Family Ties

 

So… the BOP has consistently held that our ability to maintain family ties via telephones, emails, and visits are “Priveleges” that can be taken at any time, for even the most minute violation unassociated with the usage of the privelege itself. For instance, I could say something that is perceived to be disrespectful or uncourteous towards a staff member and could be given a Disciplinary Report and, if found guilty, one of those three “priveleges” would be taken for 6 months to 2 years, depending on the severity of the offense. Our ability to making outgoing phone calls is already restricted to 300 minutes per month, even though we pay for our own calls… that’s twenty (15 minute) phone calls per month! God forbid you have a large family that you are trying to maintain ties with (like me), cuz twenty calls per month is difficult just to keep in contact with my fiance alone. Anyway, the closest way that our loved ones can reach us directly is via CORRLINKS / Email, cuz they obviously can’t call us directly. The emails have about a 2 to 4 hour delay for monitoring reasons though, but this is the fastest that someone can get news to us… which is definitely much better than waiting on Snail Mail for 5-7 days. Anyway, my father died yesterday at 1pm. I got a few emails this morning from different loved ones telling me that he died. They all tried calling to the prison to relay the news, but as of the time I’m typing this (almost 24 hours after his death) they still have been unable to get ahold of anyone here. A thought crossed my mind… What if I had been restricted from receiving emails due to some petty infraction or another like so many of these other guys are? When would I have found out about my father’s death? Almost a week later? Right before the funeral? How would I try to exercise the illusionary right to attempt to apply for a furlough to attend the funeral if I can’t be informed in a timely manner? Nobody cares. That’s the point. The BOP puts on this image for the public that they “promote our maitenance of family ties and community support” but they have consistently made it as difficult as possible to maintain family ties with all the excess restrictions they put on us that serve no real penelogical interest other than to exercise control over everything. My biological brother, whom I grew up with all my life, and is 11 months younger than me, was recently removed from my Visiting List because he traveled almost 3,000 miles from Portland, Oregon to visit his brother (me) that he hasn’t seen in over 12 years, and the staff in the visiting room gave him a hard time and denied him for minute technicalities (he was waring shorts the first time, came back with sweats and was told those weren’t allowed, then came back at 2:03pm with some jeans and was told that there’s no visitors admitted past 2pm), so he came the next day and was allowed in. The next day he came back to the prison to address his concerns about the staff members attitudes with him, with the Warden, and was ran off the property and, hence, removed from my visiting list. I have been in three different “State” prisons (Oregon, Washington, and Kentucky) and I have never had so much difficulty in maintaining family ties as I have being incarcerated in the Federal Bureau Of Prisons. It’s ridiculous. But the public doesn’t seem to notice or care. It’s a struggle man. They make it hard to be optimistic and to strive to rehabilitate yourself… it’s almost as if they prefer to severe your ties with the outside world so that they can just treat us however they want to with as little exposure to the public / community as possible. This Justice System needs to be much more transparent. Anyway, man, I just wanted to share some thoughts with you. Hope all is well with the website and with your efforts to help those in the struggle. God Bless and have a good day.

RUSTY REX REAN