Jan 22, 2012

Dear Sis~

We had a bad stabbing last week over on one of the other (non-death row) wings.  A young white guy named Milkshake, who is rather slow and weighs barely 130 pounds, stabbed another guy who was trapped in the high-security, single-man phone booth sized shower, stabbing him repeatedly through the bars with a  foot-long shank.  This was the third or fourth time Milkshake has stuck someone; it doesn't take a lot to get him motivated.  This entire 1,300 man maximum security prison is a locked down joint.  Everyone is in their cells 24/7 (except the runarounds who are out of their cells a little more than others).  There is no open population here, so theoretically there should be very few acts of violence.  This place is a lot better than it was in the 70's and 80's when it was a serious killing grounds.  Still, we had a recent murder here, and this stabbing was only the most recent in a string of them.  But, there will be no repercussions to any staff, nobody will lose their jobs or be disciplined in any manner even though these stabbings and murders cannot occur without serious breaches of security.  Like most prisons and prison systems, the staff at the top (warden, assistant warden, etc.) views their top priority as protecting themselves and their staff.  There is no real accountability, no serious oversight ('cuz nobody really cares what goes on in prisons).  Prisons are uniformly inept, corrupt, incompetent and hidebound.  If there was any accountability the warden here would have been fired long ago.  He's the worse warden I've ever encountered in my 40+ years in the prison system.  But he's very safe here, ensconced in this parallel universe, this bastion of incompetence, and in fact will surely be promoted in due time.  That's the way it happens in the Florida Dept of Corrections; the bad apples get promoted while the good ones are forced out...

Well, the Miami Dolphins finally hired a new Head Couch, a guy named Joe Philbin, who was the well-respected offensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers.  In his first statement Philbin promised that the Dolphins will now be implementing a fast-paced, uptempo aggressive offense, which is exactly what I've been hoping for.  Ever since Dan Marion retired the Dolphins have been saddled with mediocre quarterbacks and conservative coaches who employed safe, plodding run-oriented offenses, coaches who play not to lose rather than playing to win.  Maybe now we've it a home run by hiring Philbin...

That's it for now, Sis.  I'll write you again later in the week.  Meanwhile, keep your chin up and your thoughts positive!

Love, Bill

To the Readers

Dear Readers:
Bill's books, Quietus and The Third Pillar of Wisdom are e-books on Amazon and have been reduced in price to 99 cents each!  Bill thanks all his readers for their support throughout the years and hopes you enjoy his books as well.  Thanks!

January 4, 2012 The New Year

Dear Sis~

Well, another year is upon us.  I feel like I ought to have something profound to say but all I can think of is the too many - over 40 - years I've spent sitting in a cell or prison dormitory watching another new year slide into my life.  New Year's is supposed to represent hope and potential but it's hard to convince yourself that hope and potential abounds when you're doing hard time!  Anyway, 2012 is the supposed end of the world according to the Mayan calendar (or at least the last year of that calendar; perhaps the poor soul writing out that calendar so many years in advance just got tired and quit when he reached 2012).  I don't put too much stock in apocalyptic predictions; humans have been making them since the dawn of time, after all, without any success, and I'm an optimist by nature.  But I confess that as I survey the world around me and what we humans are doing to planet earth it is increasingly difficult to envision a good ending.  There are many good, wise and caring people dedicated to doing right by our planet but they are vastly outnumbered by those who are greedy, desperate and/or just ignorant who are determined to exploit all resources until the last fish, mammal and mineral becomes a mere memory.  Maybe the Mayans were on to something after all...
The search team came and tore up my cell last week; it was a surgical strike (they came for me alone) and I was later told that "someone" wrote a snitch kite on me claiming (falsely) I had a weapon in my cell. I'm fairly certain it was someone trying to get a DR (disciplinary report) dismissed by dropping a dime on me on the hope they'd shake me down and find something, any kind of contraband, and the rat would then get credit for it.  But I had no contraband so the snitch struck out.  If the administration had any integrity they'd write the rat a DR for "lying to staff."  I spent several hours putting my cell back in order; it looked like a hurricane came through, all my property scattered everywhere.  This is the kind of bullshit you have to put up with in prison; it's the nature of the beast.  Hell, it happens on the streets, too, though.  Informants are master manipulators and the police routinely play their game even though they know the rats often fabricate stories and evidence to their own ends...
I just learned that Governor Scott has signed another death warrant and someone is on death watch on the bottom floor of Q-wing.  Scott didn't waste any time after the holidays; he seems determined to execute a record number of people at the pace he is setting.  I don't know whose warrant got signed, so I don't know if it's someone I know.  All I know is that he came from UCI, across the river, where most of the 390 death row prisoners are housed (only 60 of us are kept here at FSP).  This is a depressing turn of events, a lousy way to begin the new year, at least from my perspective.  The execution, when it occurs, will undoubtedly please some people, so it's all a matter of perspective...
With that  morbid news I'll close this up and mail it off.  Keep your chin up, Sis, and keep smiling!
Light & Love,
Bill 


Note:  The prisoner on death watch is Robert Waterhouse and his execution is set for Feb 15th...

December 7, 2011 - Pearl Harbor Memorial

Dear Sis~

It's Pearl Harbor Day; there are very few World War II veterans left alive, and only a handful who experienced the attack on Pearl Harbor.  How the world has changed in the last 70 years!  And yet, from a war and violence perspective, humanity has not changed at all...

About three days ago a guy on the row named Willie Davis hung himself over at the main death row unit at UCI, across the river.  Suicide is a common last resort to the despondent and/or mentally ill on death row.  Then today, on E wing (housing close management prisoners, not D/R) a guy dove head first over the second floor rail, handcuffed behind his back, landing on his head and splitting open his skull.  He was life-lighted out of here in critical condition.  This guy was known to be mentally unstable.  This prison is a warehouse, they just stick guys in these solitary confinement cells, locked down 24/7 for years and years, virtually devoid of any property, with no help or programs available, so their mental deterioration is inevitable...

I'm watching all these Republican wannabees fighting for the Republican nomination and all I can think about is how Dad, a lifelong Republican, must be spinning in his grave as these clowns purport to represent the party of Lincoln.  The eventual nomination will be Mitt or Newt and I suspect  that many Republicans will sit on their hands at election time, a pox on both of them.  It's sad that these two buffoons are the best the GOP can come up with, but certainly a Godsend for Obama, who must be thanking his lucky stars!

Love & Peace,

Bill

Nov 22, 2011 - President Kennedy remembered

Dear Sis~

Writing today's date reminded me this is the anniversary of President Kennedy's 1963 assassination.  Like almost every American alive back then I still vividly recall where I was when I learned the sad news. Even at age 9 I understood (at least to the extent a nine-year-old could) the dimension of the tragedy, which caused me to run home from elementary school with tears streaming down my face...

As you know we had an execution a week ago, the second one in 2 months.  In the week leading up to it, and in the week since, I was more than a little morose.  I long ago lost count of the number of guys I've watched get marched off to the death chamber but it has in recent years become harder to shrug it off, to just accept it as routine, as the way it is, that a civilized society finds it reasonable, even highly desirable to coldly and premeditatedly kill human beings.  Here I am surrounded by the prospect of death, right at the doorstep, which permeates the atmosphere here like a foul odor...

Well, Thanksgiving Day is just around the corner, not that we'll be seeing any decent food.  Back in the day we used to get a real feast on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas; it was a tradition in prisons around the country, lots of real turkey, stuffing and gravy, hot dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, pumpkin (or sweet potato) pie, salad, eggnog, etc.  Those were the two days when we were relieved of the tedium of bland prison food, and before the prison system became so overly hateful and hostile towards prisoners.  Nowadays it's all about being mean-spirited, begrudging us any hint of compassion lest someone be accused of being "soft on crime."  An apt example of this mindset is what recently happened in Texas following an execution where the condemned ordered his traditional last meal and then had the audacity not to eat any of it, leaving it untouched until he was executed.  Some Texas legislator heard about this "waste of money" and got himself into a self-righteous lather, asserting that a person facing execution does not deserve any type of special last meal, that it was a moral outrage to provide one.  So, immediately the head of their Dept of Corrections announced that he agreed with those sentiments and that henceforth all condemned prisoners will only receive a standard prison meal prior to execution.  Even in the final moments before death there can be no hint of kindness or compassion. When did we become such a hateful people? (As for myself I would not even ask for a last meal anyway; I'm not interested in participating in their rituals of death, of being a footnote in someones anecdote)...
Despite my seemingly dismal situation, in the spirit of Thanksgiving Day I acknowledge that I have much to be thankful for, starting with the fundamentals: I'm alive, in sound health and great spirits.  Most importantly I'm blessed to have so many good people who love and care about me, making mine an easier path to tread.  I don't know what the future holds for me but for now it's all good...

Ok, Sis, enough blathering from me.  Give the doggies a belly rub for me, and enjoy the holidays!

Love and Peace,

Bill

October 27, 2011

Dear Sis~

No sooner had I written and sent in my my last blog bemoaning the mainstream media's failure to adequately cover the Occupy Wall Street movement when suddenly it was on every TV channel and front page news in the written media.  These folks have very legitimate grievances; they see (and live) the handwriting on the wall re the direction democracy, and unconstrained capitalism, is headed in this country, but they are easily dismissed by the status quo due to their muddled messages, their lack of a single voice and their inability to translate their anger into a unifying political platform.  The gaggle of clowns vying for the Republican presidential nomination tow the Wall Street party line and disparage these protestors as "a dangerous mob" or as "jealous malcontents" but these people are the warp and woof of our society: teachers, firefighters, construction workers, students, the great middle class who have been squeezed until it hurts, while the wealthiest few have been growing ever richer.  There's no shortage of telling statistics re the economic inequality that now defines our society, but here's one you can chew on:  the wealthiest 400 people/families in America are worth more than the bottom 150 million citizens...
I can't recall if, in my last entry, I told you that Governor Scott signed his second death warrant (just 12 days after Manny's execution), scheduling a Nov 15th execution date for Oba Chandler.  I don't know Chandler personally but I know his case and it's an ugly one, involving the brutal murder of a woman and her two daughters down in the Tampa/St Petersburg area.  It was a very high profile case at the time, and our current attorney general, Pam Bondi, was a law prosecutor down there back then.  I'm sure she has very vivid memories of that horrible case and so it did not surprise me that Chandler's name got pulled out of the hat considering that Pam Bondi is now the person responsible for providing Gov Scott with the name(s) of D/R guys who are ready (in her opinion) to be executed.  Chandler's is the type of viscerally emotional case that gives even the most ardent abolitionist pause.  Anyway, what concerns me is that Gov Scott signed his second death warrant less than  2 weeks after the previous execution.  What I'm wondering is whether Scott plans to emulate Texas' assembly line approach to capital punishment.  We will soon find out, huh?  

Love & Peace,

Bill

October 10, 2011

Dear Sis~
The mainstream media (from what I can see from my admittedly abbreviated view here in a death row cell) is not paying much attention to the protesters "occupying Wall Street" nor bothering to investigate and explicate for the general public the very genuine concerns and issues which have these folks (and most Americans) so frustrated and angry.  People from across America, finally fed up with the status quo, are converging upon Wall Street to do the only thing they can, use their physical presence and voices to vent their rage with America's slow transformation into a stark two-class society, with the ultra rich in control and the rest a nation of burger-flippers.  It's finally dawning on many that our political system (not to mention our economic model) has been totally hijacked by the financial elite (even more so than in normal times, for the rich have always had inordinate political influence).  The average person may not have a degree in economics, may not be particularly financially sophisticated, but they can look around and see what time it is, they grasp the reality - and the adverse trend lines - and what it means to the "American Dream."  The gap between the haves and have nots has never been greater in modern times and is inexorably widening, with no end in sight.  I believed then, and I still believe now, that Obama's biggest mistake - and one which still haunts him today, weighing down on him like an anchor - was bailing out all the banks and Wall Street firms rather than letting them fail (or more accurately taking them over).  Obama was surrounded by and advised by (by his choice) the very scoundrels (i.e. Wall Street alumni) who brought the world-wide economic meltdown to us, and he drank the Kool-Aid they offered him, he spouted their rhetoric about banks being "too big to fail", and accepted their claim that the "only" solution was an unprecedented, astronomically huge transfer of taxpayers' monies from the (future) public coffers into the banks' pockets.  This was the largest heist in world history, done in broad daylight and totally legal.  It would be a joke if the results were not so tragic for the average person, and America in general.  Now, three years later, Joe Citizen, broke and unemployed, scans the landscape and sees the obvious, that the only ones doing well (very, very well) are the very ones who drove us into the ditch, while everyone else is suffering.  The anger, conscious or subconscious, resides in just about everyone's breast, and the one thing they are sure about is that Obama was the conductor of this train when the decisions were made to bail out the rich and ignore the masses.  This is a fact; they can pretty it up and obfuscate it with rhetoric, but they can't change the facts.  Obama had a chance to fundamentally alter the balance of power but he shirked his duty (to the masses) in favor of kowtowing to the elite.  In the end Obama was just like any typical mainstream politician, Democrat or Republican; he went with the big money.  Now he is reaping what he sowed: the deep, visceral residual anger and discontent in the hearts of the average American.  This is part of the anger animating the Tea Party, although many of them have been brain-washed by the right-wing Republicans (and their Wall Street puppet masters) into carrying their water, into believing that teachers, firemen, cops and union workers are the ones bankrupting America, rather than the bankers, the multi-national corporations and the Wall Street movers and shakers who use our national treasury as their own private piggy bank.  If these Tea Party activists ever started thinking for themselves they'd wake up and see how they're being manipulated by the status quo power brokers (who laugh at them behind their backs) and they'd join those protesters on Wall Street.  Now that would be something the media would cover!
Love & Peace,
Bill                                       

Sept 28, 2011 -Manny's last day

Dear Sis~
Manny was executed a few minutes ago, about 150 feet from where I'm sitting. He was initially scheduled to die at 4:00pm, which means he was strapped to the gurney and had IV lines inserted around 3:30, and the curtain was parted around 3:50pm to reveal him to all the gawking spectators, there to see "justice" done.  But, just minutes before they could push the plungers, the US Supreme Court (a/k/a Supremes) granted him a temporary delay, stating that they'd have a decision within an hour.  Manny remained strapped to the gurney for the next 3 hours and fifteen minutes, alone with his thoughts. Can you imagine what is going through your mind at that point? At 7:15 the Supremes announced that they were denying his last-minute bid and the State immediately killed him (the old white hearse, which I've watched pick up bodies here for the last 36 years, had left after the temporary stay was announced and they had to rush it back to the prison).  And we claim to be civilized...
In yet another indication that America is on track to decend into third-world status, we now rank number 46 in the world in infant mortality (down from our consistent top five rankings in decades past).  In  education our students rank just as dismally.  These trends should surpise nobody given our perpetual political gridlock, lack of vision, and the far right's anti-science philosophy (exemplified by Gov Rick Perry who prefers to hold prayer meetings to obtain drought relief rather then accept the scientific facts regarding cimate science).
I'm bummed out right now (I've known Manny for over 30 years, since before I came to the row) so I'm gonna cut this short.  Perhaps I'll be more optimistic the next time I write.
Love, Bill

Sept 18, 2011

Dear Sis~
   I just confirmed that a friend of mine, Russell Hudson out of Ft. Lauderdale, died last week at the UCI death row unit across the river.  He was found in his cell at breakfast time - after his neighbors heard him gasping for air earlier during the night - dead of a heart attack at age 42.  Before transferring to UCI Russ spent several years here on my floor where I got to know him well - personable, smart and a man of his word - and came to like him.  From all outward appearances Russ was healthy; he was slim and active, seemingly in good shape and not a likely candidate for sudden heart failure.  Another reminder of how fragile and fleeting life is.  An extraordinary number of D/R guys have died of "natural causes" here on Florida's row over the last 15-20 years, well over 30, and the far majority of them have been by cancer.  About 5 have died in just the past year or so, including 2 by heart attack (the others were cancer).  So many of us die by cancer that I've come to suspect that there's something carcinogenic in the water supply here.  Today's my birthday, but considering I've been drinking Florida State Prison water since 1974 (with a few years of breaks here and there) I've gotta be thankful for every B-day I get to celebrate!...
   Here's a few interesting statistics about Prison Nation (a/k/a America):  the median incarceration rate among all nations worldwide is 125 prisoners for every 100,000 people.  In England it's 153; Germany is 89; Japan is just 63.  The United States, meanwhile, incarcerates 743 per 100,000, by far the highest rate in the world.  If you include all US residents currently on probation or parole, our correctional population is 7.2 million, about one in every 31 Americans.  America incarcerates nearly 25% of the world's prisoners, even though we have only 5% of the world's population.  Just pause and consider those numbers, Sis, and ask yourself why this is...
   After several stays of executions Manny is scheduled to die on Wednesday, Sept 28th, at 4pm.  He's exhausted all of his legal issues (that I'm aware of), having been turned down all the way up the judicial ladder, including most recently the US Supreme Court.  It does not look good for Manny.  I have to bite my tongue when talking about Manny - a guy with 33 years on the row and a man who, at 61 years old, has completly turned his life around - because his execution will be as senseless and uncivilized as any I can imagine.  But the system, the death machine, is totally indifferent...
  That's it for now, Sis.  I love you, never forget that!
Bill
  

Manny Valle Stay

Dear Readers:

Manny Valle has gotten a 3rd stay of execution to Sept 28th...

August 27,2011

Dear Sis~
Two days ago a unanimous Florida Supreme Court rejected Manny Valle's challenge to the new lethal injection drug (pentobarbitol) and affirmed his Sept 1st execution date.  So, that's going to happen...
Well, last week you endured the earthquake centered just 40  miles from your house and now you're being pounded by hurricane Irene.  Hopefully, this is your quota of natural disasters for the year...
I just enjoyed a fine PBS program, part of their American Masters series, which is an apt title considering the subject, the great folk singer Pete Seeger (the episode is titled Pete Seeger: The Power of Song). Pete is a beautiful, old soul and the epitomy of an American Master.  The program, despite the meanness of the treatment often accorded Pete, greatly uplifted my spirit and reminded me of the best things of this nation, which is the spirit of the people and not its material wealth or greatness of power.   Hearing again all of those wonderful, powerful ballads washed me in a flood of childhood memories, even though back then in the early 1960's I was too emotionally immature and spiritually ignorant to fathom the true, deeper messages of those songs - peace, love, brotherhood, justice, equality.  Watching this moving, poignant program I felt (again) so disappointed in myself, in my failure as a youngster to be awake to the values expressed by the songs (by the times), my failure to find my better half and follow the path espoused by those songs that I mindlessly sang around the campfire.  While Pete was singing his anti-war songs in the early sixties I was fully indoctrinated by the system, foolishly and eagerly anticipating the day I'd be old enough to join the army, march off to war in Vietnam, kill those godless Commies and return home a John Wayne hero.  What a damn fool I was, shallow and superficial, unable to think for myself.  I was sure drinking the Kool-Aid back then!  Meanwhile, Pete gave his all to the values he believed in.  He spent decades being vilified and blacklisted (unable to work) by the mindless mob, the right-wing elements of the power structure - from the FBI to Congress to the Republican Party - simply because he dared to challenge the pro-war agenda then dominating our culture, because he had the temerity to suggest that peace, love, brotherhood and justice were worthy aspirations for us and our children.  Throughout it all, Pete never stopped loving our country, never doubted the essential goodness of the people.  Pete Seeger has come full circle in the autumn of his life; he's an icon, and deservedly so, exemplifying the true spirit of this nation, everything that is good and right about America.  What a beautiful spirit he is!
Love, Bill

August 31, 2011

Dear Sis~
     Manny Valle, who was scheduled to die on August 2nd, received a 30-day stay of execution from the Florida Supreme Court; his new execution date, I am told, is Sept 2nd.  My understanding, and it's admittedly second-hand, is that he's challenging Florida's new execution drug, pentobarbitol (the pink, Pepto-Bismol looking stuff used to euthanize animals at shelters) and the new execution protocols that were secretly adopted in conjunction with the change to the new drug.  Whether this temporary stay morphs into a full stay will depend upon what facts are developed at Mannys' evidentiary hearing in Miami.  Manny is a quiet, soft-spoken, easy-going guy, always ready to help someone out.  I first met him around 1981 when he was on the row and I was in open population, working in the law library.  In that capacity, I came back to death row almost every day to help guys out with their legal issues.  Manny, who was celling next to Ted Bundy at the time, came to the row for shooting a Coral Gables cop during a traffic stop.  Little did I know back then, as I went from cell to cell, that one day I'd join those guys on the row...
     The motor on my little electric fan  burned out recently - couldn't have happened at a worse time - and I've been sweating like a dog in this sweltering heat ever since.  If I'm lucky, I'll get the new fan I bought from the canteen within the next 30 days.  They don't keep them in stock, so they've gotta be ordered.  Hell, I can't even get confirmation from the canteen that my order was received and is being processed...
     I was saddened to learn of Amy Winehouse's death although it was easily predictable, given her self-destructive history.  Another artistic talent gone far too soon.  I've gotta wonder if there was anyone close to her who really cared about her, or if she was just surrounded with enablers.  Experience teaches us that some people just can't be helped; they are resolutely determined to go down their chosen path and no amount of pleading can steer them off that road.  Still, these last few months, Amy seemed so sad and directionless and her actions and behavior cried out for help...
     I watched the first Harry Potter movie on TV last week.  When I was in Virginia they came on all the time.  (unlike here, we he had basic cable there), but I never bothered to catch any of them.  But, with some rare free time on my hands, and because the series is such a cultural phenomenon, I convinced myself to check it out.  I confess to being underwhelmed; I just didn't get what all the hoopla was about.  But, I also had to remind myself that this is for kids and I do understand how children can be transfixed by well-spun tales of magic and wonder.  Upon reflection I recalled how, as a child, I could be transported to other mysterious and wondrous realms by the magic of an exceptional movie, or book, in ways adults are unable to appreciate and quick to pooh-pooh.  So, I won't be a judgmental stick in the mud.  I'm glad kids can still find some magic.  Soon enough, as they "mature", the demands of this world will suck it out of their spirits until it will just fade into foggy, dim memories...
     That's the news from the boondocks of North Florida!
Love,
Bill.

July 10, 2011

Dear Sis~
   I received the latest Florida Law Weekly last week and read that the Florida Supreme Court just reduced old Roy's death sentence to life imprisonment.  This was not unexpected; in fact I've been assuring him for the last 18 months that, at a minimum, he would end up with a life sentence.  But we were both hoping he'd get a new trial.  He had good, solid issues which, had he prevailed, would have gotten him a new trial (and then possibly an acquittal by his jury), but the Supreme Court gave him a thumbs down on that one.  Roy is now 70 years old, in failing health, on many medications and afflicted with onsetting dimentia, and is now doomed to dodder around in some distant, uncaring prison compound for what remains of his life...
   Well, on Thursday, a guy upstairs got careless and got busted with an ounce of reefer during a routine, single-cell shakedown.  He got caught slipping and as soon as I heard that I knew there would be repercussions.  Sure enough, the next day the whole shakedown team arrived on the wing, bright and early (the tip off is always when your sink and toilet water is shut off just before they hit) and stormed through the wing, tearing up all our cells.  I spent 30 minutes cuffed and shackled, locked in the shower while they rampaged through my cell.  As usual, it looked like a tornado hit my cell when I got back, all my property thrown across the floor scattered in the wind.  So, I spent the rest of that day putting all my stuff away, then scrubbing my floor.  I didn't lose much stuff, just the miscellaneous things that go toward making life more bearable, from extra salt to scotch tape to Tupperware bowls to extra towels and sheets.  Nothing to get in trouble over.  The guards in  my cell did steal two packs of sunflower seeds (it's common for them to eat your canteen snacks while they tear up your cell and you're locked in the shower) but that's just par for the course; it comes with the territory.  At least they were not overly destructive; some guards will deliberately smash your glasses, or radio, or even your TV, or flush your family photos down the toilet, if they have reason to dislike you, or if they're just malicious by nature...
   Here are a few interesting facts about America's growing plutocracy and the ever-widening gulf between the super-rich and everyone else (many more statistics, even more impressive and forceful are easily available online but with no Internet access I'm stuck with the scraps I pick up in newspapers and magazines): Between 2002 and 2007, 65% of all income growth in the US went to the richest 1% of the population.  Today, half of all the national income goes to the richest 10%.  In 2007, the top 1% controlled just 26.9%.  And, if you go back 80 years and look at the statistics you see that the curve - the gap between the very wealthiest and everyone else - is growing inexorably.  The problem is getting worse, not better.  The income inequality is intuitively known by most Americans (if not the details of the magnitude) and eventually, I believe, the people will wake up (politically) and do something about it.  But it may take a total meltdown in the financial industry (like what almost happened 2 1/2 years ago) to bring it about.  We are on a very precarious footing in America right now and we can easily see a repeat of the most recent meltdown, except worse. The systemic problems have not been fixed, not even close, and in fact are worse than ever.  This income inequality is just a symptom of the disease...
That's it for now from the big house!
Love,
Bill

June 26, 2011

Dear Sis~
They moved six Death Row guys to the main D/R unit at the Rock last week, including old Roy (now 70 yrs old), my neighbor for the last 2-1/2 years.  He's got nobody on the streets and I was the only one looking out for him, so he's gonna be lost over there.  But, he will either have a new trial, or be off Death Row (with a life sentence) as soon as the Florida Supreme Court hands down his direct appeal decision, which should be soon.  You may recall that in Roy's case they never found the body of the alleged murder victim and there were no witnesses to the alleged murder.  The primary evidence against him was a jailhouse snitch who claimed Roy "confessed" to him.  The use of jailhouse snitch testimony is the most egregious practice in the criminal justice system and puts more innocent people in prison than any other single thing.  Professional, lying jailhouse snitches play the system like a banjo, making up "confessions" and then getting out of jail in return for their fabricated testimony.  Prosecutors use this false testimony often knowing (or at least suspecting) it is fabricated because they care more about obtaining convictions than learning the truth...
Anyway, four of the six guys transferred arrived here after me which tells me I am still on the "do not transfer to the Rock" list (either because of the nature of my case, or because I escaped from the Rock in 1978).  That's fine with me as I have zero interest in going over there where the visiting situation is all screwed up.  Plus, they have a really stupid policy of randomly moving 10% of everyone every week, so you are constantly being uprooted...
Just read a lengthy article/expose (maybe not the right word) in my New Yorker, titled A Dirty Business, about the insider trading trial and conviction of billionaire hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, who ran the Galleon Fund.  The wider story is about the endemic corruption on Wall Street, the pervasive insider trading at the highest levels which makes a mockery of the idea that there's any kind of level playing field.  Any thinking person already knew this, but it's interesting to see it confirmed by unequivocal evidence.  As the author of the story, George Packer, correctly observed, "The market has become more of an exclusive gambling club for the very rich than a level playing field open to the ordinary investor"...
Alright, Sis, I'll let you go for now.  Keep your chin up and a smile on your face.
Love, Bill

May 18, 2011

Dear Sis~
     Yesterday the warden and a posse of big wigs from Tallahassee, including representatives of the Attorney General's office, and possibly including Secretary Buss (I'm getting conflicting reports on whether he attended), spent the morning on Q-Wing conducting a mock execution, employing the new, refined execution protocol.  I caught a glimpse of them all as I left the wing on my way to the clinic for a medical call out (my "annual physical" which consited of a nurse weighing me, taking my blood pressure (118/72) and asking me 3 or 4 questions e.g., "do you have trouble sleeping at night or have night sweats?")  Not exactly the Mayo Clinic...
     Then last night there was a killing on K-Wing (not death row).  Two guys, Tazz and Crawfish (yes, that's their true nicknames; I don't know their real names) allegedly murdered another prisoner named Xavier Rodriquez (just 21 years old).  All 3 guys were runarounds; Tazz and Crawfish tied the guy up, stabbed him to death, then approached the Wing Officer and said "put the handcuffs on us; we just killed one."  I didn't know the victim, but I know both Tazz and Crawfish 'cuz they were runarounds here on the row a few months ago (they rotate runners every 6-8 weeks).  Both of these guys are morons; they give stupid a bad name.  Crawfish killed 5 people in Jacksonville (and no, he did not get any death sentences. So much for death row being reserved for the "worst of the worst") and has stabbed other prisoners in other joints (that's why he is here as FSP)  I don't know what the beef was, but knowing these two clowns, I'm sure it was something really foolish.  Both guys told me more than once that they "want to go to death row."  They'll probably get their wish now (here's a guy who has killed 6 people and is trying to get to death row - unsuccessfully so far - while I have not killed anyone and I'm fighting tooth and nail to get out from under this death sentence, yet I cannot get any relief whatsoever.  You see why I tell you that the imposition of capital punishment in America is as arbitrary and capricious as you can imagine?)  Murders here at FSP have become rare.  Back in the day, in the 70's and 80's, when I was in open population, this joint was red in tooth and claw, known as one of the most violent in America, where beatings, stabbings, rapes and shootings (the joint was awash in zip guns) were daily occurrences and murders were common.  But, since they locked the entire joint down (and actually began reducing the amount of weapons in circulation) the violence has significantly diminished.  Mostly it's real hard for someone to get a hold of someone else; everyone is bedind the doors.  The execption are the runarounds (4 per wing) and you how that just worked out...
     I'm reading a really good book, The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Fowlett ( well-known writer of action thrillers).  He switched genres to pen this historical novel (1076 pages in paperback) set in Medieval times.  It revolves around the building of a cathedral, which sounds boringly mundane, but it's a real page-turner.  Great book!  It's my recommendation of the month.
     Ok, Sis...give the doggies a tummy rub for me!
Love, Bill

Post from a follower...

Hi William,

My name is Tina and I write for Criminaljusticedegreesguide.com. After publishing our most recent post,“10 Incredibly Inspiring Prison Programs” I thought of you and your readers because it tackles the same kind of issues you often discuss on your blog. If you’d like to share it on your site, we’d love to keep the discussion going.

(http://www.criminaljusticedegreesguide.com/features/10-incredibly-inspiring-prison-programs.html/)

Bill's books are now e-books!

Dear Readers:

Bill's books (Quietus, The Third Pillar of Widsom and A Checkered Past) are now e-books on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook and Smashwords.  If you don't have an e-book reader like Kindle or Nook, you can still download the e-books to your computer or laptop and read them there, like I have.

Bill and I thank all his readers and followers for their support and help in so many ways over the years.

Thank you all  :}

April 30, 2011

Dear Sis,

   Connecticut may be on the verge of abolishing the death penalty.  The bill has been forwarded to the whole senate by a major committee; if the senate approves it, it will become law as the new governor has stated that he will sign it.  The Connecticut legislature approved a similar bill two years ago but the then-Republican governor vetoed it.  As you know, Illinois abolished capital punishment some months ago, and a number of other states have abolition bills working through their respective legislatures.  Ever so slowly there is a shift against the death penalty manifesting across the country.  It will take many more years for it to come to fruition, especially in the south where killing people is deeply ingrained in the psyche of the citizens, but one day it will come about and a new generation will abandon this barbaric custom...
  Well, Florida has just joined several other states (Texas, Oklahoma and Ohio) in changing its drug of choice for executions from sodium thiopental (the first of the  3 drugs administered in the "three-drug-cocktail") which is no longer manufactured in America, to pentobarbital, the pink "Pepto-Bismol"-like drug that is commonly used in anumal shelters to euthanize unlucky dogs and cats.  So, killing us "like dogs" has gone from the metaphorical to literal.  Both Oklahoma and Ohio have already executed prisoners with the new drug which has never been vetted for human use.  There will be court challenges around the country over this change, some successful (at least in the short term) and others unsuccessful (like in Ohio and Oklahoma).  Whenever someone changes some significant aspect of death penalty procedures, it opens up a whole new round of legal challenges to the methods of execution (i.e., to the drugs & execution protocols) since they are temporary solutions and besides the fact.  All they do is delay the inevitable; they don't attack the underlying conviction or sentence which is the only way to get off the row.  So, I never got into that trip, leaving it to others to pursue those legal remedies.  And, it almost came to a halt 3 years ago when the US  Supreme Court handed down the Baze decision where a bare majority ruled that the 3-drug protocol did not violate the 8th Amendment...
   Here it seems to have gone directly from winter to summer.  It was 92 degrees when I went to rec the other day, a blazing sun in a clear blue sky.  It was hot!  But I love the sunshine and I bear the heat.  I spent my 3 hours, as usual, working out and walking the yard, enjoying a handful of singing birds (mostly Mocking Birds), and a few chirping babies in nests up in the razor wire atop our yard fences, which kept me company.  And I admired the (incongruous) beautiful yellow flowers lining the road to the execution chamber.  I always whistle to the birds and they whistle and sing back, seeming to enjoy the banter.  But, I miss my clever crows that I had in Virginia; they were like old friends.  I knew them for years, and they knew me...
   Farewell, Sis, I'll see you soon!

Love and Peace
Bill

April 8, 2011

Dear Sis~

     This past Tuesday we awoke to the stomping of boots and rattling of chains, the telltale melody of the goon squad, which rolled in on us without warning (which is the point, after all) to tear up our cells.  This was the annual Spring shakedown, the ostensible purpose of which is to pick up any extra blankets, sheets and towels, plus our winter coats (I'm being very generous calling these thin, raggedy, torn-up garments "coats").  But, as with any shakedown, there are no limits; once in your house (cell) the shakedown crew can take whatever they want (or not) and tear up your house (or not) as much as they want.  It's the luck of the draw; if you get a couple of decent guards, they'll go relatively easy on you.  If you get a nasty crew, well, they dump all your property on the floor and walk all over it, maybe smash your eyeglasses, dump your instant coffee on the floor, break open all your bars of soap, squeeze out all your toothpaste, dump your photographs in the toilet, etc...I've had all that happen to me one time or another over the years.  This time they were not too bad, and in paticular, I lucked out.  After being strip searched, chained and shackled and placed in the shower, the crew only spent about 5 minutes in my house and they did not gratuitously destroy anything.  I lost my extra towels and sheets, lost my only good blanket (I'm left with a thin, stringy cotton "blanket" which is missing a third of its length, that I used to fold up for a pillow) but overall I did OK and I'm not complaining.  This is just one of the prices you pay for being in the joint.  Like rotten food and crazy neighbors, it comes with the territory...
     The Florida legislation is still in session and I get to watch the daily shenanigans on a local PBS channel.  With a Republican governor and Republican super majority in the house and senate, they can legislate with impunity.  The Democrats are mere observers.  One piece of mischief that is particularly blatant is their just-passed bill to amend the Florida constitution to resctructure the Florida Supreme Court.  There is absolutely no legitimate reason to do this; it's purely political.  Their bill calls for the current 7-member court to be divided into two separate 5-member Supreme Courts - one for criminal cases and one for civil cases.  The five most senior current justices will go to the new criminal Supreme Court, meaning three new justices must be appointed by the governor for the new civil Supreme Court.  The importance of this is:  the Republican legislature will soon re-draw all of Florida's congressional districts (as is done every 10 years).  These Gerrymandered districts can be challenged by the Democrats, but the case must be resolved by the new civil Supreme Court, dominated by Republican-appointed justices (all of our current justices were appointed by Republican governors, in fact).  This is a blatant Republican power play, modeled after what the Republicans pulled off in Texas, and designed to guarantee that Republicans control the Florida legislature in perputuity.  However, this bill only places the new amendment on the next ballot;  the voters still have to approve it before the constitution can be amended (the makeup of the Supreme Court is set forth in the constitution).  Maybe, just maybe, the normally sheep-like Florida voters will pull their heads out of the sand long enough enough to see how they're about to get screwed.  But, I won't bet any money on it...
     That's it for now, Sis.  Give the doggies a tummy rub for me.
Love & Peace
Bill

March 22, 2011

Dear Sis~
     It's sobering to watch the terrible tragedies unfolding in Japan in the wake of that triple whammy - earthquake, tsunami and nuclear contamination.  But the Japanese are demonstrating their renowned resilience; their reputation for poise and equanimity in the face of such epic misfortune is well-earned.  When I see the scope of death and destruction on my little TV, a well-known quote by Nabokov comes to mind, "The cradle rocks above an abyss, and common sense tells us that our existence is but a brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness".  While I don't subscribe to the metaphysical implications of that statement, it nonetheless conveys the smallness of mankind against the backdrop of nature's eons.  We are a meaningless speck on this physical, three-dimensional plane and whatever siginificance we have in the cosmos lies elsewhere...
    I can't recall if I wrote about this already, but for the last several months there has bee a brouhaha going on in the death penalty states over a severe lack of sodium thiopental, one of the three drugs used in the 3-drug cocktail used in executions.  The sole US manufacturer has quit making it and European maufacturers are being forbidden by their governments from exporting it to America for use in executions.  So, those states very eager to keep killing have been in a panic mode at the thought of not being able to kill people on schdeule.  Oklahoma simply went to another (untested-in-humans) drug, pentobarbital, the drug commonly used to euthanize unwanted dogs and cats.  They've killed three men so far with this new drug, with the blessing of the courts.  Texas just announced that, they too, will switch.  Other states clandestinely obtained supplies of sodium thiopental from questionable sources.  (The states have been begging the federal government to "loan" them some of their stock of sodium thiopental so they can keep killing without delay).  The latest shoe to drop in this unseemly drama occurred six days ago when the DEA seized the Georgia Dept of Correction's entire supply of sodium thiopental because they had "circumvented the law in obtaining its supply" which it apparently purchased "from a British supplier operating from the back of a London driving school."  I my view, it's macabre to see our goverments so desperate to kill people. It's a sad commentary on our society.  But, I'm sure this will prove to be a small speedbump; America is proud of its killing heritage - especially in the South where it's entangled in notions of mahood - and the states will quickly figure out other ways to kill.  That's one thing this country is very good at; killing folks.
Love & Peace,
Bill

March 6, 2011

Dear Sis~

I just learned that another Death Row prisoner, Lloyd Duest, died of cancer recently.  He's been on the row since 1983, almost 28 years, so I guess you could say he had a pretty good run (he was 59 years old).  I've lost count of all the guys on the row who have died of cancer over the last decade; it's like an epidemic.  Statistically speaking, the number are way out of whack; it's way beyond just an anomaly - the deviation from the norm is way off the chart.  My suspicion is that there's something in the water or the food is morphing into a near certainty.  Speaking of food, I may have told you that about 6 months ago the DOC (Dept of Corrections) stopped serving any kind of real meat to prisoners.  A DOC official went on TV and claimed they would save several million dollars a year by serving this new (and terrible tasting and looking) fake "meat" made from soy and vegetable matter.  Well, I did some investigating and learned the source of this stuff.  It's made by Archer Daneils Midland Company (ADM), a huge food/agricultural conglomerate (it dominates the American market) and it is called Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP), also known as Textured Soy Protein (TSP), "soy emat" or "soya meat".  It is made from soy beans, cotton seeds, wheat and oats, and is extruded into various shapes (chunks, nuggets, grains, flakes and strips).  Here's ADM's description: "The defatted, thermoplastic proteins are heated to 150-200 degrees Centigrade, which denatures them into a fibrous, insoluble, porous network that can soak up as much as three times its weight in liquids.  As the pressurized molten protein mixture exits the extruder, the sudden drop in pressure causes rapid expansion into a puffy solid that is then dried." Yum, yum, Gooood!  It is supposed to be mixed with real meat in a 1:3 ratio (one part TVP to 3 parts meat) but we get pure TVP, often served as "nuggets" in some kind of fake gravy.  All I can tell you is that it tastes really bad and is like chewing on a flip-flop.  And we get this every day...The real story here, though, when it comes to our food, is that back in the early 1970's, when I first entered the system, the entire DOC was self-sufficient in food.  We grew and raised all our own food, and we ate good, at a minimum cost to taxpayers.  Every prison (and there are about 80 in Florida) has hundreds, sometimes thousand of acres of good farmland.  With free inmate labor and free land, you can grasp how cheap our food was.  We had huge chicken farms, dairies, orange groves, vegetable fields, lots of beef cattle and hogs, which we butchered in our own slaughter houses.  But, in the 1980's, in one of the most scandalous moves in DOC history (and the DOC is a notoriously corrupt and incompetent agency) the big wigs chose to close down all our farms and start buying all our food from freeworld vendors. And they had the temerity to claim this was to save money!! The true purpose was to steal money.  With millions of dollars now going to vendors, and DOC officials deciding who would get these contracts, kickbacks became the name of the game, as they still are.  The food we get from vendors is often unfit for human consumption.  All of our potatoes arrive here rotten.  We buy rotten food which the vendors cannot unlaod anywhere else, yet on paper, we are paying for "choice" food at high prices.  The difference is going into officials' pockets, and that's a fact...If any independent investigation was ever conducted into this, people would go to jail.  But nobody cares what prison officials do; they know they are safe from prying eyes.  It's always been that way (although James Crosby, a previous Secretary of our DOC went to federal prison for a massive bribery and kickback scheme involving our canteen vendor, Keefe Commissary Company).  It was sheer luck and happenstance that it ever came to light.  But nothing has changed.  Keefe is back in business here again (after being banned for a few years) and the price gouging and kickbacks remain.  If Governort Rick Scott, and the new Secretary Edwin Buss, are truly serious about saving money, they can begin by reinstituting our prison farm system.  That would save taxpayers millions of dollar annually (and improve the health and diet of its 100,000 plus prisoners).
Love & Peace,
Bill

February 12, 2011

Dear Sis~
I was saddened to read of Jack LaLanne's death (although at 96, he had a full and rich life).  It was as if one more small slice of my own past, my personal history, has slipped away, too.  As a youngster in the early 1960's I often stood in our living room watching and emulating Jack's exercise routines flickering across our black and white TV, amazed at his ability to demonstrate an endless range of exercises and stretches, utilizing only a chair and a stick.  I relished his boundless energy and enthusiasm, his zest for life, and I attribute to him my own lifelong interest in physical fitness and working out, as well as my own self-confidence.  Jack was an amazing individual, and I don't use that term lightly; he set a fine example for others.  I remember how he celebrated all his birthdays with incredible stunts. I think it was his 70th birthday when he swam from Alcatraz Island to the mainland, about 2 or 3 miles away.  Handcuffed.  And towing a rowboat!  Jack was a good mentor and a good man.  Godspeed to Mr LaLanne!
I'm sure you've been watching the big drama playing out in Cairo, Egypt (all across the middle east, actually).  Wasn't it moving and inspiring to watch the common people rise up and throw off the shackles of oppression?  It was an essentially bloodless revolution, done peacefully, without resort to arms, stunning in its directness.  It was interesting to watch America's shifting public statements as we struggled to decide which horse to bank.  For 30 years we have loyally supported Hosni Mubarak, a brutal dictator, whose feared secret police tortured and murdered their own citizens with impunity, even as we played lip service to the principles of democracy.  America has a rich and lengthy history of supporting right-wing dictators across the globe.  As long as they do our bidding and tow the line, they are our dictators and we support them.  We publicly express rhetorical support for democracy and democratic movements, but it's mostly in the abstract and has always yielded to the imperatives of realpolitiks.  Most Americans forget (or never knew) that Saaddam Hassein was once our ally; we supported him mightily, as long as he was at war with or nemesis, Iran.  Likewise with Osama bin Laden whom we armed, trained and supported as long as he fought the Soviet army in Afghanistan. Just a few of the brutal dictators we supported to the hilt for decades were Ferdinand Marcos in the Phillipines; Augusto Pinochet in Chili; Suharto in Indonesia; the Shah of Iran; Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, and countless others.  We love to talk the talk on democracy but we seldom walk the walk.  That hypocrisy is not lost on the rest of the world who see our claims to support "democracy" worldwide for what it is:  a matter of convenience and a lot of hot air.  Anyway, it remains to be seen how things play out in Egypt, whether the "democracy" we now claim to endorse there turns out to bite Amerca in the ass.  Democracy is a funny thing...the people can elect a government whose policies run counter to our own self interests.  As an aside, isn't it interesting that George W Bush ostensibly invaded Iraq in an attempt to bring democracy to the region, and yet the people of Egypt did it themselves, without a brutal war, in a peaceful maner?
Love & Peace,
Bill 

January 23, 2011

Dear Sis~

Hopefully you've dug out of the snow by now.  For the last several weeks it's dipped down into the twenties here, too, and our water faucet out in the rec yard froze up and split open (it's made of PVC pipe, though)...
I've been very busy the last two weeks with my nose in the law books as I've tried to anticipate what the State is going to say in their response to my Rule 3.851 motion.  The judge ordered them to respond by Jan 24th and I'll probably get my copy around the 26th or 27th.  I'll only have a short period of time to write my reply to their response, then get it to my attorney in time for him to review it, type it up and then mail it to the court.  This motion is a big deal for me; it's probably my last court proceeding (barring some unforseen turn of events down the line) and my issue is unique, there's no Florida case law precedent for what I'm doing, particularly in the context of a capital case.  Everything I've done up until now is designed to convince the trial court to grant me an evidentiary so I can prove my case.  I'll be even busier in the next 10 days...
Do you recall when you and I went to the movie theatre and watched the movie Born Free?  It must have been around 1964 or '65 because I was 10 or so and you were 11. The movie was about the Adamsons, a husband and wife team in Africa who had raised Elsa, a lioness, from a cub to an adult and then tried to reintroduce Elsa to the wild.  The movie, and the book it was based upon, and the theme song from the movie, all became huge hits.  The movie was great and made a big impression on me, reinforcing my love for animals, nature and the environment in general.  The reason I mentioned this is because PBS just aired a one-hour program, an update on the whole story, which I enjoyed greatly. Lot of old film footage, which brought back lots of memories for me.  I can still close my eyes and remember myself with you in that movie theatre, 45 years ago, full of wonder as I watched fully grown Elsa, 400+ pounds, playing like a pet with the Adamsons in their tents and around the campgrounds.  Sadly, both the Adamsons were murdered by poachers in separate incidents years later.  They gave their lives protecting the animals they loved.  The future of lions in the African wild does not look good; they used to be very numerous across the continent but now they are almost an endangered species, and sadly, the trend is very negative.  Seems like there is not enough room on this planet for both humans and lions...
That's it for now, Sis, I've gotta keep hitting the books.  Give the doggies a pat on the head for me!
Love, Bill

Christmas 2010

Dear Sis~

Christmas is here, a reminder of how quickly another year has fled.  As is my Christmas Day habit, I devote a few hours to meditation, reflecting on life's deeper meaning, pondering those enigmatic questions posed by the universe.  In the potent silence of a death row cell you have a lot more opportunity - not to mention incentive - than the average bear to indulge in such contemplation...
Yesterday I once again watched It's a Wonderful Life, with Jimmy Stewart (do you remember how we used to watch this on TV as kids, a half century ago?) It has a reputation for being hokey, a trite, corn pone film designed to shamelessly tug the heartstrings (which it does) ,but it's really a great story, firmly rooted in sound metaphysical principles, with a message grounded in universal truths.  It's withstood the decades well and if you suspend any cynicism, it's just plain good entertainment. Although it's now considered a holiday classic, this film was initially a commercial flop, the subject of much ridicule...
Our new governor, Rick Scott, gets sworn in next week.  His position on the death penalty is unknown to me, despite my efforts to uncover it.  During the entire campaign, I never heard any of the candidates even mention capital punishment.  The death penalty has lost some luster as the public has become increasingly aware of the substantial  number of exonerations - innocent men walking off death row - mostly due to postconvition DNA testing.  So, politicians just don't get the mileage from this issue that they used to be able to dependably rely upon.  Although Scott is a conservative Republican, he's never been a politician before; he's a career businessman who brings his own perspective to the table.  And, having spent $73 million of his own money to get elected, he is not beholden to anyone.  The optimist in me hopes he'll surprise me and be open to dismantling the machinery of death.  Just wishing!
Love & Peace,
Bill

Nov 20, 2010

Dear Sis~
Perhaps you've seen or read about the destitute homeless Arizona man who found an abandoned backpack containing $3,300 in cash.  It wasn't a lot of money, unless you're broke and living on the streets (or in a shelter) but this guy took the high road; he went out of his way to learn who the backpack belonged to (an Arizona State University student) and returned it to him.  A story like this makes each reader ask themselves what they would (honestly) do in that situation, keeping in mind that this guy was dead broke, a recovering alcoholic, had lost his driver's license due to multiple DUI arrests and was homeless.  It also makes you reconsider the stereotypes we carry in our minds.  How much would you wager that the ex-alcoholic, ex-convict homeless man would return the money?
Last night I watched an interesting documentary on NBC titled Harmony, produced and narrated by Prince Charles (yes, that Prince Charles of England, Prince of Wales).  I knew Charles was an environmentalist, but I didn't know how deeply and passionately he feels about it (and acts upon it).  The film was, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, about saving the planet through creative and substantial changes in our thoughts (about our place in the universe) and our behavior  (toward the earth).  He is totally committed to this, it isn't some Royal hobby, and I was impressed by his passion, and more importantly, by his actions.  This has become his life, and he is acquitting himself well. 
Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we'll be getting our yearly "Thanksgiving Day Supper."  Back in the day, it used to be a real, substantial meal that was special: a tray full of real turkey meat, fresh warm dinner rolls with butter, good stuffing, pumpkin pies, fresh vegetables, hard boiled eggs, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, salad, and sweet eggnog to drink.  All of this was cooked by us in our prison kitchen, and the food was grown and raised on prison farms.  It was all entirely in-house, at minimal cost to taxpayers.  But, many years ago, the Dept of Corrections (DOC) sold off all our farms and foolishly began buying all our food from free-world vendors, at much greater costs to taxpayers.  So, our food has gotten worse and worse, and the portions have become progressively smaller.  Why, you ask, would the DOC do away with our prison farms when they were so cost effective (free inmate labor working on free state land)?  It was, and always is, all about graft anmd corruption.  All our prisons spend millions and millions of dollars buying food from vendors.  These are serious contracts and allow prison officials to receive big kickbacks, while buying rotten food.  The corruption and graft with the DOC is deep and wide.  They do it with umpunity because they know nobody cares about what goes on in the DOC; it's a backwater that nobody ever investigates, an old-boy network that is like a parrallel universe.  If any serious (and independent) investigators or inspector generals ever swooped in here and really investigated, the corruption uncovered would be staggering.  So, our Thanksgiving meal will be no different from any other meal; rotten (and I meean that literally, we get rotten potatoes every single day) potatoes, cabbage, a single, thin slice of "turkey ham" (like a slice of bologna or salami), two slices of stale bread, and maybe a cookie or piece of sweet potato pie.  It's pitiful.
Our new governor, Rick Scott, claims to be all about saving money, cutting expenses, and privatizing everything.  Well, here's a tip for him that will save millions of taxpayer dollars:  First, appoint a real, serious professional Secretary of the Dept of Corrections, instead of the typical political hack that gets the job as a "favor" for political services rendered.  The DOC's annual budget is north of 3 Billion dollars, and taxpayers deserve someone in charge who can grasp that.  Second, every prison in Florida should be (and can be) made totally self sufficient in food production within three years.  We used to have our own farms, dairies, poultry farms, butcher sops, cattle ranches and hog farms.  This can be done but will be resisted by those who are invested in the current kickback/contract system.  Third, every prison in Florida should be energy self sufficient.  Solar panels on the roofs, wind turbines on every prison ground, geothermal systems, etc.... This requires up-front investments, but the feds will help pay for it in the form of Energy Grants and the pay outs will be quick and substantial.  These things can be done, but only if you hire an aggressive, intelligent Secretary of the DOC who has vision and determination.  With 100,000+ prisoners and a huge, bloated staff bureaucracy, an innovative DOC Secretary could save hundreds of millions of dollars that are currently wasted through incompetence, graft and outright theft.  That's my two-cents worth, anyway.
Love, Bill

Nov 6, 2010 - Election Day Aftermath

Dear Sis~

Election day has come and gone and in the tightest Florida gubernatorial race in 18 years, the millionair businessman won the day (with the help of the $73 Million of his own personal fortune he threw into the kitty).  Statistically, self-financed candidates i.e, millionaires and billionaires seeking to buy an office,  usually lose (witness Meg Whitman and the $140 Million she just spent unsuccessfully seeking to become a senator from California) but here in Florida, the voter bought Rick Scott's spiel (cut taxes, balance the budget).  Scott's timing was excellent:  a Republican, running in a heavily Republican state in an election cycle where Democrats were being blamed for all the world's ills.  Rick Scott's mantra was "it's time to change the course of Tallahassee" which is odd, considering we've had a Republican governor and a Republican-dominated legislature for the past 12 years.  He has not explained how he's going to cut taxes (Florida has no state income tax) and balance the budget, but those details are apparently unimportant.  He vows to eliminate, entirely, the corporation tax which makes you wonder how the government will provide any services at all.  Americans love their government-provided services but hate to pay any taxes for them (hence, our inevitable deficit spending and consequent ginormous budget deficits and national debt).
Anyway, we've got our new Governor.  Who knows ... myabe he'll turn out to be a good one:  He can hardly be worse than the professional politicians who normally run everything into the ground.  Of course, my interest is a lot more narrowly focused than the average citrizen; my interest begins and ends with a single salient question:  How many death warrants will Rick Scott sign?   Stay Tuned!
Love. Bill

Sept 20, 2010

Dear Sis~

A prisoner in the cell above me, David Johnston, died of a heart attack today.  He was 50 years old with a history of heart problems.  Needless to say, he was not getting any real medical treatment here.  As I've told you many times, if a prisoner gets really ill here, he'll just die.  I've seen many guys die in this prison from medical conditions which the so-called doctors have refused to treat, or treated incompletely.  Johnston was on the row since June 1984, over 26 years.  Actually, he had an "active death warrant".  Gov. Crist signed his death warrant about 8 or 9 months ago, but he got a last-minute stay of execution.  Ever since then, he's technically had an "active warrant", lacking only a date.  At any rate, that's one death row prisoner the executioner won't be getting a hold of.  I guess that counts for some sort of victory, from Johnston's perspective, at least not on this 3-dimensional plane...

We have an interesting gubernatorial election coming up next month.  Alex Sink, the current chief financial officer (a cabinet-level post in Florida) is the (female) Democratic nominee; Rick Scott, the multimillionaire businessman, whom nobody ever heard of until 6 months ago, is the far-right Republican nominee.  Scott was (still is) the CEO if a huge corporation which owns a chain of hospitals.  That corporation was found guilty of a $1.3 Billion Medicare fraud here in Florida.  Scott challenged Bill McCollum, the current Attorney General of Florida and the putative Republican choice, in the Republican primary, and surprisingly defeated him.  It was a very nasty campaign, lots of mud slinging by both sides.  McCollum has zero charisma or presence, he's very bland and unimaginative, and a classic career politician (he spent years in the US House of Representatives where he led the impeachment effort against President Clinton).  He thought the governorship was his by divine right simply because he was a Republican.  He was the choice of the party big wigs (they knew he's be an easily manipulated puppet, doing the bidding of big-money corporate interests). Rick Scott effectively labeled him as the career politician he is and Scott promised to be "more conservative" than McCollum, which is saying a lot.  Usually in Florida, all you need to do in order to win state-wide election is to portray yourself as more conservative than your opponent.  Anyway, I'm rooting for Alex Sink, who is very qualified and competent and will, I believe, make an excellent governor.  Florida has never had a female governor, and it's past time we had one.  I'm very pro-female when it comes to political leaders; they bring a much more common sense perspective to the arena, they are more about finding solutions to problems than most male politicians.  America is far behind the rest of the industrial west when it comes to the percentage of female political leaders, and it's our loss...

Well, Sis, that's about it from here.  I'm enjoying some rare leisure time, no legal work to do for a change, just catching up on some long-postponed reading.  Give the dogs a tummy rub for me (how I miss the company of dogs!) and give yourself a big hug!

Love,
Bill  

Sept 14, 2010

Dear Sis~

Yeah, I know it's been a long time since I've written an entry.  You know I'm always occupied, always busy doing something, mostly legal work, and mostly for others, but the last month has been particularly hectic as I hammered out the draft, then the final, edited version of my soon-to-be filed postconviction motion.  This will almost certainly be my last legal effort, unless something substantial unexpectedly falls into my lap, so I've put a lot of effort into this.  It should be filed by the end of this month or very soon thereafter...

The staying-busy thing - reading, writing, working out, studying, etc...- has been a constant in the decades I've spent in these cages.  Keeping the mind occupied is a form of therapy, and a way to maintain a grip on my sanity;  some guys go insane in these cells, and many simply begin to slip, short of insanity, but no longer grounded in reality, after many years alone in a cell.  I'm blessed with a strong mind and spirit, so losing my mind is not a concern.  But I do guard against the almost inevitable social deterioration, and the tendency to begin indulging in illusions and fantasy.  Locked in a cell 24/7, alone with your thoughts, it becomes easy to start slipping into a fantasy world, and in fact, I've done it, sometimes for weeks or months at a stretch, when I was locked down on Q-wing, in total isolation for years, or when I was in the hole, back when I was n population here, before death row.  Laying in my bunk in darkness, day afer day, month after month, I'd mentally design and build a dream house, for instance, brick by brick, room by room.  Or I'd design and build a small airplane, or perhaps mentally disassemble an engine.  Anything to occupy or control my thoughts, to pass the time.  Sometimes the thoughts became really irrational or fantastical, you imagine yourself in some position of power (president, senator, or hell...why not king or emporer of some fantasy nation?) and think of how well you'd govern, the laws you'd pass to create a just and fair utopia.  Who hasn't thought they could solve the world's problems if they could just be king for a day?  But being in isolation for months or years gives you the time to indulge such useless fantasies (unlike people in the free world who actually have a life to live).  Well, perhaps they're not totally useless because if you're a keen observer of yuor own thoughts, such day dreaming can teach you a lot about yourself (what would you really do if you possessed full and unlimited power?  Would your better angels dominate?  We'd like to think so, right?)  Nowadays I work hard to avoid indulging in these long-term reveries as they're a waste of time, and time is the one thing I have too little of...

We have an interesting governor's race going on here, with the election less than 2 months away.  Florida (like most of the south) has never elected a femal governor and a female, Alex Sink, is now running - and running well - as the Democratic nominee.  I'll write more about it next time.  Death row prisoners in Florida have a unique and compelling interest in who the governor is since the govrnor is the one who signs, or does not sign, death warrants.  If I'm executed, it will be because some governor has picked my name off the list and decided to kill me...

Gotta get back to work.  Give the doggies a hug for me!

Love & Peace, Bill

Aug 15, 2010

Dear Sis~

I read that Kenya's highest court of appeals unanimously held that mandatory death sentences are unconstitutional, meaning hundreds of prisoners must now receive a new sentencing hearing, this time where they can present mitigating evidence.  The old law required a mandatory death sentence as the only punishment for a person convicted of murder.  (Our US Supreme Court outlawed mandatory death sentences 34 years ago).  Kenya has not executed anyone in 23 years, by the way.  The same court of appeals spoke strongly about extended incarceration on death row, stating that holding a person on death row for more than 3 years would be unconstitutional...
Closer to home, The Economist, a really interesting magazine, reported that mass incarceration in America continues at record high levels despite the incredibly high costs (financial and other).  At 748 persons per 100,000 citizens America, by far, has the highest oncarceration rate in the world, locking up five times more people per capita than Britain, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more than Japan.  We have almost 2.5 million prisoners here, and many, many more on parole or probation.  The trend isa ever upwards.  In 1970, one in 400 Americans were incarcerated, compared with today's rate of one in 100.  Including those on parole or probation, one adult American in 31 is under correctional supervision.  The far majority of these are in for noviolent crimes.  The number of drug offenders in federal and state prisons has oncreased 13-fold since 1980.  This is a direct result of concrete policies to incarcerate as many Americans as possible (i.e., a deliberate choice to use incarceration as the primary tool, as poopsed to other solutions).  In America, we are all about locking folks up and throwing away the key.  It is completely accurate to describe America as a prison nation.  The annual costs of incarceration continue to skyrocket (but prisons provide jobs!); in California, the cost is around $50,000 per prisoner per year, which is seven times what California spends per student on education.  That speaks volumes about our priorities, and that statistic demonstrates our problems in a nutshell.  I see a direct correlation between our penchant for spending scarce public resources on increasing rates of incarceration and our school kids' ever-increasing decline in academic achievement.  America now ranks far below even some third-world nations when it comes to our childrens' scholastic knowledge and abikities.  We'd rather spend our money on prisons and teachers...
All other civilized nations, from the Netherlands to Sweden to Japan to Denmark, have long ago turned away from mass incarceration and now use innovative solutions which have markedly reduced crime rates.  Even New York has demonstrated this approach can work in the US; it reduced the violent crime rate by 40% between 1997 and 2007 while cutting its incarceration rate by 15%.  But the vast majority of politicians believe in one thing: building more prisons and filling them up as fast as possible.  It's all part of our oddly persistent puritanical heritage which is obsessed with guilt and punishment.  Nations, like people, reap what they sow, and in that sense, we deserve what we've got...
Give the doggies a tummy rub for me, Sis, and give yourself a big hug.
Love, Bill

Aug 3, 2010

Dear Sis~

The dog days of summer are upon us here in this sweltering, stifling cellblock.  Last night, like many nights before, I awoke around 3:00 am, drenched in sweat and feeling on fire.  The lack of any meaningful ventilation renders the tiny fans sold in the canteen ineffectual; all they do is push the hot, humid air around. 

Last week, out on the rec yard, I watched a crew of prisoners enter and scrub down the execution chamber and witness room on the bottom floor of Q-Wing.  Later that day our wing sargeant told us that they had conducted a "mock execution" drill.  I'm guessing that Governor Crist is on the verge of signing one or more death warrants.  With an election around the corner, an execution is a time-tested method of gaining favorable publicity, shoring up the "tough on crime" cred of any southern politician.  It's a cheap. feel-good solution for whatever ails a politician's shaky poll numbers, as exemplified by President Clinton's infamous 1992 pre-election move when he flew back to Arkansas from the campaign trail to execute a profoundly retarded and brain-damaged convict, despite the personal pleas from the Pope (and many other world leaders) to spare his life.  Clinton, who was being labeled by Republicans as "soft on crime" knew it was good politics to kill that guy.  Arguably, that move helped propel Clinton into the White House (and it was a tip off, to those paying attention, to slick Willie's true character and moral ambiguities)...

Just read a very insightful and informative aritcle in the Aug 2nd New Yorker magazine titled Letting Go by  Atul Gawande, a physician.  The article deals with that very sensitive subject - death - and, in particular, when and under what circumstances does a terminally ill person (or his loved ones) decide to forgo furher, futile medical procedures and allow events to take their natural course.  There have been many articles and studies on the subject and I won't attempt to describe this particular one, other than to say it's well worth reading by anyone and everyone, even if they don't currently know anyone who is terminally ill.  The time to begin weighing these issues is before you have to... The article can be found on http://www.newyorker.com/

It's increasingly depressing and disappointing to read about the epidemic of obesity in this country (and which is inexorably spreading around the rest of the world).  I didn't pay much attention to it for years, thinking it was mostly hyperbole, but the statistics are now overwhelming and alarming.  The health of our kids and  future generations is absolutely at risk; we're becoming a nation of diabetics, right before our eyes.  Mostly, this has to do with our processed foods, much of which isn't even true food, just artificial vehicles for delivering fat and calories.  Because I'm blessed with an excellent metabolism and am, more or less, naturally trim, I failed to appreciate the scope of this problem, but it cannopt be ignored any longer.  I'll offer up my own humble solution: besides eating right, avoiding most processed junk foods, as you know, 10 years ago I began fasting every other day.  Initially, it was just to quickly lose 6 or 7 pounds, but after 2 weeks, I felt so good I never stopped.  I intuitively felt it was good for me and the last decade has proven me correct.  I still work out as hard as ever (on my eating days) and my weight has been constant the entire time.  I figure this must be my "natural weight", the point where I neither gain or lose weight.  The fasting is not hard; you quickly acclimate and it becomes normal to you (and you really appreciate those meals on your eating days!) Anyone can do this and they'll feel great and healthy, too.  (My blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, etc, is excellent).  Anyway, it works for me...

That's it from the state pen, Sis.  Keep your chin up and a smile on your face!
Love, Bill

June 27, 2010

Dear Sis~

I'm finishing up a compelling historical military account written by a young Winston Churchill, first published in 1899, titledThe River War, accurately subtitled An Account of the Conquest of the Sudan.  Over the last 35 years (mostly in the 70's) I've read all of Churchill's major publications (he was a prolific writer) including his famous five or six volume history of World War II (sort of a combination autobiography and history text).  I'd forgotten what a fine writer Churchill was (notwithstanding the somewhat archaic linguistic nuances typical of that time period) and I'm even more impressed by how well he wrote at such an early age.  This book picks up after the disasterous military campaign of General Charles Gordon in the Sudan (then a land violently annexed and cruelly administered by Egypt) and details the English Empire's "reconquest" of the Sudan by Lord Kitchener.  This occurred from 1896 to 1899, and was of course during the zenith of the European imperialism and colonialism era.  Churchill was an ardent believer in colonialism, he was a product of his time, and the book was written from that perspective.  There was a time when I was young and naive, that I would have read this book with a high degree of admiration for Chruchill (who participated in the final battles)  and the English Empire's  aspirations.  That was before I began to think for myself and learned to view history through a different lens, from the perspective of the oppressed nations.  Anyway, what's interesting about this book is how it chronicles the history of the Sudan, including the Darfur region, tracing the contrasts and conflicts between Arabs and Africans, Muslims and Christians, north and south, rich and poor.  This region was dominated by slave trading (Arab slave traders from the north capturing indigenous black Africans from the south) and characterized by terrible suffering and cruelty.  The British stuck their noses into this desolate, stone-age land thinking (or at least proclaiming) they could better the natives' living conditions by violently removing the Egyptian and Arab yokes.  Sort of like how America is always invading some hapless country "for it's own good".  It's interesting to read about all the cultural/racial/religious/financial aspects of 1890's Sudan and see how these same things are in play right now in today's headlines about the Sudan and the Darfur region.  If you want to understand what's going on in the Sudan today, reading this book would be a good place to start...
That's it for now, Sis!
Love. Bill

June 18, 2010

Dear Sis~

Last night Utah executed Ronnie Lee Gardner by firing squad (his choice over the lethal injection alternative).  Five volunteer executioners using Winchester .30-30 rifles stood behind a cinder block wall some 20 feet away from the prisoner, strapped to an oversized chair, surrounded by sandbags (this is done indoors), and fired through slits in the wall, aiming at a picture of a heart pinned to the guy's chest.  Only four executioners fired live rounds;  the fifth executioner, selected at random, fires a blank shell, which is supposed to assuage any latent guilt over killing someone since, theoretically, nobody really "knows" if they fird a blank or a live round.  In reality, it's easy to distinguish the recoil from a live round compared to a blank.  More relevant, all of these executioners volunteered, so they obviously wanted to kill the guy, thus no guilt to free them from. The old blank-cartridge days came from the day when firing squads were drafted from the ranks and a soldier had no opt-out provision.  Anyway, you can imagine what four .30-30 rounds (designed to kill deer, hogs and black bears) does to a man's chest; they probably blew a gaping hole right out through his back.  All this is done before a room of witnesses; it's ll a macabre, riutalistic spectacle, appropriate for a country which claims to be the most advanced and civilized nation on earth, with the moral authority to preach to other countries about "human rights".  Most of our citizens are too indoctrinated (and unreflective) to see the irony in this position.  And, oh, by the way, the State of Utah bestows upon each executioner a "commemorative coin" to celebrate each shooter's actions.  Isn't that a neat token to pass down to your children?  To demonstrate what a faithful piece of the mcahine their Daddy was?  I'm sure it will make them proud of their pops!
Love, Bill

June 1, 2010

Dear Sis~

Summer is only 3 weeks away, although I can't tell from these sweltering cells.  By July it will feel like a sauna in this massive cellblock, which absorbs the fierce heat all day, then radiates it all night.  Our only saving grace is these little electric fans we can buy from the canteen.  We had to file a fderal lawsuit some years ago to win the right to purchase fans.  Prior to that it was not uncommon, on many a hot day, for prisoners here (including me) to throw about an inch of water on the cell floor, then lay naked in the puddle, staring up at the ceiling, making "snow angels", panting like a dog.  Now, it's only marginally better, providing you have a fan (not everyone can afford one)...

I'm finally beginning to read War and Peace, one of those classics I've been intending to read for decades, but somehow never got around to.  Actually, I'm working on my own case, my Rule 3.850 motion, but during my breaks I'm relaxing by reading.  I've got a stack of classics I'm slowly working my way throuigh, enjoying the beauty of great literature.  Maybe I'll get motivated agan to resume my own writing journey...

For the last few weeks, each time I've gone out to the rec yard, I've engaged an animated mockingbird.  I'll whistle for him and he'll soon fly over and perch on a fence post where we trade whistles and chirps and various calls.  As I pace around the rectangular yard, he follows me, flitting from pole to pole, exchanging calls and whistles.  That's my only encounter with nature in this otherwise sterile and desolate dump...

I was going to write about the big oil spill but, damn, it's just too depressing.  There's nothing I can do to add to that sad, tragic tale which is a commentary on our own foolishness...

Keep your chin up and keep smiling!

Light & Love,
Bill

May 15, 2010

Dear Sis~

I forgot to mention that last month I reeived an unsolicited, rather large envelope from an Eastern Orthodox Church Fellowship in St Augustine containing three hand-drawn Easter cards (crayons on colored construction paper) made by little children, each of whom signed their card with a looping, childish signature. The cards had pictures of angels, of Christ, and other Biblical references and expressed love for mankind in general and me in particular.  It was easy to picture these kids at a table, their little faces screwed up in concentration as they earnestly drew and clored in each card.  These cards were very sweet and really touched my heart; the evident sincerity and genuine affection typical of a young kid's heart inexplicably filled me with joy.  I guess it's a function of being in a cell for so many years with no exposure to the gentler things in life (like the innocence of the little ones), to suddenly experience some unexpected kindness takes on an oversized importance.  Anyway, it was very sweet and I'm very grateful for what turned out to be a true gift.  I wrote the fellowship a warm thank you note letting them know how much it meant to me...
 From what I'm learning about Elena Kagan I think she'll make a fine Supreme Court Justice.  Nobody can replace Stevens; he's a lion and a giant among the small-minded, pinched-perspective ultra conservative Republicans dominating the court (Scalia, alito, Roberts, and the Uncle Tom yes-man, lap dog Thomas) but, as the saying goes, nobody n the world is irreplaceable.  Stevens' time has come and gone, unfortunately, and someone must now fill his shoes.  Kagan is cut from excellent cloth and my expectations are high.  At 50, Kagan is relatively young and should be making her mark on the court for the next 25 years...
I've finally finished my last big legal project - about 8 weeks of hard work, followed by great relief in completing the task - and now I'm taking a well-deserved break.  Lots of recreational reading and relaxing ahead, at least until the next job.
Light & Love,
Bill

April 22, 2010 Earth Day

Dear Sis~

Just watched a thought-provoking (and depressing) documentary on PBS titled Worse than War; the subject matter was genocide - why and how it happens - and the film investigated a number of well-known instances, from the Holocaust to Rwanda, to Cambodia, to the Balkans, etc...  It was a vivid reminder of what a brutal species we can be, and how thin the veneer of civilization really is.  When the right mix of politics, religion, ethnic hatreds and economic factors converge, the gloves come off and man's darkest impulses rise to the top like curdled cream...

A different PBS program, which put a smile on my face was Through a Dog's Eyes, a heart-warming tale of how service dogs are raised and trained to help those with special needs.  A number of excellent small companies or organizations, invariably non-profits, are dedicated to breeding and raising these special dogs, then matching them up with their new owners, many of who are kids, usually suffering from multiple sclerosis or some other form of paralysis, or seizures (some of these dogs are capable of detecting the onset of seizures, 10 - 20 minutes before they occur, and alerting the person about what's about to happen.  Nobody knows how the dogs can do this; it's an inate capability that comes naturally).  It was neat to watch the kids meet and bond with the big, friendly dogs (mostly labs) over the 4 or 5 days set aside for the process.  Most of these kis are terribly lonely, with no friends, and the dogs, besides being helpers, fill a big void.  The kids' faces light up with excitement when they get their dogs! 

Well, I've got a baldie again... The wing sergeant decided my hair was "too long" (it must have been a whole 2 inches long) and he ordered me to get it cut off.  As you know, there's only one style offered here:  a mandatory buzz cut with a numer one or number two blade.  That's why everyone here looks like a prototypical convict.  This is something of a fetish with the guards here at FSP...they want us to look like that.  It's  a violation of tyhe DOC standrds, which allows us to have hair considerably longer ( as long s it does not cover the ears or collar).  In the old days prisoners could be written up for cutting their hair off; the administration felt it was a gang symbol of some sort.  Now, it;'s the guards forcing us to look like the 1930's convicts.  This seems to amuse them. Anyway, I could care less;  I have a lot more substantial things to concern myself with than my hair ...

Alright, Sis, I've gotta get back to work on this legal project.  Give the dogs a tummy rub for me!

Love & Peace

Bill