JB: I'm so sorry, Judy. How deflating! Is the BOP stonewalling all of the 4,000, just Gary or what?
JW: It's all of them. Leading up to final passage, wives and families were receiving frequent updates that for many of us, under the requirements of the bill set to become law, our loved ones would be coming home "the day the bill is signed by the President." He signed it on Friday, but to my knowledge, not a single prisoner has been released, and I have been checking frequently. Those updates, in hindsight, were hype or wishful thinking, as apparently no one had taken steps to ensure that the BOP had set the recalculations and would comply with the law. We got excited and dared to hope, something that is risky for many of us. Just knowing Gary should be home, that he is legally entitled to be home under federal law, but he remains unlawfully imprisoned is devastating.
Gary has asked the prison employees responsible for releasing him what the hold-up is, and the response is perfectly maddening. Are you familiar with "Hogan's Heroes"? It was a 1960s-'70s sitcom that took place, fittingly, in a German prisoner of war camp. There was a character, a somewhat benevolent incompetent German prison guard named Sgt. Shultz, who ignored all kinds of things that happened right in front of him. His frequently repeated line was, "I see nothing! I know nothing!" https://youtu.be/4efMVgBHEfw Take away the benevolence and that's the response Gary got from the prison staffer when he asked to be released: "I know nothing." Truer words may never have been spoken. Never mind that it was and is his job to know, and that it is the responsibility of every employee in the bloated bureaucracy of the BOP to comply with federal law.
Over a week later, and after over six months' notice of the impending changes and the "immediacy" of the changes that would free Gary, Gary remains locked in federal prison. Yet another missed Christmas, another birthday about to be missed, and another year beginning wrongly as the BOP ignores their responsibility to comply with a federal law they opposed and do not like, as thousands of prisoners and their families are suffering irreparable harm. Not to mention wasted chicken salad.
JB: So, here we are: truly a case of that saying: all dressed up and no place to go. What's the next step? Is there something you and all the other 4,000 families can do to move this along already?
JW: Prison wives and families develop a "network" of sorts, from which I have learned that some BOP employees are apparently doing their jobs and have given updated paperwork to prisoners showing their current information including the First Step Act changes. Others - including us - are not as fortunate as we are left in limbo, unlawfully deprived of the benefits of the new law, and men and women, including Gary, remain unlawfully imprisoned. Rather than spending Christmas at home together for the first time in nine years, Gary remained in prison and I spent the holiday driving and sitting with him in a prison visiting room, which will be repeated this weekend unless the prison decides to comply with the law and release Gary. We will "celebrate" his 72nd birthday with a vending machine candy bar rather than a birthday cake with family singing to him.
There is really no excuse, and keeping Gary past the time he was entitled to return home is illegal and compensable. There is no forcing or shaming the BOP into doing the right thing just because it's morally wrong and illegal not to, as they are accustomed to ignoring laws and rules, have no morals and are beyond shame. Their day of reckoning will be harsh and there will come a time when they learn the cost of injustice and inhumanity.
The First Step Act is a major, historic victory for human rights, prison reform, and a step toward changing a broken "justice" system. Prisoners are real people with real families that love them and miss them - we want and need our families home together. While we are indescribably grateful that the President made it a priority and accomplished a remarkable bipartisan victory, I wonder if he knows this victory has not set anyone free yet, that his BOP and DOJ are ignoring the law as we all continue to suffer. This is one of the times I wish I could tweet or knew someone famous who would call the President and persuade him to free Gary and the others who should have gone home last Friday but who remain in prison. Any help or ideas???
We will persist. We will make use of any and all options that exist and perhaps come up with new ones. What we will not do is sit quietly and fret over the blatant disregard of federal law by an unaccountable federal agency. It is truly shocking that BOP employees so casually break the law - the very part of the government charged with the custody and rehabilitation of those convicted of breaking laws routinely breaks laws harming a lot more people than prisoners have.
Night has fallen and Gary and a few thousand others who should be home with their families will begin Night 7 of unlawful imprisonment. It's heartbreaking and infuriating at the same time.
JB: I couldn't agree more. You got an encouraging sign of sorts this evening. Care to share it with us?
JW: After visiting Gary on Christmas, I had Chinese carryout for dinner and this was my fortune cookie:
I shared what it said with Gary, my oldest and dearest friend. He thought it was great.
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