Jan 22, 2012

Dear Sis~

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

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

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

Love, Bill