Transfer to the work release center

When I visited Ted on Sunday, he told me that he spoke with another young man at the CFRC in Orlando who had been to the Largo Re-entry Work Release Center in Clearwater. The young man had been returned to the CFRC because he was given a DR (a write-up for a serious infraction) for lying to a CO.

The young man told Ted that residents of the work release center could wear their own clothes and make calls from payphones. The residents had three months to find jobs. If they held a job for one month, they were given a home pass to go home for eight hours. He also told Ted that inmates were transferred to the Largo Re-entry Work Release Center on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Monday came and went, and I saw on the FL DOC site that Ted had not been transferred. On Wednesday morning, I checked the FL DOC site at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon, and it still showed Ted as being at the CFRC in Orlando. I promptly fell into a bad mood. I thought Ted would have to wait until the following Monday for his transfer to Clearwater or Tarpon Springs.

At 1:47 p.m., I received an email from VineLink.com that said Ted had been transferred to another facility. I immediately called the CFRC and found out Ted had been transferred to the Largo Re-entry Work Release Center in Clearwater – exactly eight miles from his home.

I called the Center to find out what I should bring to him and they told me to wait for his call. Two minutes later, I received the first of three phone calls from Ted. I was to bring him shoes, clothing, hygiene products, laundry detergent, a Social Security card and his birth certificate in a 12” X 12” X 24” box. I had bought new clothes for him on Tuesday. He’s grown several inches since he was home a year and a half ago and most of his old clothes were gangsta-type clothing.

The problem, I discovered, was in finding the appropriate-sized box. I found one that was 13” X 13” X 18” at a storage facility. I called the center to find out if this sized box was acceptable. No. It wasn’t. It was one inch too big on two sides. I called post offices, storage facilities, office supply stores, and walked into drug stores. No luck. I finally went into my garage and found a box that was smaller than the required dimensions.

Now to fit everything I had purchased into the tiny box. It wasn’t doable. I managed to fit packages of socks, undershirts, boxers, two pairs of pants, a pair of jeans, two polo shirts, a dress shirt, two plain white tee shirts, a package of hygiene products (shampoo, two bars of soap, soap dish, deodorant, toothpaste and toothbrush), a leather belt, a watch, and a pair of black tennis shoes into the small box. I was allowed to tape the laundry detergent to the outside of the box.

I put his Social Security card, certified copy of his birth certificate and five copies of his resume in an envelope. Usually residents had to wait two weeks to even start their job search as the management personnel sent away for Social Security cards and birth certificates. Hopefully already having these items gave Ted a jumpstart on the job hunt.

I had also searched job boards for open job postings. I found two listings within two blocks of the Center and told Ted about them. There were several other job listings within a mile or two. Residents were provided with bus passes to get to and from their job interviews and a $20 voucher for a thrift shop for used clothing items.

I was instructed to drop the box off between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. I drove to the center and discovered a sign on the building that said Goodwill Industries. Young men dressed in shorts were playing basketball behind a fence on the tarmac. A huge rack of bicycles lined the side of the parking lot. I was only allowed in the foyer, but I could see a cafeteria-style room through big glass windows and residents walking around. I dropped the box in the foyer and handed the envelope through a cashier slot to an employee.

As I got back in my car, I saw Ted through the large front window. We waved at each other and he was smiling broadly.

I’m still waiting on new blog entries to arrive from him. I’m sure he has a lot of stories to tell.