The RDAP Camp

Another move! Just two weeks into adjusting to his move to Lompoc Camp, Corey got the word to rack up! He was being moved to the North Camp, aka the RDAP Camp. This came as a big surprise, not expecting that to happen for a month or more. I was initially excited because I thought that meant he would be beginning the program right away. Not! Seems they simply had a few empty beds in the RDAP Camp, so were wanting to fill them, Corey would not be enrolled in the drug program for another few months. Much to his chagrin he also learned that while housed at that Camp, even if you are not enrolled in the program, you ARE, not surprisingly, expected to live by the much stricter rules and the more controlled environment just as the "Dappers" (enrollees) are, as well as attend various meetings and workshops, although you wouldn't receive any credit or time off the program for starting early basically.

Thanks to the corrlinks email system that Lompoc uses, Corey was able to send us back and forth emails over the course of the day, he'd write just before loading the transport to be taken over, and he'd write after settling into his new housing unit, describing his bunk and living situation. I was constantly running into the office all day to check for the latest NEW Message from Corrlinks! There are a number of things right off the bat he saw to be an improvement over the Main Camp, those heading the list being the housing accommodation (less men in the dorms, better, sturdier beds and thicker mattresses) and fresher and slightly larger rations of food. For the first time since Corey has "been down" he has a bed that is long enough for his 6 ft 5 inch frame! No longer will he have to rest his ankles on the footrails of his iron bunk, or drape his feet off the side of the bed, or lay curled in the fetal position!

Rod and I were able to drive over to Lompoc at the end of that first week, just this last friday, and visit on Saturday. As we drove slowly down the highway that runs parallel to the Correctional Complex, I strained my neck to take in as much of the DAP Camp as I could, so I could ask him where abouts his unit was, where such and such was located (chow hall, meeting rooms, etc) so I can picture him there, in his new surroundings, going forward. Like our first visit, two weeks ago, we got there early, about 15 minutes till 8 ( even though the sign states no visitors allowed till 8 am). We saw a few cars already slowly heading down the long driveway to the Camp parking lot so decided to take our chances as well. And good thing, because at that we would be 5th party in line. They don't open the Visitation Bldg until 8:30 (or 8:40, whenever the guard on duty gets around to it) so we must all stand out in the open, and its cold and damp those coastal mornings. I learned last visit to layer my clothes, to dress warmly! With a t-shirt, a sweater, a wool blazer and my London Fog trenchcoat I STILL was shivering after 20 minutes. The cold and damp goes right to the bone. Sadly we were to discover it would not be all that warm inside either that day...but maybe it was just that I had gotten so initially chilled, and just couldn't quite warm up the rest of the day. Corey was wearing simply his shortsleeved green canvas shirt and pants, I wanted to bundle him in my coats! But so not allowed! He seemed to manage ok though, he's learned to ignore all manner of discomfort over these years.

We loaded up on vending machine food and drinks and settled in to the days visit, as always so good to be together again, sharing our stories. The day passed much too quickly, and by 3 we were hugging our son and then waving goodbye. It is a 2 1/2 drive from our home in Bakersfield to the Lompoc Camp, happily the traffic was light, despite it being Memorial Day weekend, and as Rod and I relived the day, recalling again the stories we'd all shared, the new information and details Corey imparted to us re his new surroundings, we were surprised to find ourselve so quickly back in our own front yard!

"To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there."

ADJUSTING TO LIFE AT LOMPOC

Its been a week- almost – since Corey was loaded in the prison van and driven over to Lompoc. When a prisoner moves from one prison to another there are always some pro's and some cons (no pun intended) to contend with, some things will be better, some worse. There is generally always a trade off. One always hears rumors as well as reliable information re what these things are and we’d all been listening eagerly to any information that related to both Sheridans Camp and Lompocs, as we were fairly certain Corey would be sent to one or the other for the RDAP. Now that he is at Lompoc and was able to put to use funds on his acct, he’s called a few times but mostly taken full advantage of the inmate email system, called Corrlinks, that he can subscribe to by the minute. The cost of the system is 30 cents for 5 minutes use. So we will all learn to type faster, and use shorthand when we can LOL. We’ve been enjoying back and forth emails a few times every day, as he learns more and more about his new home for the next 18 months.

On the UPSIDE the food is a huge improvement over the food quality at Taft. We’d heard food in the BOP-run prisons was superior to that served in the private-for-profit prisons like the one at Taft, the ones run by the likes of CCA (Corrections Corporation of America, the single largest such company). Understandable. In order to increase profits private corporations are always watching the bottom line and cutting every imaginable expense, at the expense of the inmates in this case. Another upside was seeing the large ‘weight pile” at Lompoc. Prisons no longer purchase weight lifting equipment, new ones no longer allow it, but the older prisons have been allowed to keep what is there, but it is not replaced as it breaks down. So I imagine the inmates take especially good care of this equipment. At Taft Corey learned to work out using his own body weight in his resistance training. One of the things we most looked forward to was the change in climate! After 8 years in the desert at Taft, he is now breathing the clean, fresh, moist air carried on the ocean breezes. He is surrounded by lush green foliage, grass and trees. LOTS of them!

On the DOWNSIDE, accommodations has to top the list. At Taft Camp Corey had shared a two man cube, each cube had 5 ft tall cinder block walls. Inside each cube was a bunk bed, small desk, two plastic chairs, two full size lockers. Coreys cube, the last one he lived in while at Taft (over the years he was often moved from one cube to another) was a "perimeter" cube (there are also cubes in the center of the unit, back to back) had a tall narrow window with a view! Not the greatest view, but the window added the illusion of more space at least, and more light. Corey slept in the bottom bunk, so whenever on his bed, he had lots of privacy. There were two, 2 two story, concrete buildings each with 2 Units (A/B and C/D). Inside each housing unit (top and bottom) were special tv rooms and each inmate would take his own chair and place it in their “reserved’ spot (an “earned” respect), and the email computer and telephones were in the housing units. There was a laundry room on the main floor of each unit, and each floor had a ‘kitchen’ with several microwaves and enough space so inmates could prepare their own meals. Corey rarely ate in the chow hall, he mostly always prepared his own meals from items he could purchase at commissary every week.

Inmate housing at Lompoc Camp is essentially "bare bones", the two Units (Alpha and Beta) are metal warehouses, each sleeping over 200 men, in bunkbeds, "barrack" style, with very small lockers to hold their personal possessions. There are no kitchen areas in the units, no tv room. There are no microwave ovens in his unit (though he can walk to another unit to use one of the few available if he wishes, but apparently prep area is very small). The telephones are outside in the yard (covered kiosks) and the tv’s are also outside in a covered area, with metal bleachers where one can sit to view them (using headphones and his little radio). Half the year at least it can get a mite chilly at this "drive in" type tv situation. Corey says needless to say his viewing will be minimal, but looks forward to making more time for reading again. The meals at the Camp are actually prepared over in the adjacent Medium security prison and brought over for every meal. I cannot remember the reason for that, but it seems to work fine. So as you can tell, the differences in accommodations and "ammenities" are a bit stark, and as Corey looks back over the past 7 yrs at Taft Camp he's relieved he was able to serve the bulk of his sentence there.

The biggest difference he says is that Lompoc is a working farm. Taft was for “loafers”. Not that that was all that bad LOL. He says if one didn’t have an assigned job at Lompoc one would go crazy as there is little in the way of entertainment or hobbies. He says he actually is looking forward to being given his job assignment, for now he is relegated to small jobs around the yard, a few hrs a day, and then “works at” finding ways to pass the time the rest of the day. He has blisters on both feet from all the walking he’s been doing on the track, in shoes that were given him “temporarily”’ until he is given is own personal property he brought over from Taft with him. Overall he has to say he preferred Taft for its accommodations but the food quality and climate at Lompoc make it too close to call at this point.

If you don't get everything you want, think of the things you don't get that you don't want. ~Oscar Wilde

THE MOVE ~

Well its been over a week now since Corey arrived at Lompoc Federal Prison Camp. This was probably the easiest transfer of all in these past years in the BOP. Everything happened much more quickly than we have come to expect in this system and though it was still stressful for Rod and I, we weren’t out of touch for very long. That, and knowing he wasn’t boarding another Con-Air flight, in chains, or having to undergo”diesel therapy” at its worst (the stories I’ve read would make me break down and cry) all helped make this an easier transition than his earlier transfers in the system.

Two weeks ago Corey learned he’d been “designated” by the BOP, a huge surprise in that It’s usual for that process to take 4 or more weeks after the Taft prison had sent off his approved documents for entry into the RDAP. Upon learning you have been designated, you then usually don’t learn where you have been designated TO for another few weeks, and THEN, after that, its even another week or two before you actually are underway. Corey however learned he was going to Lompoc the day following the news of his designation. And on the heels of THAT news his counselor told him to start packing as he’d be going “real soon”. And by the next day he was called to report to R&D. He packed all his possessions (everything that had fit in his gym-sized locker, other than his clothes which belonged to the Taft facility) into 2 small boxes, and at 4 am that next morning (last Tuesday) he and 3 other Taft inmates were sitting in a holding cell waiting to board the prison van to make the 3 hour drive to Lompoc. His head was spinning at the speed of it all! As were his buddies and many staff members, who told him they were amazed at how fast HIS process had been. SO I guess all the stars were in alignment, Jupiter and mars, whatever! But it was alright by all of us! Finally our son was leaving Taft and the surrounding desert for good.

The only concern we had at that time was whether Corey was going to be driven directly over to Lompoc or if this “chain” would first go to Victorville (east of LA). Its pretty much luck of the draw, if there are inmates from the adjacent INS prison at Taft that need to be transported to Victorville the van will always go there first, as the BOP always travels “clockwise”. It wasn’t until Wednesday morning we learned Corey WAS at Lompoc, and not Victorville, because the wife of a buddy of his from Taft (who himself is taking the RDAP in Lompoc) relayed the news he’d been seen there. When the men are in transit there is no communication. They are not allowed to make phone calls and the BOP will not tell family or anyone anything about where the inmate is or is going. Its all about “the security of the institution”.

Once I learned Corey was at Lompoc I jumped into action. I needed to get money wired into his inmate acct. This turned out to be no easy task! Though the transfer itself was speedy, It took another full day for the BOP to change Coreys location in their online directory, from Taft to Lompoc, and even when they DID get that done, their system didn’t activate his Inmate Acct for another full day. Until his acct was activated I was not able to deposit any money into it.

So all day Wednesday, every two hours, I would call Western Union, go thru the 15 or so minute Q&A process involved, only to always be told “the inmate ID number is incorrect”. Which meant, in BOP jargon, that the BOP system had not yet updated/activated his acct. I was anxious and a little stressed, knowing that until he had money on his books Corey couldn’t contact us or anyone. He wouldn’t be able to purchase a phone card to be able to call out, he couldn’t purchase minutes to use the email system or to buy postage stamps ( let alone be able to purchase food or other essentials that would make his life a little more comfortable, as even though his two boxes of property accompanied him on the trip over, he will not be allowed to have them for another week or more!).

I would have thought I’d be somewhat used to these upsets to “normal” routine after these past 9 years, but I found I wasn’t, not really. How does one ever get used to this? That day of not being able to complete a simple wire transfer, for reasons totally beyond my control, REALLY stressed me out!!! Thankfully with the support and love of a few women I’ve formed strong friendships with in this system, on this journey, I made it through without totally losing it!!! Though there were moments I still came close. I hadn’t slept much since Tuesday nite but it was after making yet another attempt (#13 I believe)to wire funds at 3 am Thursday morning and was FINALLY met with success, that I could exhale!!! My work was done! I could relax knowing my son could now have access to some things that would make his life considerably easier and more comfortable. I wonder at times like this about all the men and women in this godawful system who must make due without support, financial or otherwise, from others outside the walls.

When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves. ~Victor Frankl