Another transfer

This is the transfer from Lake Butler to the CFRC in Orlando before Ted was sent to Brevard. I’ve just recently received letters from Ted that were written weeks ago.

Last night, a CO woke me up to tell me that I was being transferred. I thought I was going to go to my permanent camp. It was kinda odd because I had only been in prison three weeks and it normally takes four to six weeks to go to your permanent camp. Anyway, I packed my stuff up and waited in my cell for about another 15 minutes until the CO came and got me.

I was led downstairs and got in a line with everybody else who was getting transferred. There were 52 of us in all. We walked to the chow hall and ate breakfast. For some reason, we sat there about 30 minutes. We lined up again and walked to the transfer and receiving part where people go when they first come in. We all sat down and were called one by one to sign some papers. When when everybody was done, we were led to a long hallway with a bench that stretched all the way down the hall.

This part was kinda weird. Just as I was walking out the door to the hallway, a CO grabbed me and asked me if my last name was Braden, and I said yes. He said, “You’re from Pinellas, right?” and I said yes. He said, “I thought that was you. I know your dad.” I still don’t know who he is, so I just kept walking out the door.

After everybody lined up in the hallway, they made everyone roll up their pant legs and kneel on the bench. They shackled us one by one. After we were all shackled, we walked down the hallway to a large garage with no cars – just an empty space with two big doors.

We stood there for about 15 minutes, then all of a sudden, the doors opened and a bunch of buses backed up to the door.

The CO told us which bus we would get on and we lined up in that order. He called us out and everyone got on their bus. It was hard to get up the stairs on the back of the bus because of the shackles. Once we got on the bus, we were moving almost immediately. The bus stopped at the front gate for a moment for the guards to pick up their guns and then we were off.