I feel fortunate to be serving these final months of my sentence at Taft Federal prison camp. I’ve been confined here for two years, and the living conditions together with the way administrators operate this camp make it much less stressful than any other prison I’ve experienced. What I like most is the level of freedom I have here.
I am required to clean two moderate-sized rooms each day as my prison job. One of the rooms is a television room and the other is a quiet room where I spend many hours each day writing. I sweep and mop the floors, wipe the tables, clean the windows, and dust the ledges. Since I write in the quiet room from the 3:00 AM until 6:00 AM, and again from 9:00 AM until 5:00 PM, I find it easy to maintain the level of cleanliness that administrators expect.
I’ve never had this much freedom to write. In all of the other prisons where I’ve been held, staff required me to perform makeshift work that wasted time. Those prisons were less supportive of efforts I make to prepare for a law-abiding life upon release. In fact, I frequently felt staff obstructing my efforts to prepare for release.
In other prisons, the housing units would not even allow the space for me to sit in a quiet room writing. Prison bunks pack all of the rooms. I really value the time alone. It allows me the space I need to think about how I must prepare for home.
I feel these preparations becoming more and more crucial. This morning I began writing at 3:07. I intend to finish a draft of this new chapter before Thursday. I had hoped to finish yesterday, but I have expanded the work to include more of my initial experiences as a prisoner. As long as I finish this week, I will stay on schedule.
I’ve begun running at 6:00 because the summer sun has come to this area of California. Even at 6:00 I exercise in shorts and running shoes only. Today I ran 10 miles and followed with 400 pushups. My tally now stands at 1,327 miles over 150 days of consecutive running. That is five months without a day off. I like it.
Monday, 11 May 2009
PDF 
One Response to Prison Journal: Day 7,945
Leave a Reply
Hi,
I was @ TCI to-day visiting. I thought Taft was only for non – citizens.
What about pushing for reform. So many wasted lives. Justice is always Just + sentencing such long sentences for non violent then get deported. This must cost the US billions.