Sending mail to John Strand at FCI Oakdale I

Only send mail via USPS (US postal service). You must include his inmate number.

Sending books/items

John can receive books or items from publishers (for example, Amazon or others.) He has already received many Bibles so please do not send. If you loved a classic book, fiction or nonfiction, especially about true historical events or inspiring persons, he would appreciate that. He cannot receive other items such as clothing or food.

Visiting John Strand at FCI Oakdale I

https://www.bop.gov/inmates/visiting.jsp

Read the following! Immediate family is always approved and other family (aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws) also approved. One Minister of Record is approved. Church/clergy/civic group member or lay/professional pastors or sponsor, employer is approved. Ten friends and/or associates are approved.
If you are a person who is visiting on behalf of John’s employer, please identify yourself as an employer and not as a friend or associate. If you are a lay pastor-preacher-sponsor from one of John’s churches, please identify yourself as a member of the church and not as a friend.

1. You must fill out the attached one-page form.

• Put your name in the Dear ____________________________

• Answer questions 1-14

• 7. If you are sent/visiting on behalf of employer or legal team, indicate that. If you are a family member as above, indicate that.

• 8 & 9. Yes

• 10. Err on the longer side if you cannot recall.

• 11. For most people this is no. If it is yes
  For example, Dr. Gold wrote: Single Misdemeanor. Trespass. January 6, 2021.

• Sign. Print your name.

2. Mail the form to:

Counselor Ware
FCI Oakdale I
P.O. Bos 5050
Oakdale, LA 71463

3. John will be alerted that you are approved, and he must then inform you (Someone will email you.)

4. Be prepared – check the above link. No revealing clothes, orderly behavior.

5. Plan the trip – check the above link. Also, there will be some process where John puts you on his visitor’s list – it might be in advance a few days/weeks, but you’ll have to be an expected visitor. Someone will email you. If you are visiting Oakdale for the weekend, you are allowed to visit more than once. Sat/Sun/Federal Holidays all day 8:00 am – 3:00 pm.

6. Please read this, including the last three pages

Visiting John Strand at FCI Oakdale I

John may be able to add you to his email/phone list, however both are very limited in quantity. If you are a pre-existing friend and would like to email John, please send a request through this website and Lindsay will manage the request. John may or may not be able to add you. If he does add you, you will receive a notification from “CorrLinks” the prison email system – please accept and you will be able to email him. He may have to rotate you off due to 20 maximum permissible emails. So if you cease receiving email and you would like to resume etc., please contact again though the same route. If he cannot email you, we ask you to please continue to stay engaged with him via twitter or contact him through this site.

Helping John

John is fighting a system where an individual’s rights are completely ignored. We saw that through his arrest and trial – his personal lack of criminal action or criminal intent was wholly ignored. All his noncriminal actions are even on videotape. While in prison, the Bureau of Prisons is the responsible party – not the DOJ. The BOP uses a scoring system to determine a prisoner’s security risk and John is the lowest possible risk because there is no violence, no history of criminal activity, voluntary surrender etc. Nonetheless he has been placed in a much higher security location than he belongs based upon the BOP’s own rules. The Bureau of Prisons violated its own scoring system and placed him in a higher risk prison. The BOP scoring ranges from -1 to +45 for his age and John is -1.

The difference in prison type is huge. A prisoner is assigned either to maximum, medium or low security. The lowest risk inmates (“white collar”, nonviolent, short sentences) go to “minimum camps.” Obviously John belongs in a minimum camp. Where he is now, he is locked in his cell much of the time and the rest of the time only has what is called “controlled movements”. That means John can only move from one area (such as his cell/common area) to another area (such as the dining area or rec area) when the prison guards blow a whistle, ten minutes in an hour, during about half the hours of the day.

We welcome everyone to write to the Bureau of Prisons and demand to know why they are violating their own rules. They have blamed “publicity” as the reason. Insist that John is transferred to the “minimum camp!”

Via USPS mail:
Ms. Colette Peters, Director
Federal Bureau of Prisons
320 First St. N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20534

Via email and USPS mail:
r12martinez@bop.gov
Robert A. Martinez, Senior Counsel
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Designation and Sentence Computation Center
346 Marine Forces Drive
Grand Prairie, Texas 75051

Via email, consider politely asking the Aleph Institute to intercede for John. Aleph Institute is the most important nonprofit prison advocacy institution in the nation. They are aware of John’s unjust situation, and it always helps to again request their assistance.
dovber@aleph-institute.org