August 22, 2026

Today is Day 31 of Jacob’s incarceration. One month. Using the metaphor of a marathon, we are approaching the end of Mile 1. We got this.

Below are some themes and highlights from the past week:

·       Jacob has confirmed that our visitation paperwork has been received. Hooray! Now we wait. (That is, we keep waiting.) We look forward to getting to see him in person soon.

·       We have spoken with Jacob on the phone almost daily for the past 3 weeks, which has been a lifeline. (He has to initiate calls. He calls from “the phone room,” where there are a bunch of phone “booths” in the same room. All calls are monitored and recorded.)

·       Jacob has been receiving letters from people, and is feeling profoundly grateful. Mail delivery inside of prison is sporadic, but when it comes, Jacob is getting LOTS of it. Anytime someone on the Inside asks about that, he invites them to give their information to groups on the Outside who are writing letters to prisoners. I am so proud of him for this response.

·       He had his “A&O” (Admission and Orientation) meeting on August 19, four weeks after he self-surrendered. At this meeting he learned how things work at Sheridan Prison Camp. (If you are thinking that is later than you would have expected, I hear you.)

·       Jacob runs 13½ laps on the blacktop track daily, which is 5K. (Doing the backwards math, this means that each lap is just under a quarter mile.) He bought himself shoes at the commissary to facilitate this. (I have no idea what make or model the shoes are.)

·       Jacob has finally been given a job in prison. In Horticulture! This is a HUGE blessing. As some of you know, Jacob is an inveterate gardener, and has a very green thumb. Here in Portland, we have been enjoying the fruits of his labors all summer: corn, tomatoes, beans, grapes. In Sheridan, Jacob is once again getting to cultivate grapes and tomatoes and more. Within the first two days of getting this new job, Jacob had mapped out and developed a new master plan for the prison garden, something he has done in each of his previous three homes. Huzzah!

·       Daily meal schedule: Breakfast at 6, Lunch at 10, Supper at 4

·       Jacob has been writing a great deal.

o   He has sent me a 10-page “values statement” inspired by his work with DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), speaking to just about every dimension of social ethics imaginable.

o   He has written “first letter from Sheridan,” a 12-page, detailed memoir about daily life. He would love for this letter -- or an edited version of it -- to be widely distributed. He is envisioning it as the first of many such communications. I honor his desire, but I am also highly protective of him, and want to avoid any [additional] retaliations that could mess up his life even more. So, I am being careful…

·       I had a 45-minute call with the founder and director of the Prison Journalism Project, to get her wisdom and suggestions about what Jacob can do without [additional] fear of reprisal. Bottom line: there is a law that states, “People incarcerated in federal prison may not act as reporters.” So, we need to steer clear of that. I anticipate writing a weekly blog post (of which this is installment #2), in which I capture some of what I am hearing from Jacob. In the meantime, he is sending his letters to me for compilation and possible publication after he gets out.

·       People’s “Days of Action” have been AMAZING!!!  People have been participating in community activism, collaborating with their children to make food for people experiencing homelessness, going to pilgrimage sites, and activating for the 2026 elections. Keep up the beautiful work!

·       Almost every day in 2026 has been adopted by someone. If you are reading this and you have not adopted a day, please go to the website and adopt one. If you have already adopted a day in 2026, please go back and adopt one in 2027. Let’s do this.

Thanks for being part of our community. We are the weavers, we are the web.

With love overflowing,

Tom