A very ambitious person with a life sentence has fallen in to our ranks even before making it to a full fledged prison.

Even took the time to entertain our first questionnaire.
When I read the answers today, I realized that they would throw off the balance of the lifer treatment in prison threads.
I'm guessing he'll have another chance to fill us in on his state prison when he gets to one.

The thing that struck me, on this very Thanksgiving day,.. was a reference to the only time out of the cell (with 7 others) was a trip to the 25'x25' concrete pit with the chain link roof for an hour each week.

I've stared up at the clouds through that chain link. I've watched birds land on it, and fly over it. A glorified dog-run.

The reason this post belongs here, and I'll thank 'Poppy' for it someday... is because the lifer gets the slow boat out of jail, on average.

With a bus leaving every week or every month taking folks upstate,.. some weird wonk somewhere has the duty of figuring out who is more disposable. Turning beds. PVs with short outs, or short timers who'll just pivot through to some halfway situation or camp or min custody unit.... they actually seem to get the priority shipping. Once you send up a lifer, you've lost the bed (upstate) for the duration. Simple math.

So that leaves condemned souls with their oddest years ahead of them, enjoying the heaping hospitality and dearth of programs, facilities and inmate rights that IS county jail.
That leaves you counting the spaces between the chain link roof during your hour out there.

After waving goodbye to folks for months in county... I got on a bus. I looked forward to it.. I was bound for the land of real clothes and real food and since I'd been to Hell, it HAD to be a step up.

This strikes me particularly on Thanksgiving, because I spent 2 in that jail.. One before shipping in -91 and one pending the retrial deal.. Their idea of holiday was turkeywhatthehell and a trip to the pit.

I'd like this thread to answer the question,... how long did your person spend in county or regional jail before going upstate to sit down? Were they oddly relieved to be upstate?

Thanks for your patience with the circular, testamonial question. Thanks too, to 'Poppy' for the inspiration.

Hey LIfe.. how are you? hope your holiday was a nice one.. my baby callled through his sis in law.. was a little hard.. he had a little fit.. hung up on us.. then called back to apologize.. must be so hard.. talking to all your family and your locked up in HELL..

As far as this thread goes.. i remeber visiting for a least a year before he got sentenced to the 'BIG house to do his lwop sentence. so my answer probably two.. years... all together.. and they had maybe one luxury the "big" house dosen't "weights:" and more free time..
the big house has taken away weight s out of their prisons.. can you imagine.. they don't want the prisoners to get to "buff"

have a peaceful weekend
Donna

my son spent 2 years and 3 mos in the county, 3.5 weeks in the South Florida reception center (too short to be approved to visit), and it took him a week to arrive at where he is now. He spent a night in 7 different prisons on the way.

It took him several months to get acclimated and settle in. I think he is about as happy as possible about his placement. He reports things as being "laid back". Visistation officers are mostly friendly and treat everyone with some degree of respect.
His big complaint (and mine) would be he is so far from home (5 hour drive each way) that visitation is difficult more than 1x every month or 6 weeks.

I was relieved when he was trasnfered out of the county, here he was on lockdown most of the day.

Hey I know I am canadian so thins are different here but my man did a year almost 2 in county jail before being sent to the federal reception area to start his "BIG TIME" life -13 sentence. I think the biggest complaint is that he too is a 6 hour drive.....

My man talks about being in county like it was the most terrible thing that he ever experience. It's almost like he was comforted by leaving, which made us both stop and think.