Welcome to Granite

  I was awoken this morning at 2:30 am and told that I was moving to the Oklahoma State Reformatory, aka Granite! I was surprised as I was led to believe that moves were over for the year and had settled my mind to be at Lawton through the Christmas season. Somehow I was able to gather enough sensibility and coherence to pack my belongings. I hated to leave my youngster newbie cellie, Brandon, behind but feel like I did the best that I could to prepare him for his potential decades of incarceration.

I spent 497 days at Lawton. It was quite an experience. I feel very blessed to have been housed in Unit Six Delta. The Lord really looked out for me. The kosher meals were adequate, the TV was good, and the men that I was housed with were compassionate for the most part. I wish I could positively comment on the staff, but I had very, very little interaction with them. As Governor Stiff fulfills his promise to shutter the states use of private prisons and the transfers from Sayer came into the facility, the change in attitudes and the threat level increased. The newly arriving youngsters brought with them a thuggish fervor that I was glad to be leaving behind. The transfer to Granite went shockingly smooth! Within ten hours of being woke up I arrived at the new facility, was processed, and in a new cell (D4-15). Upon entering my new cell there was an old, haunting, yet comforting smell that made me feel secure. As I closed my eyes and asked the Holy Spirit to remind me of what the smell was, I recalled that it was the same scent as the home of my great grandparents, Thomas Finley Denton and Elsie Mae Burns as well as a cabin at Philmont where Kanik groups were based out of (when I shared this with my mother, she reminded me that that was the same smell as the Hale Hassell cabin in Grove). As the move was on a Friday, we were not able to pick up our property until Monday. That made for a long and cold weekend! In the 497 days that I was at Lawton (8-7-2020 to 12-17-2021) we only went outside for a total of 34 hours, so despite the 20° temperatures, I stayed outside in excess of the total hours spent outside in the previous 71 weeks. This yard has been shuttered for quite some time. It was most recently a covid quarantine facility for DOC and prior to that was a community work center. Quite a bit of work has gone into limited renovations, which are ongoing. Even the staff is in a rebuilding phase. So far, the only slight negative about Granite is that the "cable" is HORRIBLE..... not only are there only 9 stations, they do not even come in well and the facility is so archaic that the coax looks to be from an original 1970's installation. The monicker Granite is well placed as we are situated in the foothills (?) of the Ouachita mountains(?) and surrounded by mounded hills of pinkish granite. The original 1930 reformatory buildings and surrounding wall enclosures are all clad in the native stone. Our new tablets, used to send/receive email, photographs, and videos are now facilitated via Securustech.net. I would love to hear from you and will happily correspond back.