Whenever a natural disaster is headed towards the prison where I am incarcerated, we all joke that we are in a fortress: safe because nothing can get in and no one can get out. But on January 25, 2025, I was reminded that outside disasters affect us here, too. That day, the Bureau of Prisons flipped my life upside down.

It was a cold Saturday morning, and the rest of the women and I were catching up on sleep. I awoke to banging on my door.

“Get up and get dressed!” a voice yelled.

I began frantically asking where I was going. My bunkie woke up and tried to assure me that I was probably being drug tested or taken on a medical trip; she told me that I would be back shortly.

“A medical trip on the weekend? No way,” I thought to myself.

I threw on a coat and exited my room to find not one

See Full Page