No Credit Time 9-18-2010

 Both my lawyer and the court-appointed psychiatrist question why I am so unconcerned about not getting credit time.

First, I never realized that I could get credit time at the Marion County Jail. Second, when I was released to the Volunteers of America, I still plotted suicide (this ended when the now ex-wife told me one my step-sons was threatening suicide and I asked myself what would he do if I killed myself). Third, I doubt I would have had the opportunities there I have had here.

I play in my head what the U.S. Attorney would ask me if he knew about my writing and its possible publication. One question feeling like a certainty would be if I am being compensated. I would answer I was compensated by the federal government, which has paid my room and board these past six months (which will be closer to 10 months when I finally leave for prison). What else was there for me to do, but write? Watch TV and play Scrabble for waking till lights out?

Let me say that if I were on state charges rather than federal, I would have a different attitude. I would be getting a 2 for 1 credit for state charges. With federal sentences, most serve 86% of their sentence. I do not see my 10 months without any credit saving me all that much time. Perhaps my attitude will shift after I have served 150 of my 151 months.

Compared tot he value I got for my time in the VOA, I might have a different opinion. If I had been released on state charges in March, I would be dead right now. I would not have finished reading Shakespeare. Nor would I have read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics or C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. I would not have written this journal. I was given one more chance to do some good with my life.

True, the taxpayer paid my way. I do not know if they will think my scribblings give them good value for their money. If not, I suggest they think about the costs of imprisoning non-violent offenders for victimless crimes. I did my best writing in the VOA, and I do not think I can do any better. I worry if I will have anything of value to write ehil eI am in prison for the next 12 years. We will see, won't we? 

I hope to have a similar worry in 2022: what will I have to write about after my release that will have any value?

(Just to point out another distinction between Indiana and the federal penale regime: Indiana would release me in 75.5 months - except the maximum sentence in Indiana is, I believe, 3 years.)

sch

[I would file a habeas petition in 2020 because my reading of federal law either I had to get credit for my time in the VOA or I should never have been sent tot that facility. The local federal judge disagreed with me: Hasler v. Warden, FCI Fort Dix. The judge's reasoning did not impress me; I leave you to decide if she made sense. I would have appealed only Covid came along and limited our access to typewriters,time was running out, and I decided to fight my fights on other ground. I did notice when I got back to the same facility to do my halfway house time, there were no longer any federal pretrial detainees. It may be that the courts realized their mistake without the intervention of the appellate courts. sch 7/16/2023.]