Prison Pete
Friday, December 17, 2004
The first letter from the new place.
I want to thank all my readers and commenters for keeping up with my writings. I spend most of my time now locked in a 6' x 8' cage and have pledged to become much neater in my writing. Perhaps my trusty Editor can post a portion of this post against some of my messy attempts. Perhaps if I am able to keep the neatness factor up, we could use some of the volunteer typists?
Also, if I can write so it is more readable, he can simply scan my writing in and email it for those of you that have offered to be Pen Pals!
Today was a great day since I received three separate mailings: two letters and one package of five books. In addition Mom and Dad sent in some 100% cotton towels and T-shirts! What a treat!
So now to the comments:
Yes Cinny, one can have "up" days in prison. Today was a real up day. I finally got to see the doctor and will finally be issued my asthma inhaler. He apologized for not seeing me sooner. I have been here ten days. He did agree to prescribe a multivitamin since I cannot buy them here.
Then I spend an hour in the law library. They actually have a network of eight computers and two printers that are hooked up to the Internet! Before you all start ranting, we are locked into only one web site.
The site is loislaw.com and has all 50 states and Federal case law and statutes. The good part is it uses Boolean logic so you can do some pretty cool searches. This system is probably cheaper than maintaining all the different legal books! So for one hour each week I can be a computer nerd!
Then I received my commissary order and ate mackerel for lunch. First time in ten days. I mixed it with the plain tri-color pasta that came for lunch. The mackerel is in a pouch instead of a can, but otherwise it is the same. True, I cannot mix and cook it the way I am used to, but at least now I am getting the protein. Plus the abovementioned mail, and yes, it is an up day! I will deal a gain with "faith" in another post!
Christine - Thanks for the kind words!
Jen - The things we can buy varies from prison to prison. In some places, the commissary is run by an outside organization and could be cheaper. I do not know if the list has actually been posted, but things are more expensive here than in the Feds. For example: mackerel here is $1.50 vs. $1.25 at Club Fed. M&M's are $0.65 vs. $0.55.
Mister Underhill - see previous postings on prison food. I will dedicate a new post to that subject soon! As far as limits, yes at Club Fed you could not spend more than $295 a month ($50 extra at Christmas time) and were limited to 300 minutes of phone time, which you had to pay for at $0.23 a minute.
Hey Miranda, the $.50 mac & cheese was not a box but rather a single-serve envelope. Single serve for a child, that is. The peanut butter was "cheap" Keefe Brand and only a 1 lb. jar!
Mister Underhill - Martha's actual in-prison time is really pretty standard. The camp system has the fewest officers, and I am sure she does not have a staff member assigned to her. What is different for her for sure is that when she leaves prison she will have a few dollars in the bank, a job to go back to, and not one, but three or more homes to spend time in. Most prisoners leave with none of the above!
Miranda - Yeah $5 million seems like a lot, but remember, if no one buys it, then... I do not know how many people caught the fact that Wal-Mart’s sales were less than expected over Thanksgiving. Do not forget the power you all have as consumers! Please explain why anyone would give your hard-earned money to Martha Stewart for a book about five months of her life. Maybe no one will buy it! Save your money for my book!
Summer - yes, it is all about friends.
Jonathon - Great post on freedom (11/24). Again, I am not trying to whine, I just like to show others all sides of prison!
Annabel - Yeah the time and effort thing. I guess what makes this easier now is all the comments I have been getting. This post has been in the writing stage for over two hours, so hopefully it is more coherent and readable for the Editor!
Writing, and I mean good writing, has no shortcuts or magic formula. And if it was easy, everyone would do it! Again, kudos to all my readers for recognizing my efforts!
11/28 - Thanks for the comments. I am glad I can show each one out there how much they have to be thankful for. But I still say no one who is "free" and law-abiding should have to sweat the basics in life.
Also, perhaps at some point I can start the debate on who should be behind bars and for how long, and are there alternatives that would allow those found guilty to take a more proactive role in their own "rehabilitation."
Zahra - I do not dwell too much on specific inmates so far, since I have spent a lot of time talking about the "system" and my personal journey. I do have plans to perhaps share individual stories of how some inmates willingly accept their responsibility and make a real attempt to change their lives in prison. My current location in the county jail has twenty very different and unique individuals, and I will do some character bios in the future.
Rance et al, re: the hanging. I am not sure if I was clear in my post, but the opinion of a few of my fellow inmates was that it was not a suicide!
Okay, five pages of mostly readable text. I will mail it out tonight. I will not always respond in this style, but I thought it might be different to have the remarks come full circle.
Coming soon perhaps are scans of my handwritten replies to individuals. If you would like to correspond on a one-on-one basis, just drop a line to the Editor and he will send you a "starter" message from me to see if that is something in which you would like to participate!
Also, if I can write so it is more readable, he can simply scan my writing in and email it for those of you that have offered to be Pen Pals!
Today was a great day since I received three separate mailings: two letters and one package of five books. In addition Mom and Dad sent in some 100% cotton towels and T-shirts! What a treat!
So now to the comments:
Yes Cinny, one can have "up" days in prison. Today was a real up day. I finally got to see the doctor and will finally be issued my asthma inhaler. He apologized for not seeing me sooner. I have been here ten days. He did agree to prescribe a multivitamin since I cannot buy them here.
Then I spend an hour in the law library. They actually have a network of eight computers and two printers that are hooked up to the Internet! Before you all start ranting, we are locked into only one web site.
The site is loislaw.com and has all 50 states and Federal case law and statutes. The good part is it uses Boolean logic so you can do some pretty cool searches. This system is probably cheaper than maintaining all the different legal books! So for one hour each week I can be a computer nerd!
Then I received my commissary order and ate mackerel for lunch. First time in ten days. I mixed it with the plain tri-color pasta that came for lunch. The mackerel is in a pouch instead of a can, but otherwise it is the same. True, I cannot mix and cook it the way I am used to, but at least now I am getting the protein. Plus the abovementioned mail, and yes, it is an up day! I will deal a gain with "faith" in another post!
Christine - Thanks for the kind words!
Jen - The things we can buy varies from prison to prison. In some places, the commissary is run by an outside organization and could be cheaper. I do not know if the list has actually been posted, but things are more expensive here than in the Feds. For example: mackerel here is $1.50 vs. $1.25 at Club Fed. M&M's are $0.65 vs. $0.55.
Mister Underhill - see previous postings on prison food. I will dedicate a new post to that subject soon! As far as limits, yes at Club Fed you could not spend more than $295 a month ($50 extra at Christmas time) and were limited to 300 minutes of phone time, which you had to pay for at $0.23 a minute.
Hey Miranda, the $.50 mac & cheese was not a box but rather a single-serve envelope. Single serve for a child, that is. The peanut butter was "cheap" Keefe Brand and only a 1 lb. jar!
Mister Underhill - Martha's actual in-prison time is really pretty standard. The camp system has the fewest officers, and I am sure she does not have a staff member assigned to her. What is different for her for sure is that when she leaves prison she will have a few dollars in the bank, a job to go back to, and not one, but three or more homes to spend time in. Most prisoners leave with none of the above!
Miranda - Yeah $5 million seems like a lot, but remember, if no one buys it, then... I do not know how many people caught the fact that Wal-Mart’s sales were less than expected over Thanksgiving. Do not forget the power you all have as consumers! Please explain why anyone would give your hard-earned money to Martha Stewart for a book about five months of her life. Maybe no one will buy it! Save your money for my book!
Summer - yes, it is all about friends.
Jonathon - Great post on freedom (11/24). Again, I am not trying to whine, I just like to show others all sides of prison!
Annabel - Yeah the time and effort thing. I guess what makes this easier now is all the comments I have been getting. This post has been in the writing stage for over two hours, so hopefully it is more coherent and readable for the Editor!
Writing, and I mean good writing, has no shortcuts or magic formula. And if it was easy, everyone would do it! Again, kudos to all my readers for recognizing my efforts!
11/28 - Thanks for the comments. I am glad I can show each one out there how much they have to be thankful for. But I still say no one who is "free" and law-abiding should have to sweat the basics in life.
Also, perhaps at some point I can start the debate on who should be behind bars and for how long, and are there alternatives that would allow those found guilty to take a more proactive role in their own "rehabilitation."
Zahra - I do not dwell too much on specific inmates so far, since I have spent a lot of time talking about the "system" and my personal journey. I do have plans to perhaps share individual stories of how some inmates willingly accept their responsibility and make a real attempt to change their lives in prison. My current location in the county jail has twenty very different and unique individuals, and I will do some character bios in the future.
Rance et al, re: the hanging. I am not sure if I was clear in my post, but the opinion of a few of my fellow inmates was that it was not a suicide!
Okay, five pages of mostly readable text. I will mail it out tonight. I will not always respond in this style, but I thought it might be different to have the remarks come full circle.
Coming soon perhaps are scans of my handwritten replies to individuals. If you would like to correspond on a one-on-one basis, just drop a line to the Editor and he will send you a "starter" message from me to see if that is something in which you would like to participate!
Comments:
No Im not going to be buying her book. And I hope no one else does. What I cant understand is if she feels she has to write a book, I dont think she should be getting paid for it. And 5 mil? omg. I dont think even best seller novelists get that and they are not behind bars.
I think if you end up writing a book, it will sell very well, you're a very good writer. And I admit, I'd probably buy it. But I seriously think if you got paid millions to write it, out of principle I dont think I would buy it. Can you see where Im coming from?
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I think if you end up writing a book, it will sell very well, you're a very good writer. And I admit, I'd probably buy it. But I seriously think if you got paid millions to write it, out of principle I dont think I would buy it. Can you see where Im coming from?
