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Old 01-11-2018, 01:54 PM   #41
Icelander
 
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Default Satellite Television Service at Ft. Leavenworth Military Correctional Complex

I love the Internet and the odd things that one can find there. I can actually confirm that from the fall of 2011, USDB Ft. Leavenworth had access to 16 satellite stations: CNN, TNT, USA, ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, AMC, BET, SCYFY, A&E, FX, COMEDY CENTRAL, ESPN, ESPN2, and UNIVISION.

Two fairly recent movies shown every Friday night, which was Movie Night. The movies shown are usually movies that were released about four months earlier. It's possible that sometimes they showed classics, but no source has so far mentioned this.

Sports, whether live or not, are popular watching. Football is mentioned most often, but basketball and baseball on ESPN are also popular.

Even with TVs and Movie Night, inmates can be astonishingly out of touch with society, pop culture and the progress of technology. At the end of 2011, a fairly new inmate at USDB Ft. Leavenworth was asked by someone in his pod what 'WiFi' was. Apparently, someone had seen it mentioned in a commercial on the TV and had no idea what it was.

That's just the sort of detail for which I'm looking. Little touches to add to characterisation for someone who spent the past five and a half year incarcerated, most of it in USDB Ft. Leavenworth.
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Old 01-11-2018, 02:38 PM   #42
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
It is pretty bleak from what I understand. They have gyms and common areas, but there are few luxuries, and abuse from other prisoners and guards is common.
From everything I can discover, it seems that abuse from guards and fellow inmates is much rarer in USDB Ft. Leavenworth than nearly any medium or higher federal or state prison. Inmates there also have better access to treatment, education and various nice things, as far as prison nice things go. The food is reportedly better than most prisons, but that is faint praise, of course.

The negatives seem to be a total ban on any form of Internet use and possibly the lack of a commissary, if it turns out that the system of writing in orders on a monthly basis offers less variety of stuff to buy and/or the $25 monthly cap is lower than what prisoners at various federal institutions would otherwise be able to spend.

I could find evidence of candy and soda vending machines in the visitors' area at USDB Ft. Leavenworth, but I still haven't confirmed whether inmates there can buy candy or sodas.

At the federal USP Leavenworth next door, I can find the entire product range offered at the commissary online, but I can neither confirm nor deny that this is the list from which USDB inmates order their health and comfort items from.

As it would have made an enormous difference to the character for whose background this is whether he could get Coca Cola or any of his favourite candies, snacks and junk food, I'm still researching that issue.

When he got out, had he had a Coca Cola for five years or had he been stuck with Pepsi or Dr. Pepper? Or maybe no sodas at all?

What kind of candy could he have had?

Snacks?

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
If you toe the line, you get privileges. If you do not, you spend 23 hours a day in your cell.
This is true. There is a Special Housing Unit where you do indeed only get an hour out of the cell per day.
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Old 01-11-2018, 02:43 PM   #43
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

I'm not sure how much it'll help you, but my stepdad was stationed at Fort Leavenworth. Certain prisoners were allowed to work at the stables on post (cleaning, that kind of thing - not riding or training), so there are off-site perks as well.
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Old 01-12-2018, 03:43 AM   #44
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

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I'm not sure how much it'll help you, but my stepdad was stationed at Fort Leavenworth. Certain prisoners were allowed to work at the stables on post (cleaning, that kind of thing - not riding or training), so there are off-site perks as well.
About what time period was he there?

Do you recall anything that could answer my all important question 're: Inmate access to soft drinks and brands thereof', i.e. has the character for whose background this is been deprived of Coca Cola for more than five years?

Or what kind of snacks or candy inmates could buy?

Stables would be nice, for the character in question. He has Animal Empathy and Animal Handling (Equines)*, so he likes horses. Well, he likes everybody, human or animal, but I guess horses might be a good change from former military sex offenders, occasional violent criminals and the odd drug conspiracy or massive fraud/chicanery offenders.

I guess it depends on how good at staying out of trouble someone with Intolerance (Bigots and Bullies) and limited Bad Temper related to abuse of the weak is going to be at USDB Ft. Leavenworth. I have a rather strong feeling that these Disadvantages will trigger nearly constant clashes with the most problematic inmates, as well as possibly with the more flawed correctional officers.

Intolerance means that he's not going to be able to hide his dislike, not to say contempt, from any guard with even slight tendencies toward abusing his authority. And he won't be able to stop himself from interfering with any inmate bullying weaker inmates, which is probably a good way to get in fights.

This means that it would be very unlikely that he'd manage to spend his sentence in minimum security or ever reach the status of a trustee. Unless the guards really are so professional, numerous and skilled that bullying just isn't tolerated, which would remove the trigger conditions.

*Though he's mostly about Animal Handling (Dogs).
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Old 01-12-2018, 05:37 AM   #45
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

As a complete aside to the thread (which has been fascinating cheers everyone),

Hats off to you Icelander, your dedication and attention to detail for your games is admirable!

Sorry, carry on everyone!
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Old 01-12-2018, 06:20 AM   #46
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

Speaking of prisons, how plausible would it be for a facility - especially one of these high isolation super-max facilities - to have a person listed as being imprisoned without them actually being there?
For example, do federal agencies actually go and audit prisons to check that they have the people they should have or do they just rely on returns from the prison governors?
Obvious applications could be: prisoner has escaped and the prison is covering it up, prisoner died and the prison is covering it up, prisoner managed something in between the previous two (dissolved into goo or otherwise disintegrated or vanished in an unapproved manner) or the prisoner belongs to the same conspiracy as whoever controls the prison (whether as a member or as an asset) and has been released?
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Old 01-12-2018, 06:28 AM   #47
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

It is possible, though it is more likely if an innocent is smuggled in to take their place in the count. It is highly unlikely that they would listen to a prisoner screaming that they are innocent or the wrong person because there are plenty of innocent people in prison in the USA. Most prosecutors seek convictions, not justice, and most wardens seek to fill bed, not to leave them empty.
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Old 01-12-2018, 07:07 AM   #48
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

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Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
About what time period was he there?

Do you recall anything that could answer my all important question 're: Inmate access to soft drinks and brands thereof', i.e. has the character for whose background this is been deprived of Coca Cola for more than five years?

Or what kind of snacks or candy inmates could buy?

Stables would be nice, for the character in question. He has Animal Empathy and Animal Handling (Equines)*, so he likes horses. Well, he likes everybody, human or animal, but I guess horses might be a good change from former military sex offenders, occasional violent criminals and the odd drug conspiracy or massive fraud/chicanery offenders.

I guess it depends on how good at staying out of trouble someone with Intolerance (Bigots and Bullies) and limited Bad Temper related to abuse of the weak is going to be at USDB Ft. Leavenworth. I have a rather strong feeling that these Disadvantages will trigger nearly constant clashes with the most problematic inmates, as well as possibly with the more flawed correctional officers.

Intolerance means that he's not going to be able to hide his dislike, not to say contempt, from any guard with even slight tendencies toward abusing his authority. And he won't be able to stop himself from interfering with any inmate bullying weaker inmates, which is probably a good way to get in fights.

This means that it would be very unlikely that he'd manage to spend his sentence in minimum security or ever reach the status of a trustee. Unless the guards really are so professional, numerous and skilled that bullying just isn't tolerated, which would remove the trigger conditions.

*Though he's mostly about Animal Handling (Dogs).
It was while I was in high school, so 1999-2003. I couldn’t tell you about inside the DB, but at the stables there were coke and candy vending machines. It was not allowed to do things like give money to the prisoners, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to find pocket change on the ground.

Though I will say it was dependent on them being in for non-violent crimes. There were a lot of army brats at the stables, and a prisoner hitting on a colonal’s daughter would be an exceedingly bad bit of business.

Anyway, a truck with like 2-4 inmates and a guard would come every day Monday-Friday in the afternoon, and work for a couple hours. Get bales of hay, clean the place, that kind of thing. I won’t say they were unmonitored, but they also weren’t under a microscope either.
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Old 01-12-2018, 09:11 AM   #49
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

They were probably the best behaved prisoners in the place, similar to the prisoners who get to give talks to enlisted folk about how not to be like them.
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Old 01-12-2018, 11:33 AM   #50
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Default Re: Custody of federal prisoners convicted at court martial or unfit for trial

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Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Speaking of prisons, how plausible would it be for a facility - especially one of these high isolation super-max facilities - to have a person listed as being imprisoned without them actually being there?
'Empty bed' style or 'mistaken identity' style?

From what my neighbor says (he worked a mid-level prison as a guard, it had both high and low security areas) the "empty bed' listing wouldn't fly for long. His prison (back in the mid-90s) was audited at least yearly (a few times they got audited quarterly, and at least two audits were surprise audits that he remembers - since audits messed everything up for a few days), which basically amounts to a 'head count'.

Sure, if prisoner So-and-So is listed as say black, and there's a non-black guy assigned to his cell, that wouldn't fly (as the auditors did at least briefly glance at each prisoner to make sure prisoners weren't being shuffled), but the 'mistaken identity' would have gone right by them.

It would have taken an oddly detail oriented auditor to recognize someone wasn't who the roll said they were, or one who took the cries of "But I'm not So-and-So, I'm wrongly in here!" to heart and went digging on their own (which is highly unlikely).
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