A Friday Afternoon Ramble

Friday afternoon. Argh, a big lunch at El Fenix and I'm stuffed and ready to crawl under the desk for a nap. I cannot WAIT to get out of here and start the weekend.

So it looks like Richard McNair is or has been in South Padre, Texas. They have numerous sightings of him there (though I think about 1 in 5 males looks something like him; in fact, when we visited Pollock last Friday, there was a guard who looked remarkably like him), and authorities intercepted a letter he mailed to his mother from a post office there. Now, if I was McNair, I'd have mailed that letter on my way out of South Padre, figuring like the smart guy he is that it would get intercepted and traced but I'd be long gone from where it was mailed. But law enforcement is acting as though he is still there. I suppose he could be. But then, they thought he hung around Pollock/Ball/Pineville, LA too and clearly he didn't. No one will really *know* where he is until they catch him.

Now they are suddenly moving a lot of inmates in Pollock (and presumably other federal prisons) around. It's my thought that it's some sort of shake-up as a result of the McNair thing, but who knows? They of course can at will choose to move anyone at any time. Phillip is suddenly in the process of being moved to Beaumont. He found out the day before. Beaumont makes no difference to us as far as visiting, it's nearly the exact same distance and travel time as Pollock, but apparently Beaumont is different than Pollock, not in a good way. More fights, more gangs, etc. I'm crossing my fingers that getting in to visit will be a far less unpleasant experience.

I'll tell you what else I don't like about this move, hurricane season. Beaumont is 35 miles from the Gulf Coast. Hopefully they'll be evacuating quickly if it looks like anything is going to happen. I heard they evacuated with Rita, and am trying to find confirmation online, but so far all I've found is that they were "making plans to if necessary". I have learned that in addition to the 4 federal prisons there, that Texas has 4 state prisons there as well. A total of nearly 12,000 inmates in all. A lot of evacuating that they are going to want to wait until the last possible minute and do only if it becomes absolutely necessary in their eyes, and I don't like that.

There are just way too many people out there who have the attitude "they are all just criminals, who cares?" Well, hey, guess what, surprise, they are people, too. Yes, some of them are bad dudes, like McNair, who clearly is potentially very dangerous and seemingly has no regard for anyone. But most of them are sons, fathers, brothers, nephews, uncles, etc. who made a mistake and are paying their price. And this I did not learn only as a result of Phillip's situation - this I have known since back in the day of working for the federal government myself. That was in many ways a difficult job because even then, before I had the misfortune of seeing the other side of the system, I found many of the releasees/probationers quite likeable and sympathized with them. Little did I know then.

I just got off the phone with Sprint to change my 2nd cell phone from an Alexandria, LA based number to a Beaumont, TX based number. The difference in price of Phillip's daily phone call to a number based local to where he is, is significantly cheaper enough to warrant a separate cell phone with a number based there. $.60 a call versus over $3.50 a call. The phone pays for itself the first half of the month. I love it when I'm clever like that. And hooray, for the first time ever, I didn't have to spend a dog year on the phone with Sprint to accomplish what I wanted.

But augh. I still have a headache. BC's, please.

Happy weekend.