Dear Dee,
This morning’s reading was a bulls-eye. For the past couple of weeks, I have been enveloped in the same kind of dark depression that grabbed me when I first got here. Today’s reading, I think, gave me the tools I need to pull out of it.
Today’s chalice lighting by CS stressed the enduring value of kindness and its ability to reduce our pain when we are hurt or confused. I see evidence of this every time I get a letter from you or talk with you and other friends on the phone.
For today, I picked Dave Sammons’ sermon, “Roll Down the Window.” It talked about taking the time to look beyond what is troubling you and just soaking up the wonder around you. Granted, it’s very difficult here to see beyond the ugliness and misery that surrounds me. There are no trees on the compound. But there are a couple of flower beds. And out beyond the fences, there are thick copses of trees. I can just see the tops of them over the roofs of the buildings. And then, of course, there is the sky with its ever-changing cloud sculptures. I will do my best to hone in on those things and let their beauty do its work. I’m going to hang onto this sermon and revisit it from time to time. It was well selected and, once again, I have you to thank for that.
On other matters, one of my cellmates had his request for transfer to Miami denied, the latest in a spate of transfer denials. They said it was due to overcrowding at the destination. That may be true. But I also suspect that they are cutting back on transfers for budgetary reasons. I do know overcrowding is a reality. I read last week in The Nation that the incarcerated population of the U.S. was below 200,000 in 1967. Today, it is 2.3 million. The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, including China and the third world nations. As recently as the ‘90s, someone with my charge would get a warning on the first offense. Now, it’s 7 to 14 years. All of those families fractured. There is a national mania for “lock-‘em-up,” no matter what the sociological cost.
Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you would be so kind as to go to the Bureau of Prisons website (bop.gov) and see what the current census is at Terminal Island in Long Beach, CA. I’d like to monitor it on a weekly basis to keep tabs on the ups and downs of its population. If the count is high when I become eligible in November, I might wait to put in my transfer until the numbers go down.
That’s it for this time. I look forward to hearing from you.
Love, Kent
