Today was my third fourth of July in Federal Prison. July 4th used to be my second favorite holiday behind Thanksgiving but in federal prison it definitely becomes bitter sweet. Especially after you have been exposed to the United States’ injustice system. On federal holidays in the BOP you get a special holiday meal. Today’s meal was two cheese burgers, one hot dog, baked beans, potato salad, one slice of watermelon, and a Blue Bunny ice cream cone. As is customary with holiday meals, for dinner you get a sacked lunch which is basically a bologna sandwhich, chips, and an apple. I traded my hot dog to a guy that doesn’t eat beef for both his hamburgers so I saved my potato salad and the two hamburgers (I traded for) for dinner. The trade made no sense to me “he didn’t eat beef” but wanted a hot dog, but who am I to quibble. I guess maybe the hot dog has pork in it so that makes it ok.

As I mentioned yesterday there is a guy in our campers unit who previously did his time at FPC Montgomery, where I am going, and is being sent back there because he violated his probation. He had nothing but great things to say about the place. He said the rec yard has a tennis court, outdoor basketball court (no indoor court though, which yazoo had), an indoor rec area with cardio equipment and pool tables, bocce ball, softball, and a track. He said there is a movie theatre too, I thought that sounded pretty sweet. A lot of people work off the base in town. The food is very good. Something interesting he mentioned is that the currency at the prison camp is mackerel pouches not stamps. I have heard about mackerel pouches being used in county jails, state prisons, and federal detention centers but never in federal prison. FCI Seagoville and FMC Fort Worth both used flat books of stamps and FCI Yazoo used individual double sided “compound stamps”. Compound stamps are stamps that can’t be used for mailing and have circulated around the compound for years, and have been made double sided at some point by the inmates. This should be an interesting change and will take a little time to adjust to. He said the prison camp has three units. One unit is for RDAP, and the other two units are named “Montgomery Unit” and “Mobile Unit”. He said the Montgomery Unit has the dog training program and thats where the dogs are, and the Mobile Unit does not have the dogs.

That is all I got for today. I will check back in later.

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