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COOPS Weekly - Life from Kansas #21

Updated: Jan 5

Readiness Statement

The BIG RDAP assignment this month was to prepare a "readiness statement," and present it to the group. A readiness statement includes your addiction story and the crime that got you into federal prison. Its super raw and honest and it is done in front of everyone at the LPC. You talk about the changes you want to make and how best to be held accountable in your recovery. Its intense and very stressful for all the participants. At first we were told we could use note cards....But the night before we were informed the speech needed to be memorized (no cards)...HA...This is such an RDAP move. It didn’t affect me...but other RDAP’ers were pretty upset as I have considerable public speaking experience. But that is RDAP. They want you guessing and on your toes. Last minute changes are part of the program. It is about making you feel out of your comfort zone.


Craziest thing I have heard or seen at the LPC. I have mentioned that drugs are prevalent here. Meth is the big one...it is everywhere at the LPC. A guy in the adjacent unit (NOT RDAP) was just got caught with a large amount, he was bagging it up for sale. One of the staff (not a correction officer) walked in on him. He is looking at new charges (10-15 years additional time). He had an exit date before the end of this year.

We made Pizza this week out of tortillas, cheese, pepperoni, ketchup, BBQ sauce. Sounds bizarre...but it was fantastic.




Some newsletter readers have asked about my buddy at work who slipped on the ice. He had surgery today.... he broke his foot is 2 places. He is supposed to be out of commission for 3 months. Not good. He is a champ. It would take an act of God to get pain pills in here, so he just had Advil. You could get them illegally I guess but he is not going to do that.

My latest paralegal exams came in as follows:


Exam 105A - 100%,

Exam 106A - 90%,

Exam 107A - 90%,

Exam 109A - 100%,

Exam 110A - 100%.

Average - 96% (not bad)


Funny Story working in kitchen.


Every week we must unload trucks full of food (expired food.... this week we had items that expired in 2020...HA...it is terrible) ...Unloading the trucks is tough (the food is in huge bulky form...potatoes, bread, butter, eggs, chicken, etc...it is all super heavy).

Some workers try and dodge this part of the job. This week me and a few others got stuck unloading trucks using far fewer workers than usual. THIS PART IS SUPER LAME TO DISCUSS but it is the embarrassing truth. We get rewarded for unloading the truck by being given cookies.

YES COOKIES (inmates given cookies is a funny visual). Cookies are gold around here. Freshly baked cookies are as rare as it gets (that and microwave popcorn).





The cookies go for around 5 bucks a cookie (or a book...which is 5$ in stamps... I have told everyone about stamps from time to time). I don’t sell anything. I give away anything I get. Everyone knows this. The routine is after we finish with the truck, we go to the head correction officer’s door, and we are handed cookies.


This day the correction officer hadn’t baked any. We were told to come back the following day. The next day when I showed up to work and I was called to the office. I was handed as many cookies as I could hold in my two hands. In prison everyone watches everything. The reaction was priceless. Why did Scott get a ton of cookies???...Let me tell you...It is because I work my ass off. The guards see it. So do the other workers.


My working in the kitchen is curious to those who know me a little or a lot. I have told you all some of the reasons I do it. But let me give you a few more.

I don’t need the money (besides its a whopping 30$ a month). I study a ton EVERY DAY....So I want access to the air-conditioned cafeteria as a place to study (working in the kitchen allows you to be in the kitchen at any time).


Do I like working in the kitchen, serving food, cleaning, and cooking? If you don’t know the answer to this, then you don’t know me. I do not like it. I am bad at it....

But that’s why I do it. I can’t stand being bad at something. I don’t need to be good, but I can’t stand being bad at anything (except MATH & Directions). But the most important reason why I do it is because at some point I got lazy. I have been lazy for years. I wasn’t lazy when I was younger. Quite the opposite.


I promised myself I would beat the LAZY out of me. I get to work early EVERY DAY (I get up at 4:45am... I am one of 2 people up that early in the whole unit). I work harder and longer than everyone else. If there is a terrible job to do I DO IT. I’m not saying this to brag...this is what is expected of people in jobs. When you lose something, you need to find a way to get it back. I’m simply saying I am not being LAZY. I will not be lazy again. I have seen countless workers come and go here already. Most people here don’t want to work hard (not really, they think they do but they don’t). I need to show myself that I can again do anything I set my mind to. I won’t be lazy ever again.


It is part of a larger theme I want to master before I leave. I want to get back to being fearless, feeling like I have nothing to lose. I think going to prison and taking the beat down I have...qualifies me to say I have nothing more to lose. There is nothing scarier than a person with nothing to lose. That is going to be me when I get out. I am fired up (& BORED...HA)!!!!

This week was tough.... I really miss everyone.




What would you think San Francisco’s budget is for LAW ENFORCEMENT annually?






A hint: Its 9% of their annual budget. 709 million. I think that is crazy.


In 2021 there were 161 exonerations of wrongful imprisonment. 1,849 years were served by innocent people. Each of the 161 persons exonerated spent an average of 11.5 years in prison. 102 of the 161 exonerations involved misconduct by government officials. 64 of the exonerations found that no actual crime was committed. That these could be the result of any criminal justice system should itself be criminal.


In 2021 Fossil Fuel and Utility companies spent over a billion dollars promoting legislation to criminalize lawful protests.


Over 1,000 crime bills have been proposed by fossil fuel companies since the murder of George Floyd.







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