--- COVID BOP by MILEY VIRUS ---
20th April 2020

By Tuesday, March 31, 2020, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, there were 14 staff and 13 inmates who are down with COVID-19. The Saturday before that, the BOP recorded its first coronavirus death when a 49 year old inmate named Patrick Jones passed away at the Federal Correctional Institution Oakdale in Louisiana. FCI Oakdale is a low security facility and the prisoner died from respiratory issues brought on by the coronavirus. Not to be cynical, but this is just what the BOP is reporting (see "Their story"), so who knows what the real numbers are. By mid-April the update was 318 inmates and 163 staff as being infected. At my facility, the United States Penitentiary 2 in Coleman, Florida, they're not exactly dropping like flies but you learn to duck and cover when a guard hocks up a ball of phlegm.

Now we're nearing the end of April, they attribute the outbreak to some precautionary measures that they've taken. Some of these include:

1) All visitation and transfers have been canceled.
2) All staff are thoroughly screened/interviewed every time that they reenter the institution to come to work.
3) The inmate population is no longer allowed to go to the gym or to the indoor rec center, nor are we allowed to eat with other cell blocks. They call one cell block to the chow hall at a time and when we're finished eating, they run all of us to the of the outdoor rec yard in the middle of the compound.
4) They have vacated an entire cell block so that if people absolutely have to go to an outside doctor or hospital, when they come back they'll be quarantined for 14 in this block.
5) They have ordered the inmate population to stop smoking K-2 (synthetic marijuana).

I went to mass today and the priest told us that we should consider ourselves lucky to be able to congregate for worship (there were 10 of us), but that the BOP has said that if local parishes or churches or synagogues in the state of Florida stop being able to worship together, then we will most likely not be able to either.

I receive email newsletters from two different attorneys and they are saying that the correctional officer local's boss (union) is saying that they're pissed off and feel like they aren't being protected adequately by the Bureau. It took us longer than the rest of society to finally put us into a 14 day quarantine. So please feel free to send money and mail! I love word searches, mainly because they don't require as much thought as crosswords.

Now onto the fantasy portion of this update. The President of the United States and his Attorney General (who is in charge of the Department of Justice and the BOP) has said that they've ordered the BOP to start release eligible inmates to Home Confinement; inmates who are over 50, have chronic respiratory issues and issues that result in poor immune systems, non-violent inmates that have served the majority of their sentence(s), and, that are not sex offenders. But you know what?

Asking the Federal Bureau of Prisons to release inmates is like asking Wal Mart to release customers. Just saying.

But the only thing stronger than hope is dope, and since I seem to have a little extra time on my hands (pun intended), I am going to apply for compassionate release today. The catch in this edict though is that even if I qualify, they won't release me. They will send me to another "Quarantine Zone" for 14 days. Sounds like a reeducation camp to me.

It's frustrating because we now have a new transgender in the yard. Guess what her name is? Miley Virus. A sign of the times I guess, and she's good company from 6 feet away.

As we hit 20th April, the BOP is finally in crisis mode. There's almost 500 Covid cases and 18 inmate deaths. But no officer deaths. Imagine that, huh? I've applied to be released to home confinement because there's a big push for that at present, but I'm not sure if it's big enough to push me out. I'm hoping for an Ebola outbreak. I think that'll get it done.

We're currently fully locked down and only allowed to come out 3 hours a week. One on Mon, Wed, and Friday. When we come out (like now) we have to wear are masks. I've printed NO DYE PACKS across the front of mine and then BITCH at the bottom of the mask in case they didn't get the first memo. Old habits die hard.

So there it is. From my COVID-19-free incarcerated fingers, to your eyes. God bless America. Stay safe. I'll keep you updated; that is, if I haven't been welded into my cell along with a case of MRE's and a block of saltlick. Because, if the fear-mongers on TV are right, this might be coming soon.

Jeffrey P. Frye 89319-071
USP Coleman, II
P.O. Box 1034
Coleman, FL 33521
#LetCovid-FreeRobbersGo2020