The Adventures of The Count Of Monte Crypto
The Horror Show! At, Geo Re-Entry Services
Part 1
March 2020 through September 2020
My stay began at the end of March 2020. This stay and the subsequent next stay was and has been nothing short of terrible. The occupants of the building from the staff to the residents have routinely harassed, berated and belittled me in almost every way possible. From my first entry date in March of 2020 until September of 2020 I spent 173 days under proverbial lock and key leaving the confines of the building three times. One of the three was to clean the windows on the front of the building. From the beginning of my stay the behavior of the staff and its “guests” was what I could best describe as “suspect.” One of the case managers had told me when I asked about the occupants of the building to “just lie about your charges but do not make it too specific as that is easily verifiable.” From that day forth it was pretty much all downhill.
Believe it or not I managed to stay married throughout my prison stay. My family of course wanted to get back in contact with me as I had just been released so they and I arranged a date to have my wife and mother bring essential items for me. Food, clothing and books were the items I requested. Things I thought would make the transition from prison life back to civilian life a little easier. My wife and mother made two trips to San Francisco attempting to drop off the items they had gathered for me. The 1st attempt was unsuccessful. Upon arriving at the facility the monitors told my mother she was not authorized to drop off any items for me despite me asking repeatedly if it was allowed for her to do so. My mother lives 4 hours from San Francisco so she essentially made an 8-hour trip for absolutely no reason. On the 2nd attempt my wife decided to carry the box to the front door. In an attempt to avoid what occurred previously I called multiple times and stood in the lobby awaiting her arrival. Whenever she arrived a case manager named Jasmine instructed me to stand at the furthest point away from the door while still remaining in the lobby. She then grabbed the box from my wife and told her to leave. I was not allowed any discussion with my wife, no chance to reconnect, or embrace after such a traumatic experience in both of our lives. Watching my wife walk away I had no idea that would be the last time I would ever see her. As difficult as the GEO Re-Entry Services staff made it for them to drop off something as simple as clothing and food they decided it was best for them to wait until I was released to return. This is one of many examples of how the GEO Re-Entry Services staff has conspired, plotted and successfully used its power to isolate me and attack my mental wellbeing. This was also the first real strain placed on the relationship I have with my family that can be directly attributed to the antics of the GEO Re-Entry Services staff and its “guests.” From April 2020 until September 2020 the correspondence I had with my family was through either mail or short phone calls placed from the telephone in the front lobby of the facility. The pay phones they have installed at the time would not accept change or dial collect. So I was forced to beg the staff to use the phone at the monitor station located in the front lobby. Early in my stay, not only to avoid any potential argument with staff by begging to use the phone at the monitors station, my wife kept suggesting I let her buy me a cell phone so that she and I could have a more consistent line of communication. Per GEO Re-Entry Services policy I had to request and receive approval for any cellular device. However, after I made my initial request over the course of the next 10 weeks I had no update regarding the status of my request. Despite everyone in the facility walking around all hours of the day with cell phones glued to their hands, my request was not given the same level of priority that requests made from “guests” to staff are given. I have personally seen before and since that day incoming “guests” have cell phones upon their arrival and there being no issue with the staff for them having them in their possession. I was trying to stay on the “straight and narrow” and not circumvent any of the rules they had in place and at that time was under the supervision of the Bureau of Prisons which could have potentially remanded me back into custody for the simplest of infractions. The threat of being returned to prison has been a major deciding factor in a lot of the decisions I have made since I first entered the GEO Re-Entry Services facility. Essentially it has kept me from giving the negative reaction the GEO Re-Entry Services staff and its “guests” have tried to bait out of me. Eventually after not consistently being able to communicate with my wife and at the behest of one of the GEO Re-Entry Services “guests” who worked for Civic or Urban Alchemy and was at the same prison that I was my wife and I stopped speaking all together.
Even so my family tried to keep up with my requests for items. Trying to avoid another situation where my family would get turned away at the door, the staff at GEO Re-Entry Services suggested that my family send any further items directly to the facility through the mail. As with all too many situations at GEO Re-Entry Services it was a ploy to have something to use over me in a predatory manner. I remember quite vividly that I asked repeatedly to the point of begging for one box that was sent to me. I was told over and over that the box was “not in the back.” Frustrated and confused I tried phoning my family repeatedly to confirm the status of the box. My frustration was met with their own saying “that it says it has been delivered.” After enough times my family slowly stopped answering my calls. Still to this day there is a GEO Re-Entry Services sized hole in the relationship I have with my mother. Needless to say she was significantly less enthused about my release.
After seeing my relationship with my family deteriorate I began to understand that psychological operations or psy-ops is a tool the GEO Re-Entry Services group deploys quite frequently and teaches the “guests” who come into the facility. Anything that I have requested within the confines of the GEO Re-Entry Services facility has had some sort of psychological tactic applied to it. Anything from food to a paper towel has a training purpose for either the staff or the “guests”
“psyops plural noun psy·ops | \ ˈsī-ˌäps \ military operations usually aimed at influencing the enemy's state of mind through noncombative means (such as distribution of leaflets) It endorses a new, negative definition of the term “propaganda,” which had formerly been used in a neutral sense to refer to “Any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.” From now on, propaganda will refer only to what the enemy does: “Any form of adversary communication, especially of a biased or misleading nature, designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly.” DoD acknowledges that PSYOP is limited by legal constraints, including statutes, international agreements, and national policies. Among other things, the DoD doctrine states, there is a “requirement that US PSYOP forces will not target US citizens at any time, in any location globally, or under any circumstances.” Yet in a near contradiction, the doctrine also states that “When authorized, PSYOP forces may be used domestically to assist lead federal agencies during disaster relief and crisis management by informing the domestic population.” Perhaps the PSYOP forces are supposed to inform the domestic population without “targeting” them. Fundamentally, psychological operations are tethered to the reality of U.S. government actions, for good or for ill. As the new doctrine notes, “Every activity of the force has potential psychological implications that may be leveraged to influence foreign targets.” (sic) experts in mass media communication and use their unique skills to persuade, change, and influence foreign audiences. These Soldiers communicate to large audiences by various means such as newspapers, radio, television, leaflets and loudspeakers. To accomplish their missions, PSYOP core tasks provide the supported commander with the following results or capabilities: Influence foreign populations by expressing information subjectively to influence attitudes and behavior, and obtain compliance, noninterference or other desired behavioral changes. (sic) usually a military term or tactic to force a certain agenda or Narrative onto a group or individual targeted persons or populations either by spreading disinformation or half-truths into that target population environment to sway meet a certain agenda... (sic) psychological warfare is used to obtain confessions, information, surrender, or defection by breaking the morale of enemies. Sleep deprivation through the continual projection of loud, annoying music or sounds toward enemies The threat, whether real or imaginary, of the use of chemical or biological weapons, attacks or operations designed to convince the enemy that they were carried out by other nations or groups (sic) Psychological warfare techniques involve the analysis of long-term psychological strengths and weaknesses of both individuals and societies to ascertain their most vulnerable points. On an individual level, this is accomplished based on the use of Personality Psychology and Combat Psychiatry with the goal of identifying "psychological phenomena applicable to the development of psychological weapons" The 2 main questions of this research are: how individual fears can be manipulated how the stresses of psy-ops can be systematically increased psychological effects of psy-ops on the individual. 5 enemies of individual survival: pain cold hunger/thirst fatigue, boredom/loneliness By exploiting these factors, psychological warfare attempts to focus on suffering Typical psychological reaction pattern in battle apprehensive enthusiasm resignation: chronically depressed state, yet efficient execution of the "war routine" anxious apprehension: most vulnerable psychological state Characterized by the following: overwhelmed with loneliness, appetite loss, guilt, lessening of group identification, withdrawal of physical and emotional investment, refusal to fight, going AWOL”
My eventual release was compartmentalized and micromanaged by a separate section of the staff called a case manager. My case manager from March 2020 until September 2020 was a woman named Indira Menken who told me that she was only at the GEO Re-Entry Services facility 2 and a half days a week. Two full 8 hour days and roughly 4 hours on the third day. Despite having a great deal of questions regarding my release and life post incarceration I would at times go weeks without seeing or hearing from her. And the times she and I would meet she gave me the impression that it was a huge inconvenience. On more than one occasion she shouted, belittled, and emasculated me during our conversations.
The GEO Re-Entry Services facility could best be described as a renovated hotel with 4 floors and a basement. Floors 2 through 4 are “living quarters” with rooms that vary in sizes. The 1st floor is offices, common area, kitchen and the smoking section. The basement is “staff only” and has the classrooms that are mentioned in the rules. The 1st room I was assigned was a “four man” room. From the first day I stepped into GEO Re-Entry Services my mental fortitude was tested. First it was one of my roommates Alberto Guillen obnoxiously loud fake snoring, people on the 4th floor stomping on the floor (which would be the ceiling in the room I was in), blaring loud music, and or people on the phone 24 hours a day. After seeing two people at the GEO Re-Entry Services facility who worked for Civic were also at the same prison as I was I decided to leave the initial room I was assigned and requested to change rooms and “bunk up” with one of them named Matthias. The 2nd room was a “two man” room which was roughly the size of the traditional 6 by 9 solitary confinement cell. With a bunk bed and two lockers there was barely enough room to move let alone function properly, all this occurring during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Shortly after switching rooms I came to realize my stay had become instantly worse. Every day in the new room I was woken up at 5AM to the sound of the door slamming and “guests” going into the back section of the building. Matthias also had a lot of the same tendencies of my last roommates. He would snore obnoxiously loud and also kick the top bunk repeatedly to wake me up whenever I was sleeping. That’s if the monitors did not come into the room and rapidly flick the light switch on and off or shine a flashlight in my face during count. It is not uncommon for occupants in the adjacent rooms of the ones that I was assigned be it either side, above or below to stomp or drop weights on the floor (which would be the ceiling in the room I was assigned) and or scream at the person they were speaking with on the phone at all hours of the day or night. A few times a man in the room next to mine would start banging on the wall and screaming at me to go to sleep. This would occur at 2AM and at the time I would be sitting quietly by myself and not making any noise since I had no television or noise making device of any sort. After a few weeks of being in the 2nd room a woman moved into the room directly underneath mine on the 2nd floor. She would turn her TV up to what I’m guessing was the maximum volume and play Law and Order Special Victims Unit for 24 hours a day. Wireless speakers were popular inside the building at that time and the “guests” would play videos at maximum volume of people screaming or loud bangs at random times. Another tactic that was popular was the constant running of water and someone in the rooms next to mine repeating over and over “water” vocally. Time of day made no difference with these situations be it 2PM or 2AM this sort of behavior was more than acceptable and the staff encouraged the guests to use it whenever they saw fit.
The “guests” however did not just engage in psychological tactics. More than once I had my money and personal items stolen. Due to the fact that I was indigent not only during my prison sentence but also while at GEO Re-Entry Services the little bit of money I had was rendered useless since the staff refused to let me leave the premises. One of the most demeaning things I have ever had to do in my life was asking the “guests” for cigarettes either due to low funds or from being held hostage inside of GEO Re-Entry Services. One day while trying to find someone familiar that I could ask for a cigarette a woman “guest” decided it would be hilarious to start dog whistling towards me while walking outside looking for a cigarette much to the amusement of the “guests” who witnessed the incident. Again trying to avoid further embarrassment some “guests” offered to buy me items from the store as they (the “guests”) were allowed to come and go whenever they wanted to. Some of the last things my wife bought me were stolen by individuals who worked at Civic. Eventually it got to the point where I was quite literally sobbing in the room I was assigned daily. I say that with the utmost shame as I am not an overly emotional person. I saw my wife officially walk away during my 1st stay at GEO Re-Entry Services and my mother also was significantly less enthused that I had returned. When the “guests” heard (and I would later come to find out saw) that I was crying they began to hurl derogatory slurs and further verbal harassment in my direction.
Around June of 2020 I started to notice that things were a bit off inside of GEO Re-Entry Services. Keep in mind this was at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic however nearly everyone inside of the facility was allowed to leave every day of their own accord. Everyone who was allowed to leave worked at jobs facilitated through GEO Re-Entry Services such as Civic or Urban Alchemy. “The job is easy (Civic) . I just sit at a porta potty all day.” Odd I thought as it's described that didn’t and still doesn’t strike me as an essential job. When I was finally able to leave GEO Re-Entry Services in September of 2020 I was overjoyed. But before I left Indira Menken couldn’t help but give me one last parting gift. Indira Menken repeatedly told me that my release date was a certain date and time and whenever I saw her I would ask again and confirm. The day before my “release” I saw her in the evening laughing as she told me that she had no idea where I got that date from because my ACTUAL release date was more than a week away. Her and other members of staff made a point of openly mocking me as I walked away. One of the happiest moments in my life was the day I was successfully able to leave the GEO Re-Entry Services facility in September of 2020 thinking I would never return. However, three months later it was decided that I would have to return for a second stay, this one with no clear cut departure date.
No comments:
Post a Comment