On to Rifle Correction Center...

On the evening of March 5, I got the news that I had been waiting for-my week stint in Delta had come to an end. I was being moved to Rifle. My three weeks in Delta had not been bad-when compared to the prior two weeks. But, I was ready to move on to my final facility where I could get settled in until I am (hopefully) transferred to a halfway house this fall. 

There were a total of seven of us who were being transferred. All seven of us were woken up at 4:00 am on March 6, and told to pack our possessions. As I packed up my stuff, it was crazy to consider the pile of basic essentials that I know valued as my belongings:

3 pair of green scrubs, 4 pair of boxers, 4 t-shirts, 5 pair of socks, a coat, 1 pen, 1 toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, 5 books, and 7 pictures. (6 of Sallie and the kids and one of Tom Brady) It's almost as if John Lennon could have written a song about my lot in life.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat in the cafeteria and we were then loaded into a large, 12 passenger van. It was an amazing feeling to finally be transported and not be required to wear handcuffs. It was around 5:00 am when the van finally pulled through the main gate to leave, I turned around to get one last look at the place I knew I would never be again.

I sat directly behind the officer who was driving. As we pulled away from the facility, I reached up to put my seat belt on only to find that I didn't have one-it had been tied off because it didn't work. Anyone that knows me knows that I always were a seat belt so not having one as we pulled out of the facility made me very uncomfortable. But what could I really do? I figured the Department of Corrections probably trains their drivers to be super safe, but it was the other drivers on the road I was worried about! It occurred to me that maybe if the van did wreck, Sallie and the kids could hire one of those TV attorneys and they'd be set!

At some point during my day dreaming about what Robert Shapiro and Frank Azar could do for my family, I joined my fellow inmates who were sound asleep buckled up. 

After what was probably 30 minutes, I was awoken by all sorts of internal alarms going off in my head. It took me a few seconds to recognize what alarms I was dealing with but as I came out of the crypts of sleep I knew exactly what alarms were going off in my head-they were the highway rumble strips! I quickly woke up and became hype-aware of two things... 
1. The driver had fallen asleep
2. I was not in a seat belt 

In the micro seconds that followed, I was aware enough to know that it would probably end really bad if I suddenly yelled at the driver to wake up. I also thought I could reach up and grab the wheel but I had a hunch that if the officer woke to a large inmate commandeering the prison van, that would end poorly as well.

By now, two of the four wheels had passed the bump zone and were clearly off the road. The rougher terrain caused the suspension on the van to start bucking like a mad horse. Just as I thought this was the end and I saw a bright light, the guard woke up, realized he was 4x4ing down the median of I-70 and slowly brought the doomed van back into contact with the pavement. The off-roading had woken up a couple of the other inmates but by the time they were awake enough to realize what had happened, things were back to normal and they went right back to sleep.

The Officer, as most of us would do, played the whole thing off like nothing had happened. I asked him if he was okay and he said, "Yeah, I think the alignment is off and it caused the power steering to pull a bit." I rolled my eyes and thought, "alignment, I'm so sure." -recalling the sight of the officer fully hunched over the steering wheel just seconds before. I may not be one of the blood born Goble boys when it comes to cars, but I know that wasn't the alignment!! 

As I considered my situation, I came to a couple of quick ideas. 

1. A jury would probably not award any money to an inmate's family-what was my life worth anymore?
2. I was done napping-I engage in a meaningful conversation with the guard for the remainder of the drive. 
3. I needed to figure out my seatbelt situation.

#3 was first, I grabbed two of the lap belts and tied the best square knot in history around my waist.

Now that I was somewhat secured to the seat, I struck up the most life saving conversation I have ever had. As we got closer and closer to Rifle, the Officer was so tired that he would nod off while I was talking to him! I would tap him on the shoulder to revive him and on we went. I learned that the Officer is the one that always transports inmates from Delta to Rifle. The poor guy had been up all night, he hadn't slept at all. I felt terrible for the poor guy. We had a great conversation, aside from him nodding off :)
I enjoyed talking to him, he is a really great guy. I remembered how exhausted I had been being moved around so had it been me driving, it wouldn't have been any better! He is someone I respect. We joke about it now, and I am really glad for the conversation because it felt normal and that’s something I haven’t had since this all began. 

As we pulled into the Rifle Facility, my fellow inmates began to wake up one by one from their beauty sleep, safely buckled in. I looked at all of them with a disgusted, annoyed look, knowing full well that I would never be thanked for the past three hours of life saving heroics. 

We pulled up to the facility and unbuckled and jumped out. It took me a couple of minutes to to undo years of Boy Scouting that had found it's way into the World's Greatest Square Knot. I climbed out of the van just in time to overhear one of the Rifle guards say to the guard that had driven us, "looks like you're missing a couple of hubcaps." Our driver responded, "I don't think they were on there when I picked it up." I just about made a sarcastic comment about the rodeo that was our drive but decided it was too soon and didn't want to make the wrong impression on my new captor friends.

I looked around and noticed how beautiful it was, it's located at approximately 6500 feet above sea level. The facility is in a valley completely surrounded by mountain peaks and pine trees. With about 170 inmates, significantly smaller than Delta. Rifle is best known for being a base camp for SWIFT (STATE WILDLAND INMATE FIREFIGHTING TEAM). SWIFT, is a program that allows select inmates to go and fight wildfires throughout the Western US during their time incarcerated. It's a pretty remarkable program-I've been told inmates who qualify and trained are actually accredited as full blown wildland firefighters.

I was taken to my room and I was amazed at the view. There were wild turkeys and deer right outside of my window! Not bad at all for prison. I was introduced to my new roommate - He is a really good man, we hit it off immediately. He was a running back for the Broncos in the 90's. I could tell that I was going to like Rifle. I laid down on my new bed for a power nap-being up since 4:30 and safely in my room, I was finally able to sleep. 


Brandon Stephens, Weld County Jail, Wood Group, Sentenced, 5 Years, Prison, NFL, DRDC, Rifle Correctional Center, Colorado Department of Corrections, Jail, Judge Quammen, Steve Wrenn, Weld County, Executive, Oil, Gas, White Collar, Wood, BYU, Masters Degree, Colorado State University, SWIFT, Firefighter, Wildland, Sawyer, Fire, Inmate, Brandon Stokey, Miracles, Centennial Community Correctional Center, Delta Correctional Center, DRDC, Denver Diagnostic and Reception Center, Felony, Sallie Stephens, Greeley Tribune, Judge Thomas Quammen, DA Steve Wrenn, Weld County Court, Oil & Gas,. Halfway House, Centennial Community Correction Center, CCTC, Felon, 416 Fire, Silver Creek Fire, Spring Fire, Cabin Lake Fire, SWIFT Run, 1.5 miles, Fire, Fighter, Brandon Stokey, Running for my life,