Mr Bannon will receive a set number of “points” a month for visitors, and each visit uses up these points. He will need to submit to authorities, in advance, a list of visitors, and fill out forms for each; each visit will need to be approved. Points are used up for metrics as random-seeming as the distance the visitor travels.
Mr Bannon will be awakened at six am every day, and if he oversleeps, there will be disciplinary action. He can possess no more than twenty postage stamps at a time. He will be able to shop at the commissary, but with a limit of $360 per month. Visits restrict human contact from family members: “Kissing, embracing and hand-shaking/holding are allowed only upon arrival or departure.”
In force for all but ten minutes a day is “controlled movement”, which is not clearly defined in the handbook, and can only be imagined by those of us outside the prison; inmates within it, are permitted “open movement” for just ten minutes a day.
Running and jogging are not permitted at all.
There are five inmate counts a day.
Phone calls are limited to 15 minutes each, for a total of 300 minutes a month.
Can we hear from Steve Bannon? Can we hear from him at all?
“Inmate Correspondence with Representatives of the News Media:
An inmate may write, following Special Mail procedures, to representatives of the news media when specified by name and title. The inmate may not receive compensation or anything of value for correspondence with the news media. The inmate may not act as a reporter, publish under a byline, or conduct a business or profession while in BOP custody. [Italics mine]. Representatives of the news media may initiate correspondence with an inmate. Correspondence from a representative of the news media will be opened, inspected for contraband, for qualification as media correspondence, and for content, which is likely to promote either illegal activity or conduct contrary to BOP regulations.”
Interestingly, there is a rich offering of educational opportunities in this prison. Bannon can take martial arts, use the legal library, receive subscriptions, learn ESL or complete a GED, get religious instruction, and accomplish any number of other educational tasks.
He can send snail mail.
However, Bannon’s voice has been effectively silenced, by FCI Danbury,
for the critical next four months; months which just happen to overlap with this make-or-break, do-we-survive-as-a-free-nation-or-die, Presidential race.