A Life Wasted

Lewisburg

This is a little embarrassing, but after my trial, but before my sentencing I came very close to escaping again. I'm not even sure why I tried to escape again. Habit, I guess. Despite being in a maximum security cell under close supervision, I managed to remove two concrete blocks from my cell wall and open a ventilation shaft that ran out of the jail and into the Sheriff's office, which was closed for the weekend. I was caught only because the shift sergeant had read an article about me in which the reporter ended the story with, "You can be sure Clay Waagner will never give up." On reading this he made an unscheduled inspection of my cell and found me with half my body through a hole in the cell wall as I made the final cuts on the ventilation shaft I planned to exit through. I was less than an hour from getting out of the building.

After this indiscretion my sentencing was moved up to the next day. Even then the judge was nice to me and gave me a sentence at the bottom of the guidelines. The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) was less sympathetic. I was sentenced in Cincinnati at 3:00 p.m. and was safely inside the walls of the maximum security federal prison at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania two hours later. Everyone I am around has had bad experiences of months of travel time between sentencing and arriving at the prison they will do their time. I was pleased to get the private jet and its VIP service. I say this tongue-and-cheek, of course, but the high-profile transportation is the best way to go.

So Lewisburg is interesting. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail other than to say that it was built in the 1930's, has a large wall around it, and it has held some of the nation's most dangerous and notorious federal prisoners. It is the closest maximum security federal prison to home, so I am grateful. Here I have learned to paint, draw, and have sharpened my writing skills. The staff and inmates treat me well. The medical staff saved my life when I had a heart attack, so I kind of like them too.

I spent fifteen years and two months at the United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. I lived there longer than I've lived anywhere. While there I learned to draw, and paint and I learned to write. I grew old there. I met some great guys and I met some monsters. I met three other FBI Ten Most Wanted alumni, Billy Bryant, Patrick Mitchell, and Leonard Palitere. I've met numerous organized crime figures, major international drug dealers, and more bank robbers than I could count. I've met some guys that I will always remember fondly. Guys that I would welcome as neighbors back home in Pennsylvania. Lewisburg was a hard place, but I did okay there. In those fifteen years I was never assaulted, and I was never in a single fight.

After being classified as max custody for fifteen years and two months my security classification dropped to medium and I was transferred to FCI Cumberland, Maryland. As I write this I've only been at Cumberland for a few weeks so I'm still a little shocked at the differences between here and the Pen. The biggest difference to me is that there are trees on the yard. Hundreds of them. To walk to my housing unit, I walk through a park like woods of hundreds of mature trees. I smile every time I take that walk. I love hearing the wind blow through the trees and watching squirrels frolic through them. I still have a lot of time to do, but this step down has been therapeutic for me.