May 16, 2020 Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Letter #497: Moved. Again. Dear Family, The small office I’d been directed to had just two desks, and a sergeant sat behind one of them, all business. The friendly face behind the mask at the door had followed me inside and was instructed to take notes by the sergeant. He sat at the …
494 | The Chocolate-Covered Friend Experiment
April 25, 2020 Saturday, 7:00 p.m. Letter #494: The Chocolate-Covered Friend Experiment Dear Family, Moving to a new prison less than three months ago—then moving to a different building within a few short weeks—had its challenges. It seemed that I was separated from everyone I’d just been serving time with and I was separated from even those guys who …
493 | Free Calls, Free Counsel
April 18, 2020 Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Letter #493: Free Calls, Free Counsel Dear Family, Prison life is odd. No, I’m not noticing it for the first time, but right now presents such an example of prison’s oddity affecting my communication. Namely, my Christmas letters have not yet been sent out—from 2019—and my visiting privileges have been suspended indefinitely, and …
492 | “I’ve Noticed a Few Things”
April 11, 2020 Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Letter #492: “I’ve Noticed a Few Things” Dear Family, Staying at home has taught many people many things they never knew before and revealed things they’d perhaps never paid much attention to before. While this staying home thing is old hat for me, I’ve had more time to notice the world around me. …
491 | Lessons on Lifers
April 4, 2020 Saturday, 8:30 p.m. Letter #491: Lessons on Lifers Recently, I learned a lot about a particular group of prisoners that I haven’t had much experience with up until now: lifers. I have friends who are lifers, including two that I knew before any of us went to prison, and I’ve had several close friends in prison …
490 | Twelve Years of Social Distancing
March 27, 2020 Friday, 3:00 p.m. Letter #490: Twelve Years of Social Distancing Dear Family, “Happy Anniversary to Me!” (One month ago today) 🙂 In case you’re wondering what gift is appropriate to get someone for their 12th Year in Prison Anniversary, and Siri, Alexa, and Google are stumped too … let me tell you that it rhymes with …
489 | Help for the Asking … Finally
March 21, 2020 Saturday, 8:00 p.m. Letter #489: Help for the Asking … Finally Dear Family, “Life is slowly grinding to a halt here … ” Words appropriate for my first week in prison are ever more true now. What little privileges, what small bits of socialization are being restricted and removed, due to fears that the coronavirus will …
488 | Life According to Mikey
March 14, 2020 Saturday, 9:30 p.m. Letter #488: Life According to Mikey Dear Family, My twin planned to visit me today, but visitation privileges have been cancelled until further notice, due to the coronavirus outbreak. Because of the close proximity of our living conditions, with 180 inmates all grouped together in each building, the Powers That Be are trying …
487 | Tough Blessings
March 7, 2020 Saturday, 9:30 p.m. Letter #487: Tough Blessings Dear Family, I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to leave the building I was in when I arrived here, but I can absolutely see many reasons why moving across the yard to a different building is a blessing from God … and not only because this new building has the …
486 | Honesty Can Get You Killed
February 22, 2020 Saturday, 4:00 p.m. Letter #486: Honesty Can Get You Killed Dear Family, More on my relationship with “Saul” … I saw him with a book in the dayroom, and I asked him about it. He very enthusiastically began telling me all about the book’s storyline, covering in great detail each of the main characters and how …