Читать книгу Brilliant Minds in Captivity - Roger W Upchurch - Страница 2

The prison camp is like a working vacation you can get things done that otherwise you cannot get done at home. Turning a negative into a positive

My name Roger Upchurch and I am a sixty-nine-year-old inmate here at the Ashland Kentucky Federal Prison camp and I self-surrendered here on October 24^th, 2017. I am a retired custom home builder and mortgage broker since 2009 when the industry collapsed. Shortly after I was introduced to a business, and it was synthetic marijuana called K2. I searched for it and could find nothing illegal about it. I got into it and started manufacturing it. Soon I was making millions. With the money, I started a recording studio, a record label, two-night clubs, limo service, and concert promotions, a true entrepreneur. I kept many people employed and helped a lot of other people.

A customer brought me a new prospect, and he said that his family-owned stores in Indiana and Kentucky and wanted to use my products and maybe buy me out. All lies and come to find out he was a DEA agent and my customer that brought him to me was a “Whistle Blower”

On February 12^th, 2014 that same DEA agent came to my door and raided me. They took over two and a half million dollars from me. The prosecutor from Washington DC was using their usual scare tactics of threatening and coerce you into a plea deal and it works. They offered me 0 to 5 years. Of course, my attorney says that I will get the 0 and just probation. My attorney argued that I was not a good criminal therefore I should get probation, well that did not work. What about arguing that I was a first-time offender and never involved in violence? How about I was a family man and have built many homes for families. I paid taxes all those years. Married for 38 years to the same woman and was a productive citizen, not a criminal, maybe just made a bad decision. The Judge said I was a good businessman, but I had to set an example and he gave me 48 months in a prison camp. How can I be an example nobody will know? I never would have got into this business or any business if it were illegal and I would never knowingly commit a crime. Now I am a sixty-nine-year-old first time, non-violent offender going on my third month here at the camp and starting the new year of 2018 warehoused with fifty other men in this unit.

So far, I have met several Brilliant Minds and of course not so Brilliant Minds in here. They are Doctors, Lawyers, Politicians (not a surprise), Athletes, Accountants, CEOs of large companies, business owners, and of course drug users and dealers. They were sentenced to prison knowingly or unknowingly committed a crime or says the DOJ. If you are investigated by the DOJ and no matter what department they are with they will find something to charge you with, even if they make it up, no matter how small. It is the agent’s job and they want their reward for ruining someone's life. They make get a steak dinner with their name on the performance board. It is a game to them, and they win 99% of the time because most people do not have the resources as the Government does. The Government wastes millions for convictions. They are always searching and follow up on leads and try to make something out of them.

Example: #1 I met a young man here at the camp and he was Spanish and in his late twenties. He was clean shaving but before he got here, he had a full-length beard and long hair. He looked like a middle eastern terrorist, well that is what a neighbor said. He was living in an expensive home in an upscale part of town with his wife and she was the breadwinner. He took care of the house and did odd jobs and mostly taken care of the elderly. When the neighbor called the authorities and that she thought something was going with him the FBI started investigating him. They could only find on him was that he did not put his father’s initials on his passport application. What a crime. He finally did a plea and the Judge gave him ninety days in prison and he did sixty days in county jail and the balance here at the prison camp. So how much money did the Government waste on this and now this young man has a criminal record and labeled a felon for just ninety days in a prison camp for not filling a passport correctly? What a shame!

Example #2: Father Bill an “Eighty-year-old retired priest” is in here for seven months. He was managing entertainment for a retirement home with bingo, travel, dinners, and such. A wealthy gave him a credit card to use for helping the programs at the retirement home. A jealous resident notice that he bought some personal stuff with the card. The Feds got involved in using someone’s card that was not his. They got him for credit card fraud. The owner of the card said that he did not care it he bought a few personal items, but it did not matter to the FED. They still pursued him, and he made a plea for seven months in prison. He came into the camp after four months traveling from county jails and stopovers with a knot on his forehead the size of an enormous egg. He was handcuffed and shackled the total time until he got here. He said they pushed him out of a bus. The Father bill is about 150 lbs. And 5'5” tall. A big dangerous criminal! How much did it cost the government on this one? I bet the agents are proud and I am sure they got a splendid steak dinner for catching this criminal. There is more about Father Bill later.

There are too many good men and women in prison for such petty stuff as the two above. Too many first time, non-violent men and women warehoused in prisons, and even if they made a mistake or committed a crime should have got probation, community service, or even home confinement. A lot or maybe most are given restitution to pay, and that is usually way overstated, but how can they start paying it back making $26 a month in prison.

Starting the new year 2018 am sitting in my vacation home at the Ashland Kentucky federal Prison Camp. I am in unit A2 and my room number is #14. My room is 8'x10' with tile floor, block walls 6' high, two twin beds, two lockers, a wall hung desk with light to read, and a 4' opening. The color is a warm soothing soft beige. Right now, I do not have a cellie (roommate) which is fine with me. I share the bathrooms and showers with about fifty other men. Here the toilets are all with medal stalls with doors and each shower is about 3'x5' enclosed with shower curtains and the water pressure is great and hot, genuinely nice.

Our grocery store (commissary) is open every Wednesday and Thursday, we have laundry service, a medical department with nurses, a dentist, a barbershop, an exercise room with bikes, a weight room, a library, basketball courts, a baseball diamond, corn-hole, handball court, and a boccie court. We have the best restaurant in town with brunch on Saturdays and Sundays and the food is surprisingly good. What else can you ask for? I am sure some men will not want to leave. Every day two guards with their keys a dangling come around at 4 pm and 9 pm and count us while we are standing and of course making sure we are alright. They do that also on Saturdays and Sundays and Holidays at 10 am in addition to. I guess to make sure we are not escaping, but who would want to with life so good here.

There are not a lot of rules here but if you get caught breaking the rules, you may go to the hole or even shipped somewhere else if it is your second or third offense. Some rules are no contraband (anything other than what you can get at the commissary) smoking anything, other drugs, drinking alcohol, using a cell phone, and keeping your shirttail in. Of course, I follow all the rules, or at least I have not been caught.

I must make a positive out of the negative I created. I can sit in here and accomplish nothing and just waste time playing cards, exercising, playing games, or sleeping. Of course, I do all of that, but I am a positive thinker and use my time to be productive. I am writing books about my story and fiction books as well. I am planning what I can do when I get out and I am taking this stay here as a working vacation. A rather long one though. I am writing stories of Brilliant Minds I meet here.

Positive thinking people grow in stature, self-esteem, spirituality, and wealth. Turn a negative into a positive.