# Ten-minute moves and the count > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Ten-minute moves and the count," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ten-minute-moves/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *The clock that governs a federal prison: a fixed daily timetable, movement permitted only during ten-minute windows on the hour, and five counts a day, two standing, three conducted with a flashlight in the face of a sleeping man, which John Kiriakou argues serve no purpose except sleep disruption.* - **Movement:** Only during ten-minute windows; otherwise locked where you stand for 50 minutes - **Standing counts:** 4.15 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. - **Non-standing counts:** Midnight, 3 a.m., 5 a.m. - **Kiriakou's objection:** Sleep disturbance is a torture technique **Ten-minute moves and the count** are the two mechanisms by which a federal prison controls where every prisoner is at every moment. [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s description of life at [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto) begins from the observation that it is *"all rules, rules, rules"* and that the daily schedule is set in stone.[1] ## The timetable Breakfast at six. Work call at seven thirty. Recall to the housing units at 10.20 a.m. Lunch at eleven. Afternoon work call at 12.20, afternoon recall at three. Dinner at five. Evening work call at six. Final recall and lockdown at nine, lights out at eleven. The only variation is at weekends and on holidays, when breakfast is at the *"leisurely hour"* of seven and there is no work call.[2] ## The moves Movement between points is permitted only during ten-minute moves. Once the ten minutes have passed you are locked down wherever you happen to be, and must wait fifty minutes for the next window.[3] ## The counts Counts are interspersed through the day and night to establish that nobody has escaped. Standing counts, where the prisoner must physically stand beside his bunk, are at 4.15 p.m. and 9.30 p.m. Non-standing counts are at midnight, three and five in the morning; since everyone is asleep, officers go bed to bed shining what Kiriakou calls a ridiculously bright flashlight in each face.[4] His objection is not to the counting but to the method, and he makes it as a torture argument rather than a comfort one. Prisoners have been locked in since nine; it is impossible to get through concrete, steel bars, bulletproof glass, two twelve-foot fences topped with concertina wire, night-vision cameras and motion detectors. The flashlights therefore serve *"zero purpose other than to disrupt our sleep. And sleep disturbances are very much a torture technique."* He tells the reader to stick a pin in that.[5] ## No orientation None of this is explained on arrival. There is no orientation, and Kiriakou says, nobody helps anybody: the learning curve is *"steep, nasty and unforgiving"*, and a new prisoner must keep quiet, watch his back and work out what he needs to know.[6] ## See also - [FCI Loretto](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/fci-loretto) - [Enhanced interrogation techniques](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/enhanced-interrogation) - [The prison service economy](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/prison-service-economy) - [Johns Rules For Prison Survival](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/johns-rules-for-prison-survival) ## Sources 1. S2E2 Rules Of The Game (2026-05-25), at 08:55. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a13a20b55b99c7f89a7e2b1/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-dead-drop-s2e2-rules-of-the-game/ 2. S2E2 Rules Of The Game (2026-05-25), at 09:26. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a13a20b55b99c7f89a7e2b1/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-dead-drop-s2e2-rules-of-the-game/ 3. S2E2 Rules Of The Game (2026-05-25), at 09:57. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a13a20b55b99c7f89a7e2b1/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-dead-drop-s2e2-rules-of-the-game/ 4. S2E2 Rules Of The Game (2026-05-25), at 10:30. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a13a20b55b99c7f89a7e2b1/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-dead-drop-s2e2-rules-of-the-game/ 5. S2E2 Rules Of The Game (2026-05-25), at 11:00. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a13a20b55b99c7f89a7e2b1/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-dead-drop-s2e2-rules-of-the-game/ 6. S2E2 Rules Of The Game (2026-05-25), at 11:32. Recording: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/68e695c6d798804c9e4bbd13/e/6a13a20b55b99c7f89a7e2b1/media.mp3 · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-05-25-dead-drop-s2e2-rules-of-the-game/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ten-minute-moves/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt