It took just one week from Travis’s sentencing date to be notified his retirement/investment accounts were being closed. It was days later Ye (Kanye) West would make the news disclosing his bank accounts had also been closed which came right after his interview with Tucker Carlson as well as the media coverage about his antisemitic remarks. It wasn’t even relieving to know we weren’t alone. It was scary. This was not the same American values and principles we had known growing up. In all reality, everything is so different compared to even 15 years ago. If it weren’t for Mr. West speaking out about his experience, would the public even be aware of the control being exerted through financial means? Since when were American’s financial services discontinued for nonfinancial crimes, or in the case of Mr. West no crime at all.
I had been working during this time in both my business and my full time job with an agency within the Department of Homeland Security. At the time of Travis’s sentencing, I promised myself one more pay period and then I was taking a much needed break. I needed a reprieve, time to heal, time to gain clarity, time to chart the course of my future. October 21st was the last day of actually working and serving our country while on payroll as I began taking 2 1/2 months of paid leave. I unpacked the emotions and desires of my heart which I had set aside in June to discover I could not and would not be going back to government employment. I wasn’t bitter, I wasn’t angry…I just was no longer aligned with trying to make an impact from the inside out. In order to be able to make the impact I desired, it was going to have to be from the outside in.
We were told the classification process by the Bureau of Prisons would take approximately 30 days. The ‘classification’ process assessing the individual’s case details and personal risk factors to determine what level of confinement they should be held. This ranges from minimum to high security. After the sentencing hearing, Travis’s attorney sent us the classification worksheet and said Travis should score well below the 11 points required to classify as minimum security. The attorney prompted us to take a look at it ourselves. We reviewed the worksheet and at face value drew the same conclusion not actually knowing how the classification process worked. We were confident, especially with the judge’s recommendation, he would be designated to serve his time at the prison camp in Yankton, SD and began making plans accordingly.
The drive to Yankton was six hours round trip. Both Travis and I had family within 45-60 miles of Yankton which would make visitation much easier. I even had a RV camping arrangement offered to use during the warm months of the year. It eased the blow to know that I wouldn’t have to make the drive every weekend as I would have places to stay allowing me to be closer to Travis, reducing travel inconveniences, and most valuable was the support we felt in being surrounded by family.
Having worked in a community correction level facility early in my career I knew the experience in a prison camp would be kinder and gentler for Travis too. This gave me so much relief knowing he would at least be in a less violent setting, there is no fence around the Yankton facility, the housing is more of a cubicle-dorm set up rather than tradition cells, and he might possibly have more opportunity for community programming.
A few days before our birthdays, and the same day we were leaving to celebrate our birthdays with my family, Travis received a letter notifying him of his designation: Rochester Federal Medical Center (Rochester FMC). This facility is located in Rochester, MN and is a long term medical and mental health facility. Every time we thought the shock was behind us, we were met with another blindsiding.
Rochester FMC is a 12 hour drive round trip, it houses all classifications from what a quick google search was indicating, including those serving life sentences, and was the real deal secure with razor wire and prison cells facility. My heart dropped, my mind raced…how did this happen? What happened to the less than 11 point system? Travis had no medical or mental health conditions he would require specialized treatment for while serving his time, this facility was so far away. My previous employment in a prison also meant I knew what lie ahead for Travis: strip searches, contraband, employees sleeping with inmates, shake downs (cell searches), cells, traditional style housing units, a fenced in facility, the steel doors, the regimented schedule, and looking out the window every day at razor wire.
I was determined to figure out what “went wrong” with the classification process and get it corrected. I began researching online and found where the Bureau of Prison’s (BOP) classification is made—the Designation & Computation Center in Grand Prairie, Texas. Travis called. An automated system answers all the calls and the prompts provided an option for inmate computation issues. We selected this option, and the automated service indicated it was transferring the call, but instead disconnected. There MUST have been a glitch. We tried calling again. Same thing, disconnected. We called a third time and entered a different option from the menu hoping to be connected to someone who could provide some insight. The call was disconnected again. We tried calling for several days just to check to see if the automated service was faulty. In the many attempts we made to connect with someone at the Designation & Computation Center, the call was always disconnected. One recording provided direction to call the inmate’s designated facility.
Travis’s next call was to Rochester FMC. Progress…he was able to talk to a human, but this human would not disclose their name. Odd. This individual provided no insight. In fact, they were not able to give any information other than what he could bring in with him when he surrenders.
Frustrated and desperate to understand how the judge’s recommendation to Yankton prison camp was ignored, Travis knew it was a long shot but called Yankton’s facility to see if they could provide any clarity. Again, nothing. He was in the system, but they would provide no information to him about his own case or classification and suggested he call the Marshal service.
This made no sense. The Marshals have nothing to do with his classification aside from mailing the designation information to him and dealing with serving the warrant should he decide to not report on his self-surrender date. He called anyway. There, too, he wasn’t able to speak with anyone. Next, he called the probation officer who was supervising him and the probation officer who wrote his presentence report. Both indicated knowing very, very little about the BOP’s practices and stated the system is very disjointed even when trying to get the information they need for purpose of supervised release (i.e. “parole”).
Travis couldn’t believe it. He was beside himself. Deflated, defeated, hopeless. I knew this was par for the course with government agencies. Unless you were a government employee, you were never going to be able to obtain contact information regarding any of the work I had ever done for the federal government to discuss it with me. The government is built upon vast layers of secrecy which they disguise as “safety”.
It was going to be up to us to find our own answers. A google search provided a hundred-and-something page long BOP’s designation instruction guide. What I found wasn’t favorable for Travis. I should have been more proactive after sentencing to look this up on my own rather than believing yet again that Travis’s attorney was making a well-educated suggestion about the impending designation. From what I was interpreting, regardless of the point system (being under 11 points for minimum security), since the offense had included political figures it automatically moved the classification up to low.
There was still a seed of hope because it appeared you could get the classification reviewed. As I read on I realized the review process was only once you were an inmate inside the facility, and there was nothing documented about how to have an initial designation reviewed or appealed. I had an idea though: maybe he could be transferred once he went in if his classification was reviewed and lowered. I dug deeper into the BOP’s policies and completely struck out. Transfers were not considered without 18 months of conduct-free time served. Travis’s sentence, with good time, wouldn’t even be 18 months. From what could be discerned from the resources available to the average citizen, the writing was on the wall. Where he surrendered is where he would be for the duration of his sentence.
Perhaps in denial, I wasn’t quite ready to give up. I emailed Travis’s attorney on October 31st asking if there was a way to seek a reconsideration of the designation and asking him if he could draw up a power of attorney for us so I would be able to legally assist Travis with whatever he would need while he was incarcerated. His attorney gave me a referral to another firm who specializes in designation issues and told me he would see what he could do. Still to this day I’ve never heard back from him about the power of attorney. I would rather get an honest answer about not providing (or being willing to provide) a service than to get a passive brush off.
The referral Travis’s attorney gave was to an attorney I had also referenced when researching the BOP’s designation process. Thinking this synchronicity might be a sign we contacted the attorney, sent him the documents he requested, and had a quick consultation with him. He affirmed the reason Travis was designated to Rochester FMC was due to the crime toward political figures and said he thought he would be able to get the designation changed with some heavy lifting. When Travis asked him why he felt he could get the designation changed, the attorney said it was because of the credibility he had with the court. For a five-figure price tag, rolling the dice on an attorney’s “credibility with the court” was not a calculated risk Travis was willing to take. He resigned to serving his time at Rochester.
Happy Birthday to us.
Lessons learned: While I knew the government’s systems were disjointed, broken, and chaotic, I had no idea the reality of it was to this significant of a degree.
Sign up below to access all the blogs of this story as they are posted so you don’t miss a thing. Read the entire series in the story beginning with this blogpost.
Follow my journey, hear more about this story, and consider all things seen and unseen on my internet radio show, ‘Eyes Wide Open’ airing every Wednesday evening at 6 pm EST/5 pm CST/3 pm PST. Listen to the replays toward the bottom of this webpage.
Thank you for praying for us, supporting us, sharing our story: givesendgo.com/travisford
GiveSendGo.com is a free Christian Crowdfunding site. They are built on the fact as Christians they know money, as helpful as it is, is only part of the equation. Their platform is designed not only to encourage Christians to raise money to make a difference in the world, but to also remind that sharing hope (through prayer submission) is even more important, as it is a lasting solution.
Peace & Love,
Janessa