If You Build it They Will Come

The work continues at the Lompoc Camp to replace the old bunks with the newer, narrower bunks. The reason for this is to provide for even more bunks in each unit. Where there were 150 beds there are now 174 if I remember correctly. They added 24 more bunk beds in Coreys unit by making all the bunks narrower. Sleeping quarters were ‘close’ prior to this, but now even more so, as the men lay on their bunks there is perhaps 6 inches from one imates head to anothers, on either side of him. The pictures I posted a while back of the crowded California State Prisons is how this Federal Prison Camp at Lompoc is looking now I imagine, only the bunks are more your standard metal frame type. Corey is somewhat fortunate in that his bunk is up against a wall, so he has only the one very close neighbor. There used to be passageways between the rows of bunks for easy access to the bathrooms, but with the additional rows of bunks many now have to walk much further to get there in the mornings and evenings, there is no cutting through isles anymore, one must basically walk the perimeter of the room to get to the door leading to the bathrooms.

When one reads of the marijuana arrests statistics its easy to see why so many new beds are needed. I was reading a report recently that stated there has virtually been no change in the number of marijuana arrests in 2012 over 2010 and 2011 numbers. About a week ago I read in a US NEWS article “Data released Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation show there were an estimated 1,552,432 arrests for drug-related crimes in 2012 – a slight uptick from the 1,531,251 drug arrests in 2011. Marijuana offenses accounted for 48.3 percent of all drug arrests, a slight reduction from 49.5 percent in 2011, which itself was the highest rate since before 1995.

Most marijuana-related arrests were for possession of the drug. By mere possession, there was one marijuana arrest every 48 seconds in 2012. Including arrests for distribution, there was a pot-related arrest every 42 seconds, the same interval as in 2011."