Part 3 - After the Incident
Chapter 17
First
stop
After
Matt left the courthouse, he was sent briefly to Cullman before the processing
began to transition him to a federal prison.
He stayed there only a few days before he was transported to Calhoun County
Jail in Anniston. We visited him there a few times and Jim went with us. Jim
had been raised in Anniston and knew his way around town.
Calhoun County was an older jail in the
industrial part of town. The waiting room was small and the facility was not the
cleanest we had visited. Many years later we would have a friend lose her son
while in the custody of the Calhoun County Jail. Many questions about his death
are still unanswered and may always be. We were lucky that Matt had spent
enough time in Cullman County to overcome most of his drug dependence.
His dad and I knew this would be a long
process. From Anniston Matt would most likely be transported to Atlanta which
served as a holding prison until assignments were made as to where prisoners
would relocate. We had looked at the map from the Federal Board of Prisons and
assumed that Matt would go to a medium facility based on his charges, the first
offense, and what his lawyer had said. There were several within close
proximity to our home. In fact, Talladega was a medium and not too far away.
Our attorney informed us that Talladega had just recently had a problem with
drugs being brought in to the prisoners so that might not be the best place for
Matt.
All we could do now is wait. We visited
Calhoun County on visiting days but we never knew when Matt would be moved. He
would simply call us collect when he changed locations. Talk about a stressful
time! Just not knowing the future can be nerve wrecking, like sitting and
waiting for the hands of the clock to move. As a mom, all I could do was pray
for his safety. I prayed daily for a hedge of protection for my son. I knew the
kind of people who were in prison and now my baby was one of them.
I
remember a conversation I had with Matt after this all came about. I was
wondering what I could have done or did not do that might have prevented this
situation. I asked him if maybe I had tried harder to keep him away from
despicable characters if that might have made a difference. Maybe I was too
tough or too lenient. Maybe I should have filtered his friends more closely. I
had known all his childhood friends and their parents, but as he grew older, I
did not know the new faces. Some came to see him but didn’t stay long enough
for me to introduce myself. If I questioned their motive, he would convince me
otherwise. I remember his response so clearly. He said, “Mom, I was probably
the worst of the worst. The other parents wanted to keep their children away
from me.” Where had I been? I thought I
was doing the best I could at parenting. I took him to church and taught him
about Jesus. He was always polite, made
good grades, but he was living another life, an alternate culture that was
destroying the child I knew and loved.
And now, this mom was waiting to hear the
name of the Federal Prison where her baby boy would spend the next seven years
of his life. How could this be happening?
Chapter 18
Atlanta
Matt’s
message was short and to the point. He was in Atlanta Federal prison, he would
be processed and sent to his permanent location within 1-2 weeks. He would be
locked in most of the time, kept away from the other prisoners, and we could
not visit him there. We also could not send him any money on account or any
personal items. Basically, he just had to wait. He was in a cell 23 out of 24
hours a day.
All we could
do was wait to hear from him when he was relocated. His dad and I started mapping
all the medium facilities within a certain radius. Matt’s pre-trial probation
officer had told us that the Federal Board of Prisons tried to keep the
prisoner within 500 miles of home, so we located all the qualifying facilities
within 500 miles. The website listed every prison, but some could be eliminated
in our search because they only housed a certain population, like just women or
maximum-security prisoners.
From the map
we determined we would probably be headed west to Mississippi or maybe
Arkansas. Never in our wildest dreams could we have imagined our destination
for the first visit with our son.
Where did
you say?
As a way to
pass time and fill a need, I would check the Federal Board of Prisons daily. I’d
do an inmate search. I found out I could
pull up Matt name on the website and it would tell me his location. It would
not always be accurate but I had some idea when he was moved to Atlanta and
then to his permanent location.
We got the
call on a Monday, I think. I had my cell phone at school and had already
informed my coworkers that I would be taking a call anytime it came in. That
meant, even in the middle of class. We had a plan in action in case I needed
help with my students. My entire fifth grade team had been a blessing all
through the arrest, the trial, and now prison. They supported me with prayer,
words of encouragement and even meals when I needed them. We were a tight group
who shared all our secrets with each other. I was so blessed to have had a
great group of teachers as my friends during my difficult times. They were more
like my sisters than coworkers. They were there for the deaths of my mother,
grandmother, mother-in-law, and now stood beside me during my troubles with
Matt. I have been truly blessed with God given friends who are never judgmental
or condescending.
The call
came from a Federal Prison in Florida. Florida? Really? The closest prison in
Florida was at least 350 miles from home. Could it be as far as Miami? After
confirmation from Matt we were informed that he had been sent to the Federal
Correctional Complex near Ocala, Florida….530 miles from home.
The facility
was actually Coleman Federal Correctional Institution II (FCI), a part of the
Federal Correctional Complex (FCC) which is composed of several facilities
within the complex. Coleman is a
sprawling complex of penitentiary units with five sections: two high-security
institutions, a low and medium-security facility and a camp for female inmates. All institutions are
operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP), a division of the United
States Department of Justice. We would learn that the facility is the flagship
facility of the BOP, housing 1170 inmates in just FCI Coleman II alone. It is
the largest facility within the BOP with a total inmate population of almost
6600, in other words, a small city in itself. And my son was about to become a member of the
notorious list of inmates who have served time at what I perceived as a
modern-day Alcatraz.
Matt would
be assigned to FCI Coleman II, but it was still a federal penitentiary. His dad
tried to convince me that FCI Coleman I housed the worse criminals, but he was
telling that to a mother. Anything with
a fence, guards, and locked doors means trouble to a mom. According to Matt the
only difference in Coleman I and Coleman II was the fact that Coleman I had
gangs and gang activity. All I could
think of was the possibilities of what could happen in prison. It would be
several weeks before we could visit Matt, but we were well on our way to full
indoctrination with just the first phone call.
