This week brought some really disappointing news. It looks like my release date is being pushed back — possibly past Christmas. Nothing’s official yet, but everything’s up in the air, and I’ve been angry and frustrated all week. It’s a long and complicated story, but I’ll try to keep it simple for those following along.
As many of you know, I’m in RDAP, the residential drug program that takes nine months off your sentence. I was supposed to graduate December 9th and leave for the halfway house the next day. That date was confirmed two months ago, and since then, I’ve been doing everything right — going to class, participating, even facilitating sessions.
The program runs on “community meetings” each day, where we call out unhealthy behavior in each other, a process called “pull-ups.” A while back, I mentioned the guards found several cell phones in another housing unit. Even though it wasn’t our wing, the RDAP staff decided to punish everyone by suspending our program hours until we started giving “better pull-ups” — basically encouraging us to rat on each other. That’s something nobody wants to do in prison.
We tried our best, though. I even pulled up a guy for using “Duece,” a bad drug in here, because I thought it might help him. He’s actually doing better now. Normally, we need 500 hours to graduate, and if you attend every class, you can get about 550. So we had some buffer — until the last few weeks.
Since the new phase started three weeks ago, RDAP has canceled more classes than it’s held. Out of 15 possible meetings, we only had seven. Normally, when they cancel class, we still get credit for showing up. But since they suspended our hours, every canceled class means we fall further behind.
On Tuesday, our coordinator told us our phase had lost over 50 hours we can’t make up, which means graduation will be delayed. She said the earliest we could now finish is December 16th — but that’s only if they start giving us hours again, which is far from certain.
When I asked my case manager, he said he hasn’t even been told about a delay. If it’s true, he’ll have to redo all the release paperwork — a process that already took a month last time. No one here seems to know what’s actually going on, and that’s the worst part.
For a lot of us, this means canceled family plans, missed holidays, and loved ones taking time off work for nothing. We’ve worked hard for this, and to have it thrown into chaos because of disorganization and apathy is just crushing.
What really stings is that I’ve been volunteering my time to help RDAP staff with side projects — including one for the doctor in charge, making decorations for her daughter’s high school locker. And then she turns around and does this, showing no remorse or accountability. We even asked if there was any way to make up the lost hours, and she just said, “No.”
It’s disheartening. Even if this delay ends up being only a week, that’s still a week of my life I’ll never get back. I’ve thought about filing a formal complaint but worry about retaliation if I do.
For now, I’ve stopped working on her daughter’s project. I’m trying to process the emotions — anger, disappointment, betrayal — without the help of the very people who caused them. That’s hard, because RDAP is supposed to be where we go for support.
I’ll update you all as soon as I know anything.Stay safe and legal out there,
Larry
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