April 20, 2009

Dear Sis~
Today Governor Crist signed two death warrants; I don't know the two guys' names (I heard one is named Johnson) but I was told their execution dates are May 15th and June 1st. This is the first time Crist has signed two in one day; he's picking up his pace. Both of these guys were housed at U.C.I., across the river, where 80% of the death row guys are housed (there's only about 60 of us here at F.S.P.)...
Tonight I watched a second installment of a 5-part series on PBS titled We Shall Remain, an excellent mini-series/documentary on the Native Americans, from the days of the Mayflower up to the early 1970's (the second Wounded Knee). This is very well thought out and produced, telling the story from the Native Americans' point of view, for a change. A different history was taught to us in our schools. History, of course, is written by the victors.
A big storm came through a week ago and damaged our TV antenna on the roof, so we can only get 3 TV stations now, 2 of which are PBS, which is fine with me, as that's my favorite channel anyway. All our TV stuff - antennas, cable system and TV's - are paid for by us prisoners and/or privately donated; there's no state money used at all...
I forgot to mention in my last entry that 11 guards here at F.S.P. were fired and/or suspended over a beating incident here. Some guards jumped on one or more prisoners and it was caught on camera. Apparently they thought the cameras were not on because the prison's electricity had failed due to a transformer explosion the night before. One newspaper article said it was 15 guards, with the other 4 guards being at U.C.I., implying there were two separate incidents. It's less than clear just what occurred, but I can tell you that the beatings here have been greatly reduced since I left 9 years ago. The culture and atmosphere has changed greatly, for the better. So, this was somewhat of an aberration. The cameras alone have made a big difference...
OK, Sis, that's it from here. Give the doggies a hug for me!
Love, Bill