When entering your retreat you might be surprised to find that you can easily walk on/off the property.  Unlike your Gated Community at home there is no 24 hr guard, no need for a security pass to enter/exit, no locks, no video cameras.

Most camps are in rural areas in counties you have probably only driven through en route to another, more enticing, destination.  If you are coming from a city environment you will immediately notice the quietness and fresh country air.

Initial impressions range from pleasant surprise (flashback to Choate) to mild shock at your new circumstance.  The hours spent watching Crime Shows were for naught.  You are not surrounded by hardened thugs but rather  Mothers/Fathers, Sisters/Brothers, Wives/Husbands both young and old.

Instinct kicks in, the sisterhood/brotherhood goes out of their way to comfort you and help you adjust.  Camps are reserved for primarily first time non violent offenders.  You will be pleasantly surprised to find that many of your fellow Campers are university educated like you.

One of the biggest adjustments, besides your new monotone wardrobe, communal living arrangement, lack of organic food products, etc. will be setting your new schedule.  Accustomed to a fast paced life you will need to adjust to a much slower pace and determine how you would like to fill your hours.

You can choose how you want to spend this time away from loved ones.  Parlez vous Francais? Habla Espanol?  There are courses (primarily self taught) that you can take at your own pace.  There are ample opportunities to practice your new language with fellow WCCs.  You will be surrounded by people speaking a plethora of languages. To name just a few… Hindu, Yiddish, Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Patois, Hebrew and German.  Yes, Club Fed is a cultural melting pot.

Language not your thing?  Prefer to work out your frustrations doing something physical?  Ask to work with the Landscaping crew.  Some male facilities have Construction crews that do everything from paving roads to pouring cement, and will travel to other facilities to perform these duties.  They also receive more compensation.

Yes, at Camp, you can get paid!  Not only is Uncle Sam paying for your lodging, food and medical care but the Federal Government will also pay you to work.  Granted, the sums are meager, but you can be paid to burn calories and build muscles then spend your hard earned cash at Fedmart.

Back to setting your new schedule.  While extremely relaxed in terms of security, you will still need to work around a few set times a day when there is a general “count” to insure that the same number of people that were there in the morning are still there in the evening.  This is a very brief exercise where you basically wait to be counted.   Given that it is at the same time every day, you can arrange your exercise, language, etc. classes around this tedious necessity.  Flashback to Grade School trips to the Art Museum where the teachers made sure the same number of people that left in the morning returned in the afternoon and if you ended up one short or one over (oh yes, hard to believe) there is a “re-count.”  Sadly, Maths skills are in short supply at Club Fed.

You will quickly get accustomed to this daily activity.  Should you be late/absent it could result in a “shot.”  No, not the good kind for your forehead creases, but a disciplinary black mark which normally results in you doing some type of menial task like rearranging the outdoor picnic tables in a star shaped pattern for no apparent reason.

Should the “re-count” not reconcile the number disparity there will be a short period of time where you are asked to remain put while there is a general scramble to figure out where the overage/shortage has occurred.  Normally it is some type of clerical error, but in the case where someone has taken a stroll off the property or just decided they wanted to go home early you might be inconvenienced a bit longer until that person is located. This is rather rare as wandering too far afield could extend your stay or be placed in a less desirable facility.

As a WCC interested in abbreviating your staycay it is not recommended that you take a long distance run off Campus nor miss any “counts.” As you did at Boarding School, adhere to the house rules and stay under the radar and it will be smooth sailing.