Hello,

My Daughter, Jacquelyn, is currently in FCI Tallahassee. She was arrested in Dallas and sentenced to 51 months federal time on a meth charge. We requested Greenville as we live in Illinois, but her attorney (heaven help any of you subjected to representation by Carlton McLarty) didn't bother to tell her that she could only go to Greenville after so much time already served.

So, she was sent to Tallahassee instead. She immediately began seeking enrollment in the Life Connections Program. She is not doing well in Tallahassee at all - she wants to work towards a future, not live in limbo.

Well, she called me last night overjoyed - she has received word that she has been officially redesignated; Carswell has been granted. She has gone on and on for months about all she has heard about how much better it is there than in Tallahassee.

Please tell me she is not jumping from the frying-pan into the fire. I am scared after some of the things I am reading here. :(

Of course, it is all comparative - she did 10 months in Lew Sterritt before she was sent to Tallahassee, and ANYTHING after that hell-on-earth was like club med.

So, is Carswell at least going to really be better than Tallahassee was as she thinks?

Someone, please, if you can, put my mind at ease. I don't want her time to be a holiday, but I want her in a reasonably safe and healthy environment.

She is so far away, and there doesn't seem to be a chance to get her to Illinois....

Thanks so much
Bless you all
Maven

Maven, I spent 15 months at FPC Bryan and several of the ladies had previously been at Carswell but transferred only for RDAP. They all had very good things to say about Carswell, esp. the food.

No place is going to be easy because she is away from family. Stay connected with us. We're here for you 24/7.

SusanT

Maven, I spent 15 months at FPC Bryan and several of the ladies had previously been at Carswell but transferred only for RDAP. They all had very good things to say about Carswell, esp. the food.

No place is going to be easy because she is away from family. Stay connected with us. We're here for you 24/7.

SusanT

Oh, Thank you Susan, thank you so much. I can not believe that I immediately started crying as I read what you had to say. It mirrors what she has told me she believed - ESPECIALLY about the food!! That is really one of the biggest things to her. She hardly remembers what fresh vegetables are like - can you imagine? That is ridiculous in Florida of all places, not getting/growing fresh vegetables right there on the grounds.

I am sitting here simply overwhelmed and bawling like a baby. I guess it is time to go home from work - it has been a long day.

Buy I will be back. Thanks again for such a quick response. You just don't know what you have done for my heart.


Susan - congratulations on your release, may strength and wisdom be yours and stay with you to keep you on this side of the wall for all time.
Hugs
Maven

Maven,

I am sorry to hear she has been posted at Carswell prison. I live in the Ft Worth area and can tell you that even when that building was a hospital it was BARELY adequate, and that was 15 years ago or so. We see here in town too may stories of what goes on there. The following site is to one of the local papers (admittedly one of the lesser ones).

WWW.FTWeekly.com

I recommend doing an article search on all past issues with the words carswell prison as your search criteria. I also recommend contacting your congressman. Conditions at that facility are deplorable, and unsafe. Make no mistake, I am all in favor of people serving their time, but if even half of what we hear about locally about that place is accurate then it's a HUGE problem.

I served some time in Carswell a couple years ago.. the medical side of it was to say the least.. umm.. crappy.. but other things there were wonderful.. I do agree that the food was GREAT.. you get a salad bar at lunch and dinner with the best veggies that I had ever had.. there are all sorts of things to do there.. I hope that she does atleast get to somewhat relax a little once she gets there..

Well, she called this morning to tell me she was packing out, and that means she will transport soon.

James, I appreciate your input. I am sort of scared to read the articles, but I must say, she did nearly a year in Lew Sterritt awaiting her sentencing, and that place is a TRUE hell on earth. So, I guess if half of what I have heard good about Carswell is true, and half of what I have heard bad is as well, it will still be MUCH better than what she went through there.

frmfmcinmate, thank you as well. You echo what she has heard a LOT of lately. In Tallahassee there is no real structure, it is over crowded, and you have way too many women with nothing to do and time on their hands. That spells trouble. She can't wait to simply have SOMETHING TO DO, and have some structure to her day. :)

Carswell is about the only place you can get them to transfer you to from Tallahassee. Once she is there, we stand a better chance of getting her up here to Illinois from everything I have been told.

She has a little under two years left to go.

I don't know when I will hear from her again as she said she probably won't be able to contact me again until she is processed there.

Thank you all again for your replies
Maven

Maven.. another thing.. there are alot of activities there.. so I am sure that she will be able to find something to pass the time

Thank you, former inmate. I really do appreciate you taking the time to put my mind at ease. I am sorry I didn't respond to your last post sooner.

She is in transfer now. She left Tallahassee several weeks ago. They took her to Georgia first, and she was only there couple of days. But now she is stuck in Oklahoma in the Grady County Jail. She has been there for weeks, and has not been outside one single time, not once has she seen the sun. :(

I don't know what the holdup is, but I sure do hope they move her on to Carswell soon. She can't have visitors in OK either. :(

I just pray each day that 'this is the day' they move her along. I want to go see her as soon as she gets to Carswell.

Thanks again.
Maven

Good Morning All.

Well, Jackie called this morning and she says she has been told she will be sent from FTC Oklahoma to Carswell next Monday (July 31st) morning. She sounded good - just getting out of the county holding where they were keeping the overflow has done her a world of good. She hadn't seen the sun or taken a breath of fresh air for 6 weeks!

If there is anything else you can tell me - tips for new arrivals - that I can pass on to her when I write to her today and tomorrow I would really appreciate it.

She is supposedly going there as part of the Life Connections Program. Did anyone here participate in it or hang with someone who was there for the program? Can you give me something to pass on to her as to what to expect?

Thanks alot. It has helped so much just coming in here and reading so many of the posts, I feel like I am not alone in this. It is so hard to talk to anyone in day-to-day life. The looks on people's faces when I DO mention here and there where my daughter is. It is sad. :(

But, I am surviving, as is she. She is now 2 years clean and sober, and I am so damn proud of her, I could just bust. :)

Take Care
Maven!

My daughter is at FMC Carswell and I would have to say most are hell on Earth to quote you. She said the food is good...but the daily life can be terrible. She told me to prepare myself before I visited and needless to say I was shocked....also doing time for meth...weighs 115 lbs, 5'4"...now 21 yrs old...first offense...in the Medical unit (where you go if you are going to the next RDAP class)...well... at visitation there were women who by sight scared the hell out of me and I've been all over the world in my many years of age. Women with mustaches and beards...200 to 300 lbs...at first I actually questioned myself if this was a co-ed facility before I snapped and realized, life inside is what it is. As can probably be the case everywhere woman can be vicious and petty, fights are frequent...punishment is the shu or solitary, whatever you want to call it. She should stay to herself, be polite but not appear too cowardly, stay out of the "in" crowd...never get into a "relationship", obey the rules, try for a job at Unicor or something similar...never landscape or kitchen unless she is fond of 100 degree temperatures, no shade or grease and pimples. Take classes..find out what is available to her. Always stay clean...the horror stories at Carswell are true for the most part....obviously the Federal gov't spends more money on anything other than prisoners...being a terrorist is about the only way to get good medical care....hepatitis, HIV, (very prevalent) are the biggest areas of concern...wheelchairs and walkers are common, all ages, all degrees of crimes. It is the Regional Medical Center and accordingly it's where the sick go. There are over 900 or more in the main building and about 200 at the hospital (sick, dying, etc.) plus RDAP and awaiting RDAP and the cafeteria. Mail is big!!! write even if a one page note everyday if you can...send money if you can...some may say true or not but from all my reading and research and interviews, those with family support are a tiny bit better off in any of the evaluation situations they will go through. All inmates seem to hear conflicting info on different places...it is the best of the worst or the worst and really, it's up to the inmate to find their spot and make of it what they can. The guards are polite and respectful...more so than others I've been to. Yes my daughter went in circles before she got back to Texas where she started. Will you worry..yes...even when the phone says out of area and you know it is her, your heart still tightens b/c it might be bad news...but thank the Lord it has not been yet. She is miserable, she is lonely, and she is kicking herself in the ass everyday for what she did to herself and her family....but she is smart and I have to have faith in that. She watches and observes and pays attention before she walks into anything. So I babbled and babbled and probably did not tell you anything you haven't heard about other places she has been. My daughter is very young, got in trouble while attending college, and so she and our family and friends look at FMC Carswell from the eyes of someone her age and how it impacts her...it would be probably be different than one of the Grandmother's there. But the bottom line is she obviously has you...and many many there have no one. Oh yeah...one more comment...no matter what she writes or tells you...help her find the good side of it or the positive outcome...each person there good or bad and made mistakes is still human and derserves acceptance. That's my two cents. Take care.

i just released from Carswell, I was there 5 years to the day. The food is decent atCarswell and theres alot of activities and sports. But it is very depressing, being that it is a medical facility and many sick and dying women there. The medical is terrible. Many times they don't take the sick inmates seriously. Theres alot of negligence. Right now up on the med-surg unit, the air conditioning is out and has been for some time. They are actually using fans and it is unbearably hot up there, which isn't good for the prevention of the spread of germs. They like to put off necessary surgeries until it's so late that time runs out to do them (i hear they do this because of the cost) i had a friend, Mrs. Potter an oklder lady. A year and a half ago she had a small hernia, no big deal, they just needed to remove it- it was maybe the size of a walnut. They kept putting her surgery off until now its huge, probably the size of about 3 big bags of potatoes. And the doctor says that if he tries to do surgery to remove it that it might kill her because its so big that all her organs are involved now! And she goes home soon so they ran out of time anyway. They did this woman so wrong. By the way, I have pictures of this woman if anyones interested. I promised her I would do what I can to help her, once I got out. And I think as many people as possible in the world should know about whats going on at Carswell. They are killuing inmates by medical negligence! Also many of the male officers are straight players. It's no thing to mess around with some of them.