January 2025
Hello my Beloved,
Welcome to 2025. The year is off to an interesting start. January of 2025 has brought more of the same in 350B dorm; more drugs, more overdoses, more violence, and more chaos. People are getting high so much now it seems like the guards have just thrown in the towel. For example: during the first week of the month during one of the counts (for daytime counts we are required to stand quiet and still at the foot of our beds with head, face and eyes uncovered so they can detect drugs or violence.) an inmate was so high he could not stand; he just half lay in his bed and twitched. The guards just looked at him and kept going. No medical was called. Of course that’s the way most of the inmates want it. As long as the guy is still breathing, they would prefer he be left alone. That way there are no extra lockdowns or searches.
Continue to keep Crawford in your prayers. If you remember, he is the 5 y.o. in the body of a 56 y.o. He continues to smell horrible. I try to get him in the shower, but it’s difficult. On the 5th he woke up around 3:00 a.m. and with tears in eyes said “Oh no Bishop, I think I had an accident.” He had wet his bed. I think both of us were afraid of what some of the other inmates would do if they found out. I tried to make a game out of it for him by seeing how fast we could get his bed stripped, washed (along with his clothes), him showered, and everything put back together before anyone noticed. Thankfully we succeeded. 😊
After my conversation with Deacon in December, I decided to finally agree to my Carpentry Instructors request to become an official teachers aid for Carpentry. I have been doing the job since last summer but never saw the need to make it official. Deacon pointed out that having that job on paper would look good to my probation officer when I get out.
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It was so good talking with Deacon on the phone. I am so glad my family got to meet him and he saw our farm. It was also great to see how he is using the apologetics and philosophy skills I taught him to pour into his own family and Church. I continue to pray for him and I am proud of what he has done.
My lip swelled up again on the 7th. It didn’t last long. I wish I knew what caused my facial swelling. Ironically, I FINALLY got to see the doctor on the 8th. He seemed to be a little better than the younger one I saw a while ago. He gave me a better knee brace for my hurt knee. This one has metal supports in it. I was hoping he would give me inserts for my shoes and boots to cushion and take the strain off of my knees but he didn’t have any in my size. He looked at my shoulder and said it was either dislocated or I had a torn rotator cuff. He me said he would have it x-rayed. That would show if it was dislocated. If that showed it wasn’t then it had to be the rotator cuff. He also said he would get me 210 Zyrtec for my allergies. He said that would last me for a good portion of the year. Yaaay! Hopefully I can finally start to heal on some of my injuries.
I guess you saw our sister prison ‘Indian Creek’ in the news. A guard got caught bringing in a lot of drugs. That’s just one of the many reasons that many of us don’t trust the guards or the administration. I heard several DOC employees talking about an email they received right after the incident. It didn’t focus on not doing illegal activity, it just said ‘don’t get caught.’
Continue to pray for Adam. The gang leader that defended him and had a ‘talk’ with the 2 inmates bent on making Adam’s life miserable, got moved. Predictable, Adam experienced another rotten
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milk attack less than a week later. I hate the lack of justice here. If I confronted the guys a fight would almost assuredly break out. Win or lose I would still receive a charge and lose some of my good time, and my ability to see and talk to my family. If I go to the guards, they will let it slip out that I told, or someone would see, and I would be labeled a ‘snitch.’ Then there would be multiple fights, including 7 vs 1. That would force me to seriously hurt multiple people. I would have my time here extended and moved to an even more violent prison with fewer privileges.
How can I be so sure DOC employees are that corrupt? Well, Friday the 10th I had one of the most bazaar encounters yet with the corruption in DOC. As per the rules, because I am an ‘all day worker’ in Carpentry, I don’t get my commissary on Wednesdays like everyone else. I wait until Friday and walk across the compound to the commissary window. Around 8:00 or 9:00 am I was called to do this. I walked over with a few other inmates from our dorm. Once we got to the window, I handed the lady my ID and stepped back and waited to see when they would call me. As I waited an inmate from another dorm walked up to the door to Property with a bag of laundry over his shoulder. He suddenly looked over to the commissary window that was 10 feet to his right. He then walked over to it. I couldn’t hear what was being said but I did hear him say Property. The next thing I know he is shoveling commissary items from the window into his laundry bag.
As I watched this happen, I noticed that what he was receiving seemed to match my order. It couldn’t be mine though, because DOC regulations require the commissary lady to verity the ID picture with the inmate. She is then supposed to ask the inmate to repeat his state number and to see if it matched the badge So, it can’t be that she is giving him my commissary. He finished
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closing his bay and walked back towards his dorm. The similarities in the order were too much for me so I approached the window and asked them whose order they had just given out. She said Lipscomb’s. I told her that I was Lipscomb and she had just given my commissary to someone else. She got a panicked look on her face and said someone needed to stop the guy. She asked me to stop the inmate so I called to him. He turned around and stared at me I motioned for him to come back, and he did.
I couldn’t hear the conversation but he did return all of my commissary items. He then left the window again and went into Property. I then walked up to receive my commissary, The lady asked for my ID as she straightened my crumpled-up receipt. I reminded her that I had already given her my ID. After checking her pockets and looking around she told me that I had never given her my ID. I asked her how she knew to bring my bag forward and give it out if she didn’t have my ID. She had to have had my ID to get my commissary bag. I said that she must have given it to the inmate who stole my commissary since they usually attach the ID to the receipt when they are finished with the inmate. Since the other inmate had my receipt, he probably had my ID as well. The lady looked panicked and closed the window so I stepped back and waited.
The other inmate came out of Property and glared at me, ‘I don’t have your F#@!?# ID’ he snapped and walked off. The commissary window opened again, this time the commissary supervisor Ms. White stepped up and asked me for my ID again. I explained to her that I had already given them my ID and either they had it or the inmate that stole my commissary knew where it was. She firmly denied it. Again, I asked how they knew which bag to pull if they didn’t ever have my ID. Again, the window was slammed shut. After a moment she opened the window and
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once again firmly told me she never got my ID. I once again asked her how she knew to pull my bag. Ms. White then said it was all my fault. I politely asked her how it was my fault that my ID was missing when they were the last ones in control of it.
She then told me that she wouldn’t give me my commissary unless I produced my ID and she never had it. Yet again, I asked her how she knew to pull my bag if she didn’t have my ID (much less how did she verify the State # and face without my ID). She then angrily said it was all my fault because I didn’t stop the other inmate while he was stealing my commissary. I responded that one, I wasn’t aware that they had given the other inmate my commissary and my badge until after he left, and two, it wasn’t my responsibility, nor do I have the authority to pat down another inmate. If the ladies made a mistake they should have called for a guard to act to correct their mistake. Even madder now, Ms. White told me that the ID was my problem and without it she would not give me my commissary. After getting her name, I then thanked them for their time and returned to the dorm.
I returned to the dorm around 9:20 and asked the guard in the booth to call a Sargeant or someone with authority to the dorm so I could speak with them. I wanted to make sure the inmate was not using my ID for nefarious purposes. And, if needed, I could get a new ID because of their mistake.
The Sargeant couldn’t talk to me until 11:00 or so. After explaining what happened, she told me to fill out a Trust System Withdrawal Request Form for a new ID. After she left, I got the appropriate form from the dorm clerk who told me the Sargeant needed to sign it.
Things got even more messed up around 11:30 when an announcement was made that if you didn’t have an ID you would not receive a tray for lunch. I explained to the booth office my situation and asked her what I should do. She told me that if I didn’t have and ID I wouldn’t be allowed
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to get a tray. I asked her how was I supposed to eat for now on. She told me that she didn’t know. I politely asked her to call someone that did know so I could talk to them. She said ok. A half hour later, Officer Harris came into the dorm to make his rounds. So I asked him if he could sign the form. He asked me what happened so I recounted the story yet again. Harris said he would send an investigator to talk to me and look at the video footage of the incident. Then someone would sign for me to get a new ID. He said that he would make sure a tray was sent to me immediately. Just after he left the Sargeant came back so I asked her to sign the form. She said I didn’t need her signature to submit it. The conflicting information left me frustrated. 2 hours later (2:00) my tray finally arrived. It was cold. Harris told me to hurry and eat and go to property for a new ID. I got to property and saw the property officer, Sargeant Watkins. I explained to him that I was there for a new ID. He took my form and saw that I had not marked the part agreeing to pay for it. He told me I had to pay because I lost it. I recounted my story yet again, this time to him. I told him that I refused to be charged for the DOCS failure to follow established procedure and keep my ID secure rather than give it to another inmate. He looked angrily at me and said we will see about that. He then told me he was going to ask the commissary people about the incident. With that, he left me standing at the counter. He returned about 5 minutes later with a smug look on his face and announced that I would definitely be paying for the ID. I again told him that I refused to pay for an ID that they gave away. The Sargeant just looked at me with disdain and said that I would not get an ID if I didn’t pay for it. I politely told him that I was fine
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with that. I needed to know, though, if he was going to have my tray delivered to my dorm 3 times a day so I could eat from now on or was he going to call the chow hall every time I went to eat to tell them to give me a tray.
The look of rage that filled his face was so intense that I thought he was going to come across the counter at me. He put both hands on the counter and started shaking. He then spun around and rushed to the phone behind him and called the Captain. I couldn’t hear what he was saying to the Captain partially because he was trying to be quiet and partially because he was speaking through teeth clenched so hard, I thought they were going to shatter.
After a moment he smiled, straightened up, and hung up the phone. As he walked over to me, he had an evil grin on his face. As he got to the counter, he snatched up the ID form and scratched out my refusal to pay and wrote that I would pay. He then told me that from that moment on I was now under investigation for trying to run a scam on the commissary people. He said that ‘if’ I was found innocent they would refund the ID money to me. They never did. ☹
I try so hard to give the DOC the benefit of the doubt. The vast majority of my interactions with them, though, are just like my encounters with Ms. White and Sargeant Watkins, or worse. More and more I find myself just giving DOC employees the same wide berth that I give many gang members and those with violent mental illnesses. Please continue to pray that I remain objective when dealing with the DOC. Ironically, later in the day I was called into our counselor’s office. She told me that she really wanted me to accept the job of being the dorm mentor. She said that since I was already mentoring so many people in the dorm, it was only fitting that I be hired by
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the DOC and be paid for what I already did. That request had the worst possible timing because I was still struggling with my emotions from my earlier battle with Watkins and White. I got choked up as I refused the offer and explained to her that I couldn’t bring myself to work for the DOC as a mentor because of the absolute apathy, ignorance, and immorality that I constantly encounter from them. I would never allow a group a people that are that corrupt dictate to me how I can, and cannot, love my neighbor.
As I recounted my day’s encounter to the counselor, she became so enraged that she had trouble speaking. She kept picking up objects from her desk and shaking them. She finally calmed down enough to tell me how sorry she was that I had to go through that. She did make me feel a little better by telling me that I was the absolute last person in the prison that she would ever consider running any sort of scam on anyone. I thanked her again for the job offer and the kind words and left. As I did, all I could do was remember what a very highly positioned mental health administrator had told me just before she quit. The DOC system is corrupt to the core and there is no way to fix it.
I do have some more upbeat news to share from this month. I signed up to go to a seminar on the 16th put on my Virginia Wesleyan University. They are interested in starting college classes here at St. Brides. As I walked into the packed visitors room and sat down, they announced that well over 400 inmates had signed up for the program, but they only had room for 40. Therefore, they held a lottery to choose the 40 inmates that would attend school. Wow! Less than a 10% chance that I would be chosen. As I was preparing to get up and leave early, they called out the 3rd name chosen, it was me! I was slightly stunned.
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Also chosen was Catholic Mike and Matthew. The college explained that they were still in the early stages of putting the program together, but things looked promising. Their hopes were to provide us with a general Associates Degree for free. The normal cost of the degree is $42,000. On the 29th I had my first class. I am enrolled in a Business Fundamentals 101 class. We meet from 4:00 – 8:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays. My professor’s name is Ms. Todd. She really seems to know her stuff. I am looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Even with all this, I am so looking forward to 2025. Thank you so much for all you and the rest of the guys have done in 2024. I can’t wait to see what kind of harvest we have in 2025! I love you so much my Beloved!
Love Always,
Me
SCRAP!
GELPOY!
ILYSOOOM!
LAAF!