August 22

My mother didn’t come to visit today.  I guess she’s probably mad at me but I’m not calling home.  Sooner or later they’ll be in.

Jolene came in yesterday.  She asked me for cigarettes today and I tried to give her a pack, but the guards won’t let anything go from one unit to another anymore not even a sealed pack of cigarettes.  I think they should have made an exception, especially in her case because she came in on a Saturday and couldn’t order from the canteen.  But it’s just another example of the bullshit that goes on around this place.  Their mind games never stop …

David S. came in yesterday, so we’ve got three in our unit now.  I hope they don’t put any more in.  This is third time David’s been in since I came in.  Same with Jolene and Larry.  Nobody is getting any help in here.  I’m disappointed that the guy from The Guardian in Summerside didn’t do a story on the place.  If he called for information then I expect that I’ll be getting fucked around by [Supervisor], king of arseholes.

… it’s been a fairly long weekend.  I’m glad it’s over.  Seems to be raining a lot lately too, so there’s a lot of days where we don’t get outside, which makes the time even longer.  Someday this will all be over …

August 23

Well, this was a pretty good day.  I got the cigarettes to Jolene this morning.  She was happy … One thing that wasn’t good was that I called Motor Vehicles and found out that I will have to take a program, maybe even aftercare to get my license back.  That sucks.  Other than that, things are OK.

I went to church tonight and just about everybody was there.  It was almost like being at a party, … but without alcohol … or drugs … or sex … or rock ‘n’ roll … ok, it was church but there was a lot of people there.

Larry told me he’d try and move up to max tomorrow, and he’ll do me some favors after he gets out.  John gave me some stamps (for the letter to Jennifer which I re-wrote again tonight).

Jolene didn’t finish the program either.  Maybe if I hadn’t got kicked out, we both would have finished it.  And we both would have been much better off.  She went and stole another car.  So, she’ll be in for a while.  She also told me that my mother and father and Steven showed up at the detox the day after I left, for the family thing.  They didn’t know I was kicked out.  I imagine that they’re really pissed off.  I guess I won’t be calling home for a while.  I can’t wait for the day when all this is behind me …

August 26

I got everything worked out with Walter today.  Now I just have to wait and hope for the best …

I got asked by Jason (who, I suppose, was asked by Jodi) to write a letter to Jolene today, and so I did.  I wish I had stayed out long enough to finish the program with her.  I think we would have had some fun …

We got a couple of new guys in our unit yesterday; Frankie A. (who was in Summerside with me) and Dolph T. (who was shot by the cops last week).  Jim D. (who robbed the co-op) is in the right unit.  He says he’s a good friend of George so I might be able to get in touch through him.  I’ve got some things to talk about with George.  I’d like to pay him back what I owe him …

the light in my room has been flickering since yesterday.  It looks like it will take till Monday (this is Thursday) to get it fixed.  Quite the place this is … still no sign of any drugs coming in for us despite several attempts.  You can’t depend on anyone when you’re in a place like this …

Jimmy got news from Quebec that the Rock Machine [motorcycle gang] wants him to open a chapter in Moncton.  And he wants me to be in it with him.  That’s something I will have to put a lot of thought into.  There are (obviously) some things I like about it, but I don’t know if I want to commit myself to living around here.  I had hoped to move to Toronto, but this might be too good an opportunity to pass up …

August 27

My mother called this afternoon.  She says [my son] was pretty upset.  Too bad I keep fucking things up.  They’re not interested in coming in to the parole hearing, but I think I can handle it myself.  She said that Paul M. will give me one more chance.  It would be great if I could do it in November but there’s not much chance of [Supervisor] letting that happen … I got a written response to my request for the Chronicle Herald today.  It was bullshit.  But that was no surprise.

… The guards found an empty vial in the centre unit so they had all their phone calls, visits and gym taken away.  That’s pretty severe for an empty vial.  I talked to Dave M. this evening and it seems that my money is being collected.  I hope that works out.  At least I’ll have money waiting for me when I get out.  Quite a bit of money if things work out …

Draft letter to the Law Society written around this time

Dear Sir:

I am writing to you on behalf of the inmates of the PCC.  We are hoping that perhaps one of your members would be willing to devote some of his or her time to assist us in resolving some legal matters.  I am not referring to anything of a criminal nature but rather to the rights of the inmates.  For example, we are prohibited from bringing in reading materials, even educational or spiritual publications.  Magazines and newspaper subscriptions are prohibited as well.

Some inmates have also had difficulty in getting temporary absences for employment, educational or rehabilitative purposes.  It seems that we are expected to just sit around watching television or playing cards and any attempts to better ourselves are actively discouraged as we are, of course, unemployed and the province does not have an Ombudsman to deal with our concerns, we hope that you could be of some assistance.  Any help would be greatly appreciated