From Dragonfly: Missing Planes and Exploding Buildings

It's really hard to even connect with what is going on in the rest of the world. Even as I read my daily USA Today (thanks to many incredible friends), I read disconnected from the stories. If I were home, I would have had CNN on for hours during the story of the missing plane from Malaysia or the two buildings that exploded in NYC. I would have been fearful, like many people are - was the explosion or the is the plane another terrorist attack? Here, I read the articles and I just share the news like it's no big deal, "did you know that a plane is missing and it really veered off course and people had fraudulent passports and there were over 250 people on the plane..." without any emotion.

Yesterday, a group of us were talking about Princess Dianna. We were saying how we were tied to the television all night, unable to sleep, how we cried during her funeral. Someone was saying that Prince William's wife reminds them of Dianna. We shared stories connected with Princess Dianna and/or the night of her death. It was real connection with the news.

If something major happens within the world while we are here, we are not able to connect with it in the same way. A Tsunami kills thousands, war in the Ukraine, the winter weather that never ends... What stories capture us? Thousands of state felons walking free because of states not paying for extradition - everyone asked to look at my papers to read the articles related to that story. Inmates are able to connect with a story that, on the outside of here, would send most readers in an outrage to their states to increase funds for extradition. Here, inmates read the story with interest... Does this mean I won't be extradited back to my state after my time here? Many have outstanding warrants... I try to explain that once someone is in the federal system, everything changes - state writs happen, extradition happens. We believe Danbury is somewhere in a Pennsylvania prison due to her extradition there immediately upon exiting Carswell. Pennsylvania paid for the extradition, yet in the USA Today story, Pennsylvania has the lowest percentage of extradition than other states. To me, the story is as scary as it probably is on the outside. I certainly don't want people who have warrants for violent crimes to be walking free.

Although, it did make me wonder if that's why state charges were never filed against me, as I had moved from where I was living, back to the Midwest, to get my life together and go into recovery; moving back in with my mom and step-dad at 35 years of age. I was not running away from the other state. I literally had nowhere else to go. I did not hide. I forwarded my mail, paid my taxes, and was easily findable. I was constantly believing police may show up one day and arrest me. I didn't realize that living in a different state may be why that never occurred. Perhaps, that is why I am now in a federal prison - feds have a longer statute of limitations and don't have to worry about extradition - there are marshals all over the country! They skewed the facts enough to get me on wire fraud, a far cry from what my money crime was really about. Had I been accused in state court, the facts would have garnered me an embezzlement charge, most likely, which connects with my actions as I was falling deeper and deeper into my addiction, unable to think rationally, and instead, truly believing I was 'helping' the organization. When I received the "wire fraud" charge by the feds, I literally had to look up what it meant - for me it was withdrawing funds from an ATM out of state - which allowed them to connect all my activities to that single act of withdrawal. Doesn't really matter to me, because my acts were wrong and I have bared the reality of losing several careers, friends, family, and my freedom because of it. I will forever be a felon.

So, stories about crimes and criminals may garner my interest for the years to come. I know the people in prison, now. I know our stories. I know how the article in USA Today read, making it sound like we are running away from being arrested, when so many of us are just trying to get things right.