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
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
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
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
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
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
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
Monday, January 03, 2011
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
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
Sunday, December 05, 2010
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
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
Sunday, November 14, 2010
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
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
Thursday, October 07, 2010
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
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
Monday, September 20, 2010
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
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
Friday, August 20, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
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
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
Thursday, July 01, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
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
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
Thursday, May 27, 2010
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
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
Monday, April 26, 2010
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
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
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Capital Defense Weekly link
This group provides information on cases and litigation of death penalty cases and current news of executions, stays, ect. Bill has begun using their servies and he's found a lot of useful information for his case.
Monday, April 12, 2010
March 28, 2010
Dear Sis~
California voters gathered sufficient signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot to legalize marijuana; if it passes, you'll be able to possess up to one ounce and grow a "small number" of plants in your home (I later heard the number of plants is 20, not very small at one to two pounds per plant). My guess is that the inititative will pass.The folks who organized the ballot measure were smart enough to title it "Tax on Cannabis Act", thereby emphasizing the revenue gathering aspect, which will help Californians dig their way out of the enormous deficit crater they've driven their state into. There will be real tension between the new state law and the federal statutes making weed illegal, but as long as the feds (read: DEA) decline to pursue and prosecute it will all be good. Repubicans, and law enforcement are naturally opposed to the measure. Republicans claim to be all about "states rights" and "the voice of the people", until the state or the people decide they want something the Republicans are against (e.g., assisted suicid, decriminalization of drugs), then all the states' rights talk goes out the window. And, law enforcement is simply a cog of the great prison industrial complex, which has a vested interest in keeping jails and prisons full (that translates into a lot of jobs for prosecutors, cops, prison guards and all jobs related thereto). If it passes, the initiative will dissolve all marijuana smuggling overnight (at least as far as California goes; nation-wide legalization would, of course, eliminate all marijuana smuggling nation-wide) and put them all out of business. That would be a good thing by social standards, right? But of course the law enforcement cabal is dead set against it. If it passes, this will be the vanguard of eventual legalization across the land. It will take time, but it will happen. And it's long past due. The idea of keeping hundreds of thousands of citizens in prisons for yearsand years, ruining their lives forever after (try getting a job as an ex-convict if you don't think your life gets ruined) for the "crime" of smoking weed is immoral, outrageous and counterproductive, as anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows. It's way past time for America to grow up, get a life, and leave people alone (why aren't the Republican/Tea Party folks behind this? They claim to be all about "personal freedoms" and "getting the government out of our lives"). And don't even get me started about the Biblical injunction, the book of Genesis which declares that God put all plants, seeds and herbs on the earth for mankind to cultivate and use for man's benefit. Where are all those fundamental preachers when you need them?!!!...
Saw a good movie on TV today, Life as a House; sad, uplifting, poignant, a tear-jerker, well worth watching...
Tomorrow is canteen day; in the joint canteen day is the centerpiece of the week, the day everyone looks forward to (this is for maximum security, lockdown joints. Guys in open population go to the canteen window every day). Tomorrow we get our little goodies, from cookies to honey buns, from potato chips to coffee, from pens and paper and flip flops to slim jims, tuna fish and the old standby, instant soup in a cup. Of course, that's only for guys with money. Most guys on the row have very little money, or none at all. Some guys never get canteen at all, ever. Guys in a bare cell, with no TV, no radio, no visits and no letters at mail call - a very lonely existence for 15 or 20 years, until they drag them to Q wing and kill them...
That's it for now, Sis
Love, Bill
California voters gathered sufficient signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot to legalize marijuana; if it passes, you'll be able to possess up to one ounce and grow a "small number" of plants in your home (I later heard the number of plants is 20, not very small at one to two pounds per plant). My guess is that the inititative will pass.The folks who organized the ballot measure were smart enough to title it "Tax on Cannabis Act", thereby emphasizing the revenue gathering aspect, which will help Californians dig their way out of the enormous deficit crater they've driven their state into. There will be real tension between the new state law and the federal statutes making weed illegal, but as long as the feds (read: DEA) decline to pursue and prosecute it will all be good. Repubicans, and law enforcement are naturally opposed to the measure. Republicans claim to be all about "states rights" and "the voice of the people", until the state or the people decide they want something the Republicans are against (e.g., assisted suicid, decriminalization of drugs), then all the states' rights talk goes out the window. And, law enforcement is simply a cog of the great prison industrial complex, which has a vested interest in keeping jails and prisons full (that translates into a lot of jobs for prosecutors, cops, prison guards and all jobs related thereto). If it passes, the initiative will dissolve all marijuana smuggling overnight (at least as far as California goes; nation-wide legalization would, of course, eliminate all marijuana smuggling nation-wide) and put them all out of business. That would be a good thing by social standards, right? But of course the law enforcement cabal is dead set against it. If it passes, this will be the vanguard of eventual legalization across the land. It will take time, but it will happen. And it's long past due. The idea of keeping hundreds of thousands of citizens in prisons for yearsand years, ruining their lives forever after (try getting a job as an ex-convict if you don't think your life gets ruined) for the "crime" of smoking weed is immoral, outrageous and counterproductive, as anyone with an ounce of intelligence knows. It's way past time for America to grow up, get a life, and leave people alone (why aren't the Republican/Tea Party folks behind this? They claim to be all about "personal freedoms" and "getting the government out of our lives"). And don't even get me started about the Biblical injunction, the book of Genesis which declares that God put all plants, seeds and herbs on the earth for mankind to cultivate and use for man's benefit. Where are all those fundamental preachers when you need them?!!!...
Saw a good movie on TV today, Life as a House; sad, uplifting, poignant, a tear-jerker, well worth watching...
Tomorrow is canteen day; in the joint canteen day is the centerpiece of the week, the day everyone looks forward to (this is for maximum security, lockdown joints. Guys in open population go to the canteen window every day). Tomorrow we get our little goodies, from cookies to honey buns, from potato chips to coffee, from pens and paper and flip flops to slim jims, tuna fish and the old standby, instant soup in a cup. Of course, that's only for guys with money. Most guys on the row have very little money, or none at all. Some guys never get canteen at all, ever. Guys in a bare cell, with no TV, no radio, no visits and no letters at mail call - a very lonely existence for 15 or 20 years, until they drag them to Q wing and kill them...
That's it for now, Sis
Love, Bill
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
March 11, 2010
Dear Sis~
This prison has just completed a three-day inspection (an "audit", technically) by the A.C.A. (American Correctional Institute). For the week leading up to the audit the prison staff was in a near panic as they had prisoners racing around, attempting to spruce the joint up, repairing plumbing here, painting there, etc... This prison is decrepit and their attempts to make it look presentable are not very successful, other than on a superficial basis. They sent a paint squad onto our wing to paint the walls and bars, which are encrusted with decades of filth and grime, and a good bit of black mold which doggedly persists no matter how much you try to scrub it away. (I can only use toothpaste or shampoo along with a toothbrush to scrub the black mold, since the DOC long ago quit issuing any kind of liquid soaps or disinfectant for cleaning purposes, as a money-saving tactic). As soon as the humidity reaches a hgh level for 2-3 days, you wake up to find the supposedly dead black mold spreading along the cell bars and walls, fuzzy as a chia pet. Anyway, the paint squad simply painted over the filth and black mold, no attempt to clean anything first. As Jesus observed, like whitewashing a sepulcher. They even painted the entire insides of the showers, bright-white, slapping a cheap water-based paint over the moldy ceramic tiles. It's already peeling off and clogging up the shower drains. The only good thing about an ACA audit is that our food improves a little for 3 days. It's all a charade, anyway. The ACA mused to actually be a useful organization about 25 years ago. It was a non-profit organization of independent professionals who inspected and objectively graded and evaluated each prison, using a point system/grade scale to determine if the joint would pass or fail. They judged each prison in various areas, such as health care (regular, mental & dental), classification, safety, food, recreation, programs, etc. If a prison got a high enough total of points, they were "accredited" by the ACA, and that used to mean something. Prisons and prison systems wanted to be accredited so they actually tried to improve their prisons. The ACA's standards were good ones, well thought out, and invariably improved the quality of life inside. However, about 20 years ago, the ACA was "taken over" by a raft of ex-Dept of Corrections employees from around the country (ex-wardens, ex-directors of various state Departments of Correction) and it morphed into a money-making organization which was made up of the same crew who were being audited. It became a good-ole-boy club - they lowered their standards and made it easier and easier to get accredited. It was a classic case of the inmates running the asylum. Sort of how the FDA get s staffed by ex-drug company executives who then go on to "oversee" the drug companies, or how the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department get staffed by ex-Goldman Sachs executives who then purport to "regulate" their buddies in the banking industry and on Wall Street. So, nowadays, every prison gets accredited, no matter how lousy they are. It's a joke now, a lame whitewash, just as "Wall Street regulatory reforms" are a joke. Nobody really cares, anyway. The public cares nothing about how corrupt and dysfunctional their prison systems are, they are not even on their radar. The public only pays attention to prisoners when one of them gets out and commits some sensational crime, and then, all you see is a knee-jerk reaction, demanding that prisons be made more harsh and punitive (as if they aren't already ahrsh and punitive, with a total lack of any pretense of rehabilitation). Anyway, the ACA is gone now and our "food" has reverted back to its normal garbage status...
David Johnston, who was scheduled for execution in 2 weeks, got a surprising stay of execution 2 days ago. I say surprising becasue 90 days ago he was close to execution when the Florida Supreme Court has just given him another stay (I don't know what his legal issue was, though). This is one lucky guy, I know that. (He's been on death row about 20 years so he's already exhausted all his legal issues, already picked the low-hanging fruit). Whether he's still alive in 6 months remains to be seen.
Love, Bill
This prison has just completed a three-day inspection (an "audit", technically) by the A.C.A. (American Correctional Institute). For the week leading up to the audit the prison staff was in a near panic as they had prisoners racing around, attempting to spruce the joint up, repairing plumbing here, painting there, etc... This prison is decrepit and their attempts to make it look presentable are not very successful, other than on a superficial basis. They sent a paint squad onto our wing to paint the walls and bars, which are encrusted with decades of filth and grime, and a good bit of black mold which doggedly persists no matter how much you try to scrub it away. (I can only use toothpaste or shampoo along with a toothbrush to scrub the black mold, since the DOC long ago quit issuing any kind of liquid soaps or disinfectant for cleaning purposes, as a money-saving tactic). As soon as the humidity reaches a hgh level for 2-3 days, you wake up to find the supposedly dead black mold spreading along the cell bars and walls, fuzzy as a chia pet. Anyway, the paint squad simply painted over the filth and black mold, no attempt to clean anything first. As Jesus observed, like whitewashing a sepulcher. They even painted the entire insides of the showers, bright-white, slapping a cheap water-based paint over the moldy ceramic tiles. It's already peeling off and clogging up the shower drains. The only good thing about an ACA audit is that our food improves a little for 3 days. It's all a charade, anyway. The ACA mused to actually be a useful organization about 25 years ago. It was a non-profit organization of independent professionals who inspected and objectively graded and evaluated each prison, using a point system/grade scale to determine if the joint would pass or fail. They judged each prison in various areas, such as health care (regular, mental & dental), classification, safety, food, recreation, programs, etc. If a prison got a high enough total of points, they were "accredited" by the ACA, and that used to mean something. Prisons and prison systems wanted to be accredited so they actually tried to improve their prisons. The ACA's standards were good ones, well thought out, and invariably improved the quality of life inside. However, about 20 years ago, the ACA was "taken over" by a raft of ex-Dept of Corrections employees from around the country (ex-wardens, ex-directors of various state Departments of Correction) and it morphed into a money-making organization which was made up of the same crew who were being audited. It became a good-ole-boy club - they lowered their standards and made it easier and easier to get accredited. It was a classic case of the inmates running the asylum. Sort of how the FDA get s staffed by ex-drug company executives who then go on to "oversee" the drug companies, or how the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department get staffed by ex-Goldman Sachs executives who then purport to "regulate" their buddies in the banking industry and on Wall Street. So, nowadays, every prison gets accredited, no matter how lousy they are. It's a joke now, a lame whitewash, just as "Wall Street regulatory reforms" are a joke. Nobody really cares, anyway. The public cares nothing about how corrupt and dysfunctional their prison systems are, they are not even on their radar. The public only pays attention to prisoners when one of them gets out and commits some sensational crime, and then, all you see is a knee-jerk reaction, demanding that prisons be made more harsh and punitive (as if they aren't already ahrsh and punitive, with a total lack of any pretense of rehabilitation). Anyway, the ACA is gone now and our "food" has reverted back to its normal garbage status...
David Johnston, who was scheduled for execution in 2 weeks, got a surprising stay of execution 2 days ago. I say surprising becasue 90 days ago he was close to execution when the Florida Supreme Court has just given him another stay (I don't know what his legal issue was, though). This is one lucky guy, I know that. (He's been on death row about 20 years so he's already exhausted all his legal issues, already picked the low-hanging fruit). Whether he's still alive in 6 months remains to be seen.
Love, Bill
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
February 16, 2010
Dear Sis~
The execution of Martin "Eddie" Grossman (known by his friends as Eddie Spaghetti) occurred two hours ago. I habitually meditateduring the hour straddling the appointed time of death (6pm in Florida; 9pm when I resided in Virginia) and did so again tonight. Some of these meditations are less successful than others. Tonight I was distracted by the low hum of surrounding conversations, the typical talk and banter of men caged together, talking about this and that - the latest soap opera episode on TV, how their favorite sports teams are doing - anything and everything but the salient fact that just 150 feet away a fellow prisoner was being killed. It was disconcerting, though not atypical, that these guys were ignoring what was transpiring in their midst. Anyway, the deed is done and now my thoughts have turned, as they always do, to whose death warrant might be signed next. There are about 40 guys (my rough estimate - I could be off by 10 or more guys) eligible to have their death warrants signed, with me being squarely in that group (at least for now), and the governor's selection process is totally arbitrary and capricious. Gov. Crist can pick and choose whoever he wants, at any time, for any reason, or, he can pick nobody at all. Right now, Crist is in a precarious political position. He voluntarily chose, a year ago, not to run for a second term, although at the time, he was fairly popular and seemed a shoo-in for reelection. Instead, he announced his intention to run for US Senate, to fill the vacant seat of a retiring Republican Senator, Mel Martinez (a mediocre, dull politician even by today's low standards). At the time, it probably seemed like a brilliant move, part of Crist's imagined inevitable climb to the Presidency, a post he very much aspires to. But in the past eyar, the political winds have turned, with the far-right Republicans and their fellow travellers, the "Tea Baggers", becoming ascendant. Now, Crist faces a vigorous fight in the Republican primary from a young-and upcoming Miami politician named Mario Rubio, a guy short on experience and brainpower, but arriving in a very slick GQ-type package, and a Cuban-American to boot, which in Miami, where he's from, is 80% of the battle. With the rise of the extreme right of the party of NO, guys like Rubio (echoing Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh) have taken control. Whether this is a long-term phenomena or a temporary flash in the pan remains unknown. But right now, it looks like Rubio (who claims Crist is "too liberal") is going to get the nod in the primary, which will leave Crist out in the cold, a civilian again, stripped of any office. What does this all have to do with me, you ask? Well, as Crist tries to belatedly tack to the right in an attempt to recapture some of the disaffected masses, I suspect he'll indulge in the time-honored practice of executing more men. Killing people is a great way to reaffirm your conservative cred! Election years are traditionally bad for guys on the row as politicians pander to their perceived audience and prove how tough they are by signing more death warrants. Crist could surprise me by deciding the battle is lost and so choose not to participate in the killing experience any longer, to exit the scene with no more blood on his hands. But I won't be holding my breath. Like everyone else here, all I can do is wake up each morning wondering if today is the day the governor picks my name out of the hat and makes me a reservation for a date on the gurney. Welcome to another American election year!
Love & Peace,
Bill
The execution of Martin "Eddie" Grossman (known by his friends as Eddie Spaghetti) occurred two hours ago. I habitually meditateduring the hour straddling the appointed time of death (6pm in Florida; 9pm when I resided in Virginia) and did so again tonight. Some of these meditations are less successful than others. Tonight I was distracted by the low hum of surrounding conversations, the typical talk and banter of men caged together, talking about this and that - the latest soap opera episode on TV, how their favorite sports teams are doing - anything and everything but the salient fact that just 150 feet away a fellow prisoner was being killed. It was disconcerting, though not atypical, that these guys were ignoring what was transpiring in their midst. Anyway, the deed is done and now my thoughts have turned, as they always do, to whose death warrant might be signed next. There are about 40 guys (my rough estimate - I could be off by 10 or more guys) eligible to have their death warrants signed, with me being squarely in that group (at least for now), and the governor's selection process is totally arbitrary and capricious. Gov. Crist can pick and choose whoever he wants, at any time, for any reason, or, he can pick nobody at all. Right now, Crist is in a precarious political position. He voluntarily chose, a year ago, not to run for a second term, although at the time, he was fairly popular and seemed a shoo-in for reelection. Instead, he announced his intention to run for US Senate, to fill the vacant seat of a retiring Republican Senator, Mel Martinez (a mediocre, dull politician even by today's low standards). At the time, it probably seemed like a brilliant move, part of Crist's imagined inevitable climb to the Presidency, a post he very much aspires to. But in the past eyar, the political winds have turned, with the far-right Republicans and their fellow travellers, the "Tea Baggers", becoming ascendant. Now, Crist faces a vigorous fight in the Republican primary from a young-and upcoming Miami politician named Mario Rubio, a guy short on experience and brainpower, but arriving in a very slick GQ-type package, and a Cuban-American to boot, which in Miami, where he's from, is 80% of the battle. With the rise of the extreme right of the party of NO, guys like Rubio (echoing Glen Beck and Rush Limbaugh) have taken control. Whether this is a long-term phenomena or a temporary flash in the pan remains unknown. But right now, it looks like Rubio (who claims Crist is "too liberal") is going to get the nod in the primary, which will leave Crist out in the cold, a civilian again, stripped of any office. What does this all have to do with me, you ask? Well, as Crist tries to belatedly tack to the right in an attempt to recapture some of the disaffected masses, I suspect he'll indulge in the time-honored practice of executing more men. Killing people is a great way to reaffirm your conservative cred! Election years are traditionally bad for guys on the row as politicians pander to their perceived audience and prove how tough they are by signing more death warrants. Crist could surprise me by deciding the battle is lost and so choose not to participate in the killing experience any longer, to exit the scene with no more blood on his hands. But I won't be holding my breath. Like everyone else here, all I can do is wake up each morning wondering if today is the day the governor picks my name out of the hat and makes me a reservation for a date on the gurney. Welcome to another American election year!
Love & Peace,
Bill
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Feb 2, 2010
February 2, 2010
Dear Sis~
We have an execution scheduled for February 16th, just two weeks away, so the state can carve another notch in its collective pistol grip (in the best traditonof our macho, authoritatrian self-righteous ethos). Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago I'm watching Pat Robertson on TV (he's a blowhard TV preacher who purports to speak for God) as he pontificates on the tragedy of the Haitian earthquake. With a straight face, Robertson claims that God brought the earthquake upon Haiti because, he claims, Haitians supposedly made a "pact with Satan" 200 years ago to free their nation from the French. Apparently, this is Robertson's idea of a just and loving God! Robertson conveniently overlooks that it was the "Christian" Europeans who brought the slaves to Haiti to begin with. Slaves were not faring so well under the so-called civilized societies of the Christian European nations! I guess in Robertson's world view, the slaves should have stuck it out with their masters rather than seek their freedom. The Haitian slaves overthrew their masters through a series of revolts and battles; they did not need any help from "Satan". Perhaps Robertson cannot bring himself to believe that "savage, ignorant slaves" could defeat a modern European nation on the battlefield, ergo they must have had supernatural assistance from Satan. Robertson is the same clown who publicly claimed that both the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina were punishments wrought by God upon Americans due to our wickedness. It would be laughable were it not for the fact that millions of Americans are devoted to Robertson and view him as God's mouthpiece, notwithstanding his lame pronouncements. I once watched him on his TV program, "The 700 Club", just before the last presidential election as he claimed God "told him in a vision" that Obama would suffer an overwhelming defeat at the polls and McCain would be elected "in a landslide". Robertson is always begging for money on TV, yet several years ago Forbes estimated his personal fortune at over $700 million. This is the kind of idiot millions of Americans view as a leader and a "man of God" worthy of patterning their lives after. No wonder America appears to be in eclipse...
Gotta get back to more legal work so I'll close this up and post it. I hope you're dug out from under all the snow!
Love, Bill
Dear Sis~
We have an execution scheduled for February 16th, just two weeks away, so the state can carve another notch in its collective pistol grip (in the best traditonof our macho, authoritatrian self-righteous ethos). Meanwhile, a couple of weeks ago I'm watching Pat Robertson on TV (he's a blowhard TV preacher who purports to speak for God) as he pontificates on the tragedy of the Haitian earthquake. With a straight face, Robertson claims that God brought the earthquake upon Haiti because, he claims, Haitians supposedly made a "pact with Satan" 200 years ago to free their nation from the French. Apparently, this is Robertson's idea of a just and loving God! Robertson conveniently overlooks that it was the "Christian" Europeans who brought the slaves to Haiti to begin with. Slaves were not faring so well under the so-called civilized societies of the Christian European nations! I guess in Robertson's world view, the slaves should have stuck it out with their masters rather than seek their freedom. The Haitian slaves overthrew their masters through a series of revolts and battles; they did not need any help from "Satan". Perhaps Robertson cannot bring himself to believe that "savage, ignorant slaves" could defeat a modern European nation on the battlefield, ergo they must have had supernatural assistance from Satan. Robertson is the same clown who publicly claimed that both the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina were punishments wrought by God upon Americans due to our wickedness. It would be laughable were it not for the fact that millions of Americans are devoted to Robertson and view him as God's mouthpiece, notwithstanding his lame pronouncements. I once watched him on his TV program, "The 700 Club", just before the last presidential election as he claimed God "told him in a vision" that Obama would suffer an overwhelming defeat at the polls and McCain would be elected "in a landslide". Robertson is always begging for money on TV, yet several years ago Forbes estimated his personal fortune at over $700 million. This is the kind of idiot millions of Americans view as a leader and a "man of God" worthy of patterning their lives after. No wonder America appears to be in eclipse...
Gotta get back to more legal work so I'll close this up and post it. I hope you're dug out from under all the snow!
Love, Bill
Friday, December 04, 2009
November 26, 2009 - Thanksgiving
Dear Sis~
This is my 39th Thanksgiving behind bars, including Youth Hall, Kendall's Children's Home, Okeechobee Boy's School and the Halfway House, since 1966, a sad commentory on a squandered life. I still hug tightly those distant memories of the handful of Thanksgiving meals we enjoyed together as children -before it all went bad - with Uncle Bill and Aunt Ann there at the table, and Dad in his wheelchair supervising the big turkey basting in the oven, Uncle Bill, a beer in his hand, making his special gravy. Life, for me, was still full of promise, potential and hope; of those, only hope remains ...
I took a break from my current legal project (gotta rest the writing hand) and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, an animated revisionist history of the Pilgrims' encounters with the Native Americans. It was all warm and fuzzy, ending with Indians and Pilgrims happy and smiling, living in harmony. Now, I like ol' Charlie Brown as much as anyone, but that propaganda was too much to stomach. Left unsaid were the nonstop betrayals, thefts, rapes, murders, enslavements and genocide of every tribe, one by one, by waves of Europeans as they stole the continent away. That kind of fake "hisotry" is why so many Americans are so abysmally ignorant of the true (and blood-drenched) underpinnings of our nation. I'm as patriotic as the next guy, but I believe in reality, not in glossing over facts or living in a fantasy world. We (Americans) are what we are. A perfect example is the fact that a large majority of Americans will tell you, with a straight face, that we are "a peace-loving nation", and they actually beleve it. In reality we ar the most war-like and warring country in the last 160 years, by far. We are always at war with someone, somewhere (but we've always got a "good reason".) Few Americans even know (or will believe) that from 1895 or so, to say, 1960, we invaded and/or occupied about 40 countries (some of them numerous times), mostly right in our back yard (Haiti, Panama, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaraqua, the Dominican Repiblic, The Phillipines, Guatemala, China, El Salvador, ad nauseum), overthrowing duly-elected governments and installing our own chosen right-wing dictators at rifle point. Just think back to say, 1960, and count each year, right up to today. We were at war almost every single year with someone, right up to today (Iraq and Afghanistan). And that's not even counting the covert governmental overthrows we engineered with the CIA (Argentina, Chile, Iran, etc...) But these "Inconvenient facts" are simply not taught to our kids in school. You have to learn this stuff on your own, assuming you care enough to do so...
They moved seven guys from here to the "main" death row across the river at Union Correctional Institute last week. There are 320 guys over there, about 65 here. As guys over there die (we have an inordinately high cancer death rate on death row for some reason) or are executed or have their sentences reduced to life, they move guys from here to there. Meanwhile, we got two new guys on my floor here in the last 2 weeks. So, as some guys depart, others appear to fill the void. Isn't that the way of the world?
Love & Peace,
Bill
This is my 39th Thanksgiving behind bars, including Youth Hall, Kendall's Children's Home, Okeechobee Boy's School and the Halfway House, since 1966, a sad commentory on a squandered life. I still hug tightly those distant memories of the handful of Thanksgiving meals we enjoyed together as children -before it all went bad - with Uncle Bill and Aunt Ann there at the table, and Dad in his wheelchair supervising the big turkey basting in the oven, Uncle Bill, a beer in his hand, making his special gravy. Life, for me, was still full of promise, potential and hope; of those, only hope remains ...
I took a break from my current legal project (gotta rest the writing hand) and watched A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, an animated revisionist history of the Pilgrims' encounters with the Native Americans. It was all warm and fuzzy, ending with Indians and Pilgrims happy and smiling, living in harmony. Now, I like ol' Charlie Brown as much as anyone, but that propaganda was too much to stomach. Left unsaid were the nonstop betrayals, thefts, rapes, murders, enslavements and genocide of every tribe, one by one, by waves of Europeans as they stole the continent away. That kind of fake "hisotry" is why so many Americans are so abysmally ignorant of the true (and blood-drenched) underpinnings of our nation. I'm as patriotic as the next guy, but I believe in reality, not in glossing over facts or living in a fantasy world. We (Americans) are what we are. A perfect example is the fact that a large majority of Americans will tell you, with a straight face, that we are "a peace-loving nation", and they actually beleve it. In reality we ar the most war-like and warring country in the last 160 years, by far. We are always at war with someone, somewhere (but we've always got a "good reason".) Few Americans even know (or will believe) that from 1895 or so, to say, 1960, we invaded and/or occupied about 40 countries (some of them numerous times), mostly right in our back yard (Haiti, Panama, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Nicaraqua, the Dominican Repiblic, The Phillipines, Guatemala, China, El Salvador, ad nauseum), overthrowing duly-elected governments and installing our own chosen right-wing dictators at rifle point. Just think back to say, 1960, and count each year, right up to today. We were at war almost every single year with someone, right up to today (Iraq and Afghanistan). And that's not even counting the covert governmental overthrows we engineered with the CIA (Argentina, Chile, Iran, etc...) But these "Inconvenient facts" are simply not taught to our kids in school. You have to learn this stuff on your own, assuming you care enough to do so...
They moved seven guys from here to the "main" death row across the river at Union Correctional Institute last week. There are 320 guys over there, about 65 here. As guys over there die (we have an inordinately high cancer death rate on death row for some reason) or are executed or have their sentences reduced to life, they move guys from here to there. Meanwhile, we got two new guys on my floor here in the last 2 weeks. So, as some guys depart, others appear to fill the void. Isn't that the way of the world?
Love & Peace,
Bill
Monday, November 16, 2009
November 19, 2009-Johnson's stay
Dear Sis~
Well, as I predicted, the execution of Paul Johnson did not take place last Wednesday; The Florida Supreme Court granted him an indefinite stay of execution just hours after his lawyer, Marty McClain, gave his oral arguments before the court. In granting Johnson a stay, the court chastised Gov. Crist for signing the death warrant in the first place. You may recall that Crist signed this warrant simply because the sheriff of Polk County initiated an online petition to Crist to sign Johnson's warrant. Crist admitted publicly that the petition was a factor in his decision to sign the warrant. The problem, as the court pointed out, was that Johnson already had an appeal pending before the Florida Supreme Court, and he's never even been in the federal courts yet - that's a 3-5 year detour right there. There was really no chance Johnson would be executed, so signing his warrant was a waste of time; worse, it was simply pandering. Now, as I predicted in one of my earlier posts, the copy cats (encouraged by Crist's action in responding to the sheriff's petition) are jumping on board. I understand there is now a new petition circulating, urging Crist to sign a death warrant for a guy named Daniel Burns (I don't know him). If Crist caves in on this one, it will open the flood gates to "petitions" for everyone (execution by popular demand). FYI for all the fiscal conservatives out there, a lot of taxpayer's money was wasted by this last fiasco in signing Johnson's death warrant; it was a complete waste of money & scarce government resources)...
For the last several weeks I've been working an a guy's case (he's not on death row), hammering out a post conviction motion for him. This is a sad, tragic case, and it's more than a little depressing for me as I work on it; I had to read the entire record on appeal, including the trial transcripts, and check out some horrific crime scene photos. In a nutshell, the case looks like this: the prisoner was a 19-year old kid with a long history of mental illness aggravated by poly substance abuse. He had an 18-year old wife, who also had a history of mental illness and drug abuse. She was totally devoted to him, despite his manifest problems, and by all reports he loved her, too. They had a one-year old daughter. Both parents lived on the margins of society, living in trailer parks, motels, etc. In the weeks before the crime, the kid began acting weird and strange - he was in the midst o a psychotic breakdown - and he'd become homeless, living on the streets and in the woods. He was not welcome to stay at friends' houses due to his increasingly bizarre actions; his wife was living with various friends, bouncing from house to house, begging people to help her husband. It culminates when he takes his wife into the woods, near the bay side, and inexplicably kills her. He strangled her, cut her head off, cut her torso from sternum to pubic bone and removed all her reproductive organs. He placed the head and organs into a cloth bag and swam out into the bay, for one mile, where he let the bag sink. Back on shore, he half buried the body. It took a week before the body was found; he was an immediate suspect and he gave a rambling bizarre "confession" where he said he was Satan, that his wife agreed to die, as a mutual sacrifice to Satan. He was fulfilling Chapters 11 and 12 of the Biblical book of Revelations, he asserted. He was clearly psychotic. That night in jail he cut open his scrotum with a razor blade and tried to remove a testicle (voices told him to "cast out the demon seed"). Three doctors declared him incompetent and psychotic and he spent a year in a mental institution, heavily medicated, until the doctors declared him competent to stand trial. His lawyer (who never filed a single substantive motion) waived his jury trial & pled him not guilty by reason of insanity. He had a 2-day bench trial (before a judge, not a jury); the judge declared he was sane at the time of the crime (or, more accurately, that he was not legally insane) and immediately sentenced him to life without parole. That was 2 years ago. His direct appeal was unsuccessful (he had only one issue on appeal, regarding a jury instruction). My job is to try to salvage this case, and it's a hard row to hoe. On a personal level it's tough - I keep thinking about the poor girl, his devoted wife who, until the end, was desperately trying to help her unstable husband, doing everything possible to stick with him, to the point where she voluntarily moved into the woods with him. It's just very sad, all the way around (she had a big family, a mom and many sisters, and their grief is palpable in the record). The state sought the death penalty right up up until the end, when the victim's family prevailed upon the prosecutor not to seek the death penalty. Even in their grief, they did not want to see the boy put to death. This is one of those cases - when I read so much tragic documentation, where the pain and grief infests my mind - when I wish I wasn't into legal work.
Love,
Bill
Well, as I predicted, the execution of Paul Johnson did not take place last Wednesday; The Florida Supreme Court granted him an indefinite stay of execution just hours after his lawyer, Marty McClain, gave his oral arguments before the court. In granting Johnson a stay, the court chastised Gov. Crist for signing the death warrant in the first place. You may recall that Crist signed this warrant simply because the sheriff of Polk County initiated an online petition to Crist to sign Johnson's warrant. Crist admitted publicly that the petition was a factor in his decision to sign the warrant. The problem, as the court pointed out, was that Johnson already had an appeal pending before the Florida Supreme Court, and he's never even been in the federal courts yet - that's a 3-5 year detour right there. There was really no chance Johnson would be executed, so signing his warrant was a waste of time; worse, it was simply pandering. Now, as I predicted in one of my earlier posts, the copy cats (encouraged by Crist's action in responding to the sheriff's petition) are jumping on board. I understand there is now a new petition circulating, urging Crist to sign a death warrant for a guy named Daniel Burns (I don't know him). If Crist caves in on this one, it will open the flood gates to "petitions" for everyone (execution by popular demand). FYI for all the fiscal conservatives out there, a lot of taxpayer's money was wasted by this last fiasco in signing Johnson's death warrant; it was a complete waste of money & scarce government resources)...
For the last several weeks I've been working an a guy's case (he's not on death row), hammering out a post conviction motion for him. This is a sad, tragic case, and it's more than a little depressing for me as I work on it; I had to read the entire record on appeal, including the trial transcripts, and check out some horrific crime scene photos. In a nutshell, the case looks like this: the prisoner was a 19-year old kid with a long history of mental illness aggravated by poly substance abuse. He had an 18-year old wife, who also had a history of mental illness and drug abuse. She was totally devoted to him, despite his manifest problems, and by all reports he loved her, too. They had a one-year old daughter. Both parents lived on the margins of society, living in trailer parks, motels, etc. In the weeks before the crime, the kid began acting weird and strange - he was in the midst o a psychotic breakdown - and he'd become homeless, living on the streets and in the woods. He was not welcome to stay at friends' houses due to his increasingly bizarre actions; his wife was living with various friends, bouncing from house to house, begging people to help her husband. It culminates when he takes his wife into the woods, near the bay side, and inexplicably kills her. He strangled her, cut her head off, cut her torso from sternum to pubic bone and removed all her reproductive organs. He placed the head and organs into a cloth bag and swam out into the bay, for one mile, where he let the bag sink. Back on shore, he half buried the body. It took a week before the body was found; he was an immediate suspect and he gave a rambling bizarre "confession" where he said he was Satan, that his wife agreed to die, as a mutual sacrifice to Satan. He was fulfilling Chapters 11 and 12 of the Biblical book of Revelations, he asserted. He was clearly psychotic. That night in jail he cut open his scrotum with a razor blade and tried to remove a testicle (voices told him to "cast out the demon seed"). Three doctors declared him incompetent and psychotic and he spent a year in a mental institution, heavily medicated, until the doctors declared him competent to stand trial. His lawyer (who never filed a single substantive motion) waived his jury trial & pled him not guilty by reason of insanity. He had a 2-day bench trial (before a judge, not a jury); the judge declared he was sane at the time of the crime (or, more accurately, that he was not legally insane) and immediately sentenced him to life without parole. That was 2 years ago. His direct appeal was unsuccessful (he had only one issue on appeal, regarding a jury instruction). My job is to try to salvage this case, and it's a hard row to hoe. On a personal level it's tough - I keep thinking about the poor girl, his devoted wife who, until the end, was desperately trying to help her unstable husband, doing everything possible to stick with him, to the point where she voluntarily moved into the woods with him. It's just very sad, all the way around (she had a big family, a mom and many sisters, and their grief is palpable in the record). The state sought the death penalty right up up until the end, when the victim's family prevailed upon the prosecutor not to seek the death penalty. Even in their grief, they did not want to see the boy put to death. This is one of those cases - when I read so much tragic documentation, where the pain and grief infests my mind - when I wish I wasn't into legal work.
Love,
Bill
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
October 28, 2009
Dear Sis~
I've been hard at work since 6:00am on this monster legal project which was unexpectedly dropped into my lap yesterday morning. I've got about 2,500 pages of trial transcripts and various appellate records to digest, then I have to produce a post conviction motion based on whatever I find, and all within the next 15 days. Someone (a friend on the streets) "volunteered" me for this project, without even asking me ahead of time, but the most irritating part is the deadline. This guy had 2 years, by rule, to file this motion, but he waited until he had less than a month left to get it to me. (I shouldn't be too hard on the guy - whom I don't even know - as he apparently has severe mental problems; it's his mother who is desperately seeking help for her son, who is doing life somewhere in the system). Anyway, I'm taking a break to drop you a few lines and also to catch a little of Game 1 of the World Series (Yankees vs Phillies). I'm not a big baseball fan - I prefer football - but I enjoy the World Series...
I recently told you about Gov Crist signing Paul Johnson's death warrant (execution scheduled for Nov 4th) because the Polk County sheriff started an online petition to Crist to sign his death warrant. Within 8 or 9 days Crist did, in fact, sign the warrant. What I didn't know at the time was that Johnson had never even been in the federal courts yet; he had an appeal pending before the Florida Supreme Court at the time his death warrant was signed. This morning on TV I watched his lawyer, Marty McClain, orally argue that appeal before the Florida Supreme Court. As usual, Marty did an excellent job. My guess is that Johnson will get a stay of execution. For the last 20 years there's been an understanding by Florida's governors that they won't sign a death warrant until the prisoner has exhausted his legal remedies in the state and federal courts (otherwise the courts just grant a stay of execution). So, Crist chose to sign a warrant for a guy, based on an online petition, even though the guy has not exhausted his legal remedies, which makes it likely he'll get a stay. This was mostly a charade, intended to placate the folks behind the petition (there are 20 guys here whose warrants he could have signed who definitely would be executed, including 3 or 4 "volunteers" who want to die and who have long ago waived or exhausted all appeals). So, that's just a little insight into how the system works (or not).
Game is coming on ... gotta go!
Love, Bill
P.S. I'm rooting for the Phillies!
I've been hard at work since 6:00am on this monster legal project which was unexpectedly dropped into my lap yesterday morning. I've got about 2,500 pages of trial transcripts and various appellate records to digest, then I have to produce a post conviction motion based on whatever I find, and all within the next 15 days. Someone (a friend on the streets) "volunteered" me for this project, without even asking me ahead of time, but the most irritating part is the deadline. This guy had 2 years, by rule, to file this motion, but he waited until he had less than a month left to get it to me. (I shouldn't be too hard on the guy - whom I don't even know - as he apparently has severe mental problems; it's his mother who is desperately seeking help for her son, who is doing life somewhere in the system). Anyway, I'm taking a break to drop you a few lines and also to catch a little of Game 1 of the World Series (Yankees vs Phillies). I'm not a big baseball fan - I prefer football - but I enjoy the World Series...
I recently told you about Gov Crist signing Paul Johnson's death warrant (execution scheduled for Nov 4th) because the Polk County sheriff started an online petition to Crist to sign his death warrant. Within 8 or 9 days Crist did, in fact, sign the warrant. What I didn't know at the time was that Johnson had never even been in the federal courts yet; he had an appeal pending before the Florida Supreme Court at the time his death warrant was signed. This morning on TV I watched his lawyer, Marty McClain, orally argue that appeal before the Florida Supreme Court. As usual, Marty did an excellent job. My guess is that Johnson will get a stay of execution. For the last 20 years there's been an understanding by Florida's governors that they won't sign a death warrant until the prisoner has exhausted his legal remedies in the state and federal courts (otherwise the courts just grant a stay of execution). So, Crist chose to sign a warrant for a guy, based on an online petition, even though the guy has not exhausted his legal remedies, which makes it likely he'll get a stay. This was mostly a charade, intended to placate the folks behind the petition (there are 20 guys here whose warrants he could have signed who definitely would be executed, including 3 or 4 "volunteers" who want to die and who have long ago waived or exhausted all appeals). So, that's just a little insight into how the system works (or not).
Game is coming on ... gotta go!
Love, Bill
P.S. I'm rooting for the Phillies!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
October 12, 2009
Dear Sis~
Governor Crist signed another death warrant last week, scheduling a November 4th execution date for Paul Johnson, convicted of three (3) murders, including that of a deputy sheriff, during a crime spree. Johnson was originally convicted and sentenced to death in 1981, but won a new trial in appeal and was re sentenced to death in 1988. What's unusual about this death warrant is the way it came about. Two weeks ago, the Sheriff of Polk County created an online petition demanding Governor Crist sign Johnson's death warrant. Within 4 days, the petition had 600 signatures. Three days later, Crist signed the death warrant. Crist did the same thing 2 years ago when he signed Mark Schwab's death warrant after the victim's family initiated an online letter writing campaign urging Crist to sign Schwab's warrant. No matter what a person's view on capital punishment might be, they should be concerned that the governor decides who to kill based on such blatantly political motivations; if you generate publicity against a particular death row prisoner, you can get him killed. If you can't or don't, then he lives. This Sheriff's successful petition (which has been in the media and is now well known) will, I predict, start a trend here in Florida as other special interest groups race to see if they, too, can get someone killed by Governor Crist. Stay tuned.
Love, Bill
Governor Crist signed another death warrant last week, scheduling a November 4th execution date for Paul Johnson, convicted of three (3) murders, including that of a deputy sheriff, during a crime spree. Johnson was originally convicted and sentenced to death in 1981, but won a new trial in appeal and was re sentenced to death in 1988. What's unusual about this death warrant is the way it came about. Two weeks ago, the Sheriff of Polk County created an online petition demanding Governor Crist sign Johnson's death warrant. Within 4 days, the petition had 600 signatures. Three days later, Crist signed the death warrant. Crist did the same thing 2 years ago when he signed Mark Schwab's death warrant after the victim's family initiated an online letter writing campaign urging Crist to sign Schwab's warrant. No matter what a person's view on capital punishment might be, they should be concerned that the governor decides who to kill based on such blatantly political motivations; if you generate publicity against a particular death row prisoner, you can get him killed. If you can't or don't, then he lives. This Sheriff's successful petition (which has been in the media and is now well known) will, I predict, start a trend here in Florida as other special interest groups race to see if they, too, can get someone killed by Governor Crist. Stay tuned.
Love, Bill
Friday, October 02, 2009
Sept 22, 2009
Dear Sis~
I've you've ever wondered how an innocent man can be sent to death row and, yes, be executed, you must read an article titled Trial by Fire, by David Grann, in the Sept 7th issue of The New Yorker magazine. I'm guessing it's available on their web site: www.newyorker.com It should be mandatory reading for anyone with a serious interest in the criminal justice system in general and capital punishment in general. When you read it and wonder why his trial lawyers sat on their hands, keep in mind that one of them was an ex-state trooper (who's side do you think we was really on?) Without digressing to a lengthy harangue on this subject, I'll clue you in on one of the criminal justice system's dirty little secrets (although it's no secret to those of us within the system, everyone - judges, defendants, prosecutors, even the bailiffs - knows what's going on. Unless the defendant is a novice, it's only the jury and the public who remain ignorant. You'll never see this on an episode of Law and Order or any other TV police procedural because those programs are designed to keep the public believing the fantasy that the system is "fair and balanced" (which live FOX News loves to sanctimoniously proclaim). The public desperately wants to believe in their system and they willingly suspend disbelief, just as you do when you watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Anyway, here's how the game really works: every town, county and city in America has its share of defense lawyers who make their living by court-ordered appointment. They are often drunks, or just stupid, or lazy and/or incompetent, and the only way they can get work is to be appointed to a case by a judge. They know (and the judge and prosecutor knows) that such lawyers are totally beholden to the judge for their pay check. There's a well-understood quid per quo here: The lawyer must "play ball" in order to keep getting appointments by the judge. Quick fact: about 90% of all judges in America are ex-prosecutors. By "play ball" I mean that the lawyer's real job is to ensure his client's conviction. The lawyer does this by not investigating, not calling crucial witnesses, not filing crucial motions, or not objecting to the prosecutor's misdeeds (which automatically waives the issue on appeal). Whenever a town has a high-profile case (particularly a capital case) one of those "sell-out" lawyers, as I call them, is appointed. Everyone (but the defendant) knows that the defendant is as good as convicted from that point forward. This is simply the way it works. I'll give you just one example.
Jacksonville, for many years, had an infamous sell-out lawyer named Nichols. The last time I actually counted, he had eight (8) clients on death row. Nichols was magically appointed in every Jacksonville capital case where the state really needed a conviction (e.g., cases with marginal evidence, and which were high-profile). Over the years I had an opportunity to read the entire trial transcripts of tow of Nichols' clients so I saw, first hand, how he stood mute throughout the trial, engaging in actions designed to help the prosecution, refusing to object, failing to challenge evidence, doing everything in his power to ensure a conviction and death sentence. It was disgusting to see it up close. A good friend of mine who happens to be a Jacksonville attorney confided in me that Nichols was an alcoholic of the first magnitude. Well, every town has its Nichols. The thing is, unless you know and understand law, you won't see how a Nichols does his job. You won't understand that a competent lawyer would be objecting here, or calling a certain witness. A Nichols does his dirty deeds in broad daylight, in open court, and only a legally astute observer will be silently shaking his head...
I had exactly such a sell-out lawyer, Cary Klein, who was appointed for the sole purpose of escorting me to death row. Klein was a civil attorney with no criminal practice who had never tried a capital case. He worked against me, and behind my back at every stage, betraying me constantly. Three of the seven Florida Supreme Court Justices described Klein as "blatantly incompetent," but the other 4 Justices decided I could not establish the requisite "prejudice", that is, I could not show that I would not have been convicted and sent to death row anyway, despite Klein's incompetence... Anyway, keep this in mind when you read Trial by Fire, or when you see any high-profile capital case winding its way through the system. And don't believe the phony propaganda you see on Law and Order shows...
Just got over the flu, I suspect it was pig fever; now everyone on the floor is sick, the hacking coughs are emanating from cells to my left and right. After about 6 nasty days, I now feel great.
Love, Bill
I've you've ever wondered how an innocent man can be sent to death row and, yes, be executed, you must read an article titled Trial by Fire, by David Grann, in the Sept 7th issue of The New Yorker magazine. I'm guessing it's available on their web site: www.newyorker.com It should be mandatory reading for anyone with a serious interest in the criminal justice system in general and capital punishment in general. When you read it and wonder why his trial lawyers sat on their hands, keep in mind that one of them was an ex-state trooper (who's side do you think we was really on?) Without digressing to a lengthy harangue on this subject, I'll clue you in on one of the criminal justice system's dirty little secrets (although it's no secret to those of us within the system, everyone - judges, defendants, prosecutors, even the bailiffs - knows what's going on. Unless the defendant is a novice, it's only the jury and the public who remain ignorant. You'll never see this on an episode of Law and Order or any other TV police procedural because those programs are designed to keep the public believing the fantasy that the system is "fair and balanced" (which live FOX News loves to sanctimoniously proclaim). The public desperately wants to believe in their system and they willingly suspend disbelief, just as you do when you watch the latest Hollywood blockbuster. Anyway, here's how the game really works: every town, county and city in America has its share of defense lawyers who make their living by court-ordered appointment. They are often drunks, or just stupid, or lazy and/or incompetent, and the only way they can get work is to be appointed to a case by a judge. They know (and the judge and prosecutor knows) that such lawyers are totally beholden to the judge for their pay check. There's a well-understood quid per quo here: The lawyer must "play ball" in order to keep getting appointments by the judge. Quick fact: about 90% of all judges in America are ex-prosecutors. By "play ball" I mean that the lawyer's real job is to ensure his client's conviction. The lawyer does this by not investigating, not calling crucial witnesses, not filing crucial motions, or not objecting to the prosecutor's misdeeds (which automatically waives the issue on appeal). Whenever a town has a high-profile case (particularly a capital case) one of those "sell-out" lawyers, as I call them, is appointed. Everyone (but the defendant) knows that the defendant is as good as convicted from that point forward. This is simply the way it works. I'll give you just one example.
Jacksonville, for many years, had an infamous sell-out lawyer named Nichols. The last time I actually counted, he had eight (8) clients on death row. Nichols was magically appointed in every Jacksonville capital case where the state really needed a conviction (e.g., cases with marginal evidence, and which were high-profile). Over the years I had an opportunity to read the entire trial transcripts of tow of Nichols' clients so I saw, first hand, how he stood mute throughout the trial, engaging in actions designed to help the prosecution, refusing to object, failing to challenge evidence, doing everything in his power to ensure a conviction and death sentence. It was disgusting to see it up close. A good friend of mine who happens to be a Jacksonville attorney confided in me that Nichols was an alcoholic of the first magnitude. Well, every town has its Nichols. The thing is, unless you know and understand law, you won't see how a Nichols does his job. You won't understand that a competent lawyer would be objecting here, or calling a certain witness. A Nichols does his dirty deeds in broad daylight, in open court, and only a legally astute observer will be silently shaking his head...
I had exactly such a sell-out lawyer, Cary Klein, who was appointed for the sole purpose of escorting me to death row. Klein was a civil attorney with no criminal practice who had never tried a capital case. He worked against me, and behind my back at every stage, betraying me constantly. Three of the seven Florida Supreme Court Justices described Klein as "blatantly incompetent," but the other 4 Justices decided I could not establish the requisite "prejudice", that is, I could not show that I would not have been convicted and sent to death row anyway, despite Klein's incompetence... Anyway, keep this in mind when you read Trial by Fire, or when you see any high-profile capital case winding its way through the system. And don't believe the phony propaganda you see on Law and Order shows...
Just got over the flu, I suspect it was pig fever; now everyone on the floor is sick, the hacking coughs are emanating from cells to my left and right. After about 6 nasty days, I now feel great.
Love, Bill
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Sept 1, 2009
Dear Sis~
The first thing you need to understand about our yard (outdoor recreation) situation is this: Prisoners in any long term confinement status (which most courts have construed as anything longer than 30 days) have a constitutional right, under the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution to a minimum of one (1) hour per day of outdoor recreation. This is a health issue (physical and mental health). This one-hour minimum has been established by the Federal courts around the country, including the federal prison system, over the last 40 years, as a result of many federal lawsuits brought by prisoners. Every state in the nation, except Florida' Death Row, recognizes this standard. In Florida, for the last 25 years, we on death row have only received four (4) hours per week, in two 2-hour sessions. Often, we'd get less than 4 hours as our yard was often cancelled (inclement weather, holiday, or any imagined reason) and never made up. I recall, in the 1990's, going 3-4 weeks in a row without any rec, followed by one or two rec sessions, then another 2,3,4 weeks without any rec. On Death Row, rec is really all we have; it's our one chance to get out of our cage, feel some sunshine, get some exercise and feel human. Many of us have been in tiny cages for 10, 20, 30 years now. Even the terrorists suspects held at Guantanamo Bay get at least one hour per day. Many, many medical studies have been conducted by the most prestigious medical experts in the field which have universally concluded that the one hour per day is the minimum to maintain good physical and mental health...
Ok, up until 1981, the FSP administration gave Death Row hardly any rec, and the rec was held on a tiny, fenced-in muddy area, about 20' x 20'. Then a Death Row prisoner, named Bob Sullivan, filed a federal lawsuit in 1981 (Bob was later executed). Judge Scott appointed an attorney, William Sheppard, to represent Bob, and Sheppard moved for class-action certification, which was granted. The litigation dragged on for the next 18 years, going to the Federal Court of Appeals twice, and during this time Sheppard collected well over $500,000 in attorneys fees and costs. Around 1983, Sheppard got the state to sign a consent decree, ostensibly settling the case. Under the consent decree, Sheppard sold us out, agreeing to a sub-constitutional four hours of rec per week. The consent decree also guaranteed us rec in a larger yard, which was built for us (it's only 80' x 90'), with a basketball goal and a volleyball net. That's the yard I've been walking around in for the last 20 years. I tried, unsuccessfully, to challenge the 4-hour provision in the consent decree (remember the consent decree was already in effect when I arrived on Death Row, and I was bound by its terms, even though I never had any input into its formulation). By then, the case was styled Dougan v Singletary (i.e., the Dougan case). I was mad as Hell about the sub-constitutional 4 hours per week provision, but all my years of efforts to re-open and modify the consent decree failed (Sheppard fought me on this; this case was his cash cow and he cared nothing about our rights or recreation).
Ok, then in 1996 the Republican-led US Senate passed the PLRA (Prison Litigation Reform Act) whose sole purpose was to greatly reduce and discourage any type of prison-related lawsuits. Among other things, the PLRA allows the state to dissolve any consent decree two tears after it was issued, and it basically requires all federal judges to grant such a motion. So, overnight, around the country, all the states filed motions to dissolve all prison consent decrees (even though many of them were exhaustively crafted after years and decades of litigation). Florida moved to dissolve the Dougan consent decree, and this was granted in 1999. In 2001, the Dougan case was officially closed. So, after 20 years, we were right back to square one. For the next 8 years, FSP continued to abide by the terms of the consent decree (4 hours per week in the "Big" yard, with cancelled sessions made up) even though the decree was dead. Then, just 2 months ago, the FSP administration suddenly decided to start messing with our rec. I guess it took them 9 years to realize the consent decree was dead. Now, they making us rec in tiny, one-man cages (but only for one of our two weekly sessions) and they announced they will no longer make up any cancelled yard sessions. So, now that I know the consent decree is dead (I didn't know this, being in Virginia for the last 9 years), I'm going to file suit to get our one-hour-per-day minimum. The prison has now opened a can of worms and I intend to get what we should have gotten back in 1983 when Sheppard sold us out. My goal is to get an attorney (I'm working on that), then get my case certified as a class action suit for all Death Row prisoners. An attorney will make some good money (just as Sheppard did) because we will win, and as the prevailing party, the attorney will be entitled to all costs and attorney fees. The state should have left us alone, (and I would never have done the research and learned that the Dougan case was closed) but now I intend to get us adequate and meaningful recreation. Right now, I'm exhausting my administrative remedies (the grievance process) which is mandatory prior to filing suit. Them I'll file suit (I have to hustle up the $350 filing fee), then I'll get an attorney, either on my own or appointed. ASo, now you know the short version of my next legal project!
Love, Bill
The first thing you need to understand about our yard (outdoor recreation) situation is this: Prisoners in any long term confinement status (which most courts have construed as anything longer than 30 days) have a constitutional right, under the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution to a minimum of one (1) hour per day of outdoor recreation. This is a health issue (physical and mental health). This one-hour minimum has been established by the Federal courts around the country, including the federal prison system, over the last 40 years, as a result of many federal lawsuits brought by prisoners. Every state in the nation, except Florida' Death Row, recognizes this standard. In Florida, for the last 25 years, we on death row have only received four (4) hours per week, in two 2-hour sessions. Often, we'd get less than 4 hours as our yard was often cancelled (inclement weather, holiday, or any imagined reason) and never made up. I recall, in the 1990's, going 3-4 weeks in a row without any rec, followed by one or two rec sessions, then another 2,3,4 weeks without any rec. On Death Row, rec is really all we have; it's our one chance to get out of our cage, feel some sunshine, get some exercise and feel human. Many of us have been in tiny cages for 10, 20, 30 years now. Even the terrorists suspects held at Guantanamo Bay get at least one hour per day. Many, many medical studies have been conducted by the most prestigious medical experts in the field which have universally concluded that the one hour per day is the minimum to maintain good physical and mental health...
Ok, up until 1981, the FSP administration gave Death Row hardly any rec, and the rec was held on a tiny, fenced-in muddy area, about 20' x 20'. Then a Death Row prisoner, named Bob Sullivan, filed a federal lawsuit in 1981 (Bob was later executed). Judge Scott appointed an attorney, William Sheppard, to represent Bob, and Sheppard moved for class-action certification, which was granted. The litigation dragged on for the next 18 years, going to the Federal Court of Appeals twice, and during this time Sheppard collected well over $500,000 in attorneys fees and costs. Around 1983, Sheppard got the state to sign a consent decree, ostensibly settling the case. Under the consent decree, Sheppard sold us out, agreeing to a sub-constitutional four hours of rec per week. The consent decree also guaranteed us rec in a larger yard, which was built for us (it's only 80' x 90'), with a basketball goal and a volleyball net. That's the yard I've been walking around in for the last 20 years. I tried, unsuccessfully, to challenge the 4-hour provision in the consent decree (remember the consent decree was already in effect when I arrived on Death Row, and I was bound by its terms, even though I never had any input into its formulation). By then, the case was styled Dougan v Singletary (i.e., the Dougan case). I was mad as Hell about the sub-constitutional 4 hours per week provision, but all my years of efforts to re-open and modify the consent decree failed (Sheppard fought me on this; this case was his cash cow and he cared nothing about our rights or recreation).
Ok, then in 1996 the Republican-led US Senate passed the PLRA (Prison Litigation Reform Act) whose sole purpose was to greatly reduce and discourage any type of prison-related lawsuits. Among other things, the PLRA allows the state to dissolve any consent decree two tears after it was issued, and it basically requires all federal judges to grant such a motion. So, overnight, around the country, all the states filed motions to dissolve all prison consent decrees (even though many of them were exhaustively crafted after years and decades of litigation). Florida moved to dissolve the Dougan consent decree, and this was granted in 1999. In 2001, the Dougan case was officially closed. So, after 20 years, we were right back to square one. For the next 8 years, FSP continued to abide by the terms of the consent decree (4 hours per week in the "Big" yard, with cancelled sessions made up) even though the decree was dead. Then, just 2 months ago, the FSP administration suddenly decided to start messing with our rec. I guess it took them 9 years to realize the consent decree was dead. Now, they making us rec in tiny, one-man cages (but only for one of our two weekly sessions) and they announced they will no longer make up any cancelled yard sessions. So, now that I know the consent decree is dead (I didn't know this, being in Virginia for the last 9 years), I'm going to file suit to get our one-hour-per-day minimum. The prison has now opened a can of worms and I intend to get what we should have gotten back in 1983 when Sheppard sold us out. My goal is to get an attorney (I'm working on that), then get my case certified as a class action suit for all Death Row prisoners. An attorney will make some good money (just as Sheppard did) because we will win, and as the prevailing party, the attorney will be entitled to all costs and attorney fees. The state should have left us alone, (and I would never have done the research and learned that the Dougan case was closed) but now I intend to get us adequate and meaningful recreation. Right now, I'm exhausting my administrative remedies (the grievance process) which is mandatory prior to filing suit. Them I'll file suit (I have to hustle up the $350 filing fee), then I'll get an attorney, either on my own or appointed. ASo, now you know the short version of my next legal project!
Love, Bill
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
August 23, 2009
Dear Sis~
Over the weekend of Aug 15-16th a group of guards beat a prisoner half to death across the river at Union Correctional Institution. Last I heard, the guy was in critical condition. I learned about it on one of my PBS channels, which carries Florida governmental issues, when Walter McNeil, the Secretary of the Department of Corrections, gave a live press conference to announce the beating on August 21. The guards initially tried to cover it up (no surprise), and succeeded until someone - a guard or someone in medical- came forward and belatedly reported it. Now, 4 or 5 guards (including 2 sergeants) are "on leave" and 4 nurses have been fired. The fired nurses is your tipoff that the nurses participated in the cover up. This is routine when prisoners are beaten. Some medical staff cover up beatings enthusiastically while others are intimidated, even threatened bodily, by the guards. The cover up consists of altering or fabricating the medical reports (since the injured guy invariably ends up in the medical department, if only briefly) to show either no injuries, or very minor injuries (even if the guy has broken bones or is dying) or to claim the injuries are self inflicted. The medical department here did the same thing when those 9 guards beat Frank to death in 1999. All prison medical departments do it. Anyway, McNeil announced he had called in the F.D.L.E. (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) as well as the FBI. That tells me the injuries are very serious, the guy may be dead already; it also tells me that McNeil is putting distance between himself and this beating. In response to a reporter's question, McNeil admitted this was the third mass beating incident in the last 3 or 4 months (2 at UCI, one here at FSP). Then in the next breath, he denied that there is a systemic problem, and claimed that these were just isolated incidents. That bullshit; these beating are systemic (and UCI is notorious for them) and for every one like this which gets publicity, there are hundreds which never see the light of day. That's a fact. The only rare thing about this is that McNeil chose to announce it publicly. In the old days, it would have remained a dark secret; certainly nobody in the DOC would be announcing it. The prison system is like a black hole; things happen in here that the public never hears about. It's like being on another planet. At least now we have a little transparency and a little accountability ...
In my next entry I'll tell you what's going on with our recreation situation and why I'll have to be going back to federal court (after 15 years when we last fought and won this battle) to rectify the situation. This administration appears to be anxious to provoke the death row population here. They're suddenly going out of their way to harass us. This started as soon as our new warden (Warden Singer) arrived, so you can draw your own conclusions.
Love, Bill
Over the weekend of Aug 15-16th a group of guards beat a prisoner half to death across the river at Union Correctional Institution. Last I heard, the guy was in critical condition. I learned about it on one of my PBS channels, which carries Florida governmental issues, when Walter McNeil, the Secretary of the Department of Corrections, gave a live press conference to announce the beating on August 21. The guards initially tried to cover it up (no surprise), and succeeded until someone - a guard or someone in medical- came forward and belatedly reported it. Now, 4 or 5 guards (including 2 sergeants) are "on leave" and 4 nurses have been fired. The fired nurses is your tipoff that the nurses participated in the cover up. This is routine when prisoners are beaten. Some medical staff cover up beatings enthusiastically while others are intimidated, even threatened bodily, by the guards. The cover up consists of altering or fabricating the medical reports (since the injured guy invariably ends up in the medical department, if only briefly) to show either no injuries, or very minor injuries (even if the guy has broken bones or is dying) or to claim the injuries are self inflicted. The medical department here did the same thing when those 9 guards beat Frank to death in 1999. All prison medical departments do it. Anyway, McNeil announced he had called in the F.D.L.E. (Florida Department of Law Enforcement) as well as the FBI. That tells me the injuries are very serious, the guy may be dead already; it also tells me that McNeil is putting distance between himself and this beating. In response to a reporter's question, McNeil admitted this was the third mass beating incident in the last 3 or 4 months (2 at UCI, one here at FSP). Then in the next breath, he denied that there is a systemic problem, and claimed that these were just isolated incidents. That bullshit; these beating are systemic (and UCI is notorious for them) and for every one like this which gets publicity, there are hundreds which never see the light of day. That's a fact. The only rare thing about this is that McNeil chose to announce it publicly. In the old days, it would have remained a dark secret; certainly nobody in the DOC would be announcing it. The prison system is like a black hole; things happen in here that the public never hears about. It's like being on another planet. At least now we have a little transparency and a little accountability ...
In my next entry I'll tell you what's going on with our recreation situation and why I'll have to be going back to federal court (after 15 years when we last fought and won this battle) to rectify the situation. This administration appears to be anxious to provoke the death row population here. They're suddenly going out of their way to harass us. This started as soon as our new warden (Warden Singer) arrived, so you can draw your own conclusions.
Love, Bill
August 18, 2009
Dear Sis~
For the past week this prison has been immersed in its typical pre-execution ritual of spiffing up the joint for proper presentation prior to tomorrow's state-sanctioned murder. The guards have been busily supervising various work crews who have been stripping, waxing and buffing the long hallway corridors, painting the endless rows of barred gates dividing the main corridor, polishing all the brass handles and knobs, cutting the grass (yesterday) and carefully trimming along the rear driveway, where the execution witnesses will arrive tomorrow, followed by the old, white Cadillac hearse (the same hearse I've watched carry bodies out of this prison for over 35 years now). Such are the mundane preparations for a "tidy" death. There's something morbidly sick in being so concerned that the prison itself looks clean and good while the activity going on in its bowels is so foul. It reminds me of how Jesus Christ rebuked the high priests and Pharisees, saying their hearts were like sepulchers (tombs carved into the rocks), all clean and white-washed on the outside, yet full of filth and putrefaction inside. This capital punishment is an abomination that scars and rots the heart of our society, wounding the spirits of even those who carry it out, whether they recognize it or not. It's a foul deed, pure and simple, and is beneath the dignity of a great nation. I must believe that one day we will awake and this too shall pass.
Love, Bill
For the past week this prison has been immersed in its typical pre-execution ritual of spiffing up the joint for proper presentation prior to tomorrow's state-sanctioned murder. The guards have been busily supervising various work crews who have been stripping, waxing and buffing the long hallway corridors, painting the endless rows of barred gates dividing the main corridor, polishing all the brass handles and knobs, cutting the grass (yesterday) and carefully trimming along the rear driveway, where the execution witnesses will arrive tomorrow, followed by the old, white Cadillac hearse (the same hearse I've watched carry bodies out of this prison for over 35 years now). Such are the mundane preparations for a "tidy" death. There's something morbidly sick in being so concerned that the prison itself looks clean and good while the activity going on in its bowels is so foul. It reminds me of how Jesus Christ rebuked the high priests and Pharisees, saying their hearts were like sepulchers (tombs carved into the rocks), all clean and white-washed on the outside, yet full of filth and putrefaction inside. This capital punishment is an abomination that scars and rots the heart of our society, wounding the spirits of even those who carry it out, whether they recognize it or not. It's a foul deed, pure and simple, and is beneath the dignity of a great nation. I must believe that one day we will awake and this too shall pass.
Love, Bill
Monday, August 17, 2009
August 10, 2009
Dear Sis~
I'm depressed and discouraged to learn that the Commonwealth of Virginia has set a September execution date for my good friend, Larry Bill Elliott, who was my neighbor for five plus years. Bill is not only an extraordinary person, he was also a great asset to his community, including the nation's national security with about 30 years in the US Army Military Intelligence. Bill was a specialist in electronic counterintelligence and was the instructor of electronic counterintelligence at the US Army's premier electronics school at Ft. Meade. In that capacity, he instructed Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine technical officers, as well as come CIA, NSA and other "alphabet soup" agencies. More importantly, I believe Bill to be innocent of the double-homicides he was convicted of (a reputed "lover's triangle" type of thing, according to the prosecutors forced theory). The ins and outs of Bill's case are complex and many, and space precludes me from adequately describing the nuances here, but someone needs to write a book, or make a movie about it all, and defy the reader or viewer to solve the riddle. I have not given up hope yet, although Virginia is particularly fatal when it comes to capital punishment, because he still has a cert petition before the US Supreme Court, and if that fails, he still has the slim possibility of clemency from Gov. Tim Kaine. Bill's lsawyers will need to make a powerful and compelling case for Bill's innocence for Kaine to even consider clemency. Fortunately, Bill has top-shelf attorneys, the Seattle law firm of K&L Gates (that's Bill Gates' father's law firm). Unfortunately, they were not his trial lawyers (the trial lawyers botched the trial horribly, while cleaning Bill out of his life's savings). The Gates lawyers came in pro bono after Bill's direct appeal and, at that stage, most of the damage, from incompetent trial lawyers, is already done; it's extremely difficult to correct this type of damage in the postconviction stage. The Gates people have made an heroic effort, but the law regarding the postconviction process (both state and federal) is against them, especially in Virginia. These are the same near-impossibly high legal hurdles that keep innocent people in prison and ensure their execution. While you read about guys getting exonerated every day, often after 10, 20 years in prison , these are just the lucky ones. Like an iceberg, for every one of them you hear about, there are many others below the surface who cannot hurdle the arcane procedural barriers. Bill is one of those guys...
This week is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock (40 years!!!) What a time that was! How innocent and naive it seems in retrospect, yet pregnant with hope and possibility. Those of us who lived through those times have many and varied recollections and impressions, now blurred by the passing decades (and seen through the prism of 20/20 hindsight) but my overriding memory is one of hope, potential and limitless possibility, when great things still seemed possible, even inevitable. Love was in the air and on the minds, but too many of us just weren't ready for it snd it wasn't to be.
Ok, Sis, give the doggies a big hug from me.
Love, Bill
I'm depressed and discouraged to learn that the Commonwealth of Virginia has set a September execution date for my good friend, Larry Bill Elliott, who was my neighbor for five plus years. Bill is not only an extraordinary person, he was also a great asset to his community, including the nation's national security with about 30 years in the US Army Military Intelligence. Bill was a specialist in electronic counterintelligence and was the instructor of electronic counterintelligence at the US Army's premier electronics school at Ft. Meade. In that capacity, he instructed Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine technical officers, as well as come CIA, NSA and other "alphabet soup" agencies. More importantly, I believe Bill to be innocent of the double-homicides he was convicted of (a reputed "lover's triangle" type of thing, according to the prosecutors forced theory). The ins and outs of Bill's case are complex and many, and space precludes me from adequately describing the nuances here, but someone needs to write a book, or make a movie about it all, and defy the reader or viewer to solve the riddle. I have not given up hope yet, although Virginia is particularly fatal when it comes to capital punishment, because he still has a cert petition before the US Supreme Court, and if that fails, he still has the slim possibility of clemency from Gov. Tim Kaine. Bill's lsawyers will need to make a powerful and compelling case for Bill's innocence for Kaine to even consider clemency. Fortunately, Bill has top-shelf attorneys, the Seattle law firm of K&L Gates (that's Bill Gates' father's law firm). Unfortunately, they were not his trial lawyers (the trial lawyers botched the trial horribly, while cleaning Bill out of his life's savings). The Gates lawyers came in pro bono after Bill's direct appeal and, at that stage, most of the damage, from incompetent trial lawyers, is already done; it's extremely difficult to correct this type of damage in the postconviction stage. The Gates people have made an heroic effort, but the law regarding the postconviction process (both state and federal) is against them, especially in Virginia. These are the same near-impossibly high legal hurdles that keep innocent people in prison and ensure their execution. While you read about guys getting exonerated every day, often after 10, 20 years in prison , these are just the lucky ones. Like an iceberg, for every one of them you hear about, there are many others below the surface who cannot hurdle the arcane procedural barriers. Bill is one of those guys...
This week is the 40th anniversary of Woodstock (40 years!!!) What a time that was! How innocent and naive it seems in retrospect, yet pregnant with hope and possibility. Those of us who lived through those times have many and varied recollections and impressions, now blurred by the passing decades (and seen through the prism of 20/20 hindsight) but my overriding memory is one of hope, potential and limitless possibility, when great things still seemed possible, even inevitable. Love was in the air and on the minds, but too many of us just weren't ready for it snd it wasn't to be.
Ok, Sis, give the doggies a big hug from me.
Love, Bill
Friday, August 07, 2009
August 2, 2009
Dear Sis~
I just finished watching a great PBS program celebrating Pete Seeger's 90th birthday; the number of folk musicians who sang and performed seemed endless, from Bruce Springstein to John Mellencamp to Arlo Guthrie to Joan Baez, and many more. Pete Seeger has always been a hero to me; he speaks truth to power and, in my mind, Pete represents everything that is good and beautiful about America. What a great spirit he is! Are you familiar with Pete's River Rescue Project that he's been running for many years? He was determined to clean up the filthy Hudson River many years ago, so he hit upon what proved to be an extremely successful idea. He built an exact replica of an old wooden river schooner, a good-sized one, with all the sails and rigging. Then he began sailing it up and down the Hudson, stopping in all the small towns and large cities. At each stop, he'd go to the schools, especially the urban schools, and arrange field trips out on the ship. There, he'd teach the kids about all the aquatic life, from turtles to birds to fish to salamanders, teaching them to love the river and the environment. Many of these kids have never been to the river and never held a wild creature. Pete uses an all-volunteer crew on the ship, and the kids themselves sail on the ship. Pete's been doing this on his own dime for many years, quietly doing his part to help save the earth he loves. And it worked: he's gotten lots of publicity, brought about many changes, and today, much of the Hudson is clean again. Most importantly, he's helped to educate a new generation of future environmentally sensitive citizens, the generation that will save our planet, if it is to be saved.
Love,
Bill
I just finished watching a great PBS program celebrating Pete Seeger's 90th birthday; the number of folk musicians who sang and performed seemed endless, from Bruce Springstein to John Mellencamp to Arlo Guthrie to Joan Baez, and many more. Pete Seeger has always been a hero to me; he speaks truth to power and, in my mind, Pete represents everything that is good and beautiful about America. What a great spirit he is! Are you familiar with Pete's River Rescue Project that he's been running for many years? He was determined to clean up the filthy Hudson River many years ago, so he hit upon what proved to be an extremely successful idea. He built an exact replica of an old wooden river schooner, a good-sized one, with all the sails and rigging. Then he began sailing it up and down the Hudson, stopping in all the small towns and large cities. At each stop, he'd go to the schools, especially the urban schools, and arrange field trips out on the ship. There, he'd teach the kids about all the aquatic life, from turtles to birds to fish to salamanders, teaching them to love the river and the environment. Many of these kids have never been to the river and never held a wild creature. Pete uses an all-volunteer crew on the ship, and the kids themselves sail on the ship. Pete's been doing this on his own dime for many years, quietly doing his part to help save the earth he loves. And it worked: he's gotten lots of publicity, brought about many changes, and today, much of the Hudson is clean again. Most importantly, he's helped to educate a new generation of future environmentally sensitive citizens, the generation that will save our planet, if it is to be saved.
Love,
Bill
Sunday, July 26, 2009
July 16, 2009
Dear Sis~
Last week a guy here on the row, Herman Lindsey, was totally acquitted by the Florida Supreme Court on his direct appeal, based upon insufficiency of the evidence. I read his briefs about 4 or 5 months ago and I told him then I believed he'd go home - the state simply didn't have any real evidence (and yet the jury convicted him). Not surprisingly, the main bit of "evidence" was a jailhouse snitch, a guy who claimed Herman "confessed" to him. In return, the snitch got a deal to get out of jail. About 40% of all prisoners who are exonerated had a jailhouse snitch involved in their case, and many of these rats completely fabricate the alleged "confessions". The prosecutors and the judges know these rats lie like Hell and yet they continue to use them and vouch for their integrity to the jury. Anyway, I'm always conservative when a guy asks me about his chances of winning on appeal (after I've read the appellate briefs) and total acquittals are very rare (perhaps once every 4 or 5 years from the Florida Supreme Court in capital cases), but after I read Herman's briefs (and the state's brief) I felt confident he'd win. It's been 8 days and Herman is still here; they've told him they would release him on the 16th day - they have to allow the state their allotted 15 days to file a motion for rehearing (the Attorney General's office has apparently already announced they won't be filing for rehearing). So, Herman will be one of those rare and lucky souls who walks off death row, directly home. (Although he would have been even luckier had he not been convicted!) Can you imagine that transition? From death row to total freedom ...
I think old Roy might be the next one to be acquitted, although it will be another 2 years or more before his direct appeal is heard. Roy also has a jailhouse snitch (a guy with over 40 felony convictions). There was no body in Roy's case, the state couldn't even prove the alleged victim even died. Roy is 69 years old and frail, with serious health issues, so he may not even live to see freedom...
I just read The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, again. I read it maybe 25 years ago but wasn't wise or mature enough to appreciate it. It's a beautiful book, deep and thought provoking. What a writer he was!
Love & Peace, Bill
Last week a guy here on the row, Herman Lindsey, was totally acquitted by the Florida Supreme Court on his direct appeal, based upon insufficiency of the evidence. I read his briefs about 4 or 5 months ago and I told him then I believed he'd go home - the state simply didn't have any real evidence (and yet the jury convicted him). Not surprisingly, the main bit of "evidence" was a jailhouse snitch, a guy who claimed Herman "confessed" to him. In return, the snitch got a deal to get out of jail. About 40% of all prisoners who are exonerated had a jailhouse snitch involved in their case, and many of these rats completely fabricate the alleged "confessions". The prosecutors and the judges know these rats lie like Hell and yet they continue to use them and vouch for their integrity to the jury. Anyway, I'm always conservative when a guy asks me about his chances of winning on appeal (after I've read the appellate briefs) and total acquittals are very rare (perhaps once every 4 or 5 years from the Florida Supreme Court in capital cases), but after I read Herman's briefs (and the state's brief) I felt confident he'd win. It's been 8 days and Herman is still here; they've told him they would release him on the 16th day - they have to allow the state their allotted 15 days to file a motion for rehearing (the Attorney General's office has apparently already announced they won't be filing for rehearing). So, Herman will be one of those rare and lucky souls who walks off death row, directly home. (Although he would have been even luckier had he not been convicted!) Can you imagine that transition? From death row to total freedom ...
I think old Roy might be the next one to be acquitted, although it will be another 2 years or more before his direct appeal is heard. Roy also has a jailhouse snitch (a guy with over 40 felony convictions). There was no body in Roy's case, the state couldn't even prove the alleged victim even died. Roy is 69 years old and frail, with serious health issues, so he may not even live to see freedom...
I just read The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, again. I read it maybe 25 years ago but wasn't wise or mature enough to appreciate it. It's a beautiful book, deep and thought provoking. What a writer he was!
Love & Peace, Bill
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
June 24, 2009
Dear Readers~
I misplaced this blog entry so it's late, but at least I found it :} Lisa
Dear Sis~
I don't need my calendar to know that the summer solstice just passed. It's unbearably hot in this hulking, oven-like building which absorbs the heat all day long and radiates it back all night long. We have extremely poor ventilation so we bake, day and night, constantly covered in a sheen of sweat. It's common to awake at 2:00 am with wet sheets, panting like a dog.
Anyway, I was just watching another news program where the talking heads were pontificating on Obama's proposed closure of the military prison in Guantanamo. The Republicans have turned this into a political football with their energetic campaign to enlist as many politicians as possible to denounce the possible move of 200 or so of the alleged terrorists/prisoners to prisons in America. They've whipped up a wave of hysteria, abetted by the mainstream media which, sheep-like, has yet to question the basis for the resistance to the move. The self-righteous politicians have been quick to go on TV to announce that there is no way they'll stand for these detainees to be place in American prisons because, they claim with a straight face, they might escape! The absurdity of this stance, which is patently laughable, is never questioned by any moderators or reporters. What makes this so ridiculous (not to mention hypocritical) is that America is PRISON NATION. With almost 3 million of our fellow citizens imprisoned, we have the highest incarceration rate in the world (it isn't even close). We love our prisons and love to fill them! The United States has 5% of the world's population, yet we house nearly 25% of the world's prisoners. We incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, about 5 times the world average (the ratio is much higher in the southern states, a relic of the plantation mentality). One in every 31 American adults is in prison, jail or some form of supervised release. Total spending on corrections (federal, state and local) exceeds $70 Billion per year and has increased over 40% over the last 20 years (even as our crime rates have steadily decreased). Moreover, America incarcerates more people for drug crimes alone than the European Union does for all crimes, even thought the EU has 200 million more citizens than the US. Few Americans understand (or care) how the prison industrial complex has, with its strong profit motive, come to dominate in this country, especially with the privatization of our jails and prisons. Incarceration long ago ceased being about public policy and morphed into an economic imperative. Building prisons (and filling them up) is all about creating jobs (and pleasing voters who will presumably vote for the politicians who brought the prison into their town). Many, many prisons (both private and public) are built on speculation, with the certainty that they will be filled (Build it and they will come!) The huge and highly profitable private prison corporations (Wachenhut, GEO, etc...) are very politically connected and those politicians ensure the passage of laws guaranteed to keep prisons filled. A tiny, but representative insight of the profit motive can be gleaned by a recent Newsweek article wherein a municipal employee of Hardin, Montana was crying about how their 5-year old, $27 Million dollar prison, built on spec, has remained empty. The town wants the Feds to fill it with the Guantanamo detainees. "We had hoped Two Rivers Detention Center would create jobs," he wrote. "Filling our prison would create desperately needed jobs for 200 or 300 people", he lamented. "Hardin spent $27 Million to build the prison, and now our town's bonds are in default...The town's business community is committed to exploring every last opportunity to get the prison up and running." Note how it's all about business, money and jobs, not whether it's good social policy to fill up another prison with our fellow citizens. Now, the same economic reality that hit the condo speculators is hitting communities who chose to build prisons on spec in anticipation of big profits and permanent jobs. (In reality, that prison would already be filled if it wasn't built in a tiny, remote town in Montana. The government(s) always ensure their prisons remain full).
Anyway, getting back to the Guantanamo detainees, we have over 3,000 death row prisoners here, and the nation is chock full of super max prisons that nobody is escaping from. America has perfected the art of super maximum security confinement on a massive scale. It's laughable that a politician (especially a Republican...they love our prisons!) could, with a straight face, claim that these 200 detainees cannot be safely confined anywhere in America. But, I've yet to see one single reporter on TV question this premise; instead, they just help whip up the frenzy, happy to have a "story" to report (which is really a non-story). Here's a real story: the shame of a nation which locks up almost 3 million of its citizens without a clue or care as to the ramifications. This would be a scandal in any other country, but here, it's called business as usual (with the emphasis on business).
Love, Bill
I misplaced this blog entry so it's late, but at least I found it :} Lisa
Dear Sis~
I don't need my calendar to know that the summer solstice just passed. It's unbearably hot in this hulking, oven-like building which absorbs the heat all day long and radiates it back all night long. We have extremely poor ventilation so we bake, day and night, constantly covered in a sheen of sweat. It's common to awake at 2:00 am with wet sheets, panting like a dog.
Anyway, I was just watching another news program where the talking heads were pontificating on Obama's proposed closure of the military prison in Guantanamo. The Republicans have turned this into a political football with their energetic campaign to enlist as many politicians as possible to denounce the possible move of 200 or so of the alleged terrorists/prisoners to prisons in America. They've whipped up a wave of hysteria, abetted by the mainstream media which, sheep-like, has yet to question the basis for the resistance to the move. The self-righteous politicians have been quick to go on TV to announce that there is no way they'll stand for these detainees to be place in American prisons because, they claim with a straight face, they might escape! The absurdity of this stance, which is patently laughable, is never questioned by any moderators or reporters. What makes this so ridiculous (not to mention hypocritical) is that America is PRISON NATION. With almost 3 million of our fellow citizens imprisoned, we have the highest incarceration rate in the world (it isn't even close). We love our prisons and love to fill them! The United States has 5% of the world's population, yet we house nearly 25% of the world's prisoners. We incarcerate 756 inmates per 100,000 residents, about 5 times the world average (the ratio is much higher in the southern states, a relic of the plantation mentality). One in every 31 American adults is in prison, jail or some form of supervised release. Total spending on corrections (federal, state and local) exceeds $70 Billion per year and has increased over 40% over the last 20 years (even as our crime rates have steadily decreased). Moreover, America incarcerates more people for drug crimes alone than the European Union does for all crimes, even thought the EU has 200 million more citizens than the US. Few Americans understand (or care) how the prison industrial complex has, with its strong profit motive, come to dominate in this country, especially with the privatization of our jails and prisons. Incarceration long ago ceased being about public policy and morphed into an economic imperative. Building prisons (and filling them up) is all about creating jobs (and pleasing voters who will presumably vote for the politicians who brought the prison into their town). Many, many prisons (both private and public) are built on speculation, with the certainty that they will be filled (Build it and they will come!) The huge and highly profitable private prison corporations (Wachenhut, GEO, etc...) are very politically connected and those politicians ensure the passage of laws guaranteed to keep prisons filled. A tiny, but representative insight of the profit motive can be gleaned by a recent Newsweek article wherein a municipal employee of Hardin, Montana was crying about how their 5-year old, $27 Million dollar prison, built on spec, has remained empty. The town wants the Feds to fill it with the Guantanamo detainees. "We had hoped Two Rivers Detention Center would create jobs," he wrote. "Filling our prison would create desperately needed jobs for 200 or 300 people", he lamented. "Hardin spent $27 Million to build the prison, and now our town's bonds are in default...The town's business community is committed to exploring every last opportunity to get the prison up and running." Note how it's all about business, money and jobs, not whether it's good social policy to fill up another prison with our fellow citizens. Now, the same economic reality that hit the condo speculators is hitting communities who chose to build prisons on spec in anticipation of big profits and permanent jobs. (In reality, that prison would already be filled if it wasn't built in a tiny, remote town in Montana. The government(s) always ensure their prisons remain full).
Anyway, getting back to the Guantanamo detainees, we have over 3,000 death row prisoners here, and the nation is chock full of super max prisons that nobody is escaping from. America has perfected the art of super maximum security confinement on a massive scale. It's laughable that a politician (especially a Republican...they love our prisons!) could, with a straight face, claim that these 200 detainees cannot be safely confined anywhere in America. But, I've yet to see one single reporter on TV question this premise; instead, they just help whip up the frenzy, happy to have a "story" to report (which is really a non-story). Here's a real story: the shame of a nation which locks up almost 3 million of its citizens without a clue or care as to the ramifications. This would be a scandal in any other country, but here, it's called business as usual (with the emphasis on business).
Love, Bill
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