On December 17, 2015 I was kidnapped by the U.S. Marshals Service; because, they are in charge of transferring in custody convicts to the prison where they will serve out the majority of their sentence. Since I was out of custody the Judge should have allowed me to self surrender; but, because I tried to withdraw my plea on the 16th, he said “I don’t have to let you self surrender, so I won’t” or words to that effect and the Marshalls kidnapped me at the end of the sentencing hearing, that was completely capricious on the Judge’s part. My sentencing was also opaque, my guidelines (a sentencing structure so ridiculous the SCOTUS ruled it “advisory”) were obscene, but that’s a topic for a different post.
After my kidnapping, I’m thrown into a holding cell with the other convicts of the day in the basement of the Courthouse. There I meet 3 white guys and a light skinned dude like me (we were both labeled “white”). We were separated from the black and obviously hispanic convicts (I’ll discuss this in another post). Since me and another white dude had just been taken into custody, the Marshals had two more people to deal with that afternoon than they had in the morning. So, they did what a typically lazy public employee would do, they asked the County Jail about 15 miles outside of Omaha, if they could take two more? They of course said “Sure, we have room” And off we went. I was classified as “minimum” security, so I won’t be housed with the other convicts at the Jail, so I won’t see them again until we’re transferred to a private prison in Kansas.
When I was kidnapped, I had about $400 on me and that would turn out to be very beneficial for my journey, as that put a little over 400 “on my books” for commissary and the Commissary would become a very big part of my kidnapped life. My second day in captivity, I learn about commissary and that I won’t able to order anything until the following week (I was kidnapped on a Thursday). I got my order the day before Christmas. I spent the holidays in a rather large dormitory (had 12 beds) with three other guys. It had a bathroom that had a urinal, two toilets and a shower. The routine was fairly simple. We had to clean the dorm in the morning to get them to turn the TV on (which had 80 channels) then we watched TV and played cards for the rest of the day between horrible meals. The TV was the focus of our existence and since there were only four of us, it was fairly easy to choose what channel we wanted to watch.
About a week after the New Year, the County Jail loads us into a mini van and takes us to a rendezvous with a contractor working for CoreCivic, a private prison operator. They stuff us in cargo van and my “new” friends for the next month get acquainted with each other on the 2 hour ride to Leavenworth. During the ride, I learn that the other guy who was taken into custody could have self surrendered for his year and a day sentence (a sentence that is actually better than a year, because you get good time) but he mouthed off to the Judge and had got taken into custody instead. His initial “crime” was bullshit (he had an expired DOT tag on his Semi) but instead of being contrite he was obstinate in accepting defeat and threatened an agent with a gun and ended up with us. My other new “friends” and I agreed he was a dumbass.
Once at CoreCivic’s eventually infamous detention center I was again labeled “minimum” but put in a “medium” worker pod, so me and my new friends were put into the same area. This is where I met some more “friends”. This was my first non-dorm situation, where you had to share an out in the open bathroom that consisted of a toilet and a sink. They taught me the etiquette. Which was simple, you can do number 1 whenever, but hold number 2 until everyone can leave the room. Also when brushing your teeth, spit into the toilet instead of the sink, because they washed their dished in the sink. The room was large, held two beds and a metal picnic table we could all sit at. I was housed with two car thieves, and three drug dealers. And these guys were funny, we mostly laughed, played games and ate their various concoctions made from the commissary. Which was the best so far, because the prison was for profit. I arrived with over $300, so they loved me. They told me that it would be wise to spend all the money there, because it probably wouldn’t make it to the BOP (I confirmed this later). We were planning a huge Super Bowl party when the Marshals came for me early Friday morning. I said goodbye to my friends and an hour later I was on a bus to the airport.
Next post I’ll discuss Con-Air and the Transfer Center.