An acquaintance of mine, Tom, returned from his first furlough. I met Tom when I transferred from Fort Dix to Florence camp back in 2003, and about a year ago, I was reacquainted with Tom when he transferred here to Taft Camp. I’m glad he was able to spend the Thanksgiving holiday on furlough with his family.
A furlough is a leave of absence from the prison but the time away still counts against the sentence. To qualify for the furlough, the prisoner must be within two years of his release date, and meet other requirements. Wardens have the discretion to grant a furlough to eligible prisoners but some wardens choose not to grant furloughs at all.
A furlough can last for as little as a few hours away from the prison, or as long as several days. I’m not yet eligible for furlough consideration, as my scheduled release date doesn’t come until August of 2013. But it’s a privilege I’m thinking more about now, as we move closer.
I expect to spend Christmas of 2009 and Christmas of 2010 in prison, but in August of 2011, I will move to within two years of my release date. That means if prison reform doesn’t come, or no other type of relief comes from my sentence, I’ll become eligible to request a furlough that would allow me to spend Christmas of 2011 with my wife. My being eligible doesn’t necessarily mean the warden would grant my furlough request, but at least I could ask. It’s something I can look forward to as I pass through Christmas of 2010, which will be my 23rd and 24th Christmas holidays in prison.
This morning I tried to take my mind off the holidays with my run, wearing ear plugs to muffle the noise on the yard. I ran 10 miles and followed with 300 pushups.
[consecutive running tally: 3,133 miles over the past 351 days]
Sunday, 29 November 2009
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