.Our conversation continued: David informed me that he was finishing his classes this semester and with any luck he would be leaving the factory to serve an apprenticeship with Johnson Controls. He was really looking forward to leaving TRW, and believed they showed an interest in hiring him. He would know for sure after this semester. We couldn’t talk long but agreed to meet at the student union in a week. Once again he told me to watch my back at the factory. I just couldn’t figure out why he said that. As a utility worker no one was pranking me anymore. The other workers didn’t say much to me, but they weren’t throwing anything at me. I was wrong as usual.
.The foreman asked me to clean a production paint station that was shutdown and in need of maintenance. I prepared a solution and began wiping down one of the spray nozzles when all of a sudden the doors closed behind me. I succumbed to the fumes and woke up sitting on the factory floor with my back against the wall. I was wearing an oxygen mask and what looked to be a nurse and a medic at my side. She was monitoring my breathing and seeing me awake she asked, “how are you?” Through the mask I informed her I was fine, and wanted to know could I take the oxygen mask off?. She shook her head no and directed me to keep it on for the next ten minutes. She motioned the medic away.
.I wondered what had happened and I looked at my watch for the time. I remembered looking at my watch when entering the paint station it was 4:15am. It was now 6:30am and my shift would be over in a half hour. The nurse took the oxygen mask off and I immediately stood up. She asked if I was dizzy. I informed her I wasn’t, but I had experienced what I believed to be a very intense dream. She informed me that I was overcome by fumes, and had been sleeping for awhile. The station was supposed to be turned off but someone turned it on not knowing I was working inside of it.
.She escorted me back to the company clinic, signed some papers for the medic who was waiting for her, and returned to me. She asked me to sit on an exam table where she took my blood pressure, temperature, and listened to my heart beat with a stethoscope. She said I had inhaled a combination of ether and laquear fumes which made me pass out. Every thing seems to be fine now and I believe she noted that in her medical log.
. She asked me to follow up with the clinic tomorrow, and that I was free to go home. My shift was over. I told her I had an unbelievable dream, but was still trying to make sense of it. She informed me that “ether” would do that to a person. It wasn’t unusual. At that point I just wanted to leave and I did just that. I punched out at exactly 7:00AM I needed to sort this out, and I went home to shower. I was due on campus at 10:00am.. …My Life Journey…TO BE CONTINUED… JOHN 10: 23-30
.It was hard for me to imagine that the pranking was intimidation, but David believed it was. I looked at it as just another day at work and with the down time, young guys goofing off. I was able to complete one full semester at school and knocked out three class requirements. I felt on top of my world, but ended up taking a tumble when just before Christmas I was laid off. I was not expecting it. The wind was taken out of my sails for sure. .I had to collect unemployment, and because I was with the UAW, I got sub pay.
. Being laid off didn’t effect me taking classes, but how my schedule changed would. After collecting unemployment for a month I was offered two positions by the company. One was on the day shift at my current pay grade. The other, was on the midnight shift but at a lower pay grade. It was an easy decision for me to make at the time. I was attending full time classes during the day. I had to choose the midnight shift. I had a full schedule now.
.My social life, or what was left of it, went out the door quickly. I was loved, lied to, played and betrayed by friends as I completed my second semester. Some felt I had changed. Our orbits would never be the same from this point on. I was very much on a learning pilgrimage, and wanted to enjoy the journey. I would be unfettered. Making new friends was not a problem for me. Having the time to enjoy that friendship was. What I didn’t realize then was my life’s journey was being directed. God had a plan for me. I was just too immature spiritually to recognize it.
. I ran into David on campus and told him what had happened at work and how I ended up taking a job on the midnight shift so I could finish my classes during the day. Even though it paid me at a lower rate, it was still more money than my unemployment, and sub pay. I was being used as a utility worker and would work where ever the foreman needed me. I even got to see the employees who I believed were pranking us. They were waiting on parts to fill their production quotas.
. The first thing they asked me was how I knew you? They were hanging out together at one of the large milling machines. I just shook my head and kept walking ignoring what ever they were saying. I really couldn’t hear them because of the stamping presses, but by their facial expressions, and gesturing they didn’t seem happy .The foreman motioned me to another area. I was glad to follow him. He told me they were “assholes” but I really didn’t know why he was saying that, and I didn’t ask him. It must have been derogatory. I thought oh well, another day, and another dollar. At the time I was young and I didn’t care what others thought of me. ... My Life Journey continued..JAMES 1: 19-27
” A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn no other way”Mark Twain
.I wondered why he was laughing and he informed me he was two classes away from receiving his certification in Heating and Cooling from the same community college. He said it wasn’t easy because he kept being bumped from shift to shift It seemed because of his low seniority every time he seemed to be making progress on his classes somebody was bumping him for his shift. What saved him he believed was the fact that he could collect unemployment if the job they wanted him to bump to was at a lower pay grade than the one he was working.
.He was smart enough not accept anything lower in pay, received unemployment, and got to finish two full time semesters at the college. He then had to accept his current job on the afternoon shift. He was a wealth of information. Having worked all the shifts in this factory he was quick to point out who was who. The foremen, the union stewards, and floor inspectors. He believed, although the pranking continued, the afternoon shift wasn’t as bad as the midnight shift.
. He told me the midnight shift workers were unbelievable. They were always pranking him.. There was a lot of down time and horse play. He was glad not to be working on that shift. Unfortunately, not long after our conversation I was bumped to the midnight shift. I found out exactly what David was talking about. It wasn’t uncommon for workers to throw bolts at the storage bins next to my work station, and the clanking metal sounded like a gun shot. Our work stations were separated by these large storage bins so you would never know who threw what.
.I remember seeing one of the foreman speaking with one of the floor inspectors being hit, but he had on a hard hat. He just laughed and kept talking. He didn’t seem to care. I did. I wasn’t given a hard hat to wear while working. That morning I actually ran into David on campus and he wanted to know how I liked the midnight shift. I informed him it was as crazy as he said it was. What’s worse, you can’t tell whose doing it. He said, “exactly.”
.We agreed to meet for lunch where we continued to talk about the factory. Our classes were in different buildings but ended at roughly the same time. We met in the student Union. He pointed out that like work, there were not many African Americans here, but he felt welcomed here. I questioned why he didn’t feel safe at work. He felt that all the pranking, bolt throwing, and machine sabotage was directed towards him. I had informed him that it continued even worse on the midnight shift. He shook his head in acknowledgment but he added this caveat; watch your back.
.He felt targeted and believed I was being targeted too because of my friendship with him. He worked longer there than I did. I believed he understood racism more than me. I was right out of high school coop, first semester at a community college, and really just beginning to understand what was happening at this factory. I told him I’d pay more attention to my surroundings, but it was difficult to see anyone doing the pranking. He shook his head in agreement. It would take me awhile to understand his concern. My Life Journey To Be Continued… Hebrews 2: 9-18
“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes.” William Shakespeare
.I am giving my prison stories a much needed break, and hope to rejuvenate my creativity in a much different way. In 2025 I want my writing to reflect a transformation that helped me begin viewing life, and continue to do so, in a much more God centered way. I wasn’t much of a spiritual young man. I was raised Roman Catholic but as I got into my latter teenage years I wasn’t that centered on my faith. I always believed in the Almighty but my faith was not the priority of my life then. I worked my way through high school Coop and took a production job with the TRW ( Thompson Ramo Woolridge) corporation once I graduated. The factory was a big difference from where I had been working in high school. The drugs and alcohol were rampant. I did not feel very safe working there, but the money was good. Once I had my ninety day probation in I was put on the afternoon shift.
. My work station was shared with another employee. He was African American and he was only a year older than myself. We didn’t get to talk much while we worked because of the noise in the factory, but I remember it being extremely hot. I couldn’t stop sweating and within an hour my shirt was dripping wet. Our work stations were right next to the heat treat ovens. He pulled a packaged sweat band from his pocket and handed it to me smiling. I put it on and it immediately kept the sweat from dripping onto my face and neck. We got a 15 minute on the spot break after three hours of working, and everything seem to stop in the factory except for the stamping presses. He wanted to know if this was my first time working here and I informed him I completed my ninety days probation on the day shift. It was such a short break but we had agreed to have lunch together. I thanked him for the sweat band.
. Once we were able to go to lunch he gave me a quick tour of were we were allowed to break. The lunch room was not as filled up as it was on the day shift, and he informed me that’s because the majority of the production workers on this shift have liquid lunches in their vans with a little weed as well before coming in to finish their shift. I was glad to just sit down after washing up to eat a meal. I felt like I lost a couple of pounds working and sweating. My new friend informed me his name was David. He had been working here for over a year, and on this particular job for the past three months. I told him my name, and that I had just enrolled in a community college hoping to complete an Associate’s degree in Liberal Arts over the next two years. I was hoping to stay on this shift for at least three months. He laughed. ...My Life Journey To Be Continued…
.The last day of my employment was difficult for me. As a teacher I felt I could still teach this new curriculum, and provide my students the opportunity to be certified. However, the administration seemed only concerned about their safety interests, and not of the teachers. I spent a day and a half on a ventilator after open heart surgery, and couldn’t risk catching covid. It would have killed me. However, I think some of the administration would have preferred that for me. I had testified in one too many Internal Audits in which their colleagues found themselves no longer employed. They didn’t hold me in high esteem. So it wasn’t surprising that three days before my last day of employment with the MDOC I was the target of an internal audit. I was sent a classified E-mail that only I could open and respond to. I was not to show anyone. It was on the GED testing I conducted at our facility. I could only laugh when I saw their questions.
.I was a stickler for cover your ass documentation. The GED testing process was anything but easy to administer. Once it became computerized we had nothing but problems with the software. Tests I would administer would lock up on students and the time would run out never giving them the time to finish. Needless to say this would happen to at least one student in a 15 student testing session, and sometimes even more. I filed complaints through the testing service, our administrator, and made a folder for the testing sessions as well. I know I documented well over a thousand testing irregularities. What I was being accused of was helping a student get a good score. He had been one of the students whose computer locked up in the past. I was told students whose tests locked up scores would not be counted. That was not true. They stupidly counted it. His next test he passed with a very high score because his computer didn’t lock up while he was taking the exam. Go figure.
. Being a stickler for documentation I just had to copy eight pages of problems I faced with the students I tried giving the exams to but the computers locked up, and they were not able to complete them. This administration was the worst. They never followed up with the problems. They were all too busy looking for their next promotion. So on my last day of employment I completed an eight page document, which I made a copy of, and sent it to our Internal Auditors. I never heard from them again. I did leave them a post script. I informed them I would probably publish their questionnaire and my answers as a retirement gift to myself. It would be my formal goodbye to some very lacking managers both in talent and integrity. I felt they deserved nothing better than the publicity of their maleficence. Ironically, that negative publicity would probably get them promoted. Go figure. Luke 2: 1-7
I hope you have enjoyed my prison stories as much as I have enjoyed writing them. I am taking a well needed sabbatical. I hope to begin the blog again in 2025 and I especially want to thank all of my readers. “Au revoir pour maintenant.”
.By the end of the year 2020 over 350,000 people had succumb to the covid -19 virus in the United States as reported by the Center of Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. Another 30, 000 people would die from other diseases with covid 19 being the contributor in the progression of the disease that killed them. Being on medical leave gave me a chance to think things over like: 1. How many more years did I intend to teach at the prison? 2. How to protect myself in that covid ridden environment? 3. Where would I be assigned with the school now tuned into an infirmary? 4.Should I hang up my lab coat and retire after teaching here for just over 26 years? My wife made the decision easy for me. With my health requirement for safety and none being provided, it was time for me to hang it up. I would go back to work for one month and give my notice to retire. It was bitter sweet. I felt I could have easily completed five more years teaching.
.Our new curriculum was awesome and I had actually completed inmates, who passed their exams, and received certification with the Michigan Nursery Men and Landscaping Association. All they would have to do was work in a nursery for two years once they were released from prison to receive their official certification. The opportunities for them were now endless. Our new curriculum also gave my students the chance to earn their pest control licenses through the Michigan Department of Agriculture. Many of them did pass exams in specific categories, and all they had to do was request their earned licenses from the Michigan Department of Agriculture once released from prison. I had coordinated many of licenses to their appropriate holders, and was thanked wholeheartedly by my released students. This was a new day for them and a job opportunity they would not have had otherwise.
.It was hard for me to make the final decision to leave and when I finally went back to work I continued to vacillate. Should I stay or should I go? I did pray often. Working in a prison makes one a firm believer in God. I submitted my final paper work to retire on June 3, 2020. I never thought about it again. It was time for me to leave. I felt bad about leaving a classroom I often struggled to keep moving in a positive way. I also felt bad about leaving two very dedicated colleagues who rewrote the curriculum to gain national and state certifications for our students. That was an impressive work on their parts. Thinking about all the Horticulture Instructors I had met through out the years of teaching, these two were the most dedicated, and for all the right reasons. I am not sure that the prison administration had any clue what it took to teach in a prison classroom. They were oblivious to everything except the malversation they seemed to excel in. I was glad to finally be free of their degeneracy. … Prison Stories To Be Continued…
. I didn’t really know her, but she seemed really pleasant. The tutors that were kept to run the Horticulture program thanked her for taking the responsibility of overseeing what was left of the program. The school principal, like many of the managers in the MDOC, acted perfunctorily when informing me of her passing from covid-19. It did not surprise me. He had manipulated his peers to keep him at one prison even though he was assigned here. At the time of his reassignment we had over 200 inmates with active covid cases. The numbers of active covid cases were he stayed was less than 50 at the time. That reasoning would prove futile as the disease progressed and spread throughout all the prisons over time. The administration however would work from home! The teachers, (who were always told they were non essential during budget short-falls and would be the first to be laid off) were now essential employees. They would be used where ever they were needed and reported to custody staff.
.As the disease progressed, protective equipment like masks and gloves were in short supply. Hand sanitizer’s were being brought from home. The drugstores and supper markets ran out of all disinfecting supplies. The inmate porters responsible for cleaning began using the only chemical that wasn’t in short supply and that was bleach. The prison began to smell like an over chlorinated swimming pool. The smell of the bleach was not a deterrent for the disease, it spread rapidly, and the school was closed in the process. I had just returned to work after spending three months on medical leave for open heart surgery, and not having personal protective equipment to wear during this pandemic didn’t sit well with me. The school principal put me in touch with the department manager who was as useless as tits on a bull. She was being paid to sit at home . I was assigned to take temperatures of the staff coming in to work. I asked her where was the “protective equipment?” She gave no answer.
.I let her know of another employee passing away from covid, and many more who were denied entry into the prison because they had fevers over 100 degrees. Still no response. My final question was “why was I being required to be here when the school is now closed?” Her answer was generic but basically stated the teachers were determined to be “essential employees.” Even though the school was closed, we were to help where ever we were needed. Our direct report was now the prison warden. Okie dokie…I had open heart surgery in 2018 and my doctor advised me I was at risk working here without personal protective equipment like masks, and gloves. Those catching the disease were dying. I don’t think our manager (who was being paid to work from home) cared one iota about us at this point in time. She was safe. It became an easy decision for me. I went on medical leave with the approval of my cardiologist. Some of my colleagues followed the same course. I couldn’t blame them. We were all in unchartered waters, and the death toll kept rising. ……Prison Stories To Be Continued….REVELATION 7: 9-12
. Before the Covid pandemic started, I was requested by our school principal to travel to another prison facility and help a program staff person decide how to run the greenhouse. The principal had eliminated the Horticulture program, but he still wanted the greenhouse to operate. I did not agree with his decision to eliminate the program, and was hoping I could change his mind. The Horticulture teachers at two other prisons were able to work with an administrative coordinator, and develop a curriculum that was backed by the Michigan Department of Agriculture and the Michigan Nursery and Landscaping Association. They were both exceptional teachers, and I was glad to be their colleague. Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a young woman who was very happy to see me. She had so many questions for me I had to ask her to wait a minute. I needed to find out from her why, if the program was eliminated, did the principal still want to operate a greenhouse?
.She was straightforward with me and felt overwhelmed. She was aware of the lay off of the Horticulture Instructor who ran the program. The Horticulture Instructor who had replaced him, because he had more seniority, was rarely there. He eventually retired, and the principal would not fill the position. However, he still wanted the gardens and greenhouse to operate. She informed me that she didn’t want to make any negative waves with the School Principal, and was hoping I could give her some direction on what to do. She only wanted to do what he requested from her. It was perplexing to say the least. I found this school principal to be arrogant, flippant at times, mostly disingenuous, and ignorant. He should not have eliminated the Horticulture program here! She was able to keep the Horticulture clerks employed, but didn’t know what they would be doing. She believed the school principal wanted them to maintain a facility garden, donate flowers and house plants to the community. The prison garden would be used in their food technology program and donations of produce to their immediate community.
.The contacts had been established by the Horticulture Teacher whom the principal effectively laid off when he eliminated the program. I didn’t want to make another visit here so I asked to speak with the tutors and her together. Some of them I already knew when they stayed at Macomb, so I also was aware of their abilities., and inabilities. Before I left for the day we established a goal for what they needed to accomplish, and how they could be successful. I gave her contacts for obtaining soil, seeds, plant material, pots, and we established a garden schedule. She thanked me and I did believe they would be successful. I never got to check in on them because a month after visiting that prison Covid 19 began its’ terrible rage. Covid had struck all the prisons in the state of Michigan. Our school principal had to stay at the facility he eliminated the Horticulture program at. He would not be coming here for meetings. I had found out from another staff person that my contact at that prison, who only wanted to do what “he wanted her to do” had passed away from covid. I was feeling exhausted and just didn’t want to think on this anymore. I said a prayer for her but I still felt numb…Prison Stories To Be Continued..
. The land of nod is where drug addicts find solace. It was no different here in this prison. Drugs were being smuggled in and the potency was an unknown variable. The unknown variable eliminated the lives of many a prisoner who were addicted. They would never leave the land of nod, and would become it’s permanent citizens. For some prisoners, it was a much easier way to do time behind three security barbed wire fences. Especially, if they had long prison sentences and would not be leaving this prison anytime soon. So they found another way. The problem with being an addict in prison was the cost of the drugs, the ability to hide the addiction, the supplies needed to cook and intravenously inject it. Everyone in prison was a potential snitch. The game was to find a fellow inmate who did drugs and make them your room mate. That worked for many a prison drug addict until the land of nod was interrupted by an imposter. An imposter so deadly that even the first responders had to be careful not to come in contact with just the paraphernalia used to deliver an addicts dose. They did not posses the antidote.
.It seemed that the imposter, (known by its trade name Fentanyl) spread through the prison faster than Covid. Unfortunately, I got to witness both. They seemed to come back to back, and each took its toll both on staff and inmates. Fentanyl making its way into the prison was not a good thing for staff or prisoners. In its early incursion there was no way of handling an overdose safely. Staff had to be just as leery about coming in contact with any white powder because just coming in contact with it could cause an overdose. That made extra precautions for mailroom staff (who had already experienced an anthrax scare) opening prisoners mail. A job I was glad I did not have but gave my respect to those who had to do it The Narcan antidote took awhile before the prison would get it, and I’m sure that fentanyl took its toll here as well. Those statistics were not shared with the teachers.
.However, just as the Narcan protocol was being implemented another, even more sinister contagion, would appear here. Like the world, the prison was not ready for the consequences this disease would render on its population. The covid virus started with maybe forty prisoners being sick with what the facility believed was the flu. Prisoners notoriously won’t take flu vaccinations, and it wasn’t uncommon for flu outbreaks to occur during the season .This time it was different. By the end of the week forty sick prisoners turned into over 200 sick prisoners as covid began to spread through out the prison. There seemed to be no way to stop it from spreading. As much as the prison administration tried to segregate the sick from the healthy, the healthy became sick, and some of the sick would die.
.Our school was closed and was turned into an infirmary. We were reassigned to the warehouse and were told for the first time we were essential employees, and custody was now our supervisors. Visits were eliminated for prisoners, and administrative staff stayed at home working remotely. The stress of just coming back from open heart surgery a year before was enough for me to go on medical leave again. I also filed grievances with our union over the lack of “universal precautions.” Staff was given no protection and expected to keep working. Some brought their own masks, gloves, and sanitizer. It was a nightmare for those working with prisoners. The teachers were not exempt, and were reassigned were needed. Staff were becoming sick and some were dyeing, as well as prisoners. The epidemic would become a pandemic and effect nations. There was no end in sight. The death toll from the covid pandemic continued to mount here and around the world. …PRISON STORIES TO BE CONTINUED….
A crash course on the history of the PALESTINIAN STATE:
1. Before Israel, there was a British mandate, not a Palestinian state.
2. Before the British Mandate, there was the Ottoman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
3. Before the Ottoman Empire, there was the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, not a Palestinian state.
4. Before the Islamic state of the Mamluks of Egypt, there was the Ayyubid Arab-Kurdish Empire, not a Palestinian state.
5. Before the Ayyubid Empire, there was the Frankish and Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem, not a Palestinian state.
6. Before the Kingdom of Jerusalem, there was the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, not a Palestinian state.
7. Before the Umayyad and Fatimid empires, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.
8. Before the Byzantine Empire, there were the Sassanids, not a Palestinian state.
9. Before the Sassanid Empire, there was the Byzantine Empire, not a Palestinian state.
10. Before the Byzantine Empire, there was the Roman Empire, not a Palestinian state.
11. Before the Roman Empire, there was the Hasmonean state, not a Palestinian state.
12. Before the Hasmonean state, there was the Seleucid, not a Palestinian state.
13. Before the Seleucid empire, there was the empire of Alexander the Great, not a Palestinian state.
14. Before the empire of Alexander the Great, there was the Persian empire, not a Palestinian state.
15. Before the Persian Empire, there was the Babylonian Empire, not a Palestinian state.
16. Before the Babylonian Empire, there were the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, not a Palestinian state.
17. Before the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, there was the Kingdom of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
18. Before the kingdom of Israel, there was the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, not a Palestinian state.
19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.
20. Actually, in this piece of land there has been everything, EXCEPT A PALESTINIAN STATE.
Author: Valeri Sorochinsky Thank you for a much needed history lesson. Unfortunately, the enemies of Israel would rather rewrite their own. Am Yisrael Chai
. I got to meet an interesting person who was working for the Oakland County Livingston County Human Services Agency in Pontiac, Michigan. I was introduced to him through our Facility Coordinator, and I found him to be unbelievably talented. He wasn’t just another bureaucrat looking to see where he could get his next promotion. He was honestly looking to find a path for inmates returning to their communities from prison not to reoffend. Towards the end of my career in teaching he had developed a number of opportunities for returning citizens and I was mightily impressed. He was also very well aware of the underpinnings in the department I worked for, and basically could tell me on a regular basis what was happening in our prison education administration. Their ideas, what they believed were successful teaching strategies, and even personal attributes, (or lack of them) of my many bosses. I was informed by him whether I wanted to hear it or not.
.The most striking information I received from him was his knowing that two of our staff members in the school where under investigation, and the outcomes did not look good for either of them. Unfortunately for them, he was absolutely correct, and they were fired. I didn’t want to know how he knew this, but he often amazed me with these types of predictions. He obviously had his sources. What I saw him build over the years was to me pretty incredible. He started with an urban garden in Pontiac, Michigan and we grew the vegetables he would need to sustain it. He even had a rain water collection system which was used for the garden. His garden produce would be used for the Head Start Program. They had their own kitchen and made a variety of items, like kale potato chips, which he said he couldn’t stand but the kids thought was a real treat. He was also in touch with other urban gardeners and I made sure to give him extra vegetable plants for their gardens as well.
.However, what I thought he did amazingly was put together a landscaping crew from returning citizens (ex-convicts) and he serviced some rather large accounts. If that wasn’t enough, he started working on some urban blight, and as the homes were being demolished he saved the lumber. From the lumber he started having returning citizens make furniture as well. They sold the furniture in a store front not far from his office. I believed him to be a genius with a lot of energy. He was involved in so many community activities I didn’t know where he found the time. He enjoyed what he was doing. So, it surprised me when in the first month of the Trump administration, his program was eliminated, and he was laid off. I had heard he was brought back to work a few months later, but not in the same capacity. I never was able to find out about what happened to the enterprises he had created helping ex-convicts, but with his energy, I’m sure he’s doing something positive for the community he serves in. . Prison Stories To Be Continued…
MJ-Way 