In regards to Damon, usually the government will move you closer to home while a legal action on the part of the inmate is in process, such as appeals and sentence reduction, nicodemo didn't exhaust all of his appeals either that's probably why they moved him closer as well

"McGurn likes you, so I make you. So you are now one of us, if you fuck up, we take it out on McGurn. He is your sponsor. Fuck up, it's his ass. You work in his crew, he is your capo."