Today I received the response to my appeal of my re-classification. When I was re-classified in September I was originally told by my case manager, LaDuke, that I had to remain at high custody due to the length of my sentence. I pointed out that the AR (administrative regulation) said that if your TRD (tentative release date) was more than 20 years out then you had to remain at high custody for at least 2 years, but my TRD is 2030, so significantly less than 20 and I should be able to be promoted to lower custody. He didn’t know if I was right or not (I was). He is a case manager and one of his main jobs is handling annual re-classifications and he didn’t even know the rules for his major responsibility. *roll his eyes* I did not waive my right to appear at the classification hearing so a few days later I met with Unit Manager Holly. When I pointed out that I actually did qualify for promotion to lower custody he wasn’t sure of the rule and had to look it up. How are these people doing classification?!? Once he realized I was correct he said I qualified for minimum custody but since I can’t go to OCC that would have put me in the 100-man dorms in the back of NSP. Though that would at least be in Lincoln I do not want to be in a 100-man dorm, with no privacy, peace or quiet, for years on end so I asked to be promoted to medium and classified for LCC. He agreed and I even confirmed it as I left his office. A few days later I received the official paperwork and it said I was promoted to medium but I was to “continue in PC.” *grrrr!* So of course I appealed arguing that I had signed the request for PC under false pretenses since LaDuke had said I had to stay at max custody and I didn’t want to go GP here at TSCI. This was their less-than-informative response: “You are appropriately classified to Medium custody and assigned to TSCI in protective custody.” Appeal denied with no explanation at all. Typical of prison bureaucracy. *sigh*

I am also writing a petition on behalf of the Toastmasters club for the administration to allow us access to the computer lab to produce our quarterly newsletter, like they did prior to shutting down Toastmasters after the riot in 2015. The relevant regulation includes “educational endeavors” but the admin. is reading it at “education” like the Education department. That is clearly not a grammatically correct reading of the AR PLUS they are allowing the Religion porters too use the computers and they are even less clearly “educational” than we are. We’ll see how the petition goes. I have a feeling the admin. just wants to say no, no matter what the ARs say.

Also, today I received notice that I may get my first write-up after a year an a half with no MRs (misconduct reports). I went to the library and the new librarian told me I hadn’t returned a book I checked out for another person, Dugger, a fellow Toastmasters officer, to read. He had finished it in one day and was supposed to return it through the drop box on the way to the gym but apparently that didn’t happen. He had given it to Wheels, my neighbor, to drop off in the box and he failed to. Then he gave it to a CO, Davis, to return before the library did their big inventory last month. Apparently Davis had forgotten and left it in the case workers’ office where Wheels saw it later but not that box of books is no longer in the office. My only hope to avoid my first MR is that the librarian picked up that box and my book is already back on the shelves. Of course if that’s the case I’ll have to thank her for a weekend of stress for nothing…but at least I’ll not get an MR. Lesson: Never get anything for anyone else if you might get in trouble for it. *sigh*

On a different note I am very much looking forward to the switch to the new email provider. Not so much for email reasons because I’ll have to type my posts on a tiny touch screen keyboard. But we will be able to make phone calls on the tablets (or on a second tablet depending on whom you ask) so we can call from our cells without fighting for one of the 4 phones in the day room. Plus we will have an hour of phone time a day instead of 15 min. Both McK and my dad rolled their eyes when they heard that. 🙁 I guess they don’t enjoy talking to me. Well, I’ll just call lots of other people then. *smile*