I received a photograph of Carole and me together from a visit we had here at Taft Camp. On days when we can’t visit, I sometimes hold these photographs and look at us together. It will not be too much longer, relatively speaking, before I’ll be able to hold my wife every day. That day [...]
Carole and I prefer to visit at Taft Camp on Fridays, when the prison is least crowded. This past Friday, however, car trouble prevented Carole from making it here on time. We postponed our visit until today, our first Sunday visit in several months. The room was very crowded, and I’m grateful we were able [...]
Eight years ago today, on the morning I heard the awful news about the terrorist attacks, I was writing the manuscript for my second book, Profiles From Prison. I put down my pen and walked downstairs to the television room in Fort Dix to watch the news reports. I hated being a prisoner that day, [...]
This morning, at 1:42, I sat down to begin outlining chapter twelve of my new manuscript, Earning Freedom. This chapter will bring readers along on my journey from Lompoc Camp, to Taft Camp, and all the experiences I’ve had up to the present day, whenever I finish the chapter. I’m eager to conclude it because [...]
Today I finished a first draft of chapter eleven, advancing the manuscript to page 530. I’m pleased to have reached this point, because I’m now going to write the final chapter, describing my time at Taft Camp, up to the present day. I intend the finish the next chapter by the end of next week, [...]
I began writing this morning with hopes of finishing a draft of chapter eleven. The chapter goes on. I began writing at 1:49, and I wrote through page 521. Yet the characters at Lompoc camp who played a role in disrupting my life require more space to develop. This chapter may stretch for 15,000 words. [...]
Today is my 23rd Labor Day in prison. I have been alive for 46 Labor Day holidays, and I’ve spent an equal number of them as a free citizen and as a prisoner. That’s strange. I don’t have such a clear recollection of holidays when I was growing up, but I know that I spent [...]
Some prisoners at Taft Camp don’t serve time as easily as I do. I feel sorry for Richard, an older man who serves a seven-year sentence. He’s been in this camp for about one year, and it looks as if he’s aged 10 years. He stoops when he walks, he leaves his hair and face [...]
News from Carole brought me a bit of difficulty this afternoon. Her son, Michael, is serving in the armed forces, stationed in Iraq. I’ve been comforting her for the past few months with encouragement about the honor of his service and the excellent life training he receives as a U.S. soldier. The unfortunate realities of war [...]
