medical came by to put an extra long Q-tip up my nose and they
gave me my CPAP machine. My cellie told
me that usually they put the Q-tip up a lot further, but I don’t know if that’s
possible! I told him I’d take his word
for it.
Cimarron
is OK. In quarantine we are locked down
about 20 hours a day. The unit is pretty
nice and it’s mostly calm. We have 32
two-man cells on the top floor and 33 on the bottom. We have a large day room on the bottom floor
with tables, chairs, 3 TV’s, and ice machine, microwaves, and commissary kiosks. We have about 8 phones and hardly ever have
to wait to use one. We also have the
same tablets that we had in Eden as this is also a Core Civic facility. The facility itself is much nicer than Eden,
very clean. The staff seems a lot more
professional as well.
We are scheduled to go to GP later this week, but I don’t know where I’ll go. I’ll let y’all know about how that goes down later! Thank you for the continued prayers as I navigate this next step in this journey.
With
love 💙
