DAVE'S WORLD
"BEHIND THE BARB-WIRE"
ISSUE #2 OCTOBER 31, 2010
HAPPY HALLOWEEN ISSUE
UPDATE: First off, an update regarding my Hernia operation: It seems there is quite a bit of "red tape" to get through before I will actually be operated on. I am almost positive I will be getting the operation, but before that happens, someone at "Region," that is in the head office of the B.O.P. for this part of the country has to ok the funds for it. So I am in a holding pattern at this time. I will update you all as soon as I know more.
CORRECTION: Also last month I said that I can communicate to up to 100 e-mail addresses, well I found out that wasn't true. When I got to 30 addresses on my account, I received a notice that my e-mail account was full. So if you are receiving this directly from my account then you can send e-mails directly to me and I directly to you. If not, you wall just have read my monthly news-letter at http://www.facebook.com/davesworld81. Sorry for the inconvenience...
FEATURE: A HAPPY HALLOWEEN STORY Dave's Non-Fiction Halloween Story "THE NIGHTMARE"
Well it has been almost one month since "BEHIND THE BARB-WIRE" Issue #1. Time really flys being one of about one quarter million federal guests of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. I have been behind the barb-wire fence for 30 months now. I did the first four months in the "Sugar Beet" community of Scotts Bluff in western Nebraska. It was a new clean Mom & Pop county-jail. From Scotts Bluff I was chained up and took the county jail van to Akron, Colorado and spent a week in that county jail. The only thing worth mentioning about that place is the inmates could order pizza from the streets once a week. I wasn't there long enough to take advantage of that treat.
From Akron, Colorado I was chained up again and took another van ride half way across the state of Colorado to a "Con-Air" 737 waiting at a small National-Guard airstrip. From there I was flown to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons hub in Oklahoma City. I spent the night there at the huge holding facility and the next morning I was back on "Con-Air" and on my way to the high desert prison facility at Victorville, California. I spent 14 days at that facility.
On the morning of the 15th day at Victorville, a group of us inmates were chained up and loaded onto a B.O.P. bus. And after a five hour bus ride out to the central California coast, I landed at the Federal Correctional Institution two miles inland from the beach at Lompoc, California.
I got to Lompoc F.C.I. in late August of 2008. At my stay there, I met some OK guys. Also at the same time, I met some "not-so" OK guys.
On the 3rd of January 2009 after allegedly getting into an altercation with a rival gang member (by the way, I am a motorcycle enthusiast and a member of a motorcycle club, not a gang!) I found myself across the street, behind the huge stone wall and in the "hole" at the infamous United States Penitentiary at Lompoc, California.
I spent the next six months in an 8'x10' two man cell. So I spent about 180 days with no sun, no moon, no stars, no fresh air, and only one 15 minute phone call per month.
At about 3:00 AM on the 9th of July, the prison guard came to the cell door and told me to pack my personal property because I was leaving. That took all of about 30 seconds because the only personal property I really had was my address book, a few family photos and a Bible. The only other things I was allowed to keep in the cell were ten letters from home and three magazines. I guess they didn't want anyone getting too comfortable in the hole.
By the way, the "Curves" magazines that I was receiving seemed to be a real commodity in the "hole". You see, in the hole at Lompoc, we received one change of underwear, socks, and a "T-shirt twice a week, and a clean towel once a week. But thanks to the "Curves" magazines I would mysteriously have clean laundry every day!
At about 6 in the morning on July 9th, 2009 I was chained up again and back on the BOP bus heading away from the California coast and back to the Government airstrip at Victorville. By noon that same day I was aboard the "Con-Air" 737 again and heading back to the BOP hub in Oklahoma City.
After spending the night at the holding facility in Oklahoma City, I was chained up once again and back on "Con-Air" heading for Texas. After two stops at other Texas prisons, I finally got off the plane on July 9, 2009 in Austin Texas. After being re-chained and another 30 minute ride on a prison bus we pulled up in front of the Federal Correctional Institution at Bastrop, Texas. As I looked out the bus window, the prison looked more like a Junior Collage campus surrounded by a barb-wire fence then a prison. I was glad about that.
During the entire trip from the "hole" at Lompoc U.S.P. to Bastrop F.C.I. all I could think of was getting outside and into the the sun and fresh-air. So after 6-months in the hole, about 16-hours of traveling in chains, and another 4-hours of processing at Bastrop F.C.I. receiving, I was really looking forward to getting into my new unit (sleeping quaters) and then out onto the yard.
There was about 30 of us being processed into Bastrop F.C.I. that afternoon and I would listen and watch as the others' names were called one at a time and they exited the holding-cell and walked down the hallway and out of sight. I was at the end of the list and when my name was called I was very pleased to finally be able to get out under the blue sky. So when I exited the holding-cell I took the same path as the others, but to my disappointment I was stopped and escorted back down the hallway in the opposite direction and through a door marked, "S.I.S." (Special investigative Services)
After being interviewed by the S.I.S. Lieutenant, and after listening to his speech about not playing well with others, he typed some information into his computer and then sat back in his chair with a look on his face like he was trying to digest all of the somewhat more then unusual "business-trade" and "social-life" information that the government had collected about me over the last couple decades. Then after what seemed like an eternity he finally asked me if I was going to cause trouble on his compound. I politely said that I was willing to do the governments time with as little friction as possible and it was not my intention to start any trouble on his "compound."
He looked at his watch and said it was time for him to leave for the day and since it was Friday, he was placing me in the Special Housing Unit (the hole) for the weekend and he would sort things out when he returned the following week. My heart sank but I knew that anything I might say in my own defense would just sound like "sniveling" so I just sat there and said nothing.
An hour later I was starting my time at Bastrop F.C.I. sitting in a windowless 8X10 poorly lit cell in an optic-orange jump-suit eating a cold dinner that had been delivered to the "hole" about an hour before I got there...
OK folks, I think that is about as a depressing place as any to put a book-mark in this Non-Fiction story. Next month I will finish it up and get you all caught-up on what is happening these days.
NEXT MONTH: Part 2 of my Halloween story and Doing the Government's time at Bastrop F.C.I. Plus...
You are all free to forward/share this news-letter with anyone you think may enjoy it. Also it may be posted in it's "entirety" onto any web-site that may have interest in it.
MY SNAIL-MAIL ADDRESS:
Federal Correctional Institution
DAVID BURGESS 41278-048
P.O. Box 1010
Bastrop, Texas 78602
Sincerely Yours, Dave Burgess out Texas way...
"It's not about the breathe you take, it's about the moments that take your breathe away!"