This was originally written in my journal on 8/8/2020.
There’s been a big move as everyone is calling it. Over 200 of us were relocated to new units to adjust to the new cohort situations. This was because 1. The current pandemic of Covid-19 and 2. In case some other pandemic or breakout occurred. That way the prison can run as smooth as possible if it does. Every one of us is here because of a choice we made. Your choice will lead you down 1 of 2 roads. 1. leading a peaceful God filled life or 2. One of regret, despair and leads you here. I know I should’ve stayed in my faithful walk with Christ. I know what I did was wrong, but I let the devil lead me instead of the heart I gave to God. The devil is a liar! I only have myself to blame for allowing him to deceive me. I know now, I need to remain in God’s word every day. I know he’s working on plans to bring me home. The move I made, never really should’ve happened, but I’m glad that it did. I’m now in an even smaller unit, in a corner room & currently alone. Time, that I’m enjoying recharging my batteries. Perhaps, the work I needed to do was done. I got my Bunkie Kim to start talking about God again and pick up a Bible for the first time in years. Praise God!
“If you go about doing good, speaking love & truth, radiant with His spirit, they will be reading in you the gospel after all.” Vance Havner – Turning Point 2/2020.
When I first went to jail, church in county was pretty much held in the same manner as any other church service. We’d go in and there was singing and then the actual service. They would give the invitation at the end for whoever wanted to be saved to come forward. As I then went upstate and started going to church at SCI Muncy, I was somewhat disappointed. Apparently once you were classified, the services got better. In classification (aka blues) however, it seemed like all we would do is go in and watch a video. Don’t get me wrong, the videos were ok, but it wasn’t the same. After arriving at SCI Cambridge, it was time to finally experience church after months of waiting. I signed up, had my Bible in hand and I even had plans to meet my friend Sue there. I walked in and I was overcome by the Holy Spirit. I just cried and cried I was so happy to be in the presence of the Lord. The place was packed from top to bottom, wall to wall. We were singing and clapping, worshiping as loud as we could. They probably heard us miles away. The pastor was the sweetest lady. Her name is Reverend Smith. We all called her Reverend Nettie. This lady was the nicest person and would give us the most profound messages. As I continued to attend the church services, it was funny to see new people show up and their reactions to what was taking place. At first, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. It was the only Protestant service offered, other than attending Bible studies. The “experience” started before you even reached the building itself. During the summer months, the door would be open to the auditorium. The thumping of the music, the singing, clapping of hands could be heard outside. The sound intensified as you walked up the steps and approached the room. Pre-covid these services would be packed. After we were allowed to return, only a certain number of inmates were allowed from a cohort group. The energy was not the same. During these services the Pastor would invite the Holy Spirit to come. She would also bind anything unholy and cast it out. This auditorium was used by everyone for anything, so it wasn’t just a church. The worship and the inviting of the Holy Spirit turned into many being overcome by the Holy Spirit. I think we all have felt overtaken by the Holy Spirit or felt his presence. This was something that I have never seen in my entire life of going to church. These ladies were falling out, speaking in tongues, screaming, hollering, crying, laughing. When new folks would come to the service the looks on their faces were that of utter disbelief. Some would never come back. Others returned and ignored it; some I think came to be nosey. The first time I ever experienced speaking in tongues, I was in middle school. I went to a friend’s home to spend the night. Her mom was having a prayer meeting. They started speaking in tongues, I was so confused and went home and told my mom what happened. We didn’t do that at our church. I thought it was some sort of satanic worship the carrying on that was occurring. After going to the services while incarcerated, I decided to do some reading. The best place to do that is in the Bible since that’s the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I wanted to know if this speaking in tongues was possible for real.
To understand who the Holy Spirit is we need to first look back at John 15: 26-27. This is when Jesus is preparing the disciples for his death. Jesus says, “26 “I will send you the Helper[a] from the Father. The Helper is the Spirit of truth[b] who comes from the Father. When he comes, he will tell about me. 27 And you will tell people about me too, because you have been with me from the beginning.” After Jesus dies, the disciples and others are then in the Upper Room in the book of Acts, Chapter 2. They are all mourning the death of their friend and teacher. Acts 2:1-4, (2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.). They didn’t really understand what was happening. Peter went out and the people outside thought they were drunk. (Acts 2:5-11). Peter, the one who denied Jesus 3 times prior gets up and addresses the crowd. He tells them, “Look they aren’t drunk it’s only 9am.” He explains that God said that he would pour out his Spirit on all people. (Acts 2:17-21) “17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.19 I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’[c]” So, he said ALL PEOPLE, not just the disciples. Not just the folks there that day. This was prophesied in Joel 2:28-32 before it even happened. Do you have the Holy Spirit? Paul teaches us that we receive the Holy Spirit as soon as we become Christians. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says, “For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” Romans 8:9 tells us that if a person does not possess the Holy Spirit, he or she does not belong to Christ: “You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.” Ephesians 1:13-14 teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the seal of salvation for all those who believe: “Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.” So I ask again, do you have the Holy Spirit?
As difficult as it was for everyone to get adjusted to a new way of life during a pandemic, it wasn’t any easier for those already locked up. We had access to the news and any newspaper that someone may have had a subscription to. Most of the news however came from phone calls, emails and letters from family, friends and also the staff. The only 24/7 type news we had was CNN. The rest came during the segmented times the news would come on regularly. There were times when the DOC would decide to block channels so we couldn’t watch certain things. There was a lot going on it seemed like all at once. We had the news of covid coming in, then we had the election and post-election madness. We also had the insurrection of the capitol building, and then there was the killing of George Floyd and Ahmad Arbury. We saw the trials of the police officer who killed George Floyd, the trial of the father/son who killed Ahmad. The trial of the officer who shot a man instead of using her taser. During the George Floyd incident they blocked the channel for a while not allowing us access to that news. They then, said we weren’t allowed to draw on or decorate our masks. Anyone who amended their face mask would be subject to disciplinary action. Our guess is that people were writing, “I can’t breathe” on them. it was kind of unfortunate because there were a lot of really pretty masks that people created. I could also see the reason behind the new rule, as there could have been some problems stemming from someone being offended. Things remained quiet for the most part during these times. If anyone had an opinion about the events, they were shared respectfully and without incident. The only major incident that actually occurred was from a staff member being suspended after kneeling and making reference to the Floyd situation. He was suspended for quite a while without pay we presumed and then brought back without incident. He was actually a decent officer, and just made a bad choice in poor taste. It seemed to me that most of the inmates respected him and vice versa. As the trials simmered down and the vaccines came out, things started to approach a new normal. We saw several officers being sent to prison for a long time and being held accountable. The election steal rhetoric was over, and now we were being told it was imperative we get vaccinated. As a Christian, all of the things going on just resonated with me as part of the end of times. Everyone was coming to me and other fellow believers asking if the vaccine was the mark of the beast. Constantly, we were pointing to the verses in the Bible that said that the vaccine was not the mark of the beast. We were told that whether you got the vaccine was up to you and that there wouldn’t be any repercussions if you chose not to take it. After being at the DOC for the time that I had been up to this point I knew that probably wasn’t true! There are times when they treated us like kids, only telling us what we wanted to hear at the time to avoid hearing any whining about it. They enticed everyone to get the vaccine by paying us $25 and giving us a goody bag. I decided to get the shot because we were still holding out hope that Phoenix would reopen. Those of us waiting for that to occur figured they’d say that you would have to be vaccinated in order to go. (Again, they never reopened the FTU yet the website says it’s open). After they held the vaccine clinic and evaluated how to move forward, they decided that anyone who didn’t receive the vaccine now had to move behind a door into a cell. You wouldn’t be allowed any contact visits, and you weren’t allowed to interact with other inmates. The staff gave you a final chance to obtain the vaccine, of which some decided to do so rather than move. Others, because of religious, health or personal reasons still didn’t get it. Once everyone was vaccinated, they slowly started to bring back programs, classes, activities and contact visits. They set up a system where you had to go in and make a reservation to be able to visit. They didn’t want people just showing up like it was pre-covid. My sister Pam and her husband were the first to make plans to come visit. They had confirmations in hand that they made the reservation. They drove 6 hours one way to see me. I was so excited! I was sitting in the visiting room and in walks my brother-in-law and not my sister. I love my brother-in-law and he’s a great guy, I was confused however why my sister wasn’t with him. Here, they would not let her in. She had proof she did what was required but the computer glitched and she wasn’t showing up on their list. They didn’t care how long they drove, that they were leaving to move out of state and couldn’t return. They made no allowances for a computer glitch because nothing was ever thought through. Anything the DOC does is based on reaction and not a plan. When the pandemic broke out, they acted like they didn’t know what to do. While this was new for everyone, it seemed to me that an institution that housed 1000’s of people would have had a disaster plan that included an outbreak. (Lice, TB, Scabies, the flu). It just confused me how they seemed so unprepared. They made stupid rules that made no sense to us. When we were able to go to activities, the library and commissary they had a 6′ social distancing rule. It was being imposed upon all of you on the outside, so it seemed to them to be a good idea for them to do on the inside. The funny thing was they had us moving by cohorts. This meant that we were only allowed to go places that with people that lived on the same unit with us. So, I could be standing in line at commissary with 2 of my roommates in front of and behind me. The staff would then yell at us that we weren’t socially distancing. Umm, excuse me but I live with these two and we’re barely inches apart sometimes in our room. Same thing if they weren’t our roommate. I could be on the kiosk next to someone I didn’t room with. The thing that made it so dumb was then they’d call us for chow. We would end up standing in line at the chow hall, with people in front of me I’d never seen before. from another unit. Yet we were to be separate by cohort to prevent an outbreak. So, it’s ok to be elbow to elbow with people I don’t live with, but you yell if I’m 2 feet from my roommate. These situations frustrated all of us and we would normally try to point out how it made no sense. Someone wasn’t using their head. When the booster shots came out, things really started to loosen up and soon they didn’t even care if the non-vaccinated folks were mixed in with us or not. Honestly, some of the decisions seemed to follow whatever you all were being told out here. This didn’t always apply to how things ran efficiently in prison, however. I know I keep harping on the Phoenix situation, but another unit is what the female’s need. (Actually, we need less incarceration). The over-crowding causes huge problems during these situations. When you try to move people around in a crowded space, it’s like re-arranging chairs in a closet. No one, at any given time should be made to live elbow to elbow. You’re only asking for it to become a breeding ground of disease and infestation. During this time the Governor enacted a temporary release plan that if you fit into a certain category, you were eligible for release due to the pandemic. The parameters were so small that barely anyone was released as a result of it. It was made to sound good, that’s about it. We’re approaching election time again. Our Lt. Governor is running for state senate along with Dr. Oz. (Yes, thee Dr. Oz). As part of the smear campaigns, Dr. Oz is using fear mongering to scare people away from voting for Mr. Fetterman. Mr. Fetterman is on the board of pardons and has been an advocate for second chances and inmates. I don’t find this to be a bad thing, when used properly. Every situation should be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. I can tell you, after meeting some of the Lifer’s (they prefer to be called long-timers), there are some that I feel deserve to have their case reviewed again. Some of the law makers feel they are doing their constituents a favor by just voting “no”. I would like to think that everyone deserves to be heard, and at least given the chance to have their case re-evaluated. As time goes on, laws change and people who were charged today for similar acts aren’t being sentenced as harsh as a life sentence. They instead might be sentenced to 2nd-3rd degree murder or something else depending on their role. One major example that I saw often, was women that were abuse victims. They one day fought back, and things didn’t end up so good. Did they kill someone? Yes. There are resources today that weren’t available years ago. These are the types of cases now being reviewed again, to give people a possible second chance. So, I wouldn’t necessarily call someone like this a “violent murderer or violent criminal”. Yet, this is what the news/media will tell you. You won’t hear how they were tortured relentlessly. I saw a few ladies file for commutation while I was there. It’s a long and arduous process. Many of them have the total support of the DOC behind them. Staff that has watched them grow up and grow old. Who see them every day be nothing but kind and caring to others. I’ve also seen people who were meaner than a hornet and were set to come home. Not everyone in prison is violent or a terrible person. There are some good people who made bad choices. Some who were with the wrong people at the wrong time. I pray that the Lord will put it on the hearts and minds of the decision makers to bring positive change.
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Like the song goes, “Here I go again on my own, going down the only road I’ve ever known”. That’s how it started to feel after a while. I no sooner go settled into another room, with another roommate, when my phone was shut off. I knew what that meant! It meant that I was getting ready to be transferred, AGAIN! Up until this point, I had been trying to see if I could remain at SCI Muncy. It’s only 2 hours from home, and they kept telling us they were going to take us back to Phoenix that spring/summer. When the transfer came, we knew that wasn’t going to happen. The other thing was by this time it was February of 2022 and that meant that I’d start my parole process by that August. If they did plan to return folks to Phoenix, I could’ve been on the fence about returning there and messing up that process in any way. they never did open it again, and no one returned there. We heard all sorts of things about what it was being used for. Most of the opportunities in prison (at least in Pa), are for the men. There are more facilities for them, more programs, more, more, more. It’s said around the female facilities “the men stick together”, and that’s how they end up with stuff. Well, the last thing most of us want to do was create a fuss and end up being accused of “rioting”. I personally think that there needs to be someone or a committee that makes sure that certain policies, programs, etc. should be consistent across the DOC regardless of male or female. (Ugh, that’s another soapbox). The whole process of being transferred was exactly the same. It sucks every time. Then comes getting situated again, getting your mail straightened out, worrying if any books that were sent will show up. The positive thing was that we all knew that to expect now, returning to SCI Cambridge Springs. The bad part was staff and some of the other inmates that didn’t realize we went to Phoenix; thought we came back as parole violators. We all spent about a month repeating the same story about how we were in Phoenix, and it was shut down. We had to go back into a 14-day quarantine again when we arrived. I was super lucky, because I ended up with my friend Jodie. They ended up moving us after this to C unit. So again, I returned where I started. I liked being back on C unit. I liked the location of it, I liked the staff assigned to work on it, and I liked the other inmates living there as well. We actually all seemed to get along for the most part. When someone came along that caused an issue, it’s like the one officer told me, “Just be patient because they’ll end up doing something to get themselves moved soon.” He was right. Living on an open unit is a privilege. If you can’t play nice, then they are going to move you. It’s your choice whether or not that move is via the “rhu” (restricted housing unit aka the hole). They may also just decide to move you during the next round of mass moves. The one time when I ended up on the block that are only behind doors (not an open unit), the officer’s kept asking me “why I was there”. Even the one counselor pulled up my file and asked me the same thing. Luckily, it was a temporary situation until I moved to Phoenix. I figure the Lord always had a plan and it wasn’t up to me where I lived. It was his. The Lord definitely took care of me while I was incarcerated. No one can tell me otherwise. I was always where he needed me and who he needed me to be roommates with. I got along with everyone. The average age for the most part seemed to be 25-40. I got along with all of them. The young girls respected me. The ones my own age became my friends. Some will say you can’t have “friends in jail”. I find that statement to be incorrect. You just need to be selective on who you call a friend because some people will smile in your face and then stab you in the back. if someone did try to harass me for whatever reason, a lot of times the younger girls would tell the person off saying, “leave Miss Jodie alone, she doesn’t bother anyone!” This was a true statement. I didn’t bother anyone. I stayed in my room 98% of the time and if someone needed me or wanted something they called me to come out. A day would not go by that someone wasn’t looking for me or asking for me because I possessed some bit of knowledge, they wanted to pick my brain on. I was the crochet lady, I was the recipe person, I had knowledge about technology, I was very prepared for the parole process that folks wanted me to help them get ready for. One day, my one roommate came in and said that a few young ladies were looking for me. She said it was something about that I knew a lot about genres of music and who sang certain songs. She told me that she had to laugh at first because she asked them again if they had the right person. She said, are you sure you are looking for Jodie? The girl said yes, I want Miss Jodie. She’s an older lady with gray hair (it was then), and sometimes walks with a cane. My roommate was so confused when she came to get me. She said, I just learned something new about you! lol. I just got along with everyone. They also knew too that if you did cross me that I wasn’t afraid to speak up and let you know about it. This was how my nickname “Spicy Annie” was born. I think we all have our limits on how much crap we will put up with. In prison, it’s very important to let people know right away that you’re not going to be a door mat. Most of the arguments that I started while I was there either over girlfriends and someone messing with their girl, or just the lack of respect for another person. My advice to anyone who is put into this situation is not to get a girlfriend while in jail. It’s going to get you in trouble and added time. Also, just be respectful to your roommates, your space, your housing unit, areas you use and respectful to staff and others in general. Stay in your own lane. Find a person you can truly rely on and call a friend and use them to vent to when you’re frustrated. The wonderful thing is, that the Lord is always my friend. He is always ready, willing and able to listen, and he doesn’t repeat my secrets. I could NEVER have done any of this without his unconditional love and forgiveness.
We finished count and breakfast was delivered. Hard boiled eggs, bread, and something else. We barely had received our food when the shoe on the other foot dropped. It was December 22nd, and we were informed that, “one of the men’s pods in SCI Phoenix (down below us) caught fire and they needed our building to house the men”. So many questions came to mind because the housing unit was built for females, and now we were getting the boot. We didn’t understand why our building was their backup plan. We knew that we were to leave eventually, and this just was the icing on the cake. The thing that made it so bad was they were calling for a severe snowstorm to start any minute. They came in with tons of boxes and told us to pack up, we were leaving and going to Muncy. There was no Q&A. Just pack up and get it moving. I pretty much had my stuff packed because I wasn’t naive enough to believe that we were staying, and the other ladies were coming back. That wasn’t going to happen, at least any time soon. The male guards who wanted nothing to do with coming down while we were there, seemed to get their kicks out of now packing out stuff to move us out. Everything had to be inventoried like I explained before when you pack out to be transported. This time, however, they did it as quickly as possible. They wanted us GONE! By the time we were packed, changed in our transport outfits, including shackles again the snow started. We should NOT have been driving during this storm. I could only keep praying to the Lord that he would protect our van and guide us to Muncy safely. When they put us in the vans, they kept 5 of us that had covid in one van. The other girls that didn’t catch it went in a separate van. They wouldn’t so much as look or talk to us. We couldn’t figure out why because we did nothing wrong. We didn’t create covid, and we didn’t go out and bring it in either. After a grueling van ride back to Munch, we slide into home base. Literally. We sat outside the gate for the longest time, having to pee terribly. Here they never called to tell them we were coming. We just dropped in like they were a motel with a vacancy sign. They weren’t amused. I wasn’t amused either. I just returned to where I started almost exactly a year to the day I left!! I returned to GO, with nothing but a lot of grief. From the time that I was moved originally in the July mass move in 2020 (Cambridge), until my eventual back to return to Cambridge in February 2021, I moved over 14 times. That included the moves around in Phoenix, at Muncy and then back to Cambridge. I was so tired of moving my stuff! The guards and staff would get frustrated because they figured we didn’t have a lot so why was it a big deal. Unless you’re in that situation there’s a lot of emotion that goes into constantly moving and staring over. Regardless of the amount of crap you accumulated. When we finally were changed and escorted out of the admin building to our new housing unit at Muncy the snow was coming down harder and harder. We kept telling the staff that we had NO clothing. They couldn’t understand this because we should’ve had our “browns” that were issued to us. Well, when we went to Phoenix, we received purple uniforms and therefore we owned no more “browns”. There we were, walking around in the freezing snow, with ill fitting “blues” shirts and pants. The ones that you receive on day 1 when you first get to prison classification. They also offered us NO coats. We had nothing. It was freezing, and we were still getting over Covid. Finally, a Captain or Sargent came by and yelled at the staff to “get those ladies inside, it’s effing freezing out here”. A round of applause for someone with a heart and brain! The 5 of us that had Covid ended up getting the better end of the deal. They sent us to a housing unit where 4 of us were housed in the same room. We had our own bathroom/shower. It wasn’t bad. They only kicker was phone calls were at the will of the officers. This usually meant calls at 7 am. UGH! We were supposed to stay there for 14 days, then moved to regular housing. They ended up moving us sooner. I have to digress for a minute. I said they moved us on the 22nd. I actually believe it was a little sooner because I was moved to my new dorm before Christmas. We were told that we were going to eventually go back to Phoenix. Probably by the spring/summer of 2022. Covid was still rampant, and they made it clear they were NOT going to allow us to stay in Muncy. I had asked since it was closer to home than Cambridge. God has reasons for everything. We just need to hang tight and see what’s next.
So, we arrived at Cambridge Springs on December 24, 2019. I mentioned before that after all the processing that we had to go through, I finally was assigned a dorm and bed by 9:30 pm. (remember the day started at 4:00 am). I have problems with my hip/knees and have asthma. They decided that putting me on the 3rd floor in a top bunk was a great idea! The stairs to this dorm are better known as “stairmaghedon”. They are steep and there is about 9 steps per flight with a landing between them. Even the most athletic person was huffing and puffing after climbing these bad boys. I was also supposed to be “bottom bunk restricted”. The bed they assigned to me was top bunk. I wasn’t amused. There also wasn’t much that was going to be resolved at 9:30 pm on Christmas Eve. That was only the beginning, however. No one, should have to move on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, etc. I’m sure like most of us that were transferred that day, we were hoping to have a visit from family or make some phone calls home. When you’re transferred, your phone/accounts are shut off temporarily. My anxiety was still reeling from the night before, I had new anxiety of now being placed in general population, in a facility I was unfamiliar with. I was also placed with no one that I knew. The people that I did know that were transferred with me, didn’t stay long as they were moved to their program housing within that week. I felt very alone, in a strange place, and it was the holidays. On top of this, I should never have been placed on a 3rd floor in a top bunk. (Medical claimed that my orders expired, I guess they expired when I drove from point A to point B). That evening when I went to take my anxiety meds, I was told that they didn’t have them. This continued for several days, including me asking over and over again. (I found out later in a separate transfer that meds like this get flagged, and that they could’ve put a bridge prescription on it until I met with the psych Dr. to have them issued out of this facility). Honestly, they don’t care enough. Through time, you learn these things and are able to pass on that knowledge to others, so they don’t have to go through it like you did. To this day, I will be forever grateful fpr a CPS worker named Rachel. A CPS worker is another inmate who is able to take training, who also has mental health issues and is able to advocate for you and talk to you when needed. Rachel was able to go to her boss and have things set in motion for me to get my meds restarted. (I later thanked her and told her how much this meant me). This was a huge task since no medical staff was supposed to be back until after Christmas. It was like things stood still until almost the 1st of the year. Another reason, NO ONE should be transferred during a holiday like this. Every day I was calling home and in tears. I don’t mean just sad, I miss home tears, these were sobbing tears. Finally, the one day my little sis told my mom, “My sister doesn’t cry like this, I’m going up there to find out what’s going on”. She wasn’t going to rest until she put eyes on me. Her and her husband were the 1st visitors I had at SCI Muncy and the 1st at SCI Cambridge Springs. This meant the world to me because this wasn’t an easy drive for them. It’s about a 6-hour drive from their house then to the prison, one way. It was just nice to see a loved one, hug them and just feel that sense of familiarity. I did finally get my bottom bunk order fixed and swapped places with my Bunkie. Eventually, I was then moved to an entire other unit, called “C” unit where I would spend 95% of the rest of my time while incarcerated. I liked this unit for many reasons. All of the units were open units, meaning none of us were behind a door or in a cell. Well, there was one unit that did have this, but I was fortunate enough to only live there about a month. I’ll share that story later. This facility used to be a college campus. All the buildings and rooms were old and, the resembled college type dorm rooms. They were set up with 1 set of bunks on each wall (4 people total per room), with 2 desks, shelves, open closets and picture windows like you’d see anywhere else. We had the windows that could be opened for fresh air, but grates on the outside so no one could jump should that urge arise. When I lived on the 1st floor, which was about a year, it only housed about 25 people total. This helped my anxiety tremendously. There was a short period of time when I finally became acclimated that I was able to go to indoor rec. This was nice, because we could go up to the chow hall on certain days and meet up with friends from other units to play games or just socialize. I remember walking around the campus and seeing everyone in shirts with DOC on the back. It struck me immediately when I saw this when the Lord revealed to me that it didn’t stand for “Department of Corrections”. He told me it stood for, “Daughters of Christ”. From that day forward, I never looked at those shirts the same way. We all definitely were his daughters. By, February I was finally getting the hang of things at my new location. I received a wonderful visit from my husband, boys and my friend Andrea. Originally, I thought I wouldn’t hardly see anyone and here I was having a visit once a month. It wasn’t they every other week like in Muncy, but it was better than expected. I had pending visits coming up in March where my older sister/brother-in-law were coming and another visit from my best friend and her husband. Things were moving along, and then everything came to a screeching halt!
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The Carpenter’s Daughter 
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