works of prisoners

3 short offerings

2008-11-23T06:20:00.000-08:00

TIME
By Manuel Williams

Time is to heal all things:
Pain, sorrow, frustration,
When we only look at the hurt,
But never look at the time it took to become healed,
Through all our days of grief,
never to realize what dominated our time
to look What’s the outer control that pained us,
Which distance focus from time,
What heart destined to be broken once more with the advent of Spring,
Should heal next Summer?
Time can’t run from us, nor can we run from time,
No matter what the problem may be, time would catch up
And we deal with the things we see
What we can’t deal with now, we have to deal with later
Later is the pass tense of things we look over to ignore.

drawing and poem by:
Manuel Williams #303943; CCI; PO Box 900; Portage, WI 53901
Manuel is a young man who has been in segregation for many years - he will not tolerate being humiliated and therefore does not do well in the prison environment. Recently he has changed prisons and although he is still in segregation, we hope he will start anew. Feel free to write him and use our email if you have any questions or need support in this. Here he is trying his hand at poetry and drawing

l've always been alone.
by Johnny Lacy
My reminiscence pays no tribute to any happier times,
I ask my mind to be quiet so I can hear the whispers of my heart.
My body tells my soul how it's searched the universe for one tidbit of true ecstasy.....
My spirit is on a perpetual errand in search for its kindred....
Half a century has gone by..yet I'm not half a centarian.

I watch the moon and stars through the ceiling while lying face down in my bed.
I am chilled by the breeze that blow through a concrete wall over the rugged edges of cold steele.
Some times when there's pandemonium in my mind,
It results in catastrophe in my feelings.
But then, who cries for my soul?
A souls that seeks, but never finds redemption.

Everyone has a mistake in their past.
So I'm forced to reconcile it with all the facts..
I've always been alone.
My only consolation has been the fact that my life has been spotted with small joys and full of long sorrows.
So I wonder- is it my lack of dangerous aggression,
or my extraordinary simplicity that subjects me to these vulnerabilities??...

I've never known.. through my spirit, which is my astral self,
I've looked into a bartering of extraordinary revelations
And found an exposition of lost souls wandering about
With no particular destination,
Should I remain in a complete dislocated lucidity, or join the rat race?

So I'm suspended in misery, no eyes grow moist for me-
No shadows can hide my grief?
No comforts can provide me with relief-that I've found.
Now that you've peeked into the small, tragic history of my life, tell me,
Is it beyond scary to you also or would you term me as an ancient survivor.
Keep uppermost in mind-This life has manifest itself- because I 've always been alone.

Johnny Lacy #71373;WCI: PO Box 351; Waupun , WI 53963
Johnny needs friends, is easy to write to and very open and enthusiastic. Again use our email for questions. He has many poems we will be featuring.

Jerry Price #171022
ST. Louis Corr Facility; 8585 N Croswell Rd; St louis, MI 48880
Jerry is in Michigan in a private prison. He has severe health problems. At one point we tried to advocate for him to get a foot injury worked on and could not get more than a toe in the door because of the private nature of the system -there simply was no one we could talk to who had direct responsibilty. Jerry has a philosphical bent and is always sweet and respectful .

quotes from Jerry
Carl Jung is quoted as saying “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”
Epictetus says “the man who is not satisfied with little will be satisfied with nothing.”
Robert M Pirsig says “The place to improve the world is first in one own’s heart, head and hands.”
Clement Stone: “ In every adversity there are seeds of an equal or greater opportunity.”
Confucius: The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”
Art Buchwald” The best things in life aren’t things.”
William Arthur Ward: “It is often beyond our power to avoid criticism, but it is always in our power to avoid being critical.”
Jerry’s New Year advice: “The door of success swings in the hinges of obstacles. So in the New Year, Dance like there’s no one looking, Love like you’ve never been hurt, And work like you don’t need the money."

Two by Jalaladdin Rumi, the great Sufi mysticsubmitted by Jerry

1)Love Yourself EnoughYou were born with potential.Tou were born with goodness and truth.You were born with ideas and dreams.You were born with greatness.You were born with wings.You are not meant for crawling, so don’t,You have wings.Learn to use them and fly

2) Out beyond ideas of wrong and right is a field.I‘ll meet you there.

Jerry price #171022; ST. Louis Corr Facility; 8585 N Croswell Rd; St louis, MI 48880

Back to FFUP index

SHU

2008-04-16T00:16:00.000-07:00

"Outside Recreation Area " by Tommy Silverstein

Living in a isolated milieu within an isolated society.

by anonymous prisoner
Well, Pelican Bay S.H.U. [Secure Housing Unit] is exactly that milieu and the society within it.
Designed as a weapon of psychological warfare. It is used to break the spirit and mind and emotions of an individual. Isolation in Pelican Bay SHU consists of total confinement to a cage for 22 ½ hours a day. One is isolated from all human contact, with the exception of the few people in your pod (section) which has eight cages per pod, housed by eight prisoners.

Every day each person is given the opportunity to go to an exercise yard for 1 ½ hours. The exercise yard is equal to the size of a cage and a half.

The only scenery to life is to look straight up to the sky through a small screened opening in the roof on the exercise yard. This is also total isolation from all forms of life. Being totally isolated from human contact in a cage can cause one’s mind to drift, even if he has things to pacify him or not; for a person’s mind can loose consciousness with reality.

A person may start to retrospect and introspect, then slowly slip away from reality because of his isolation. The person will become psychotic and develop an assortment of antisocial or psychological behavioral problems. There are people in the S.H.U. for determinate isolation periods and others who are held indeterminately in isolation, which in short means their isolation in the S.H.U. is perennial, unless they mete out certain obligations over a period of time, to those who administrate the S.H.U.

Those obligations are for a person to debrief (snitch) on other prisoners or parolees they may associate with inside the prison system or streets or to identify anyone who they think is involved in criminal activity. This must be done and te information, at least most of it, must have some truth to it. A debriefer is sending others to isolation in order to be released from isolation.

This weapon of isolation is quite effective in the theatre of psychological warfare, because it is breaking individuals’ principles in what they purportedly believe in by debriefing on others and sending them in their place.

The purpose of this psychological weapon is to break a human being’s spirit, mentality and their principles. If you can break a man mentally you have defeated everything he believes in and he will defeat himself for his adversary. What holds a person’s character together are his principles and beliefs. This is what is attacked in psychological warfare.

This weapon also destroys a person’s self-esteem. Where one will become mentally and psychologically lethargic in his isolation. One may even develop suicidal thoughts, because his self-esteem has reached such a low.

However, there are ways to overcome and defeat this weapon, and of course there will be scars, but you will still have your dignity intact. One must develop a systematic program within the isolation of his cage, by developing an approximate time to wake up and go to sleep.

A person should not allow himself to become pacified by the television and create a television routine.

As I have stated earlier how isolation can effect a person’s mentality, therefore one should find reading material: non-fiction and a little fiction, but more non-fiction material. This aids the mind so it won’t be idle.

A person should also engender an exercise routine, consisting of cardiovascular and stretching exercises. These designed workouts should range to at least an hour for five days a week or every other day.

The things I have mentioned will ensure your survival in isolation to an extent. At the same time one must use these defenses to remain mentally adroit. However, there will still be those who will still submit to being broken by this weapon of psychological warfare. Whether it is through submitting to the debriefing process or losing one’s mind; but those people never really had the attributes of being strong mentally and emotionally. It just so happened that isolation was the weapon that broke them and it exposed their weakness and truthfully if it was not isolation they would have broke regardless.

It is not who can be broken and who cannot, but it is about a system that engages in the use of psychological warfareto turn human beings into broken animals. For those who remain steadfast in their self-discipline, they will not be defeated. They will last firm and strong until their last breath and holding true in their heart their principles, that which separates the broken from the unbroken, for the unbroken lives with integrity, that which psychological warfare seeks to destroy.

Breaking Americas Chains

2008-04-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

Breaking Amerikkka's Chains

Composed by Raynell D. Morgan

WSPF PO Box 9900, Boscobel, WI 53805
Aka Kamau Tebogo Zulu Damali

I have been one of Amerikkka's prisoners for over 400 years,
The blood and tears of my people are her lakes and rivers,
She claims to be the apotheosis of liberation,
When fact is, she enslaved two-thirds of the Black Nation,
Plundered the Red Man of his land,
And placed him on a reservation.
I can still smell the fresh blood ofAfrikans and Natives,
Who died in Amerikkka's hands from years passed,
Because they wanted to be free.

And I can still hear the crescendo speeches
From the brother and sisters of the 50's and 60's,
Who vociferated: "I am a Man, I am a Woman,"
As they marched in the streets.
Blood shot eyes from cold emotions and sleepless nights;
I can't recall the last time I cried.
I can't recall the last time I laughed.
Angry frowns on the faces of prisoners,
Define long life struggles.
Ancient memories as a youngsta,
Warm hugs and kisses from the embrace and lips of my mother.
Screams from newborn babies spell revolution.
Conscious Black men driven by hope and rage.
In search of a solution.

Generations of young Black males with high esteem,
And dreams of going to Harvard or Yale,
But instead they end up in one of Amerikkka's prison cells.
Look at me,
My face is the face Amerikkka doesn't want the world to see.
Listen to me,
My voice is the voice Amerikkka doesn't want the world to hear.
Who am I?
I'm that brother,
That Alkebulanian man whose mission is to break Amerikkka's chains.

Talking to your mind

2008-04-16T00:13:00.000-07:00

Talking to your mind

Now ladys, set back and unwine and let me talk to your minds.

And I’m no “Dr. Seuss”cuz I kick a different style of rhymes..

I’m just expressing my thoughts on paper. An my pen keeps flowing like a river.

They say I’m slick as oil. Being real to myself is how I stay loyal.

Now let me start by saying I’m not into whips, chain, or cuffs. Cuz I’m not into dat freaky type of stuff. But at tymes I do it gentle but I also can get ruff. I’m getting to personal, so I think dats enough. Even though I’m miles away, your mind I still can read. Cuz I know what you desire and what you fear and especially what you need.

I like womens in business suits, now don’t get me wrong, I too like prostitutes. I like ‘em blond, black hair, red hair and brunettes. Am I moving too fast for you baby, relax, catch your breath. My conversation is better than sex. I always say what I pheel. And everything dat I say is real. So come a little closer and let me whisper some’n in your ear. I’m just telling you scertively the things you need to hear.. I know you got a husband or man and when he comes near I just fall back in da shadows and remain in da rear.

Baby, I’m no kisser and teller so you ain’t got nothing to fear. Da thangs dat we do is kept between me and you. I’ll just be da maintenance man is dat kool. Anything’ that’s broken with your mind, body and soul I will repair. So tell me don’t you think the maintenance man sounds fair. I never seen you before and I’ma always remain blind. Cuz they bigamy is a crime. Now in my last lines. I got you all steamy and hot, so I want you to kool off with a glass of wine. Ha! Baby, just relax cuz I’m only talking to your mind…

Souvannaseng Boriboune #347426

M Green

2008-04-16T00:09:00.001-07:00

By M Green
From my cell window I can see
A high razor wire fence surrounding me.
I’ve lost my freedom and positive strife.
The painfulness cuts me like a knife.
My existence of being is very frail,
Life’s positive expectations are extemely pale.
I sit a lot in unthoughtfulness and sorrow
For the same today is tomorrow.

DeCarlos Young

2008-04-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

Makes Me Wanna Holler

Once some one told me that you are your
own worst enemy and I believed them and
then I met you.

It wasn’t until I met you that I found out
what pain, hatred, and devilish act, a savage, uncilvilized
cruelty, inhumane, unlawful, unjust, untruthful
and unmerciful all means.

The look that I see in your eye is that
of pure evil and even as I rebuke you
the evil still lie in your face and your eyes.

And the way you forbid my culture to even
exist is enough to make me wanna holler yezh! That’s
right Holler! Holler! At the top of my lungs

As I lie here on this cold hard floor slowly
dying being tortured by your terrorism that is so swift
and ever so unsympathetically placed on my mind,
body, heart and soul.

But yet I hear them yes others just like
me as they’re asking for those who torture them to
stop the pain yet they find their pleas
so very funny but what else can a grown man
do when in pain but that’s right.. holler. …
Holler at the top of his lungs.

Hoping that the depression, anxiety the voices
the insomnia and hallucinations would somehow stop
Stop like a dime falling onto a thick carpet
as those who see your tears and sickness as their
work of art their own master’s piece.

And a doctor that sees your rage as his
chance to play as if he’s a mason and build you
back up with medication and place you back in
the same ordeal but yet mankind sees us as raving
lunatics.

And as I set here desolate writing
with this small pen in hand venting while my
tormentor’s eyes watching every word I
put on paper as a man it all makes me wanna
holler!

De’Carlos Young #421325, CCI; PO Box 900, Portage, Wi 53901

How Long

2008-04-15T23:50:00.000-07:00

How Long
I’ve been buried alive in a stone tomb
I’m trying to find a ray of light seeking illumination from the moon
Every night I’m chipping at the walls, but only in my mind
I can’t sleep because I hear sounds echoing from past crimes
Nothing but distant images penetrate my eyes
Like Galileo with no telescope to see the stars in the sky
At times I just lay down with my head beneath the blanket
A frustrated way to escape because I hate it
My thoughts are of the world but me it never mentions
All it does is spin and witnesses the tension
Every night when the sun hides from the beauty of the stars
I relax to meditate and my mind drifts through the bars
Every night I leave my cell and enter into the unknown
It’s a bit of a relief but it’s no place like home.
How long until I’m not alone?
WSPF Prisoner

monumental

2008-04-15T23:48:00.002-07:00

Monumental

In America’s towns and villages,
And at grounds like Arlington,
There are soldiers carved of marble
To mark the wars thev’ve won.
You’ll see Lees’ and Grants’ upon a horse,
Some brandishing a sword
Cannon, rifle, bayonet,
In bronze and concrete poured.
There are Eisenhowers’ and Lekeys’,
And tanks, and guns, and ships,
You find Pattons’, Clarks’, and Halseys’
Famous words from famous lips
There are walls, museums, towers,
That Toward the sky all soar
They have all been dedicated
As their monuments to war.
How strange, in this fair nation,
Where they fight to make war cease,
That it is so difficult to find,
More monuments to….. peace!

The People

Call us “Indian” if you will-
Or “Native” if you must.
To many sorts of names
“The People” can adjust.
But one name never call us
That of “American”-
We never have been-- never will
Be members of your clan.
Don’t “honor” us with “citizen”
It’s never been our claim.
“The People” of this land are we,
We’ve always had that name.
We’ve never asked your presence here.
We’ve never sought your god
Never signed a “ legal” treaty
That gave up one inch of sod.
Never kidnapped your children,
Nor forced them to our schools,
Nor desired to learn your language,
Or dig up your graves like ghouls.
We didn’t ask for your diseases,
Nor did we crave your lust for gold,
All we truly ever wanted,
Was to live the ways of old.
We didn’t ask that you should come here
To build fences on our land.
To take the things that were not yours
Is all you ever planned!
So..do one kind and real thing
If you never do another
Call our name as just “The people”
For we’ll never be your “Brother.”

A Voice From Within
"And so beneath the weight lay I and suffered to death, but could not die."
(unknown)
Society reflects itself in the microcosm of prison. From a class based,
economically driven,
racially motivated construct devolves life as a series of Chinese boxes; a
set of boxes decreasing in size so
that each box fits inside the next larger one. I am in the smallest box.
The purpose of this box is to gouge my senses by suppressing human sound,
put blinders about my
eyes by restricting my view of the outside world and forbid touch by a lack
of human contact. Essential
human needs are viewed with suspicion. Within the larger context of the big
box, the smallest box is
designed to inflict physical and emotional isolation that wears down a
prisoner's will to resist When this
regimen undermines a prisoner's health or distorts his personality, it's
considered (he cost of doing business
in Wisconsin.
I'm deeply cornered in its prison. My sight is diminished, but I maintain my
vision. I see a hand
in the use of restraint to spread-eagled prisoners - - something inherently
abusive regardless of the excuse.
I see forced feedings, cell extractions, mind altering medications and
chemical weapons used to
incapacitate. I see a petty stream of petty hassles, harassments, verbal
barrages, mind-fuck games, false
disciplinary reports, medical neglect and the omnipresent threat of
violence. Airborne shit and gobs of spit
become the response of the caged. The government says we don't have much
common cause with
humanity because we are "the worst of the worst," an incessant and factually
distorted Wisconsin
Department of Corrections incantation which has become an effective sound
bite.
The government successfully monopolizes and manipulates information
pertaining to crime and
punishment. Excuse me, but was the government to be believed about Vietnam
or the savings and loan rip-
off? Was Nixon to be believed about Watergate? Was Reagan to be believed
about the mass murder in
Central America? Was Clinton to be believed concerning the human ashes in
Waco? If they were, then
maybe you'll buy into the absurd need for a Brooklyn Bridge named the
Supermax Correctional Institution
(SMCI) in Boscobel, Wisconsin.
The government has a major credibility problem, yet tax dollars continue to
bleed away into the
sordid business of the world's largest prison system. Who are we, who
inhabit the smallest boxes in this
system? We are men of no property, predominately black and brown and
increasingly younger, who enter
one of the few doors open to us - - the penitentiary. We are too uppity, too
rebellious, too subversive and
too quick to piss on prison policies. At times, we are so outrageous that we
destroy government property
and challenge the state's authority to treat us like dogs. Some of us are
quick to defend ourselves: our legal
rights, our religions and our principles. We fight for our dignity then,
when we have nothing left to lose.
Who am I? I am one subjected to the collective punishment within the common
ground of SMCI.
"Worst of the worst" is where the illusion clashes with the reality. The
illusion: that the criminalization of
poverty and the isolation and degradation of prisoners provides an
effective, humane response to social ills.
The reality: that crimes begin at the top, with predatory capitalists
profiting grotesquely while the results of
their activities mire the rest of us in economic and social rot. It's a
shame that I had to be sent to one of
these boxes-within-a-box before I realized I was destined for success.
former Wisconsin Prisoner, now released

“The Old Ones” By Dennis Gonzalez
#246088
The old ones always understood
The meaning of the land,
They knew that I everything,
The Great Spirit had a hand.

They honored all life and people,
Believed in their great worth,
Celebrated with great joy,
Every child’s birth.

They lived in harmony,
With all of nature’s gifts,
They understood minerals, plants,
Animals and chants,
That causes the heart to lift.

They taught their children,
songs and stories of long past.
“Follow the ways of the people”
was all they ever asked.

As time passed, they have seen
Some walk a different road..
A road that leads away from them
And the stories that they’ve told.

They yearn to see young ones follow,
The straight red road in their life,
Not a strange, black, and crooked one,
That will only bring them strife.

With time, I pray we may all understand,
That old ways are the best
Living the songs and stories,
Will help us pass life’s tests.

So listen to the stories,
of the moon, stars and the sun,
And always thank the creator,
For leaving us with the old ones.

marcus Porter

2008-04-15T23:45:00.001-07:00

Poems by Marcus Porter #251029

WCI, PO Box 351; Waupun, WI 53963

I Wish
I wish I could give my grandmother eternal life-And let her see everything’s going to be alright-
I wish I had the power to turn back time or erase all hideous crimes-
I wish the Rich could put their feet in the poor shoes to feel what it’s like to lose-
I wish the morgue could go out of business and the world in a mass demonstration would ask for repentance-
I wish childr4en would never lose their innocence and things could be like they were in Genesis-
I wish there wasn’t a need for thoughts like this…

IT'S ALL ABOUT ME

Arrogant, Egotistic, conceited.
It’s all about me…
So when I walk about with my nose turned up
And I really don’t give a fuck
That should let you know
It’s all about me…
When I stare with my condescending glare
And you feel like you shouldn’t really be here
It’s all about me…
My vanity, self esteem….kiss my ass attitude
Because you’re not worth another conscious thought
It’s all about me..

WALLS
My cell walls sweat with frustration
From years and years of incarceration
They weep for the souls they have lost
But still their hearts are made of stone.

The root of all evil= POWER
The reason men bleed=POWER
Control, respect, greed=POWER
World domination=POWER
Mental castration=POWER
Drugs, guns, caskets=POWER
Punks, faggs, bastards=POWER
Pain, hurt, sorrow=POWER
Yesterday, today, tomorrow=POWER
Love, dedication, bliss=POWER
Hug, caress, kiss=POWER
The bitter and the sweet=POWER
The cold and the heat=POWER
Wisdom , awareness and understanding=POWER
Deception, swindle and underhanded=POWER
The unwitting death=POWER
First and last breath=POWER
THE ALPHA AND OMEGA=POWER

I’ve Been with Her 11 Years and yet I enter her with no sense of direction, she takes me in with only the slightest movement, swallowing me whole-but I fight hard to get my self under control, my thoughts are beyond reach- She’s doing things to me I never knew existed-her attitude is unreasonable, her walls are suffocating and she doesn’t even know she’s doing these things- I pray that her destruction is ended one day, until then I lay inside her womb…
Unsolicited intercourse

I like my coffee black as an African Queen.
Throw in some Brazilian cream
If you know what I mean-
A Latino to sweeten it up.
A Chinese Beauty just like a saucer and cup.
A pinch of Jamaican spice to make it alright,
Some Indian sugar so I’ll be up all night-
A drop of Dominican Lemon to keep me busy,
Cup full pf European rum to make me dizzy-
Not Folgers or Mexwellhouse,
women is what I’m talking about.

Substitutes
Substitutes are all right for coffee and maybe for tea,
But no substitutes when it comes to loving me.
I only take what’s real because I know I can give it back.
I don’t give opinions about love, I only give the facts.
If you don’t have the right ingredients we won’t mix well
That’s not something we can easily detect cuz time will tell.
I will tell you what you subtituted and what you failed to see
Because like I said,
Substitutes are all right for coffee and maybe for tea
But there’s none when it comes to me.

I know a place where souls walk out.side the body + where morals and ethics don’t exist . + self respect is in the same category as worthless and death + where homosexuality is considered the norm + stupidity is cool + where mortals claim to be prophets and gods + one man controls the world + where child molestation is rampant + where juveniles are killing each other like animals + where democracy is a joke + prisons are human warehouses + where crack is the American pass.time + where justice is not only blind but a whore +where bills and laws are made to keep the rich richer and the poor poorer + where women use names like bitches and whores and tramps to identify themselves + where Revelation is seen everyday + where the world is a Ghetto + where freedom is in jeopardy + where I have no more to say…

Two More

1)Backbone
My backbone is what keep me up right-
It gives me that strength to fight-
My backbone is what holds my head straight-
So I won’t wobble or bend under the weight-
Even when friends and family are slowly dying-
My backbone supports me when I’m crying-
My backbone is my first love-
We’re closer than the heart that pumps my blood-
So when I’m on my hands and knees
With pain in my eyes that scream please-
My backbone stands firm and won’t leave-
My backbone heals me when I’m sick-
Doesn’t play games or pull tricks-
My backbone is like no other-
That’s why I’m proud to say my backbone is my mother.

2) I was suddenly knocked off balance. It struck without warning, pushing it’s razor sharp teeth through my chest, ejaculating it’s poison into my heart. It was a high like no other. I became weak at the knees, arms got heany, vision blurry. It released it’s grip letting me fall to my knees and there I was smitten by the whole ordeal. I’ve heard many stories about it but never could I imagine my own encounter, me of all people, bitten by the LOVE BUG.
(Love bug comes with picture)

Lamont McNeal

2008-04-15T23:43:00.000-07:00

Bet You Open Your Eyes

Lamont McNeal #229402 ;

GBCI PO Box 10933; Green Bay, Wi 54307

written in 2004

America, should you keep dreaming or open your eyes and see
this president has made a miscall that jeopardized you and me.
Our families are fighting a war in Iraq, the president started, no doubt.
He sent our soldiers across the border with no plan to get them out.
Bodies are hitting the ground like leaves from a tree;
if they order a draft where does that leave you and me?
They throw flags over the caskets and salute the sky
but still haven’t told the families how their children died or why.
Families losing jobs, elderly people getting robbed,
medicare so high,how can you pay for it without a job?
This world is losing focus, standing strong which we ain’t¸
never mind what the president says or the picture he tries to paint.
A blind man can’t see, but he can open his ears and listen,
broadcasted in the news a reporter has come up missing.
Bound and gagged strapped down to his knees
negotiating with the terrorists to please let him leave.
Soldiers travel the region stop dead in their jeeps
only to see the civilian with his head chopped off by his knees.
Spokes men tell the families the tragedy has just begun
while the terrorist air ads promising it will happen again.
Voting is very, very important so if you can, please do
or imagine your feet walking in my prison shoes.
I took advantage of my life, and lost that right,
to pick the next commander –in- chief who could definitely win that fight.
Four years has been jagged off,all our allies have been run off
the same man used his power to get John Kerry votes tossed off.
Families in church crying, the pain you couldn’t compare it,
while the president argues at debates about the rights of gay marriage.
Something is wrong with this picture, I think the whole film,
while veterans are in wheel chairs with the loss of their limbs.
The death toll is so high the world has lost track
the president still hasn’t admitted he made a mistake when he invaded Iraq.
He said he was looking for weapons of mass destruction
so when will they appear the only threat to this nation
is when he got elected for 4 more years.
Only a Bush supporter will accept more lies so place their family in Iraq
I bet you open your eyes.
“2004 election” Please help our nation

Right Now

2008-04-15T23:39:00.000-07:00

Right Now
By Ralph Marston
Submitted by Frederick Spence #132827;

WCI; PO Box 351; Waupun WI 53963

Stop for a moment and calm your thoughts.
Let go of your anxieties and look around you.
What do you see?
You see a world filled with beauty.
You see a life filled with possibilities.
You see dreams being born.
Being nurtured and being fulfilled.
Yes, there are challenges.
Yes, there is sorrow.
Yes, there is violence and hatred.
But more than these there is love.
There is goodness, there is joy.
The future is uncertain.
And that means there is no limit as to how
beautiful and joyful you can make it.
Yet what you have is right now.
And right now is completely as it should be.
It is your time to live.
Think of what a precious thing your life is
and how truly blessed you are to be experiencing it.
Right now.
Right now, any anxiety you have about the future
is only an illusion.
Let it go.
Let it go as the beauty and perfection
of right now wash over you.
The best thing you can do for the future
is to live with everything you have in the present.
Right now, you are in the position to create real,
lasting positive value for the world in which you live.
How do you do that?
By following your heart.
By being theyou that is really you.
You may have wondered away from yourself.
Now is the time to come home,
You know in your heart that you are here for a reason.
The pain that you feel is that purpose, that reason for living,
As it constantly aches to break free.
When it does, You’ll be more alive than
you could have imagined.
Breathe in the beauty around you,
The beauty and richness if being alive.
It is your gift.
It is your fortune.
It is your blessing.
And it is yours, to live, to experience, to fulfill.
Right Now.
Submitted by Frederick Spence#132827; WCI PO Box 351; Waupun, WI 53963

Marvin Wilson

2008-04-15T23:38:00.001-07:00

submitted by Marvin Wilson

# 297343; GBCI; PO Box 19033; Green Bay WI 54307

From one hundred and One wise sayings
by Chief Josiah Nwaogwugwu

Most people have been thrown into jail or have been misunderstood because of careless statements interpreted as circumstantial evidence. A good person should know what he is actually saying, when and where he speaks. In African society there are peoples whose names are worth a million dollars to them and their families. They may be rich or poor, it does not matter. A man who says anything that enters his mouth, may be successful in politics or material wealth, but a failure in life. Serious people will not take his words as given.

WORDS LIKE FREEDOM
From: THE PANTHER and The LASH
by Langston Hughes

There are words like freedom
Sweet and wonderful to say
On my heartstrings freedom sings
All day everyday.
There are words like liberty
That almost make me cry.
If you had know what I know
You would know why.

Today I'm Compelled

2008-04-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

TODAY I'M COMPELLED
I'VE BEEN COMPELLED TO RELEASE YESTERDAY, WHILE TOMMOROWS STILL AHEAD.
IT'S TODAY I FACE!
A STEP FORWARD, WHAT I SEE I DON'T LIKE, BUT AS A MAN I CAN'T STEP BACK OR LACK IN MY MOVEMENTS TOWARDS A FUTURE UNKNOWN.
IT SEEMS THE BIGGER THE DESIRE,
THE BIGGER THE WEIGHT I MUST CARRY!

BUT CARRY THAT WEIGHT I MUST.
EMOTIONALLY EXHAUSTED IN MY THOUGHTS,
OF A WORLD WITHOUT ME.
I COULD CALL COLLECT TO MY SOUL,
BUT THERE THE PAIN'S DISCONNECTED.
I'VE BUILT A WORLD AROUND MY LIFE,
ONLY TO BE TRAPPED BY THE PRESSURE OF WHATS REAL.

WHO KNEW THAT A MOTION COULD BE COUNTED ON A TICK TOWARDS THE SCALE
WEIGHING OUT MY LIFE.
I SEE THAT THE BEGINNING WAS A STAGE
IN SOME DAY OF SOME TIME,
AND NOW TODAY I SPEND REMINISING THOSE MOMENTS

OF WHICH IS ALREADY COIN.

UT SOME HOW IT MAKES ME WONDER, WHAT THIS NEXT SCENE OF LIFE HOLDS..
JUST MAYBE I COULD PAINT A PERFECT PICTURE OF THAT YET TO COME, BUT THEN AGAIN ONLY GOD KNOWS WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS!!!!!!

BY:FONTAINE BAKER 1/10/07

WCI PO Box 351; Waupun Wi 53963

Quotes from Martin Luther King

2008-04-15T23:30:00.001-07:00

Quotes from Martin Luther King
Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.
Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.
We must combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.
Strength to Love, 1963.

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
Many of the ugly pages of American history have been obscured and forgotten....America owes a debt of justice which it has only begun to pay. If it loses the will to finish or slackens in its determination, history will recall its crimes and the country that would be great will lack the most indispensable element of greatness--justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. Wall Street Journal, November 13, 1962.
Nonviolent action, the Negro saw, was the way to supplement, not replace, the progress of change. It was the way to divest himself of passivity without arraying himself in vindictive force. Why We Can't Wait, 1964.

Discrimination is a hellhound that gnaws at Negroes in every waking moment of their lives to remind them that the lie of their inferiority is accepted as truth in the society dominating them.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.
When we ask Negroes to abide by the law, let us also declare that the white man does not abide by law in the ghettos. Day in and day out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provisions of civil services. The slums are the handiwork of a vicious system of the white society; Negroes live in them, but they do not make them, any more than a prisoner makes a prison.The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation. Jr., Strength To Love, 1963.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?1967.

Henry Dandridge

2008-04-15T23:24:00.002-07:00

Henry Dandridge #340012.3A.224
Standish Maximum Correctional Facilty
4713 W.M-61Standish, MI 48658

Poem: Recognizing the Lies and Trial of tribulations

Trials of Tribulations
I say, Trials of Tribulations!
Dumbfounded, and completely blinded by those in the most highest positions or even places.
There has to be a complete change ya'll

for what? an why?

Is there a legitimate answer to these questions of why?

when telling me, when spoken upon, the answer seems so very shallow,

and the grey area,

it's always stated

induced Democracy

things hasn't changed except,

the upbringing in magnitude of numbers within the fatality.

it has grown so, so rapidly

This war that we're fighting,

it truly should be over, so give them back their country

They've learned enough strategic methods of our military

now, let them fight this never ending hostility

Trials and tribulations!
it's really sad that parts of our country

has to become destroyed by the fury

of the uncontrollable raft of mother nature

We have to understand, that there is no high technological equipment made by man,

that can determine a hurricane's future

the man, that's in charge

Along with his entourage

That governs our country

had come four days later

That's after

sewage, toxin and waste had completely contaminated the water

there was famine, people were lost, and loved ones had died

An some self -centered people in helicopters

instead of helping had took pictures as they flew on by

Crowded no-more space that could be filled into the silver dome

Left outside to fend for ones self

a few items labeled as belongings,

less than 2/3's of a cubical space to call a person's home

Trials of Tribulations
There's so many uncalled for lies

There's lies

Hypocritical message coding thru political dedications that really despises

despises the reality of what's truly going on,

the second lens has been uplifted, uncovered from a oh so cloudy pupil

the lies

We see you shivering, shaking, trying your best to hide

The lies

lies

It is too late

your actions has been detected

the dishonesty, displayed so repeatedly upon our people.

christopher Goodvine

2008-04-15T23:24:00.001-07:00

Victim-Eyez

by Christopher Goodvine , #310458

GBCI; PO Box 19033; Green BAy, WI 53963

It pains me to see my folks
profiled by police
and sellout leader so evil
they throw smiles on our streets
to get elected…then neglect us
look down on our streets
That every corner has a booty bar
or Catholic Church
and liquor store- to inebriate
my path at birth. Reality hurts.
As if I’m seeing through the eyez
of Ms. Alice Walker.. reality stalks us.
Cuz while the victim I conceive
is the "color of purple"
so forlorn are the things
that constantly lurks us
There’s gotta be purpose-
Why our past was erased, ancestors raped
Forefathers abused
Suspended from some branch with their necks in noose.

poems by Johnny Lacy

2008-04-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

Shadows dancing
I close my eyes and see
Shadows dancing across
The ceiling of my mind

I can hear the echoes from
Each chamber of my heart
A heart void of love except
For that to give.
It cries for love
Every heart needs

I hear big, grey dinosaurs
Roaring in my ears while
Little pink elephants play
Tamborines along the
River that is my soul, in
A song I can only imagine
Sang for its other half.

What is it? As my spirit
Takes flight and leaves
A gentle breeze that makes
The wind chimes strum a
Soft, harmonious melody
My body awakes to a
Burning desire to be juxtaposed
With the shadows dancing
Across the ceiling of my mind.

l've always been alone.

by Johnny Lacy

My reminiscence pays no tribute to any happier times,

I ask my mind to be quiet so I can hear the whispers of my heart.

My body tells my soul how it's searched the universe for one tidbit of true ecstasy.....

My spirit is on a perpetual errand in search for its kindred....

Half a century has gone by..yet I'm not half a centarian.

I watch the moon and stars through the ceiling while lying face down in my bed.

I am chilled by the breeze that blow through a concrete wall over the rugged edges of cold steele. Some times when there's pandemonium in my mind, It results in catastrophe in my feelings.

But then, who cries for my soul?

A souls that seeks, but never finds redemption.

Everyone has a mistake in their past.

So I'm forced to reconcile it with all the facts..

I've always been alone.

My only consolation has been the fact that my life has been spotted with small joys

and full of long sorrows.

So I wonder- is it my lack of dangerous aggression, or my extraordinary simplicity that subjects me to these vulnerabilities??...

I've never known..

through my spirit, which is my astral self,

I've looked into a bartering of extraordinary revelations

And found an exposition of lost souls wandering about With no particular destination,

Should I remain in a complete dislocated lucidity, or join the rat race?

So I'm suspended in misery, no eyes grow moist for me-

No shadows can hide my grief?

No comforts can provide me with relief-that I've found.

Now that you've peeked into the small, tragic history of my life,

tell me, Is it beyond scary to you also or would you term me as an ancient survivor.

Keep uppermost in mind-This life has manifest itself-

because I 've always been alone.

Johnny Lacy #71373;WCI; PO Box 351; Waupun, Wi 53963

He needs friends, is easy to write to and very open and enthusiastic. Again use our email for questions. He has many poems we will be featuring.

Why Must My Life Be So Corrupt?

2008-04-15T23:21:00.000-07:00

Why Must My Life Been So Corrupt?

Why must my life been so corrupt?
Filled with hatred and rage!
Why must I be locked in a cage?
Turning psychotic, feeling homicidal!
Lord, please forgive me, cause I'm bout to sin again!
I can't eat, I can't sleep
I look in the mirror every morning
And I'm sick of what I see.
Lord Father please come rescue me!
I've walked this road for so long
My fee hurt, my soul is tired, I'm sick, I wanna kill myself
But I don't wanna put my mother through that hurt.
Try to visualize what my life is worth
pleasure and pain, hatred and rage,
Lord, father, how can I turn from this page?
Evil I am, evil I do, right from wrong, wrong from right
Can't seem to do right, cause everything wrong feels so right
Live life, love life, forget life, hate life.
How can I love my life, when my life don't love me?
Lord father please, can you shed some life on me?
Give me your guidance, please father guide me.

by Wisconsin Prisoner, now realeased

Sometimes I Cry

2008-04-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

Sometime I Cry

Sometimes when I'm alone, I cry because
I'm on my own. The tears I cry are bitter
and warm, hey flow with life but take no form.
I cry because my heart is torn, and I find it
difficult to carry on. If I had an ear to
confide in, I would cry among my treasured
friends,but who do you know that stops that
long to help another carry on?
The world moves fast and would rather pass
You by than to stop and see what makes you
cry. It's painful and sad, and sometimes I cry
And no one cares about why!

Wisconsin Prisoner, now released

Reflections

2008-04-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

My name is Mahlik D Ellington#450203;

WCI PO Box 351; Waupun , WI 53963

I am a 30 year old black male, about 6 feet tall. I have no family in Wisconsin. All my family is in Illinois I'm a real good person and people don't realize my self worth. To understand would be to know me because it's about what's within. My expected release date is March 2007. When I get released I'm going into photography and become a message therapist.

Reflections
There's one more thing I hope to see
My face in the water looking back at me
The beautiful, red sun breaking over the trees
Makes me want to fall down on my knees
The smell in the air, the fog hanging low
This is the moment only a fisherman knows.
God paints His pictures, they are a sight to behold
The sun on the water of shimmering gold
The birds singing way up in the trees
sometimes I wonder if they're speaking to me
Then I thank God for this beautiful day
I sit, I listen, then I begin to pray
Thank you Lord for this gift to me
This thing you call memory
You take me back to times gone by
Oh my precious Lord, how they fly
Today I write from a prison cell
Some call it a concrete hell
I think of the gift you gave to me
Those precious moments I could not see
Now I am older and wiser too
And know my heart is right with you
So dear Lord, if it's meant to be
Take me back and let me see
The sun on the water, the moss on the trees
The work of your hands giving praise to thee
And my face in the water looking back to me.

Jerry Price words to da Wise

2008-04-15T23:08:00.001-07:00

Jerry price words
2001 numbers- Wisconsin has the highest "black incarceration rate" 4, 058 per 100.000 of total population.

.With the passage of the 13th amendment and the reconstruction period that targeted certain segments of population for repression, isolation and incarceration - To be criminalized, stigmatized, and ostracized. Oust/outcast from mainstream society. All under da color of law. A government secret program. To effectively end crime we would have to deal with the cause to find a solution, end poverty, lack of equal opportunity and education, stop the segregation and isolation of different segments in our society. This would be a good start. Cuz we would have ended discrimination which crushes dreams and self esteem. A key to happiness and success is said to be something to love, something to do, something to hope for:. Believing and feeling we are part of something.
Marcel proust: "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. "

Poems by and from inmates
Two by Jalaladdin Rumi, the great Sufi mystic
submitted by Jerry Price; #171022; Alger Max Corr Facilty; PO Box 600; Munising, Mich 49862;
1)Love Yourself Enough
You were born with potential.
Tou were born with goodness and truth.
You were born with ideas and dreams.
You were born with greatness.
You were born with wings.
You are not meant for crawling, so don’t,
You have wings.
Learn to use them and fly.
2) Out beyond ideas of wrong and right is a field.
I‘ll meet you there.

Binding Chaos

2008-04-15T23:03:00.001-07:00

Binding Chaos

by Loran Pate #195508

Once upon a time, a fire spirit and a giantess gave birth to a set of triplets. Neither the fire spirit nor the giantess had a very good reputation among the gods, and so the triplets were viewed with a good deal of suspicion.
The first of the triplets—a blind serpent—the gods cast into the sea. The creature was so large it wrapped around the world and bit its own tail. The second child, a daughter, half fair, half corrupt—the gods cast into the underworld, where she was to watch over the quiet dead.
The third of the offspring appeared to be a normal wolf cub. The gods saw no reason not to keep the cub. For a time, the cub led a peaceful life. All the Gods took part in feeding and raising the pup, which they called Fenris.
With time, Fenris grew and grew, and it seemed he’d never stop. The gods grew fearful of Fenris and stopped coming to him. Al except Tyr, only Tyr had the courage to keep feeding the wolf.
The rest of the gods wanted to be rid of Fenris, but didn’t want to spill blood on their holy ground. They took Fenris to a remote island, and there got him to play a game with them. The gods had heavy chains made, and sought to see if Fenris could break them. It seemed that no matter how large and strong the chains; Fenris was more than strong enough to break them.
The gods went to the dwarves to have magical bounds fashioned. From things seen and unseen, the dwarves fashioned a magic chain. It looked no more than a ribbon of silk, but nothing in all the realms could break it. Fenris sensed a trick and told the gods so.
The gods assured Fenris there was no deceit, but Fenis asked an assurance. One of the gods had to place their hand in Fenris’s mouth and if the gods did not release him, he would bite off the hand. Of all the gods, only Tyr had the courage to offer his hand, even though he knew of their planned treachery.
In the end, everyone lost; the gods lost the strong right hand of the god of war, and Try and Fenris each lost a friend, and all to bind chaos, but only for a time. The gods know that in the end, chaos will be released, but until then, society has order.
Tyr has been called by some an oath breaker- I disagree. Some see Fenris as evil—is chaos evil? What are the wolves in your life? What sacrifice can you make to have order in your life? What thoughts are fed in your heart by this story? I’d like to hear about them so take a little time and write, I don’t bite.

The Color Of Love

2008-04-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

IF YOU CAN
If you can-forgive me for being so hard to understand.
It’s not a game, nor my plan- I guess you can say it’s just the way I am.
If you can- try exercising a little empathy-put yourself in my place and use my eyes to see.
If you can, be honest with yourself, which do you believe is best for yourself (love or hate)?
I believe love is love no matter where it comes from, is or was. It can be from an old person, young, smart or dumb, white or black, a free citizen or incarcerated prisoner.
From below or above- the fact is we all need love even you…and me too.
If you can-please try’n understand this world would be no world w/out the woman and man..

I CANNOT SAY
I cannot say what this world is coming to,
I cannot what I will, or won’t do.
I cannot say I love you enough, though convincing you I see is going to be tough.
I cannot say feelings are right or wrong, words sometimes cannot convey emotions that are strong-but suffice to say if they are then they must belong.
I cannot say what this tear in my eye means when I think of you, or this pain in my chest that comes and goes.
I cannot say positively that we will be together one day in the flesh, but it is my goal and dream, and I shall do my best to meet that test…
For as we know it, love conquers all and I’ll be first to confess.
You probably want to know why I do some of things I do that makes me a mystery, but…
Again, baby- I cannot say.
PLEASE TRY’IN FORGIVE ME!

POEMS CREATED BY Christopher Berry (WA’KI-MO)
Professor of Love and Diverse Sciences
Feb14,’03

I’M NEVER AFRAID

Age is but a number and means nothing to me,
The same is true about size and height, that’s all mediocre in my sight.
What matters most is your personality and character-the condition of your heart and mind,
I’m concerned about what you think and feel about yourself as well as about the one who you fail to understand.
I’m never afraid of what I think or feel-
I’m never afraid to express it if I believe it to be real.
I’m never afraid of going forwards towards the future, but I am only afraid to repeat the past .

I TELL YOU I KNOW
I tell you I know why I love you although you are still a mystery,
I tell you I know things about you, baby, that you wouldn’t believe.
I tell you I know the way you make me feel inside is sometimes very hard to hide, so tell me just how many others have looked you in the eyes and announced his love for you- and did so with pride?
I tell you I know that deep inside of your essence, there’s a place I wish to be, I’ve been there once before psychologically, mentally and emotionally and this felt so good to me.
I tell you I know together you and I have a mission of love, which will become our destiny.

POEMS CREATED BY Christopher Berry (WA’KI-MO)
Professor of Love and Diverse Sciences
Feb14,’03

7 Shades of Wisdom
He who knows not and strives to know is a seeker...aid him.
He who knows not what he should know is a wanderer...guide him.
He who knows not that he should know is asleep..wake him
He who knows not and fears to know is enslaved...free him.
He who knows not and rejects to know is dead... pass him
He who knows not yet claims to know is an imposter...shun him
He who knows and shares what he know is wise... heed him .

(lessons first learned are the hardest to forget, but one must first learn them and learn them well. Knowledge is to know what you know .
Created by the Professor of Love and Diverse Sciences

My Goals and Positive Affirmations
1) I will love myself first.
2) I will love those who love me.
3) I let go of things, thoughts and feelings that only hurt me.
4) I will find my square and stand on it.
5) I will enter no one else’ cipher but will remain within my own.
6) I will focus all energy on securing my stolen liberty and pay no mind to anything else.
7) I will interact with only positive- minded individuals.
8) Knowledge, wisdom and understanding will be the only things I shall seek
9) I will no longer volunteer information but shall speak only when or if spoken to.
10) I will not become angry about things I have no control over.

Positive Affirmations: “ I AM therefore, I don’t have to be. I am good hearted, loving, caring, open-minded, intelligent and understanding. It doesn’t matter that others fail to understand me. What’s important is that I understand myself. No one lives my life but me and I now aspire to be the best that I can be. What man can be he must be !”
Created by Mr Christopher Berry
Wa’ki-mox October 26, 2K3

THE COLOR OF LOVE

It is said GOD is LOVE, and who can say what color GOD is? Out of love for HIMSELF, HE did create the first man in HIS image and after HIS likeness. And out of this same love for this first man did HE create the first woman. The Essence and
Nature of the woman is to express love, for she knows nothing but what she must do by the nature of GOD’S law.
GOD did not intend for man to be alone, such was the purpose of creating woman..
What becomes of the man absent the love of his second half? One cannot sustain on bread alone. Man needs woman, and woman needs man- together they are one in equal need of love.
There’s no such thing as a NO GOOD WOMAN and where that is found there is also A NO GOOD MAN that made her that way. All women, of all shades and nationalities are unique.
‘LOVE is the highest elevation of understanding with a force so strong that it cannot be broken .. thus THE COLOR OF LOVE is every color, woman and man, that you see. ( Ya heard it from me..)

WHEN I IMAGINE YOU
When I imagine you, I just close my eyes and think of everything beautiful that walks and that flies.
I see the lovely queen black and white bumblebee sucking nectar from the lily.
I see the exotic orange and back butterfly soaring high and low, here and there- the majestic beauty was in the air.
There’s just too much to choose from when I imagine you- beauty is everywhere –look the sky is so blue.
I look again and saw there next to me climbing up a tree, and with it’s reddish orange and black spotted body, it was smaller than all the others , yet exquisite as it could be- it was a LADY BUG- my LADY BUG as I took her away with me.
When I imagine you, it is always with me, the way it’s going to be..

POEMS CREATED BY Christopher Berry (WA’KI-MO)
Professor of Love and Diverse Sciences
Feb14,’03

Can One Forsee the Change Or Is It to Remain the Same?

2008-04-15T22:56:00.000-07:00

Can One Foresee The Change, Or Is It To Remain A Dream?
"So many hcn'e sight without vision, which is indeed worse than being blind.
" (unknown)
I have lived through years of torturous deliberation during these years of
my incarceration.
However, I maintain my integrity as well as my vision of liberation and
justice. As I grow like a sturdy oak
tree, my growth fortifies me. My roots spread beneath and through the walls,
reaching out tentatively into
the lives of those who read my words.
As for all prisoners, whether I face a lot of time or only a few years,
there are serious fundamental
questions. These are agonizing ones for most of us, most of the time. How
will 1 get through it? How will
I maintain? How will I grow while resisting the simultaneous dehumanization?
I wonder how many others
like me verbalize to themselves, or to each other, such questions. How often
do others stop to examine the
state of their spirits as I am naggingly compelled to do without much
urging?
After all, prison is a constant gauntlet I must run throughout the howling,
beating circumstances of
my sentenced days. I am stopped bare; my heart, mind and spirit are kicked
and punched. Ef I'm not
vigilant I will become scarred, traumatized and tough like a punching bag -
resilient but empty. I put up
my shield, a transparent but defensive wall that seals shut my living tomb.
I resist cruelty and callousness.
I gather together an inventory of light, exploring the reaches of freedom
from within my cell, as well as the
responsibilities of freedom without.
I have become "harder" in my years of incarceration but I have become
"softer" also. Like all
here, I am a human being who has much to offer from my own intelligence,
creativity and wit
Many in society view the prisoner as someone they know exists but shun if
not known to them
directly. Why care? some ask. Let mm rot awhile, some say, not flunking of
his return to the community.
Some do care: conscientious individuals and those whose daughters and sons,
mothers and fathers, aunts
and uncles and even grandchildren make up and comprise the prisoner class.
Why can society at large not
assist in the caring? Prison is to provide public safety, yes, but the
prisoner could be a threat to that safety
once he is released because of having received no treatment or programs or
pre-release planning, and no
aftercare programs are waiting for him on the outside.
One day I could have contact with a caring individual from out there and
become a living
somebody to him; then the struggle for my existence will become a part of
his caring. There are so many
like me here. Why can society not care for all of us and seek to give and
offer all of us a chance to grow
and learn from our mistakes? Why must we be repressed in punishment beyond
the punishment of our
sentences and not be offered the caring and guidance we need to prepare us
to return to the world of those
who now shun us? Would society not profit were we to find love and make
change through treatment and
programs befitting our needs? The answer is an emphatic "yes."
Sadly, the WI Department of Corrections doesn't consider our future
potential as a normal person
to be part of its offering; instead it thinks of its vested interest and job
security in Wisconsin's fastest
growing industry, the business of prisons.
The prisoners of the Supermax Correctional Institution (SMCI) in Boscobel,
WI are a prime
example of time bombs waiting to go off. The diminishing effects on us of
the institution's condition of
long-term sensory deprivation have already been determined to be a very real
issue but the issue is not
given any real treatment These prisoners like myself are denied real human
contact and interaction on any
real or intimate levels. I ask for your open support for changing this
dehumanizing prison into a regular
maximum-security prison. .
Do you on the outside want these wounded, angry individuals walking among
yourselves next
week, next month or next year? A small action on your part can make big
change without much
intervention of personal time. I ask that you call or write to your
legislator or newspaper to express support

for our plight and call attention to these real issues. Please tell them you
care. Your tax dollars will
produce watered-down results if you cannot move their current investment in
purely maintaining me and
those like me in the inner walls of these isolation cells into an investment
in our future return to a society
that wants to be safe. I ask that you hear this plea from one among many
here who fight to remain humans
being, regardless of these painful and dehumanizing circumstances.
Wisconsin Prisoner

Can You Hear Me Now?

2008-04-15T22:55:00.001-07:00

“Can You Hear Me Now?”
by William Tony Julian #110970; Sussex I State Prison; Waverly, Virginia

Many of you have watched the wireless phone commercial. You know the one I’m speaking of. Every few steps the actor stops. Asks into his wireless phone, “ Can you hear me now?” He smiles at the instant response. Then walks on, only to start his scene over again.
Every time I see this marvelous invention, I am in awe. Not so much by the wireless phone, but rather man’s ingenuity. If it will make the world more convenient, a better place to live, work and play, then someone will give us another technological breakthrough in the form of a gadget. With each new devise we walk around in circles, mumbling to ourselves, “ how did we ever get along without this gadget?”
Coupled with this great ingenuity to make the world more convenient for living, working, playing and staying awhile, is the utopian utilities of false prophets. Visit with me yet another of man’s inventions- Prison! Another gadget for convenience.
In the late sixties, politicians began preaching the grand “deinstitutionalization” scheme, to rid the nation of our dark, dank and outdated mental hospitals . We were pitched the idea that a more cost effective way to treat the mentally ill was to establish community based mental health programs. The idea of this altruistic, cost effective scheme delighted all of us at the time. We were headed into a new era of mental health care. However, the concept never became a reality.
As soon as the mental health hospitals were emptied, the politicians were on a new soapbox. This time preaching a drug war. “Punitive anti –crime “ was born. This epidemical attitude by politicians sparked media frenzy. Citizens became worried sick that loved ones would step out the front door, only to return a few minutes later confirmed drug addicts.
This would change too, as our attention was diverted to yet another direction. The rising taxes! Rather than stem the influx of drugs across the borders into the US, it was geared toward the recreational user. Results were immediate. The rising cost of this drug war was causing the rising voice of discontent to rise.
Sweeping raids were showing needed results. Positive attrition was accomplished . But the recreational users were, along with the mentally ill, being rounded up. As quickly as they were arrested, they were run through the judicial system-. then to jails or prisons.
Citizens seeing these drugs arrests on television, began to feel confident in their communities. This is why no one was prepared for the consequences that were about to explode upon us- these thousands and thousands of arrests, flowing through the judicial system, filling up prisons across the nation.
Once more, politicians rose atop their soapboxes to preach the urgent , immediate need for more prisons. In 2004, the prison domination still continues. Only now, it’s privatized by corporations who deem crime as the new billion dollar business. All with the same rehabilitative void.
The conservative estimate of the number of people with mental disorders in US prisons is three hundred thousand. Their psychological disorders range from schizophrenia, depression, major depression, bi polar disorder, serious impulse control, paranoia, psychosthemia, serious suicidal tendencies.
“ A well disciplined institution facilitates correctional objectives, permits prisoners to live safely with one another. It allows them to concentrate on self- improvement rather than self- protection. This is the fundamental requirement for institutional order.” With this directive in mind, realize that our prisons and prison directors have exceeded this pre-preventive directive. As in constitutional violations. Especially toward the mentally ill.
The mentally ill prisoners are subjected to “chemical restraints,” chemical cocktails of psychotropics. This chemical cocktail restraint usually consists of an anti psychotic drug called “haldol”. So powerful to the nervous system, it can cause lethal reactions, mild strokes, heart attacks, convulsions and temporary blindness. To counter the above dangers with “haldol”, a pill is given three times daily. It is called “ Cogentin”. The drug is given to control the nervous system and helps to control muscle spasms and other Parkinsons-like symptoms.
Daily side effects to haldol are muscle aches (sometimes severe), deadened motor skills, clouded interpretational abilities, severe lack of ability to concentrate, a dead pan facial stare, no attention span and memory loss.
In 2000, the Bureau of Justice statistics reported that in Virginia there were 2,540 prisoners on “chemical restraints”- psychotropic drugs. Then a confidential report was released in California on the widespread use of Psychotropics. They were being used to control the mentally ill in the state’s eleven youth institutions. The report was released in conjunction with an investigation brought about by a class-action lawsuit. The report’s disclosure came one week after two more teenage boys had hung themselves. In February 2004, State Senator Gloria Ramera, who sits on the corrections oversight committee stated , “widespread use of so called “chemical restraints” is intolerable! This is not the 1930’s. Even in mental hospitals, I thought we had gotten rid of these practices long ago. We have a serious problem, and before another teenager commits suicide, the California Youth Authority has got to get it’s act together.”
“Intolerable” is too soft to use for this inhumane treatment. “Damnable” is more appropriate as well as “cruel and inhumane”.
Added to this is the placement of the mentally ill in supermax prisons. It is well established that prisoners with no mental illness have extreme difficulties coping with the stress, frustration, elevated harshness, negativity, idleness and boredom. Prisoners with mental disorders tend to have, in addition, extreme depth perception disorders, despair, anguish, confusion and a frightening loneliness.
For years now, prisoners have been trying to reach out to the world to explain these over the edge, harsh and inhumane treatments directed at them. But most of their pleas for help are drowned out by the politicians who preach that “they are bad guys just looking for sympathy.” Now though, it is realized through class action lawsuit investigations that the conditions described by many inmates are a terrible reality that can no longer be drowned out by politicians with evil to hide.
The only “gadget” to right these wrongs has been in existence since every human was born-conscience. It is time for this nation to take a real stand for democracy. Stop the fraudulent treatment of our own! Accountability! Then other nations will recognize that we say what me mean and do what we say on our own soil.
I was inspired to write this article by Andrew Skeeter #234061. A mentally ill prisoner at Sussex 1 State Prison, a maximum security prison. Andrew will talk to you and then ask, “ can you hear me now ?.” It should be noted that Andrew was diagnosed with mental illness prior to his conviction. He receives Psychotropics.

.

Beauty of the Night

2008-04-15T22:54:00.001-07:00

Beauty Of the Night
On a cool, sultry night, your silhouette is visible from afar. Up close I see you through the reflection sleeping so serenely innocently. In a peaceful state, as I watch you stir in your sleep, I see how the satin accentuates your curvaceous figure, your elegance has captured my vision, my attention, making me want you.
I could stand here and look at your charm endlessly, to savor your essence as you gratify my pleasures. You leave me in a state of euphoria. I slowly open the glass door and step into the room, trying not to disturb you. I want to feel you for myself. I reach out to rub you, to caress your flesh. As I arouse you, you turn to one side, never opening your eyes. You are sound asleep.
It mesmerizes me how lovely you look; like a beautiful princess. I pull back the satin sheets and lie next to you. You awaken, opening your vibrant eyes. As you see me you cuddle next to me, kissing me. I hold you in my arms and inhale your immaculacy, letting my thoughts linger to my Beauty of the Night.

Fernie Diaz#617918; Smith High Security; Lemesa, Texas

cause and effect in prison

2008-04-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

Cause And Effect in Prison

In rare moments, when my objectivity prevails over physical misery and mental anguish, I reasoned that if society had sought to impose savage, barbaric vengeance on someone then the prison system was the way to do it. And if the object of such punishment was to force a human being out of his humanity, and make of him an animal of lowest instinct, it would succeed far beyond the knowing of anyone who has endured the brutish purgatory of prison. What prison did not do and never would was make a man a better member of society than when he entered it. Because his entire environment is counter productive to reform. So prison will only worsen and degade him, increase his hatred of the system and reduce the possibility of his becoming ever, a productive law abiding citizen. And the longer the prison term, the less likelihood of any moral salvage. Most of all it is time which erodes and eventually destroys any potential for reform a prisoner might have upon arrival. If he clung to some shard of moral values, like a drowned swimmer to a life preserver it was because of the forces within himself, not because of the prison
but despite it. One is continually striving and struggling to retain some semblance of the best of what he had before and trying not to become totally brutal, entirely unfeeling, utterly despairing and savagely embittered. So if one is not constantly vigilant he could easily slip in all four states as most prisoners do. They are those who were either brutalized before they came here and made worse since or others whom time in prison had deteriorated. And the cold hearted inhumanity of a citizenry outside, indifferent to what injustices were perpetrated or decencies neglected all in societies name behind these walls and fences. Which could reasonably be the explanation for why the recividism rate is exceptionally high. So we are not only the leaders of the free world but we also lead the world per capita in its citizenry being incarcerated. Freedom, until curtailed is seldom valued and no one realizes how much their physical freedom meant, even opening a refrigerator or briefly outdoors until such choices were denied them altogether.
anonymous

Poem: In The Hole

2008-04-15T22:48:00.001-07:00

In the hole, where C.O.’s would love to see you hang yourself
And your only dream is to find the means to get out of this cell
Cause it seems like Hell when you can’t even tell whether It’s night or it’s day.
No razors to shave, no way to get paid, no place for the made
One must be brave and face each day, expecting the worst
You gotta prepare cause inside here, insanity lurks
so when it hurts and you’re feeling like you can’t go on
you stay strong cause that pain will not last long.

In the hole, where the C.O.’s would love to see you cut your throat,
And your only goal is to keep a hold of what’s left of your soul.
Cause they mess with your hopes and step on your toes trying to see if you’ll break,
It’s a game to be played, a fight too stay sane, a place for the crazed,
One must maintain and busy his brain, or all will be lost
If you don’t change but come out the same, then DAUG you the boss,
So when the cost seems like too much and tomorrow is hopeless,
You continue to cope push aside your sorrows and keep your focus.
anonymous

Who Says Wisconsin Doesn't Have a Death Penalty?

2008-04-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

WHO SAYS WISCONSIN DOESN'T HAVE THE DEATH PENALTY?
Mustafa-El Ajala/

On Psychological Death Row
Green Bay, WI. - Technically, Wisconsin doesn't have the death penalty. However, it does have a penal system with a prison mortality rate exceeding the execution rates of any state in the U.S. Only here it is the conditions of confinement that has led to suicide as the form of exacting that ultimate punishment.

A January 2005 report by Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) mental health director Kevin Kallas and psychology director Don Hands has revealed that suicides are committed within WI. prisons at a rate nearly twice the national average. The nation averages 14 suicides per 100,000 prisoners, while WI. averages about 25 per 100,000. From 2001-2005 there were 28 suicides at the state's prisons, averaging 7 suicides per year.

The latest death is that of prisoner John Virgin, a striving Brother of the incarcerated Islamic Ummah and a personal friend. We spoke and saw each other regularly; that is, until he was taken to the segregation unit of Green Bay Correctional Institution (GBCI), and placed in "the box" (the box-car cells of the unit). John, just 25 years old, with only 15 months remaining on a 2 years sentence, reportedly hung himself on April 7, 2006.

In the box prisoners are isolated from the general population and subject to much harsher conditions: 23-24 hour cell confinement, limited communication, sleep deprivation (cells illuminated 24 hrs. a day), loss of property (t.v., radio, books, etc.), no-contact visits, denial of food, clothing and running water, among other similarly atypical hardships.

In July 2000, while confined to WI.'s Supermax Prison, I and co-plaintiff Emir Siddigl(f.k.a. Micha-El Johnson) filed a class action law suit which resulted in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of WI. finding that such conditions as those described in the box violates the 8th amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment when prisoners experiencing psychological problems, or With a history of them, are housed there. See Jones-El V. Berge, 164 F.Supp.2d 1096 (W.D. WI. 2001).

In spite of the Jones-El decision, nearly 5 years later Kallas and Hands's report show a steady incline from 2001-2005 of mentally ill prisoners being subject to the conditions of "the box". In fact, officials report that they are placing prisoners with mental illnesses in these type of "segregated settings" at a rate twice that of other prisoners.
Quoting Kallas, "We recognize that being in a segregated setting can lead to more mental health issues." There is clearly no lack of awareness of the debilitating and lethal effects segregation units, and especially at GBCI.

In July 2001 mentally ill and epileptic prisoner Kelvin Brooks was placed in GBCI's box and accused of violating the rules. As a result, he was placed on a food restriction known as "seg. loaf" (a medley of congealed food particles) which caused him to vomit, making it impossible to keep down his anti-seizure medication. On July 12, 2001, disturbing videotapes show Brooks buck-naked in the cell (on "clothing restriction") and having full-blown seizures repeatedly, which GBCI staff claimed he was faking to get his clothes back. He was already in rigor mortis when medical personnel did respond. On November 1, 2004, his family settled a wrongful death suit against the DOC for $600,000 dollars in the case of Brooks V. Bertrand, #01-0-1017.

Just last year GBCI's notorious "box" claimed the life of prisoner Jae Sumners on October 17, 2005, reportedly a suicide.Method of death? Hanging. Who says WI. doesn't have the death penalty? While WI.'s seg. units make up only 10% of its 22,000 person prison system/ more than 50% of its suicides occur there. Most of these occur at the state's 6 maximum security prisons ,where more than half of the state's seg. units are, in some cases making up 20%-25% of the prison.

GBCI is one such prison with approximately 20% of its available bed space comprised of seg. cells. It's operating capacity is for a population of 749 prisoners, but it houses 1088 at this writing. The cry of prison over-crowding and the need for more building and thus more jobs, is echoed throughout the state by proponent of the prison industrial complex.

However, instead of building more general population units, the DOC has chosen to build more and more high-tech, expensive and draconian control seg. units and are using them in place of general population units. Once built, these units, as a matter of necessity, must be filled. Since WI. state prisons are not known for frequent homicides, rapes and riots as are some more notorious prisons, these units are being filled up mostly with prisoners who have committed only minor offennses (shoes untied, pants sagging, talking too loud etc.), and the mentally ill. These are offenses a prisoner would hardly be placed in seg. for in most prisons.

Moreover, prisoners in WI. are doing more time in seg. for minor offenses. WI. prisoners once housed out-of-state (MN, TX, TN, MS, OK, Federal prisons) invariably report to no more than 30-90 days in seg. for the type of offenses (fighting, use or possession of intoxicants, soliciting staff etc.) that prisoners here often find themselves doing years in seg. for. Thus, it is no strange wonder that WI. is leading in prison suicides. It's basic mathematics. If most suicides occur in seg. units and by the mentally ill and WI. is keeping its mentally ill prisoner there at twice the rate of other prisoners for minor offenses and for longer periods of time, you're gonna predictably have more suicides here.
So why was our brother John Virgin placed in "the box"? For having a pair of state issued pants that didn't have his name and prison on them, and it cost him his life. You would think that with these type of offenses being the DOC's usual worries, as opposed to more serious offenses, the prison population would be rewarded with more privileges, better prison jobs and wages, a greater good-time program/ etc.

Instead the reward in WI. state prisons has been new control seg. units, a ban on cassettes tapes, on smoking, on most hip-hop magazines, a 30% and the building of an unjustifiable Super-max prison at a cost of over 44 million dollars, which now has to be made into a general population — what it should have been in the first place.

ConsideR, prior to November 1999, when Supermax Correctional Institution (SMCI — now called Wisconsin Secure Program Facility) opened there was only an average of about 30 WI. prisoners on administrative confinement (as security threats)out of 20/000. Less than a year of SMCI being opened that number increased to over 300, a 1000 % increase. impossible,but true. There were no unprecedented violent incidents in the prison system, so what was the justification? There was and is none. It was simply a part of the prison industry's evolution into a self-serving machine and placing its profit interest over the state's penological interests and prisoner's well-being. A case of "We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us." (Winston Churchill,addressing the House of Commons/ Oct. 28, 1943).

Punishment for crime is supposed to be loss of liberty, not humanity, and not a person's sanity. It is clear that this problem with WI.'s prisons has grown lethal- making it impossible for some prisoners to survive within the system and obviously not capable of surviving outside it.

However. "The human question is not how many can possibly survive within the system but what kind of existence is possible for those who do survive.?" — Dune .

For the proponents of the death penalty the message should be clear: Before worrying about instituting a new death penalty, try fixing the one you already have.

State Deficit And Major Inmate Complaints

2008-04-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

A State Deficit and Major Prison Complaints
By Myron Edwards #25831

What to do, a massive state deficit, prison complaints, and angry tax payers whom are taking all these blows.
Well, Governor Doyle, allow me to show you how to “kill 2 birds with one stone, so to speak, and if not, kill one and severely wound the other.
In every D.O.C “facility”, and/or institution-there’s an Inmate Complaint Review System (I.C.R.S.hereafter) with a nice sizable staff who get paid considerably than the correctional officers(C.O.’s hereafter) . However,you cannot have a I.C.R.S. ran by the D.O.C. exclusively to handle complaints dealing with the D.O.C. administrators, C.O.’s, and staff ..especially if that I..R.S. is based “right in” the institution, a natural conflict of interest occurs.
These institutional based I.C.R.S. staff, over a period of time, develop a good relationship to the institutions’ C.O.’s, administrators and other staff members-because they have to work closely around them daily.. and are paid from the same source.
In this instance, when a inmate writes a complaint about serious matters involving: mistreatment by a C.O. or C.O.’s, due process violations by administrators etc.-no I.C.R.S. member impartially reviews the complaint.. it’s always justified or put off by stating the complaintant wrote “too many issues” in one complaint.
If you were to check the volume of complaints submitted, per institution ,with results of how the complaints were handled, the showing would be something like this (imaginatively) : out of 2,000 complaints filed at WSPF, 1800 of them were “dismissed” (all in one year). Now, if you were to read the nature of these 2,00 complaints- 1,800 of those complaints would be of a serious nature or actually D.O.C. code violations perpettrtrated byt the C.O.’s or administration. Don’t check the subject matter only- because all I.C.R.S> at an institution, especially this one, watrs down the subject matter of the complaint so when one checks the computer you see a frivolous subject, but if you typed up the actualcomlaint it would be a legitimate complaint (according to D.O.C. code ruling concerning the particular complaint) or a very serious complaint, hidden under a frivolous subject labeling.
Now this 2,000 countis about average every year, at every institution- and this is how the complaints are handled at every institution. When the inmates file an appeal of the decision to the Corrections Complaint Examiner in Madison (C.C. E. hereafter), it’s naturally dismissed, because the C.C.E. always sides with the decisions of the I.C.R.S. staff.
It’s quite obvious is you look at it: If the D.O.C. hired and paid I.C.R.S. & C.C.E. workers to go against other C.O.’s (and the administrators etc)-who would then face losing their jobs or being sanctioned in some meaningful way, the institution’s authority over inmates would crumble because a house divided cannot stand. Them are the facts in a nutshell.
Now that we see the whole I.C.R.S. from top to bottom is infected and useless, let’s look at EACH D.O>C. institutions I.C.R.S. staff and C.C.E.’s in Madison.. that’s a lot of people per capita.. getting paid checks (higher than C.O.’s) for nothing at all-(we’ve proved that).
If you were to dismantle the I.C.R.S. from the D.O.C.-as well as dismantle the C.C.E. , completely, that would severely put a huge dent in the state deficit, and lighten the taxpayer’s load.
To replace the needed complaint system in prisons for inmates- allow an outside non-profit organization.. that will be based outside the institutions and ALL complaints mailed thereto (postage free, paid by federally” funded organization). This non-profit organization or organizations be allowed and licensed-given authority to reverse conduct report hearings for procedural errors, aand other prison hearings after inmates have appealed the decisions to the warden (likw normal). And to order C.O.’s, administrators, and prison staff to rectify the problem, if one found, in 30 days or they will bgrant a Declaratory Judgement (kinda like) to the complaining inmate which can be used in civil suits or Writ of Certoraries..if the inmate decides to go those avenues.
This same non-profit organization must be allowed to order sanctions against the administrators, C.O.’s, prison staff, whomever of them it’s against. These sanctions shall consist of susssssspension with no pay for more than 3 days.
This will solve the prison problems, lower the taxpayers burden, lower the state deficit, create job employment, and keep prison officials in check (and their workers) If ex –prison officials or D.O.C. ex-workers go to work at this non-profit organizations, they cannot handle a complaint from the prison they worked at for 4 years. 1] to help stable the work force 2) At his point they fear ne inmate complaint.
I don’t doubt about you, Governor Doyle- but I thnk that’s one hell of a deal.. 10 to one, taxpayers will agree with me as well.. especially if they just knew how many epeople it take to run the whole I.C.R.S. throughout the state prisons and in Madison, as wella as how much they all get paid .
If you’re not careful, I may run for senator, from prison-like that one senator did that went to prison a few months ago.. what’s his name…right.. Exactly!! (smile) THE END

Brainwashing The Masses

2008-04-15T22:37:00.001-07:00

BRAINWASHING THE MASSES
by Ron Schilling #32219; Oakhill Correctional Institution; PO Box 938; oregon, Wi 53575
Ron's story on web: http://www.freeronschilling.blogspot.com

It's always incredible how an enlightening epiphany can manifest from nowhere in particular and command a vast amount of critical thought, as well as a drawing on past experience and education in the field of psychology
concerning the notion of mass brainwashing. It has certainly explained a LOT about why the prison system is the way it is, as well as why society is the way it is. The gist is that everyone is being programmed to accept what is given them. In prison, in society, it's the same phenomenon at work.
The Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov was on to something more than he ever could have imagined back when. His most notable achievement was probably the methods he used to teach dogs to salivate at the ringing of a bell. That sort of "conditioned response" was fairly impressive, but he did a lot more than that. Before he taught them to respond to the bell, he stressed his dogs to the maximum limits, the maximun cerebral endurance, subjecting them to sleep deprivation, loud sounds, and poor nutrition, would lead them to expect one thing and then do another, and a bunch of other stimuli intended to heighten their stress levels. Dogs become disturbed when stimuli are unnaturally strong; when the interval between a stimulus and the customary response is unduly prolonged and the animal is left in a state of suspense; when the brain is confused by stimuli that run counter to what the dog has learned to expect; when stimuli make no sense within the victim's established frame of reference. After a time dogs naturally recoil from such exposure, retreating to a corner of their cage, for instance. Deliberate induction of fear, rage or anxiety markedly heightens the dog's suggestibility. If these emotions are kept at a high pitch of intensity for a long enough period, they eventually reach their cerebral capacity limits and experience what is called "cerebral shut down." Dogs generally lose consciousness and fall over at that point. Just prior to this point new behavior patterns can be installed with the greatest of ease.
Humans, on the other hand, not only recoil, but their cerebral activity shifts and all portions not dealing directly with the stressful situation are greatly open to suggestibility; new behavior patterns can be easily
Installed while at or near the limit of cerebral endurance. What's interesting is that these new behavior patterns seem to be ineradicable; meaning, the individual cannot be de-conditioned. Whatever is learned in that state remains an integral part of one's psyche. It's the same tactical strategy used on POW's and enemy-combatants to extract information from them. It is generally at that point where the captive will agree or confess to most anything suggested. And since what is learned or conditioned during that time is what remains forever, the practical programmer needs to be mindful not to create a hopeless neurotic of no use to anyone, nor a patient to be institutionalized; or a victim to be taken out and shot. The ultimate goal would be to create a convert who will work or accept whatever is desired.
Present regimes continue to experiment with this phenomenon and are discovering that fatigue, wounds and every form of sickness add drastically to the physical and mental stresses that increase the suggestibility factor.
Likewise, other factors like conducting these matters at night are more effective than during the daytime. Man's willpower revolts with the greatest energy against any attempt at being forced under another's will, opinion or direction; but in the evening they succumb more easily to the dominating force of a stronger will. The fatigue factor is a strong one for increasing suggestibility. Illness is even more effective than fatigue as an
Intensifier of suggestibility. Strong negative emotions tend to heighten suggestibility and facilitate a change of heart after time. Combine these stress factors, prolong them, and it will produce a state of greatly intensified suggestibility after which the victim can emerge from the ordeal with newly instilled behavior patterns ineradicably implanted in their minds and nervous systems. The end-game is that if the indoctrination is given in the right way at the proper stage o£ nervous exhaustion, it does have that effect. And under favorable
conditions practically anybody can be converted to practically anything.
As this concerns the prison population from the moment prisoners are extracted from society, from family, friends and loved ones, they are subjected systematically to many kinds of physical and psychological
stress. Poor nutrition, uncomfortable and often deplorable living conditions, deprived of adequate sleep, non-existent health care, and all the while being kept in a state of suspense, uncertainty and acute apprehension; never alone, always in groups, most living in chronic fear of this dreadful fate, it has a cumulative effect on stress levels. Day upon day and ,especially; night upon night, the value of fatigue is increased. The captors do their best to create a frightening, confusing and bewildering environment. In addition to the rules governing every aspect of life in prison, even the appearance of administrative rules governing things like classification, parole, due process, disciplinary hearings, etc., lead one to expect due process and fair play. And every now and then the system does afford some semblance of fairness, but it is quickly withdrawn, adding even more to the stress levels. The brain and entire nervous system cannot help but be affected by it. After months, years or decades of this prolonged stress, it produces the results which Pavlov's finding would lead one to expect; neurotic and hysterical symptoms make their appearance. Some prisoners overdose on pills, slit their wrists, hang themselves or put their hands in their pockets and nose-dive off the top tier. Those who survive the rigors of the conversion process can emerge with new and ineradicable behavior patterns since all of their ties with the past; family, friends and loved ones, traditional decencies and pieties have been severed. The general aim is to create and fabricate a nightmarish society of informants, compliers, selfless fanatics and basic “sheeple.” And the criminal justice system is abundant with raw human material for the prison industrial complex.
Millions of people, or “sheeple”, are being turned out on an escalating basis, and are growing to accept their newly instilled ways all the time. We are all the products of a more scientific, evolved and harsher indoctrination process; which will doubtless continue to evolve for eons. Current technology has created a hybrid system of techniques, partially dependent upon the systematic use of semiviolent manipulation, partially on skillful psychological manipulation, and partially on environmental and media stimulation. The government is continuing to think new thoughts in response to new situations which impact us all on levels heretofore unimaginable.
Even the people in free society are being subjected to new laws, penalty enhancers, administrative rules, municipal laws and codes all of which intensifies the stress levels in everyday life. Don't fasten your seatbelt,
for instance, and you will be marked in a computer data base and forced to pay a considerable fine. The creation of new boundaries, the restriction of our civil liberties, restricting tree press, monitoring everythinq we read, the threat of secret arrests if we read the wrong book; being held without a crime, without charge, without trial, without counsel, without any recourse or semblance of due process whatever, even the potential for being exiled, all of it adds up to increased stress levels.. Even something as rote as grocery shopping and discovering 60 different kinds of ketchup on the shelf, in some degree, increases the stress. It is an incessant assault on our central nervous systems.
Of those less susceptible to the influences of traditional and provisional techniques are those who might already be deemed psychotic in some measure. They will remain members of a more wild species who can laugh at the stresses. And that wildness makes it possible for them to become heretical; rebellious and otherwise unorthodox and, dare I say ,stand the greatest threat of becoming nonconformist revolutionaries.
What I find most disturbing about the above concerns the ineradicable behaviors learned during the stressed periods. In the prison context, the behaviors that seem to naturally flow from being subjected to such treatment are the same behaviors society deems unacceptable. Prisoners learn to be more conniving and manipulative in their attempts to subvert the influences thrust upon them. They pick up some of the most unsavory habits and patterns of behavior not only sometimes learning to be better criminals but quietly acquiescing to accept defeat at every turn. In the current prison schema, nearly every activity is geared to where the prisoner must consciously relinquish some activity in order to partake in some other activity. For instance, the gym, which has proven to be an enormous stress-reducer, is scheduled to conflict with virtually every other activity. Spiritual and religious services are geared to antagonize with endless and needless restrictions and rules which discourage one from seeking such activity. It occurs too frequently for it not to be intentional, and has the desired effect of suggesting or instilling the acceptance of defeat. And it is an ineradicable acceptance that will stay with the individual forever. It is reflected by the fact these prisoners would rather sit around doing nothing worthwhile, bouncing basketballs, slapping dominoes, gambling, and spewing garrulity, and seem more familiar and comfortable watching television programs geared to keeping people stupefied and stuck on stupidity. Again, those are the patterns that will stick with them upon release.
On the other hand, those who qenuinely and consistently partake of educational endeavors, and otherwise avail themselves to what power they have under the law, learning more about the system in the process, are those who will be less likely to recidivate. And I suspect, this is the true reason for the Pell grants and other college opportunities being legislated into history; because the recidivism rates were close to one or two percent for college educated prisoners, compared to something like 80% of the general prison population. It was simply contrary to the system's penological interests toward unbridled expansion of the prison industrial complex. And one only need examine the statistical data depicting the decrease in funding for schooling and education across the board, and the greater funding for corrections and the prison industry, to see the same phenomenon at work in society as well.
Moreover, with regard to the same disturbing phenomenon at work in society; as people are subjected to increasing levels or stress, they become more susceptible to the influences of suggestibility- In the societal
Context, people become more accepting to whatever their government puts out there for them. Fewer Jobs, lower wages, higher taxes; more laws, restrictions on civil liberties, the patently incredible stories surrounding
the government' s dubious political and global agendas and arguments for war, all of it. It seems more and more people are fast becoming sheeple.
What is even more disturbing is that the vast majority of people, inside and out, have not a clue about how all of the above is dramatically affecting and effecting their lives. And it is the proximate reason prisoners no longer unite on any common issuer and it is also the proximate reason people no longer take a stand on governmental issues. People have been brought to a point where they blindly accept the notion that; beyond their input during the sham electorate processes, they have no voice, no recourse, no power. Of course, this is not true, albeit it might as well be. To be certain, the government is ever mindful of maintaining their absolute power over the masses and they continually develop the methodology, to facilitate that agenda. Sadly, it is at the ultimate expense of a blissfully ignorant populace.

2 essays on WSPF

2008-04-15T22:31:00.000-07:00

AN INSIDE LOOK
by Shawn Alexander

Throughout the Wisconsin Prison system are hundreds of different personalities. One of the major personalities I deal with on a daily basis would have to be manipulators- whether they're manipulating friends, family or whomever. Now don't get me wrong- I'm not speaking up for the DOC. The Department of Corrections is my enemy due to their lies, oppression and corruption. But people must understand the truth behind WSPF and their inmates.
I have spent quite some time at WSPF and have experienced first hand the oppression that is forced upon us. here are the biggest problems at WSPF.: Violating our religious freedoms, lack of rehabilitation, under trained staff that don't know how to interact with inmates, all our outgoing mail is read by the prying eyes of the staff.
Although there are a couple of mentally ill inmates here, inmates tend to hype that up. I have seen inmates smear their feces which to you would be a sign of sickness or being mentally ill. Bu t one must understand SOME of the inmates who do that sick act. (Note: those people are less than 1 percent). Most of the people who do that are making an attempt to get moved out of WSPF to a facility called "Wisconsin resource Center" which is for the mentally ill, and their prison setting is more "laxed", if you will. My point is that inmates put on an act to get to a better environment.
Now, I don't want prison activists to think all inmates are like that, because their not. The inmates who choose to live a lifestyle of lies are beyond help. And they'll try to manipulate whomever they can to get what they want.
Another subject that I ear a lot about is "racism" against Blacks in the Wisconsin prison System. I'll tell you what I know, hear, and see. I'm a male, white and I've been locked up for almost 5 years. never once have I seen an incident that can be labeled as "racist." Prison staff, in my eyes , appear to be prejudiced against inmates period. There is no race involved. I was called a cracker by a black guard at GBCI. The African Americans are quick to call racism. I feel that the white guards show them more respect for fear of a false claim of racism. We all feel that we are being help in a modern day slave camp, but we unfortunately placed ourselves here. It is herein my opinion that there is not a problem of racism but a problem of control and prejudice against prisoners.
I've learned a lot by being in prisons and especially WSPF. Many inmates feel the need to have guards and other DOC officials as their enemy. Not all guards are sadistic people. This is their job and one must accept it, so long as our rights are not being violated. There are guards who come to work , do their job and go home and then there are those who come here to make our lives miserable. If we inmates continue to see all guards as sadistic, we will have a miserable life in prison. Instead of worrying about them, we should further educate ourselves, whether it is law, psychology, sociology, etc. We must make something good out of this bad time. Think about it.

My Life in Prison by Shawn Alexander

On 5-23 -2, an unfortunate decision was made on my behalf, that landed me in The Wisconsin Prison System, but first I was in the county jail. The food was meager, and quite nasty, staff were corrupt, living conditions were atrocious, and I was fighting all the time. Visits were only 15 minutes long on an early Sunday morning. Our constitutional rights were being violated daily. So as I sat my time in this foreign world, fighting my case, I realized early on that survival in prison would depend on myself, family and friends. On Valentines day of 2003 I was sentenced to 20 years; 7 in prisons and 13 out on probation, a stiff sentence if you ask me. Only days later I started my prison term at Dodge Correctional Institution, where the degrading and sadistic ways started.

So as this "prison life started, tests, (mental, physical, education) etc were being conducted. Meeting people from all walks of life, I was thinking to myself, "ok, this should go smoothly" but I couldn't have been more wrong. I was so used to the life of freedom, and now a life of no freedom. I was sent to (where?)on or about May 27th, 003. When I first arrived my thoughts were "clean, new" etc. But as my time went on I realized I was around a bunch of young ignorant people who didn't want to do good with their lives. Only 11 days after arriving, I was in segregation for something that usually would be recognized as a first amendment right. So the persecution began. I was placed in "main seg" which was filled with ignorance, loudness, and stupidity. No sleep, because you have 20 people banging on doors all times of the day.. This was for my first major ticket, and I received a 4 and 360 day segregation in Supermax-meaning One year in seg. But I thought it would be alot smoother upon arriving at Wisconsin secure program Facility. On 8-29-03 I arrived to "Hell in America". Staff were seemingly worst- bad attitudes and bad treatment.

During my approximately 9 months journey at WSPF, I realized that this place is not filled with people who belong here, this place has NO rehabilitational process. This place is designed to breed criminals and make them worse off. They love saying "Oh, we got programs" etc. So what? That does not mean they're properly designed programs. During this journey, I've seen bad treatment and a form of psychological warfare.

So as my prison journey continued at WSPF, I met someone who's still to this day is a good friend. he got me interested in law and most importantly my religion of ASATRV(name?). At this I've come to realize there ain't many solid, decent people in Wisconsin and I've come to know how to do prison time #1 only associate with a select few who are doing something with their lives. #2 Choose to stand up against the wrong, unlawful treatment against us. My time had come to leave WSPF May 7,2004.

I didn't know where I was going, so I was therefore caught up in my thoughts of where I would land. When we arrived after a 4 hour bus drive, I asked where we were. And they told me "green Bay". Oh, I've heard a lot about G.B.C.I.- "Gladiator school" etc. and as I went through the start process, and ended up in the cell hall, I was shocked. It looked like the movies- 4 tiers tall, open faced gates, loud noise, and the air was filled with a weird unidentifiable smell .As time went on, I settled in my single person cell, hung out with a couple people, went to religious services, and just tried to get used to this new environment. One thing I have noticed throughout my time is the oppression of my religious ways. During this time at GBCI I became disliked by a couple ignorant people who think there're still in the hood, because I didn't let people walk over me.

I did 9 months without any trouble, and then I was set up by those individuals who didn't like me and they finally got me in seg. But as time went on in GBCI I was doing good, and the time came for me to defend myself on this ticket. But it is impossible, they rarely find people innocent. "Guilty" he said and "transfer back to WSPF" repeated for days in my head. I was wondering, Why was I going back to WSPF? They had no explanation. People have done more and worse. They were just itching to get me out.

On may 7th, 2003, I was transferred back to Hell In America. I had heard good has finally come out of this place- air conditioning, outside recreation, etc, but on arriving I see that the good was limited. Yes we had outside recreation- in a 12 X 12 cage. They say there's "air chillers " but I'm still trapped beneath my sweats as I lie down. It's become quite clear that WSPF has fetalized in a sense. On hot days we used to get ice, for summer we used to receive shorts to wear. But that is all gone. When wintertime rolls around and we go to outside recreation, we are basically forced to freeze. We get these shoes with no padding or insulation. It's like going outside while 10 degrees with a pair of socks on. I feel that they are trying to deter us from going outside. So as this new journey at WSPF started, I realized early on that if I would like to rehabilitate myself, I must do it on my own. Because it's quite obvious that WSPF does not want to rehabilitate people. For example: I caught a minute conduct report back in 2005 and received 180 days seg, 20 days loss of rec, 30 days cell confinement, 30 days loss of tv, 10 days extension of release. Clearly, all this place believes is in stiff punishments instead of help. Their disciplinary rules are designed to keep people in trouble.

Throughout the following months after 10-3-27-05, I never once received a conduct report until 9 months later, because myself and a friend were publishing articles exposing this place. Therefore, the gang coordinator and a sergeant conducted cell searches on the both of us, confiscating material that was being used for a lawsuit and wrote me a ticket. And a couple of weeks later I was mover to a secure,, restricted unit (alpha) with no privileges. I've yet to be found guilty of the conduct report as of date 8-12-06. I'm on administrative confinement -a non punitive status- and your not supposed to be on a punitive status unless found guilty. There fore they're violating their own policy and due process rights. All because of choosing to expose this place.

Over here on alpha, I'm being deprived of all my rights- no books, only one ten minute phone call a month ( I had 3 fifteen minute calls a month) etc. Alpha unit has staff that purposely do little things to pick at people. - Not answering the intercom, handcuffs and shackles too tight, slamming the trap, talking rudely, flushing our toilets while we're sleeping etc. They drive unstable people into an even more unstable state. I've seen recently a man smear his feces all over his cell, and they pepper sprayed him and got him out of his cell. The janitor arrived to clean his cell, to which we were forced to lay in this bio-hazardous place and smell it for hours. People may argue that he did it for attention. I argue that these people have used psychological warfare on him and damaged his everyday life. People don't smear feces over their whole cell for attention.

Conclusions
Throughout my 51 month journey, I've come to learn that Wisconsin department of corrections does not wish to help us, rehabilitate us or wish us good.. Instead they know that if they did rehabilitate us, a lot of people would lose jobs because we'd all become productive members of society, the prisons would soon be extinct if they taught us to do good. But instead, they stick people in modern day "criminal breeding camps." Some of us may have come to prison as minor criminals, but will leave a knowleged criminal. People of today' society are probably thinking" Oh they can change regardless". Very true, but when you have an alcoholic and stick him in a room of alcoholics, he'll drink. Now if you take an individual who's a so called criminal and stick him in an environment where criminality is being taught instead of rehabilitation, temptation will most likely win.

A lot of people have no social skills. It's fortunate that I'm a sociable person because to be dropped back off in society, one must possess social skills as a key component to survival in society. I'm not trying to make things sound like prison needs to be a first class hotel. But what I am saying is that we need rehabilitative tools to help us re-enter society. This will only come with your help, by contacting the DOC in Madison. But I also suggest to all prisoners that wish to do good in society, to help yourself while behind that glistening razor wire. Take this time and use it wisely. Although I'm at this "supermax", I've got nothing but time. So as I lock this up, I hope it has opened up the eyes if many people. If you have any questions, comments, you can be reached at :

Shawn Alexander #439226
WSPF ( Wisconsin Secure Program Facility)
Po Box 9900
Boscobel, Wi 53805

In Society's Name

2008-04-15T22:30:00.001-07:00

IN SOCIETY'S NAME
January 2002
Dear Reader:
The attached article, "IN SOCIETY'S NAME/7 is not the sour grapes of a disgruntled recalcitrant prisoner adversely affected by the conditions of his confinement. Since coming to prison 22 years ago, I mostly read and write, staying in my cell anyway l just felt that most people, free or incarcerated, would want to know about the conditions in a Super-Max Control Unit. I feel that I've actually understated the psychological impact of this particular institution. I also feel that incarceration for a crime of which one has been convicted is punishment enough without the added tortures of a Control
Unit's sensory deprivations. If you feel that such punishment IN YOUR NAME is acceptable, at least you have an
idea of what is going on in these places. If not, by al! means, try to abolish such institutions by disseminating the information in anyway you feel will accomplish the most good.
Many criminals are good people who have done terrible things, but all of them are human beings. Even the worst can be redeemed, but not with the psychological scars of in-humane treatment preventing the desire for remorse and rehabilitation.
'The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." (Dostoevski)
According to the 2001 Sentencing Project, the United States incarcerates its citizens at a rate of 699 per 100,000. That's 6 to 19 times the rate of Western European nations. With so many prisoners, something had to be done with those who posed a risk to themselves, other prisoners, staff, or the institution in general. Those prisoners were usually placed in segregation cells apart from the general populations, but since so many older prisons used cells for segregation that were next to, underneath, or sandwiched between cells which housed general population prisoners, the type of security required
for segregated persons could not be achieved. After the federal government built a separate prison to house its unmanagable prisoners, states across the country began to copy the Marion Illinois "control unit," built in 1972.
While segregation confinement was usually temporary, with the proliferation of control unit construction across the
nation, large numbers of prisoners were segregated much longer under much harsher conditions. In spite of the fact that Maryland's super-max prison has been cited by the Justice Department of the United States for human rights violations, and even after the United Nations Convention Against Torture was ratified in 1994 by our federal government, the conditions of and reasons for confinement in Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center are causing permanent psychological damage. There are numerous groups throughout the country trying to have control unit and super-max type
prisons closed.
Psychiatrists and Psychologists have repeatedly testified in regards to the effects on the mental and physical health of prisoners kept in locked down solitary sensory depriving control unit prisons. Well beyond the angst generated by all prisons, Super-Max causes intense feelings of anger, anxiety, periods of uncontrollable rage, hallucinations, mild to severe
claustrophobia, insomnia, appetite loss, self mutilation, and suicide. Every aspect of daily existence in a control unit was purposely designed by a panel of Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and Corrections Officials to produce the symptoms listed,
reportedly to make the prisoner want to do everything in their power to avoid ever returning once released from the punitive aspects of a control unit. Many psychological studies repudiate punishment in severe form as having a positive effect on behavior, but a more note worthy fact is that many of those confined in Maryland's Super-Max are to be soon
released to a neighborhood setting filled with men, women, and children who the traumatized most likely feel did nothing to alleviate their daily and longstanding suffering. While those perceptions do not account for public ignorance of the harsh conditions of a control unit, those suffering from what amounts to post traumatic shock syndrome are not forming opinions with stable minds. Honest citizens scared by the get re-elected rhetoric of increasing violent crime believe
that a control unit is needed for the prison system's "worst of the worst." That perception is false. Mental patients whose behavior is not quite severe enough for Clifton T. Perkins or Patuxent's Mental Health Unit, but who cannot function in a regular prison for their own safety or the safety of others are given stays of various durations at Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center. Prisoners with enemies in all other prisons wind up in Super-Max. Prisoners who have tried to
escape or have assaulted other prisoners or staff are sent to Super-Max. Those who receive long punitive segregation sentences for rule violations or who just get too many infraction notices wind up at Maryland Correctional Adjustment
Center. And finally, there is a group of prisoners who have no rule violations, haven't been placed on administrative segregation, but have been placed under investigation for "alledgedly" having done "something," they get sent to Super-Max for a year, and then are returned to general population, where for a reason that cannot be logically explained, they are no longer a danger to the institution or to others. Once sent to Super-Max for any of the stated reasons, the horror story
begins in earnest. Upon arrival, all accumulated property that was allowable in every other institution is sent to an address the prisoner provides. If a long term prisoner whose family no longer visits or cares does not have an address to send his property to, he must donate it or give approval for his television, radio, headphones, cassettes, CD'S, hot pot, fan, hardback books, clothes, shoes, and commissary food or cosmetic items to be destroyed. If his behavior after a set period warrants or if he is transferred to a general population prison, he must buy everything new as if he were a
brand new prisoner. Even things sent to an address provided cannot be sent back. The Division of Correction cares little about the huge financial burden put on the prisoner or his family. With no funds and no jobs while in Supermax, all is lost forever. That's the first of many injustices to come.
Prisoners should hope they arrive in the Spring or Summer, because they are not issued long sweat pants, long Johns, nor a coat. The heat in .the cells is turned on very late in the season close to or beyond Winter. Cold air blowers rarely work in the hot months and periodically blow in the coldest. Your fan has been taken and no ice is distributed on the hottest days, so there really is no good season to arrive.You are issued two jumpsuits, two sweat pants shorts, three undershirts, three undershorts, one pair Of sneakers, three pair of socks, two wash cloths, three towels, one laundry
bag, two sheets, one blanket, one small shampoo, one bar of soap, one toothbrush. and four packets of toothpaste. You have no pillow, no drinking cup, no stationary, no envelopes, no pens, no stamps, and if you did have money Tn your account where you came from, it usually takes four to six weeks before it reaches you at Supermax. If your transfer was sudden, no one will know where you are for weeks, since you can not write without a pen and paper and you are never allowed to make phone calls while in Super-Max. The cells are approximately 8 by 14 feet with three small shelves, a desk, stool bolted to the floor, a concrete slab bed with open storage areas underneath, a stainless steel mirror bolted to the wall over a toilet sink combination. There is a three part flourescent light directly opposite the bed. The lower three foot bulb can be turned on or off by the prisoner. The top three foot bulb is controlled from the control observation unit and used during counts and shakedowns. A center one foot high intensity bulb stays on at all times. It is hard to sleep with the light on 24/7, but at least your nightmares are not in the dark. It also gives you enough light to watch the roaches and mice playing happily on your floor.
Get used to the isolation of that cell. Saturday, Sunday and holidays you're locked down all 24 hours.You get to shower twice a week during your one hour of recreation daily Monday through Friday. You get to recreate outside in a metal cage two or three times a week counting as your hour. If the jail is locked down for cell moves or if it is decided it's too cold outside, you get no recreation that day.You never have contact with other prisoners, because when out of your cell for recreation, showers, non-contact visits, medical appointments, or classification matters you're handcuffed, waist chained with black box cuff cover and wearing leg irons. The restraints are removed through a slot in your cell door or a door in your pod so you can shower. If you want to trim your fingernails, toenails, or trim your beard prior to a shower you must use the common clippers used by all prisoners in your pod. While the clippers are sprayed with a disinfectant
prior to use, your mind stays on all the warnings about shared hygiene items as a way of transmitting Hepatitus C and AIDS.
You get three meals a day. Since you cannot hold a job you earn no pay. You'll need outside support for a few snacks from commissary to supplement a diet high in sugar and starches with no fresh vegetables except an occasional serving of chopped lettuce they call a salad. Food portions are small and hunger is common, but I guess they figure all you have to do is lay around idle all day. Weight loss is common. Outside support is needed again for vitamins sold in
commissary.
You do all you can to stay healthy. If you get a headache, you cannot purchase aspirin or tylenol, so you must submit a sick call slip. By the time you're seen four or five headaches have come and gone and you've submitted as many slips. When you finally go to sick call and medicine is prescribed, you'll start getting it about a week later. Then when delivery starts, you'll never get it two days in a row at the same time, even heart, diabetic, or high blood pressure
medications. Some days you're toTd it just didn't come in today. If you complain too much or file a remedy or complain of chest pains (which are quite commonly a sign of anxiety) the nurse puts you on 90 day bed rest which means
fully idle no recreation and you learn to put up with the system of denial and deprivation.
As stated earlier, everything is purposely designed to isolate, irritate, deprive, discourage and frustrate the prisoner to make him never to do any act that could cause him to wind up in Super-Max. Never mind the permanent scars on the psyche. All movement and administrative activities are controlled from a central observation area. The officers can speak to you through an intercom, control your lights and electricity, serve meals, give out commissary, collect laundry, pick up mail, or distribute a needed form. Prisoners call the windowed central control area the Bubble. If you need something, you wave a sheet of paper out your door and hope they look your way. Banging on your door for quick attention gets you
a notice of infraction, a ticket. So if you're having a heart attack and they do not respond to your flag, which you can't
wave due to the intense pain and excruciating agony, at least your stay in Hell is over. Some think it worse than Hell. There are no jobs, no educational opportunities, no religious services, a library that only send fifteen to twenty year old love novels, laundry pick up at one to two a.m. on Friday mornings so you have to do with a sheet until that evening, noises, odors, voices, would be drummers banging on anything that annoys, guards shining flashlights in your eyes during count so you wake up and banging doors shut if that fails, many mentally retarded or mentally ill prisoners singing, yelling, throwing urine or feces, no mops brooms, or paper towels to clean your cell, cell searches two sometimes three times a day and whenever you leave your cell for any reason. Hell is probably better. So you want to file a legal complaint. It takes asking three shifts to get a form. All outgoing mail must be unsealed, so you wonder if it will reach its
destination. You must pay for copies of the rules you wish to review or complain about and do it with a floppy flimsy innards of a caseless pen that wiggles worse than some suppers. Believe it or not, there's more and ifs all done in society's name. I can only pray that when I get out no one I've seen in here moves to my neighborhood. You should pray for
that also, or better yet....demand an end to Control Units
Robert Leisure #159827;Maryland Correctional Adjustment Center; 401 E. Madison Street; Baltimore, Maryland 21202
SS#216-44-1228

Totally Frustrated

2008-04-15T22:27:00.000-07:00

TOTALLY FRUSTRATED
By Larry George#88022; Oshkosh Correctional Institution; Box 3310; Oshkosh, Wi 54903
I’ve been in prison on and off for well over 15 years. I’ve filed a few lawsuits on various things. Won Some. Lost Some. I’m now faced with a serious dilemma: Let the prisons keep denying my magazines based in “gang signs” without going to court, just lay down and accept this or go to court. So far I’ve let them take awat my magazines without going to court.
Why would I give in? Simple. Very few inmates will even file a inmate complaint. There are over 23,00 inmates. At two complaints a week there would be over two million complaints per year. But in reality, there were only about 40,000 complaints filed last year. Magazines are denied and few even file complaints for phone cards and they look at me like I’m crazy.
Is the complaint system a joke? Of course it is. But if the DOC got just 300 complaints each week they would have to act. DOC knows that most inmates are happy the way things are. That is the message that WE send them by not using complaint forms.
We all know that Berrill Freeman was awarded 2.5 million dollars for being denied food. That’s just great. But what I don’t understand, AT ALL, is how no one has filed a criminal complaint with the Sheriff’s department. And the US attorney, Western District of Wisconsin? Both Wisconsin Statutes and federal code provisions provide for criminal penalties for violations of basic civil rights. If Mr Freeman was in a nursing home, hospital, etc., charges would have been already filed. Why has no one moved for criminal charges against the state employees involved here?
That is the problem with the DOC. There is no fear of accountability. These same employees are still on the job, still being paid, and not one cent will be paid out of THEIR pockets towards ant money paid to Mr Freeman. Where are Mr. Freeman’s attorneys? Why haven’t they moved for criminal prosecution?
Denying food to an inmate is a felony. If Warden and his staff involved were charged, you can bet things in the prisons would change immediately. Once the fear of prosecution is made real they will treat inmates with what respect we have coming legally.
Now come on. Get people calling the US Attorney and the District Attorney to prosecute. If enough people call criminal charges will be brought. That’s really what we need. Inmates can’t do this. Free people must do this. Thank you so very much in advance

Justified Racism

2008-04-15T22:13:00.002-07:00

A new Look at Gangs- Myths versus reality. Intro to two essays by Norman Green
Norman Green #228971,is a prisoner in the Boscobel Supermax in Wisconsin(WSPF)-one of the most restrictive prisons in the nation. He remains on the lowest levels of the system because he refuses to take their programs, finding them demeaning and hypocritical. He will not “play the game.”, Norman Green is a natural leader, visionary, and an eloquent spokeman for equal rights and justice for all. Many of the inmates look up to him and follow his lead. Litigator and target of much retaliation, he claims innocence of original charge and that he is in WSPF because of his lawsuits.
We will here put out some of his documents, and essays on gangs, racism and prisons. He knows gangs and has been a leader in trying to lead kids away from violence into constructive group activity- something he calls “Sublimate. “ He is enraged at how the established powers will not let the transition happen- how the white power structure want the gangs to remain fragmented and self destructive. AS the joke goes, who needs the Klu Klux Klan when you got gangs.
But more importantly to this reader, is the way Norman Green shows that the present censorship of magazines, and media in the prisons, and the general outrage at the most popular Afroamerican and Latino entertainment and communication mediums at large, amounts to cultural genocide. This is because, for one thing, the very means of communication used by African Americans, and Latinos- is labeled “Gang”and is used as a tool to keep young men, many of them potential leaders of a new America, in jail- forever. It is a concept worth understanding.

CASE 02 CV – 3480

“JUSTIFIED RACISM!”
“The Reality No One Wants To Talk About.”
By Prince Atum-Ra Uhuru Mutawakkil
(Aka, Norman C. Green JR)
A Supermax Political Prisoner.

I recently had the opportunity to read MEP’s Spring 2004 report. On Page seven there was an article by Laura McNeil, et al, on “Midwest Racial Justice – Gathering, Feb. 20-21”. What made me take special notice of this article – among too many to name – was the seemingly radical youthful spirit that she always has penning her articles, and the subject matter concerning the too often ignored subtle racism or, more P.C., white superiority, that is so steep in the state of Wisconsin, that one day will cause all kinds of unwanted problems if it is continually ignored and foolishly thought to be non-existent.
In Ms. McNeil’s article, she stated at this gathering people was encouraged to confront the hidden and ignored institutional white superiority in Wisconsin. She said that Supermax staff and other people in position of authority – who, by design – seem to be damn near all white, need to be held accountable for their white supremacy attributes.
What really got my attention was her words that white individuals need to start supporting Akebulan (Black or Afra-American) leaders and organizations on the terms of those leaders, and organizations on the terms of those who lead, and not get involved with the attitude that “my way” – most of the time a white way attitude – is the best way, when some solutions to the problems require personal knowledge that can only be gained by experience, i.e., that which the Black woman and man experience.
Now, I have heard people make these beautiful statements before and I have found myself galvanized towards them and trying to network with them so that we can take these spoken words from symbolic idealism to practical realism, yet these individuals seem to be not so liberal with their support and networking clamor.
I don’t know Ms. McNeil personally, so I now will offer her and anyone else the opportunity to truly make those encouraging words a reality. Further, before this seemingly simple task can be finalized, some truths and reality checking must first be acknowledged.
So what is (part) of that justified racism? First of all, let’s deal with the kinds of language that society and the world at large has become so accustomed to that they don’t realize they are in essence propagating the foundation of white supremacy by the continuous use of the words “race” and “racism” when dealing with the human community. Let me further explain your good intentions and humble hearts are saying we are all one human family yet your words and actions divide that family when we use the word race. Why? Because there is only one race of people in existence, the human race. The term race was propagated to keynote the white supremacy attitude that white people are wholly human and every other ethnic group of people are sub-races. This is one reason why institutionalized racism, or, correctly stated, white supremacy, still exists – because, even the unconscience eradicators of this school of thought is unseemingly teaching it as part of their anti-racism philosophy, so the schools and super educated universities teach this division as well.
Now that we have laid the foundation, I would like to illuminate the new state sponsored and supported way to justify and get away with white supremacy (racism) under the justified clause.
All the state has to do is simply label you a gang member or gang leader and they can just about rationalize and justify any kind of abuse, harassment and even death sentence to a Akebulan or Taino (Black and Latino) youth, and not only will the white (majority) citizens support it, but even their own people will support this new clothe to guise and conceal white supremacy as legitimate state action. This is the new reality of white supremacy that no one is willing to address. At least not in my experience of trying to reach out to people in Madison and Wisconsin as a whole.
No, I am not marginalizing the merit that there is a legitimate concern in regards to negative behavior, misdirected and ill-guided youth and self-destructive conduct. Quiet the contrary, I could even do such a thing because I teach and encourage young men on a daily basis to discard that kind of attitude (gangster mentals) and behavior because it only aids and assist the design and master plan of the white supremacists to justify their claim to power and control. However, what the public and people who support this state sponsored white “ism” tend to not see is that the prisons and government are, and have always, prevented us from trying to discard the wrong way for the right way. By political action, creation of certain laws to keep us disenfranchised, and the support of the uneducated public, they have manipulated and forced the static existence of the gang culture.
Why would they do something like this while claiming to want to destroy the gangs? Common sense! But, because we as a society have surrendered our common sense, these things must be pointed out. Because only the seeker of truth will receive and find the truth. For, those who have studied world governments and institutions, two words will clarify: “money” and “power,” or “power and money.” And, of course, there are the other small gains by keeping the gang culture in the static position. History has shown that when groups of men – I have yet to see a gang or organized group of women move from illegal to legal enterprise – mature and matriculate into the democratic/republic, they become a political and economic threat or at less competitor in the national and international machine. This is why white men don’t want Akebulan and Taino gangs to go from self-destructive to self-determination.
So, you see this white supremacy no one wants to address, they don’t want to believe that myself and others are political prisoners at the state Supermax merely because identification with certain political and philosophical beliefs that are embedded in our heritage, culture, and spiritual existence. But because white supremacists have labeled and classified these as gangs, they have been given the free will to do and act, as they like. This is why most of the youth out in the communities are miseducated about the Ghetto social club or Ghetto fraternity (called gangs by those that don’t want to see them sublimate and evolve). Of course, most of these kids and even grown ups act out negatively, because when you don’t know anything – and I mean really know the basics – of what you claim to be or about, you will act out contrarily.
Why are they miseducated? Simple word, “censorship” of those who can and are courageous enough to teach them. And the fact that in order to be accepted in this society, you are told you must give up your total identity even when there are those positive and productive parts that the United States Constitution protects and says you have a right to associate. But white supremacists classify almost everything associated with Black and Latino – i.e., mainly hip-hop – as gang related. This justified suppression of expression is part of the question that equals to the Ghetto social and political racial justification.
I would like to give a small discourse on the gang culture and its many unsuccessful attempts to matriculate into the democratic society, but we have no space to do so. However, those who are seriously desiring to embrace the concept that Ms. McNeil encourages of aiding Black and Latino leaders successfully moves their struggles to that next level and checks the white superiority within side this state. I am, and many other Akebulan and Taino men of positive influence, are prepared and ready to not only school them and society about our struggles, but take that American dream – that has excluded us – to another level so that this concept is not seemingly a white man’s reality, but an American reality encompassing all segments of our human society.
So, if you are serious about these idealisms that Ms. McNeil called for, I’m not hard to find. Just look me up at your state’s proudest symbol of institutionalized oppression to suppression of justified, properly called, White Supremacy State enterprising.

Supermax Political Prisoner

poems by Shannon Griffith

2008-04-15T22:13:00.001-07:00

Two by OSMO, Mellowmanic
ShannonJ. Griffith #165268;Marquette Branch Prison
1660 US 41 South; Marquette, MI 49855
. Reality’s Dream’
man locked behind a door, in this plight,
seeks woman-kind for sure, to write,
hoping for each letter to delight,
from the smell of your perfume,
some spell I more presume,
come, release my mind, this cell entombed,
chum, please, by kind kiss, fell the gloom,
plumb eased, I’d find, bliss well bloomed,
dumb keys, tried to bind, this spirits doom,
a few words, warm and bright, clearer lit,
you girds from harm, my nights mirror it,
thanks to you, lonely tears echewed.,
walls blank views, to golden stairs segued

Nearly Comatose
Because my character, a politician did malign,
easily rationalized by prosecutors of that kind,
In their selfish social ladder climb,
I have to do this time, I’m resigned, admitted,
Tho state’s records prove no crime I committed,
the Courts were aloof, when my rights went poof,
based on a spoof, without any proof,
the jury said woof, my sentence hit the roof,
added an ‘R’, dropped a ‘P’, this men’s prison really isn’t me,
tho seeking for appeal to redeem,
so hoping to repeal the regime,
left with a shred of sanity,
bereft, I shed all vanity,
deft of will, mixed with laughter,
I nixed the tears, swore off fears hereafter,
Blithe still, refusing to blather desperations desolation,
Rather determination, after more than seven years isolation,
Yet it’s to me kinda ironic, they bet by now I’d be catatonic,
Not quite naïve now, I hunger to relieve somehow,
These cold, dark, and lonelies, if you’ll just do,
Please, hear, hark and hold with a few only’s as cue,
Keenly seeking friendship correspondence only, true,
Freely speaking my mind, so long as you’re comfortable only, too,
Deeply sublime, maybe someone will reply this time thru,
if meekly signed only, adieu.
by OSMO, Mellowmanic
ShannonJ. Griffith #165268;Marquette Branch Prison
1660 US 41 South; Marquette, MI 49855

THREE Pieces Shannon J Griffith #165268; AMF/Baraga Max-301 Wadaga Rd; Baraga Michigan 49908
‘RE: Patriots Riposte’
1)JUSTICE………………………… .2)polemic deceits
Just is ……………………………… economic elites
Just Us…………………………….. endemic penny replete
1) poor us majority………………….4)courts avarice for dollars
corrupt authorit…………………. aborts that 5th’s poor havors
for just minority……………………reports cashs gits more collars
5)derisions vainful couth……………...6)prisoners new natural resource
visions painful truth……………….. .richer few than for all enforce
missions gainful proof………….… society’s sacrifice humanity perforce
7) Driven enjoys power……………… 8) new civil military
Prison employs dour………………. you skills with it carry
Risen envoys devour………………. Due kills fiction bury
9) A common man’s dream…………..10) Americans versus United States
Aplomb demands screams…………. Egalitarians versus politicians
Uncommon plans themes……………. Peoples versus governments
11) Only one whole race………………12) only a few, keep from
slowly shown own grace……………..lonely or blue, seek some
lowly chromosome base………………holy or true, pace come
mostly thru, freedom Osmo

Vindications’ PYRRIC Rhapsody
Imprisoned, forcefed my frustration, envision, refused recourse of expression, without cessation, division infused, perforce rape burns colder than imagination, misprission imbued, divorced Racespurns boldermans salvation, for missing opportunities heaven sent, world’s Damnation, forfeiting opportunities I represent, ensures conflagration, forgetting realities high percent, pure amalgamation, my only comfort, knowing I’ll have vengeance in the end, imprecation, in seeing the world high and dry, if only when I die, abdegnation, by leaving treasures lie, where I mine them, for all nations, believing their minds too blind for that kind, due Greedspall, assimilation, having stolen my youth freedom ad empathy, ablation, you steel from yourselves, my humanity, abilty and utility, mendication, your authoritarians lack of humility is an insanity, an exercise in futility, dedication,invalid, all creation, if chosen, even one suffers, unjustifiably worse, translation, heaven being never born to begin with, death is a gift, Life must be a curse, Explanantion. Osmo,mellowmanic

Say It O.I.C.R.N. Organizations Implement Constructive Reforms Now
Everyone must do their part to dismember the government sponsored dysfunctional monetary machine of socio-economic terrorism, perpetuated by corrupt governments corporate conspiracy under color of law, due their abandoning oath’s duty to professional standards when administering CGARTER clearly established in Declaration of Independence to first and foremost protect individuals from abuse of authority as guaranteed by priority of Constitutional Amendments enacted on behalf of all peoples.Grifith V US (subname) Griffith V. DOC etal.
History and public records demonstrate above all else, that violence does NOT work since it only provides jusification for increased authoritarianism, further, that all governments are REGRESSING to emulate “Star Chamber” hearings outlawed In the 16th century, and most importantly, we have credible veracity, Bush etal, can’t hope to steal nor buy, and Relinquist, etall, just doesn’t have it, to sell.
WE NEED to establish automonous network inter/national co-councel coordinating external legal contacts representing majority, due most prisons, no direct correspondence between prisoners, fpr this MASSIVE multinational class action to be filed simultaneously across US< Canada, England and any other wishing to join in unilaterally cha;enging the government’s obscenely subverting Principles of Substantive and procedural due process to create unassailable bastions protecting courts own perversions of records and implacable standards t coerce all others as uninformed proxy supporters after the fact, to nationalize mercenary politics utilizing military to pillage weaker cultures, deprived of technology for economic resources, thru anti trust violations.
Osmo

Poems By Manual Williams

2008-04-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

Poems of Manuel Williams #303943; CCI; PO Box 900; Portage,WI 53901

?
How can all the possibilities be guarantees?
Hen the law lessens all my career opportunities.
How can friendship be so good?
But a friend leaves sooner than it starts.
Why should a life that lives, end before it lived?
How can all the talented die, but the talent still live?
Who say corruption don’t exist in humbleness?
When everyone who’s silent are corrupt?
A too tough brain carries a tender heart?
Why a tough heart(h?) , carries a tender brain.
Those that fail to speak for Justice commit the worstest crime,
While those that speak is “justice” (“just ice” or “Just us”?)

Being a prisoner
My pen is my life,
while my paper is my unity.
The bed I sleep on is like stone metal,
And the blankets I sleep under are like wool.
My captors are destroyers.
I’m like a bee nest,
And my papers are like “bees.
God is my nectar.

Revolution
Yes, there’s a revolution in prison, those whose stand against department of corrections against those who stand with department of corrections.
Those that’s against the d..o.c. against inhumane treatment, cruel and unusual punishment, unconstitutional violations.
While that stand with d.o.c. advocate the inhumane, cruel and unusual punishmnt and unconstitutional violations,
Many ask Muslims why they switch belief from Christianity.
I’m a Baptist, but will break the revolution in prison down in good terms.
Majority of correctional officers say they are Christians and believe in God from the Bible.
When a guard fails to protect a prisoner and answers “Why yas let them treat us this way?” with “you’re in prison,” he is unfaithful to his religious duty as a Christian.
Reason why Islam is having an effect on Christianity is because there’s millions of Muslims that used to be Christian and Christianity is facing a building revolution in prison.
Matthew 11-25 “I thank you father, lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babies.”
The above quotation should sum up everything.
By Manuel Williams

TIME by Manuel Williams
Time is to heal all things
:Pain, sorrow, frustration,
When we only look at the hurt,
But never look at the time it took to become healed,
Through all our days of grief, never to realize what dominated our time to look
What’s the outer control that pained us,
Which distance focus from time,
What heart destined to be broken once more with the advent of Spring,
Should heal next Summer gle(?)
Time can’t run from us, nor can we run from time,
No matter what the problem may be, time would catch up
And we deal with the things we see
What we can’t deal with now, we have to deal with later
Later is the pass tense of things we look over to ignore.

Poem Odyssey Love
By Manuel Williams
What brighting the gabardine heart,
Is soothing words and a malody of passion,
Even when your world seems up-side down your love would always appear
When you’re not around,
The wave of heat from my body would always embrace
You as eagle wings over it’s young
For ever a love a love should be fortifying,
Thy gang-way entrance of eternal love would always be
Fragmented as thy oldest fossil that rusts away
With no noticeable appearance,
My love, even when you try to hide thy love that’s
Irreplaceable, like the wind in the breeze that can
Never be controlled, the energy of your love have been extent
to exist, thy fuel, that sends electric current vibes through my body, has frozen my mind, waiting to be thawed with thy fulminating kiss.
Have I told you thy lips are like the wildest citrus tree?
When our love and passion is unsophisticated, clashing in
action to our secret weakness clasp together with thy
strongest of ecstasy,
you are my sun,
cause you have kept me enriched with your
smile,
you are my wind, when you have taken my breath away
with your genuine literary work of
motions that reflects to be unforgettable,
thy love never would be brittle

Tears Fall From Cell Walls

2008-04-15T22:08:00.001-07:00

TEARS FALL FROM CELL WALLS
POEM BY RUS’SELL ROSE #283240
Come? Take a journey with me where all night and all day it rains. Where there’s constantly heard and unheard screams of pain, due to physical and mental torture, be it solitary confinement or mechanical restraints. This is where tears fall from cell walls. Where punishment is executed daily without delay or flaw. If you step out of line here, the police or an inmate beast will break your jaw. The H.S.U. doctor can wire your mouth shut for you, so that through your clenched teeth you can smoke rolled-up cigarettes while your hatred thaws. Please continue to walk with me? Through corridors painted drab colors, and where yellow lines guide the heavy medicated to chow. There you can lose yourself in the music and t.v. shows that show you how good it is to live but never teach you how. Tears fall from cell walls here like dew drops slide down a blade of grass in the early morning dawn. Now doesn’t that scene sound beautiful? Ask that same question to inmates locked demonically and hellishly secure in W.S.P.F. or Washington State I.M.U, who can never see the lawn! Come on, Come On, don’t stop walking please! The scenes here are so obscene that the weak one’s knees buckle and their brain starts to bleed. Not from violence but from lack of knowledge, their life gets lost in- between. You find their cold bodies decorating the vents of their lonely cells. Don’t worry, what you hear is the united yells of caged monkeys alerting the zoo- keepers that the young deceased man’s body has swelled like yeast, and his innocence cannot be proven for it drips all over the gray concrete….tear drops fall from cell walls. ( delete or changeWhen young boys aged 12 and 15 are locked in jails with pedophiles and predators of all kinds and sorts for stealing cars and not paying child support(??)) Who will protect their innocence at night when the cages close and the thirsty lust filled wolf stalks? When tears fall from cell walls . I should advise you that “Father Time” is also called “The Bald Headed Cheater” because he steals from you what you can never regain. Those here now suffer because they played Russian Roullette with him, and he failed to mention that they took the first pull, and he let remain every bullet in the chamber! 25 to life, life without parole and at 50 you get 60 years, where is the fairness in this game? Where you are guilty until proven innocent, and, and #283240 becomes your name? Please pray for these walking dead, kind visitor, please reach out to touch the forgotten? Those who are as alive as you and me, but legally dead in a cement coffin and rotten! I appreciate you accompanying me, kind visitor. And I thank you for seeing it all.
So when you return to the “Land of the Living,” tell them about the tears you saw fall from cell walls.

Doing TIme In Sensory Deprivation and Social Isolation Or What's it Like Living in Hell?

2008-04-15T22:05:00.000-07:00

Doing Time In Sensory Deprivation and Social Isolation
by Manuel Williams
Or What's Living Hell like?

I arrived at Green Bay Correctional Institution March of 2006, transferred from Columbia Institution. It was alleged by CCIs prison officials that my misbehavior was misappropriate to coexist with the institutional level in either general population or segregation- but overall I was relocated from one form of confinement to a worster case of deprivation of environmental privileges.
I been fluctuating between segregation that exercise social isolation and sensory deprivation conditions for an extensive time, I estimate five years uninterrupted camouflage in these harsh structures- I already knew what time it was, once upon my arrival to the segregation that's labeled "programming", but really, there's no-programming within this segregation. Correctional officers precipitated a friendly attitude, me personally knowing their atrocious incognito characteristics, I produced a frustrated facial expression, indicated, give me space. I am a convict, you guys c/os, there's no similarity between us.
It's impossible to befriend correctional officers, especially when the majority will stabb us prisoners in the back by administration encouragement, even when there's no reason.
I was told to undress for a "strip search." A " strip search"is a total invasion of prisoners private areas-
one of the c/os told me to bend over and spread my buttocks. I automatically squatted, cause prying my butt-cheeks open is inhumane and sensual to the human sexual perceptions.
Homosexuality traits is in the mind's eye of the guard doing the "strip searches. Basically a presence of mind of what their doing- It's not wrong for these modern societies to observe rallies or gay parades- most clinicians stipulate from my aspect, that homosexuality is neither a psychological defect or mental illness. Some may believe homosexuality is amoral. How correctional -officers handle a 'strip search" shows their propensity to be non- heterosexuals because ain't no man in his right mind, will sacrifice his dignity and self respect for watching another man's private parts and then probably smelling hostile body aroma.
Most correctional officials are conservative, believe that by prisoners being vulnerable, without their ability to depend on the judicial system that strip us of many constitutional rights, that barbarity treatment is prison-official's choice of resorting to is a mandatory pristine which is wrong.
After "strip search " I was rehandcuffed and shackled, then tooking to my new cell.
Upon entry into my new cell, I recognized a whole different transformation, based on the vociferous bragging and illegible causerie via these inmates communicating threw parts of their cell-door. The shackles were removed from my ankles and c/os activated their walkie-talkie to apprise this c/o monitoring the security station, to secure the cell door. Once the cell-door was secured, handcuffs were eviscerated from my wrists-
The cell- trap was shut-
I felt a repletion of physical freedom, when I am in my cell, in control of my movement, within the cell, it's awesome- an actual blessing.
As slave history shows, slaves were confined in a hopeless and restricted captivity, while the master lived in luxury. This is a flagrantly luminosity of the purpose of segregation, detention serves.
The cell window that I supposed to see natural sunlight is blurred with a fog inside the glass, obstructing me from viewing the outside of segregation. The cell light stays on 24/7 and can only be reduce to dim or increased back to bright, depriving me of my sleep a lot-
There's a gigantic China wall constructed down the middle of the hallway , therefore, isolating me from speaking with other prisoners on the otherside of the wall, disorienting my social skills.
Shower. toilet, sink, desk is compacted in my cell. The mirror is an illusion, because it has two reflections, one at too and one at bottom. I sometimes find it frustrating watching my reflection, that expresses two from one.
There's four observation cells that is void of windows, besides a plexi-glass for c/os and other inmates to observe these inmates as they ambulate past these cells
Inmates that qualify for observation placement is suicidal inmates or disruptive inmates
The purpose of these social- isolation and sensory deprivation segregation is to 1) make us recalcitrant and passive-resistant inmates hopeless. 2) Eject scare tactics into certain inmate's heart and mind. 3)Then brake that inmate to submission stage. 4)After submission is complete, preprogram inmate's thinking according to the administration way of co-dependency.
If none of the method is having it's expected affects, psychological or physical harassment is increased to it's maximum dosage-if the reform modus operandi is not effective as inmate-officials plan, inmates are transferred to a new institution.
P.S. All prisoners keep ya head up, stay strong. Don't let our enemies see you cry- that is sign of weakness, emotional or physical and predators prey on their opponent's weaknesses.
Respectfully,
Mr Manuel Williams

Wisconsin's Myth of Rehabilitation

2008-04-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

Wisconsin’s Myth of Rehabilitation
By: Juan Ouentin C. ward
In recent years there has been more than ever calls for longer sentences to combat the growing fear and rise of crime or criminal elements within our neighborhoods and communities. Not only has inspiring, but veteran politicians used the tougher sentencing scheme as a platform to ignite their political careers and to perpetuate this fear an outcry from everyday citizens which cut across all ethnic lines, whose lives has been touched directly or indirectly by crime, which has resulted in the overcrowding of jails and orisons all around the state of T>7iSConsin. With a significance primarily focused on the predominantly larger Black or Hispanic or minority areas.
And while more and more young Black and Brown males are being incarcerated for demonstrating antisocial behaviors such as drug addictions, robberies, homicides, sexual crimes, etc., many of these poor underprivileged and under-represented class of people suffer from some form of mental affliction ranging from severe to mild mental diseases and defects. It is these outcasted members of society who can't afford to hire competent attorney's for representation to defend them or help them get into drug rehabilitation clinics or mental health institutions to combat the poisonous chemical they have become dependent upon in an attempt to escape the realities of their living condition of impoverished and depressing neighborhoods. The rich rarely serve time in any prison for any kind of crime, as they can buy their way out with hiring a good high profile attorney and receive real justice. America and Wisconsin has a longstanding history of incarcerating the uneducated, untrained and oftentimes mentally handicapped minority who are ignorant of the laws and intricacies of the criminal justice system, so they are provided quarter defenses' if that, by state paid overworked, burnt out, underpaid State Public Defenders whose main objective is not to fight and mount any kind of real defense but to get the measly few thousand dollars the state is paying him/her and dispose of the case quickly, which oftentimes more than not are settled through plea agreements.
Such a quagmire are realities for minorities who has the unfortunate luck to get caught-up within the American System of Justice. It's also unfortunate that so many has come to believe in the political rhetoric and media propaganda that's locking up citizens and warehousing them in these industrialized institutions now called "Correctional Institutions," rather than what they are ("Prisons") will solve the problem of crime.
This misrepresentation and manipulative power of circumstances as well environment are in my belief the root behind thousands of minorities arrested daily within Wisconsin's ghetto's for serious and petty crimes, in an attempt to feed their addictions from drugs to materialism, placing them in processes of legal and judicial entanglement.
I like so many Blacks in the ghetto's of America was also duped into criminal activities for whatever reason and has served as a conduit for the accumulation of political power and grandstanding by those politicians and aspiring political figures who complain about repeat criminal offenders (primarily blacks). While these hypocrites secretly make millions from the criminal elements of the streets. What realistic opportunity does an unskilled, undereducated ex-con have for success when you have a governmental body that has passed laws which says companies and corporations doesn't have to hire ex-offenders, Housing and Urban Development can deny you housing, school grants can be denied you simply because you're an felon, and there is no governmental assistance programs to act as a safety net for ex-offenders. The answer, of course is self-evident— he has no options, he must do more crime in order to survive or revocate himself.
Wisconsin like the Country has taken on the title "Correctional Institutions," from the root word [Correct] meaning to remove the errors or fault. This very play of words are design to manipulate and hoodwink the masses of society by the power structure and government into believing prisoners are not just being imprisoned as punishment, but are being rehabilitated.
The reality is that many prisoners rehabilitate themselves and yet, even though many are eligible for parole, in Wisconsin's penal system we remain imprisoned as society is methodically manipulated by politicians and Prison Unions who utilizes pernicious, insidious schemes to exploit and sensationalize with the help of the media those circumstances where an ex-offender gets out and re-offend.
This type of cunning and intellectual racism is superb. America and States like Wisconsin has a proud history of thwarting minority progress; It is not enough that most incarcerated prisoners are disadvantaged, but must be kept in a system of disenfranchisement and slavery for as long as humanly possible.
This is how rural "White America," and its dying farm industry has been revitalized, and how "white," underprivileged Americans become middle or the working class, as Wisconsin's Prison system is predominately 65% or better of Black and or African-American, while 95% of those hired to guard and administrate these places are White. It doesn't take Einstein to see the system is designed to make profit off black bodies as it has done since America and Western Europe invaded Africa in 1618.
And no accident that the Parole Board and Parole Chairman has been denying eligible prisoners parole, instead opting to give lengthy defferals such as 48 months, 60 months and longer as Parole Board Chairman Alonzo Graham, an ex police approve these questionable and undoubtedly racially motivated deferrals. No program of rehabilitation and consequent social, economic regeneration can be effectively achieved, unless these depraved and racist tactics to keep incarcerated eligible prisoners incarcerated are addressed by the people of this state and its Governor. This kind of dissipation must be destroyed and removed from the penal system.
So long as this practice and program continues to operate as presently allowed, there can be no real chance for regeneration of minorities members back into society as productive citizens. Wisconsin Parole system needs to undergo serious changes in its policies and practices. In most states the Parole Board consist of two or more members to fairly and accurately reflect a panel that's impartial in body and thought, however, in Wisconsin there's only one person sitting as decision maker, determining whether or not parole should be granted.
This policy and practice is merely perfunctory, a sham process whose primary goal is to do nothing, but make society believe its affording prisoners a fair and accurate hearing for chances at parole. Through the genius of trickonolledgy politicians and the Wisconsin's DOC Parole Board has reinstituted a situation that's identical to institutionalized slavery because there are no grassroot support or outcries against the practices being promulgated in Wisconsin. No public outcry of the rampant inmate abuses and fraudulent misbehavior reports orchestrated and designed to keep prisoners incarcerated as former governor Tommy Thompson advocated, and although other states that employ loss of good time, the prisoner is allowed or afforded the chance to re-earn their loss time through good behavior, not so in Wisconsin penal system. This time is taken and never returned.
This is much like the slave who could not effectively stand up and challenge his/her slave master. This was true because the slave had no ally to help alter the balance of power in his /her favor.

The Prison Industrial Complex and the American Need for Continuous Expansion

2008-04-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX AND
THE AMERICAN NEED FOR CONTINUOUS EXPANSION

THERE IS A CAUTIOUS CLASS WAR BEING WAGED THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX BECOMING A SYSTEMIC BEAST ABSENT ANY CONCERNS FOR COMPASSION, HEALTH,HEALING, JUSTICE OR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. WHAT I HAVE TO SAY MAY NOT SET WELL WITH SOME BUT IT IS AT LEAST AN ACCURATE AND HONEST DEPICTION OF THE PRISON REALITY.TO BE SURE, THERE IS A HUGE PROBLEM WITH AMERICA HAVING THE HIGHEST RATE OF INCARCERATION IN THE WORLD. AND HEAVY IS THE PEN EXPOSING THIS BUT, HONESTLY ASSESSED, AMERICANS ARE NOT THAT MUCH WORSE THAN ANY OTHER PEOPLE. CLEARLY, THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE SYSTEM ITSELF. AT LEAST, THE PUBLIC IS NOT BEING APPRISED CF THE TRUE AGENDA.
SOLUTION-FOCUSED APPROACHES ATTEMPTING TO CORRECT THE MANIFEST PROBLEMS WILL ONLY MORPH THE SYMPTOMS AND NOT NECESSARILY DEAL WITH THE PROBLEMS THEMSELVES. IT FURTHER TENDS TO KEEP PEOPLE DWELLING SOLELY ON THE SYMPTOMS. TRUE SOLUTIONS STOP AT THE FRONT GATE BECAUSE THE SYSTEM IS NOT DESIGNED TO ACCOMMODATE SIGNIFICANT CHANGE FROM WITHIN. THE SYSTEM IS MECHANICAL AND UNFEELING — GRINDING UP HUMANITY ENDLESSLY. THE PROBLEMS REMAIN AND GET REDEFINED AT DIFFERENT TIMES FOR A MYRIAD OF REASONS CONTINGENT UPON SOCIETAL NEEDS.
PUBLIC SENTIMENT IS GOVERNED IN LARGE PART THROUGH THE VARIOUS MEDIA SPINNING FEAR BY FOCUSING ON CRIME IN THE LOWER CLASS OF SOCIETY. WHEN THAT IS SCALED BACK, SO TOO IS THE PUBLIC SENTIMENT TOWARDS THE PRISON INDUSTRY AS ILLUSTRATED THROUGH THE PHILOSOPHICAL SHIFTING FROM PUNISHMENT TO REHABILITATION AND REENTRY AND BACK TO VENGEANCE AND RETRIBUTION. IN EVERY INSTANCE THE PENDULUM SWINGS TO ADDRESS THE PUBLIC SENTIMENT AND THE ABJECT NEEDS OF SOCIETY. FYODOR MIKHAYLOVICH DOSTOYEVSKY TOUCHED ON THE PHENOMENON EXCLAIMING THE DEGREE OF CIVILIZATION IN A SOCIETY CAN BE JUDGED BY ENTERING ITS PRISONS. AND THAT DEGREE CONTINUALLY FLUCTUATES WITH PUBLIC SENTIMENT BEING INFLUENCED BY THE MEDIA WHICH THEN INFLUENCES LEGISLATORS, POLICE AND GOVERNMENT, LAWS, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL RULES, PHILOSOPHICAL POLICY SHIFTS IN PRISON ADMINISTRATION, ALL ASPECTS OF THE ALLEGED WAR ON CRIME AND OTHER WARS OF CONVENIENCE.
THERE IS A LARGER PICTURE THAT NEEDS TO BE ASSESSED IN TERMS OF THE SO-CALLED WAR ON CRIME. THE MATTER HAS MORPHED YET AGAIN TO FILL THE NEEDS OF THE NATION. THAT IS TO SAY, THE ONLY REAL WAR BEING WAGED IS THAT CONFLICT BETWEEN CLASS — THE HAVES AND HAVE-NOTS. AND IT ALLOWS FOR THE PERPETRATION OF THE OTHER SO-CALLED "WARS" AS BROUGHT TO THE PUBLIC EYE VIA THE MEDIA. THE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX HAS BECOME SUPERBLY DESIGNED FOR MAINTAINING CONTROL OF THE ENTIRE LOWER CLASS. NOT MANY WOULD EVEN TRY TO ARGUE THE MIDDLE GROUND ANYMORE — YOU EITHER HAVE IT OR YOU DON'T.
THE SCOPE OF CONTROL OF THE LOWER CLASS IS VAST, AND NOT ONLY ENCOMPASSES THOSE MANY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE INCARCERATED, THEIR FAMILIES AND RELATIVES, BUT ALSO ALL THOSE WHO ARE EMPLOYED AND WORKING WITHIN THE SYSTEM — THE GUARDS, OFFICIALS, SOCIAL WORKERS, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH CARE WORKERS, EVEN EACH OF THOSE PEOPLE WHO MAKE THE TOOTHPASTE AND TOILET PAPER USED BY THE INDUSTRY.
MANY MILLIONS OF JOBS ARE CONTROLLED BY THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. IT FURTHER ENCOMPASSES EVEN THE JUSTICE WORKERS THEMSELVES — JUDGES, LAWYERS, PROSECUTORS, POLICE OF EVERY VARIETY AND RANK, EMERGENCY RESPONDERS, AND SUCH. EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THOSE POSITIONS ARE GOVERNED AND CONTROLLED BY THE SYSTEM, IT IS VAST AND FAR REACHING.
THOUGHTS OF THE IMPERIAL GLOBAL INTERESTS SHOULD BE IN THE COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THIS NATION MORE WITH TIME. THE NEW IMPERIALISM IS CLOAKED IN HUMANITARIAN THEORY BUT IT IS DEFINITELY IMPERIAL IN PRACTICE. AND IT IS CREATING A SITUATION OF SUBSOVEREIGNTY WHERE STATES POSSESS INDEPENDENCE IN THEORY BUT NOT IN FACT. THE REASON USA MILITARY FORCES ARE IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ, AFTER ALL, IS TO MAINTAIN IMPERIAL ORDER IN ZONES ESSENTIAL TO THE INTEREST OF THE USA. WE WILD HAVE A MILITARY PRESENCE THERE IN PERPETUITY. BY MORPHING DEFINITIONS FROM "FREEDOM FIGHTERS" TO "EVIL-DOERS" AND "TERRORISTS" WE DEEM THEM A THREAT WHICH ALLOWS PEOPLE TO VIEW THEM DIFFERENTLY THAN THOSE LIVING NEXT DOOR. AND THAT TERRORIST THREAT MUST BE STOPPED AT ALL COST.
THE USA IS FAIRLY THE HARDEST MILITARY STATE AND THE LAST REMAINING EMPIRE AND, AS SUCH, IT HAS ASSUMED THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR IMPERIAL STRUCTURING AND ORDERING MORE ANALOGOUS TO ROME EVERYDAY. THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION SET THE STAGE FOR GLOBAL DOMINANCE IN THE "NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY OF THE UNITED STATES" BACK IN 2002, WHEN ANNOUNCING "A SINGLE SUSTAINABLE MODEL FOR NATIONAL SUCCESS: FREEDOM, DEMOCRACY AND FREE ENTERPRISE," AND THE REST OF WHAT FOLLOWED IN THAT DOCUMENT WAS AN OPEN DECLARATION OF THE GOAL OF STRATEGIC DOMINANCE OVER THE ENTIRE PLANET FOR THE INDEFINITE FUTURE. AND ANY SOCIETY THAT REJECTS THE DESIGN IS DESTINED TO FAIL WHEN DEEMED A TREAT TO THE USA. NOTICEABLY, THE USA HAS BEEN ON THE OFFENSIVE EVER SINCE, ASSERTING OUR MILITARY PRESENCE AND BUILDING HUNDREDS OF PRISONS AND DETENTION CENTERS AND OVER THE GLOBE.
FINANCING THE EXPANSION OF GLOBAL REACH IS AWESOME;THE USA HAS INCREASED ITS MILITARY SPENDING TO THE POINT THAT IT NOW SPENDS ABOUT AS MUCH AS ALL OTHER NATIONS OF THE WORLD COMBINED. TEN TRILLION DOLLARS IN DEBT IS ABOUT AS VULGAR AS IT GETS. IT IS THE SYSTEMATIC RESULT OF THE ENTIRE HISTORY AND LOGIC OF CAPITALISM AND CORPORATISM, THE OBJECTIVE OF THE IMPERIALIST SYSTEM IS TO OPEN UP PERIPHERAL ECONOMIES TO INVESTMENT FROM THE CORE CAPITALIST COUNTRIES, THUS ENSURING BOTH A CONTINUAL SUPPLY OF RAW MATERIALS AT LOW PRICES, AND A NET OUTFLOW OF ECONOMIC SURPLUS FROM THE PERIPHERY TO THE CENTER OF THE WORLD SYSTEM. THE END GAME IS TO ASSURE THE ECONOMIES OF THE PERIPHERY ARE STRUCTURED TO MEET THE EXTERNAL NEEDS OF THE CORE USA INTERESTS RATHER THAN THEIR OWN INTERNAL NEEDS. AND THEY WILL BE ENSLAVED FOREVER IN THE SAME FASHION AS THE REST OF THE LOWER CLASS.
INEVITABLY, AT THE END OF THIS POWER STRUCTURE ARE THE DEHUMANIZING IMPLICATIONS OF THE CLASS WAR WHICH, IN TURN, FOLDS OVER IMPACTING MAINSTREAM SOCIETY IN PREVENIENT WAYS. IT PERPETUATES THE GHETTOIZATION OF CITIES, RACIAL POLARIZATION, POVERTY AND GREATER EXPLOITATION OF WORKERS, THE INCREASED SPATIAL CONCENTRATION OF A PERPETUALLY UNEMPLOYED AND POLITICALLY DISENFRANCHISED CLASS, AN EPIDEMIC OF HOMELESSNESS,AND MANY OTHER RELATED SOCIAL ILLS. WHAT IS FUNDAMENTALLY INTERESTING IS THAT THE WAR HAS BEEN WAGED IN SUCH IMPERCEPTIBLE INCREMENTS THAT PEOPLE FAIL TO PERCEIVE THE MASSIVE INCREASE OF SOCIAL CONTROL OVER THE SURPLUS POPULATION.
AGAIN, IT IS ALL BY THE LOGIC AND DESIGN OF CAPITALISM AND CORPORATE STRUCTURE WHICH INEVITABLY CREATES SURPLUS POPULATION. THE PROCESS NEEDS THE SURPLUS POPULATION DESPITE FACING THE POTENTIAL THREAT OF POLITICAL UPHEAVAL AND OTHER CULTURAL DISRUPTION. THIS REQUIRES A MAGNIFICENT AMOUNT OF CONTROL OVER THAT EVER-GROWING. POPULATION WHICH NOT ONLY IS BROUGHT TO BEAR UPON THOSE WITHIN THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, BUT IN SOCIETY AT LARGE AS WELL. AND THE MINDS OF ALL ARE CONTINUALLY BEING CONDITIONED AND COERCED TO ULTIMATELY CHOOSE WHAT THE ELITE DEEM THE MOST ECONOMICALLY USEFUL.
AS FOR THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX FAILING TO MEET PURPORTED SOCIETAL OBJECTIVES, THE STATISTICS RATHER SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES. IT IS A GREAT SYSTEMIC FAILURE WHICH ONLY PRODUCES MORE DELINQUENT BEHAVIOR, AND DOES NOT DIMINISH THE RATE OF CRIMINALITY AT ALL. THE DESIGN OF THE SYSTEM INCREASES RECIDIVISM AND DOES NOT MAKE THE STREETS ANY SAFER OR MORE SECURE. GIVEN THE FACTS, THE SYSTEM IS NOT SERVING THE INTERESTS OF JUSTICE OR SOCIETY.
INSTEAD OF TRYING TO CORRECT AN INCORRECTABLE SYSTEM, A MORE SOUND APPROACH IS TO EXAMINE THE PERENNIAL FAILURE AND INQUIRE WHAT TRUE OBJECTIVE IT SERVES, AND WHO PROFITS FROM IT. WE ALSO MUST BE MINDFUL THAT THE CLASS OF HAVE-NOTS IS REQUIRED IN ORDER FOR THE ELITIST HAVES TO EXIST AND EVEN PROSPER. THE CREATION AND OPERATION OF AN INEFFECTIVE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX CREATES A PERPETUAL SPACE FOR THE HAVES TO ADMINISTER CONTROL AND MAINTAIN THEIR POWER AND STANDARD OF LIVING.
WHAT IS MORE INTERESTING IS THAT THE ALLUSION OF POWER IS ALLOWED TO FLOURISH BY THE LOWER CLASS AND ALL THOSE WITHIN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST. IT IS IGNORANCE TO BELIEVE IT IS ABOUT POWER AND NON-POWER. INDEED, IF EVERYONE MERELY PUT THEIR HANDS IN THEIR POCKETS THE POWER WOULD SHIFT INSTANTLY. BUT THE SYSTEM IS MAINTAINED BY THE LACK OF AWARENESS OF THE LOWER CLASS POPULATION WITHIN IT. IN SHORT, THE HAVES NEED THE HAVE-NOTS TO ACQUIESCE THAT POWER AND CONTROL. AND THEY HAVE BEEN SLOWLY CONDITIONED TO DO JUST THAT WITH THOUGHTS THAT ARE NOW FAMILIAR AND EVEN COMFORTABLE TO ACCEPT BECAUSE OF THE MISPERCEPTION THAT IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THAT WAY. SUCH STRATEGIC CONFIGURATIONS ARE NOT READILY APPARENT TO THOSE WHO SERVE THE INSIDE ROLE AND IT WORKS PERFECTLY TO KEEP THE LOWER CLASS COMPLIANT INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF THE SYSTEM. IT IS A CLASSIC CORPORATE POWER STRUCTURE WHICH CONTROLS EVERY PART OF THE SYSTEM AND OFFERS THOSE AT THE TOP A SUPREME ADVANTAGE. IT DOES NOT OCCUR IN A VACUUM BUT HAS BECOME A RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP.
THE ACHIEVEMENT OF A DIFFERENT END FROM THAT ORIGINALLY INTENDED COMES EASILY WITH SLIGHT MANIPULATION OF ARCHITECTURAL TRICKS IN THE SYSTEM'S FUNCTION. AS IT IS, THE SYSTEM DOES NOT SERVE TO CORRECT ANYTHING BUT ONLY TO CONTROL. IN RELATIVELY RECENT TIMES SOCIETY HAS ALLOWED A DRASTIC CHANGE IN THE ATTITUDE OF THE ROLE OF PRISONS. EXCLUSIVE DOMAIN HAS BEEN GIVEN TO GOVERNMENTAL INTERESTS AND HAS AGAIN BEEN MORPHED TO SERVE THE GOVERNMENT AGENDA BY BECOMING A TAGGING PROCESS FOR ALL THOSE OF THE LOWER ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CLASS. THE CATALYST FOR THE PROCESS IS INTERESTING, BUT THE REASONS ARE FRIGHTENING AND SOVEREIGN.
THE TAGGING PROCESS CAME INTO VIEW WHEN EXAMINING THE FEDERAL FISC FUELING A HUGE PORTION OF THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. AND THAT CAME INTO VIEW WHEN ARCHITECTURAL TRICKS LED TO LITIGATION IN A FEDERAL CASE CHALLENGING ILLEGAL PRISON CLASSIFICATION RULES ON EX POST FACTO GROUNDS — THAT IS, THEY CREATED PUNISHMENT BEYOND THE PRESCRIBED MAXIMUM TERMS THROUGH NEWLY-MINTED RULES.
THE FIRST STROKES OF WRITING ON THE WALL WAS WHEN EX-GOVERNOR TOMMY THOMPSON PULLED HIS ARCHETECTUAL MASTERPIECE BY ISSUING A DIRECTIVE TO THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS (DOC) TO BLOCK THE RELEASE OF ALL VIOLENT OFFENDERS. HE ALSO ACKNOWLEDGED IT WAS ILLEGAL BUT DIRECTED THE DOC TO FIND LEGAL WAYS TO AFFECT IT. IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG FOR IT TO ALSO ENGULF ALL PRISONERS REGARDLESS OF THEIR OFFENSE. IT MADE NO SENSE FOR HIM TO PUT HIMSELF OUT-THERE LIKE THAT BY INSTRUCTING THE DOC TO CREATE LEGAL WAYS TO PERFORM UNLAWFUL ACTS. THE GUY IS A POLITICIAN. YET NOONE ASKED WHY HE WOULD DO THAT.
PRISONERS HAVE BEEN FEELING THE EFFECTS OF THE RULES FOR SOME TIME NOW, AND WITNESSING THE OUTRAGEOUS JUDICIAL SUPPRESSION PREVENTING LEGAL CHALLENGES TO THE PROCESS. ALL PRISONERS RUE THE DAY THE OBSCENE TRUTH BECAME UNDENIABLE IN THEIR LIVES. THE EFFECTS OF THE POLICIES AND RULES WERE EXPOSED IN LETTERS AND DOCUMENT MAILINGS TO NUMEROUS LEGISLATORS, STATE REPRESENTATIVES, SENATORS, VARIOUS AGENCIES SUPPOSEDLY OVERLOOKING THE MADNESS, AND IN MANY LEGAL BRIEFS TO THE JUDICIAL ARM DURING LITIGATION THROUGH ALL THE STATE AND FEDERAL COURTS, BUT THE MESSAGE WAS SEEMINGLY IGNORED ALL THE WAY AROUND. AND NO ONE QUESTIONED WHY AND THE BIGGER PICTURE WAS NOT COMING INTO FOCUS YET FOR MOST .
THE INCREASING NUMBER OF COMPLAINTS ABOUT SOME OF THE EFFECTS...EG.,NOT BEING ALLOWED TO TAKE TREATMENT PROGRAMS, THE SUBSEQUENT PAROLE PRECLUSION--SHOWS AN AWARENESS OF THE PROBLEMS IN THE WAY THE SYSTEM WAS DESIGNED TO FUNCTION.
BUT PRISONERS ARE NOT TAKING NOTICE OF THE BIGGER PICTUPE NOR UNDERSTANDING WHAT IT IS THEY ARE LOOKING AT. THE BIGGER PICTURE IS NOTHING SHORT OF AWESOME, AND PERFECTLY STRATEGIC. AND AS MENTIONED EARLIER IT WAS BROUGHT ABOUT SO SUBTLY THAT NO ONE CAUGHT ON UNTIL LONG AFTER THE FACT.
THE CATALYST FOR THE INDIVIDUAL STATES COMES IN THE FORM OF FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS STATUTES(42 USC 13701) WHICH HAPPENED TO COINCIDE WITH THOMPSON ISSUING HIS DIRECTIVE TO THE DOC. THE STATUTES PROVIDE FOR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN FEDERAL GRANTS TO THE STATES FOR DOING THINGS LIKE CREATING PAROLE RULES AND CLASSIFICATION RULES WHICH CONFLICT WITH ONE ANOTHER TO CREATE A CATCH-22 WHICH, CONSEQUENTLY PRECLUDES PAROLE. IT ALSO PROVIDES GRANT FUNDING FOR STATES TO CREATE MORE ADMINISTRATIVE RULES, MUNICIPAL LAWS AND CODES, PENALTY ENHANCERS, AND OTHER NONSENSICAL STATUTES LIKE TRUTH IN SENTENCING. SAME THING FOR ALL THE COUNTIES,CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLIAGES INCREASING ARREST RATES AND CONVICTION RATES. IT ALSO PROVIDES FOR THE UNBRIDLED EXPANSION OF EXISTING PRISONS — NEW X-BUILDING DORMITORIES, NEW SEGREGATION UNITS, NEW PROGRAM FACILITIES, AS WELL AS THE CONVERSION OF EXISTING BUILDINGS INTO PRISONS. THE APPROPRIATIONS STATUTES DO EVEN MORE THAN THIS. AND WHAT IS EVEN MORE SURPRISING IS THAT CONGRESS IS PROVIDING ALL THIS FOR A SYSTEM THAT HAS MORE THAN PROVEN ITSELF NOT TO WORK.
ONE REASON IS OBVIOUS WHEN FOCUSING ON THE BIGGER PICTURE; THE PRISON INDUSTRY IS PROVIDING A SERVICE AND VERY NECESSARY FUNCTION FOR CONGRESS. THEY PAY BIG FOR THE STATES TO CREATE MORE LAWS, ESSENTIALLY CREATING CRIMES WHERE THERE WERE NONE BEFORE. THESE LAWS EVEN TARGET YOUNGER GROUPS OF PEOPLE — TRUANCY LAWS FOR SCHOOL CHILDREN WHICH ALLOW SCHOOL OFFICIALS TO REFER KIDS TO PROSECUTORS FOR TAGGING — AND SWEEPS UP ALL OTHER SORTS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT REALLY CRIMINALS. ALL THESE PEOPLE ARE GUILTY OF IS NOT STAYING IN THE ADDITIONAL LINES DESIGNATED BY THE GOVERNMENT. AND NO ONE IS ASKING WHY CONGRESS WOULD NEED TO HAVE THIS INFORMATION ON ITS ORDINARY CITIZENS.
THE "WHY" HAS TO BE KEPT IN CONTEXT WITH AND ATTRIBUTED TO THE BOTTOM LINE GOVERNMENTAL POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AGENDA, AND THE FACT THEY REALIZE THAT THE AMERICAN EMPIRE WILL FALL IN TIME. HISTORY HAS TAUGHT US THAT ALL EMPIRES ARE INHERENTLY UNSTABLE, MAINLY BECAUSE THEY INSPIRE ENEMIES RATHER THAN ALLIES, AND PEOPLE NATURALLY SEEK TO LIVE FREE OF THEIR INFLUENCE. BUT EMPIRES FALL AS THEY MUST WHEN THERE IS NOTHING GREATER TO ASPIRE TO — EXAMINE ROME, BYZANTIUM, THE OTTOMANS, JAPAN, ET AL. THOSE IN POWER NEED TO KNOW WHO WILL LIKELY REVOLT, WHO HAS THE CAPACITY TO ORGANIZE AND MOTIVATE, WHO CAN USE WEAPONS EFFECTIVELY, WHO HAS THEM, WHO HAS THE RESOURCES AND WHEREWITHAL TO FINANCE AND SUSTAIN OPPOSITION. BY CREATING MORE LINES AND BOUNDARIES THE GOVERNMENT CAN AND WILL TAG US ALL. THEY HAVE TO. AND IT IS NOTHING PERSONAL — THE EMPIRE ONLY RECOGNIZES ITSELF, AND CANNOT CARE ONE IOTA ABOUT WASTING MASSIVE MOUNTS OF HUMANITY. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH "CORRECTIONS" OR CRIME,ALTHOUGH THAT IS THE SPIN THE GOVERNMENT HAS THE MEDIA PUT ON IT.
PEOPLE NEED TO AT LEAST BE AWARE OF WHAT IS COMING AT THEM. THEY NEED TO EDUCATE THEMSELVES TO THE GOVERNMENT'S OWN STATISTICS. EVEN THE BACK-DOOR STATISTICS ARE STRIKING, IF NOT ALARMING. THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE RELEASED FROM STATE PRISONS EACH YEAR HAS BEEN STEADILY INCREASING BECAUSE OF THE INCREASE OF THOSE COMING INTO THE SYSTEM FOR TAGGING. IN 2007 THE NUMBERS WILL CLIMB TO NEARLY A MILLION RELEASES FROM PRISON ALONE. MOREOVER, THERE IS AN ESTIMATED 15 MILLION INDIVIDUALS RELEASED ANNUALLY FROM JAILS AND OTHER DETENTION FACILITIES IN THIS COUNTRY ALONE. THE NUMBERS ARE STAGGERING AND THE PROCESS OCCURS EACH AND EVERY YEAR. PEOPLE ARE BEING TAGGED AT AN UNPRECEDENTED RATE, AND AS THE WORLD POPULATION INCREASES SO, TOO, MUST THE GOVERNMENT STEP UP THE PROCESS IF THEY ARE GOING TO STAY ON TOP OF THEIR GAME. NO MATTER THE SENSELESSNESS, NO MATTER THE COST IN FISC OR HUMANITY.
EVEN WITH THE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS CONGRESS HAS ALLOCATED FOR THE STATES TO EXPAND THE TAGGING INDUSTRY, THERE ARE HUGE FINANCIAL PROBLEMS BEING REALIZED BY EACH INDIVIDUAL STATE. THOSE FISCAL PROBLEMS ARE MET WITH SHORTSIGHTED SOLUTIONS AT PENNY-PINCHING, MANY OF WHICH WILL MAKE PRISON LIFE MUCH MORE INTOLERABLE. IT IS BASICALLY OPEN SEASON ON PRISONERS THESE DAYS. THE MEDIA CONTINUES SPINNING A NEGATIVE SLANT ON EVERYTHING REMOTELY DEALING WITH THE NOTION OF CRIME. PRISONERS AND THEIR FAMILIES HAVE NO CONSTITUENCY OR POLITICAL CLOUT. TERM-LIMITED LEGISLATORS LOOKING FOR ANY CHANCE TO APPEAR TOUGH ON CRIME HAVE LITTLE TO LOSE . ANY IDEA TO CUT COSTS WITHOUT CLOSING PRISONS, NO MATTER HOW INSANE, WILL GET A HEARING. THEIR PURPORTED SOLUTIONS TO THE FINANCIAL PROBLEMS WILL ALL INEVITABLY LEAD TO HARSHER CONDITIONS OF CONFINEMENT. THERE WILL SOON BE MASSIVE CUTS IN WAGES, FOOD, PROGRAMS, TREATMENT, HEALTH CARE, AND OTHER NECESSITIES. AND THAT WILL INEVITABLY LEAD TO ENDANGERED HEALTH AND SAFETY FOR ALL CONCERNED. PRISONS ARE DESTINED TO BECOME SOME OF THE MOST DYSFUNCTIONAL AND DANGEROUS PLACES ON THE PLANET — WAREHOUSES THAT EVICT MOST CONVICTS UNPREPARED FOR ANYTHING SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTIVE OR WORTHY. RESPONDING RESPONSIBLY TO THE ABOVE WILL TAKE RARE VIRTUES IN COMPASSION, POLITICS, COMMON SENSE AND COURAGE.
THE REASON SOCIETY HAS ALLOWED THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX TO PROGRESS THIS FAR HAS BEEN SLOWLY CONDITIONED INTO THE COLLECTIVE PSYCHE FOR DECADES. MOST DO NOT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT THE EVER-GROWING TAGGING PROCESS AND, SADLY, MOST HAVE BEEN CONDITIONED TO ACCEPT IT AS NECESSARY IN THE NAME OF NATIONAL SECURITY. BUT IF PEOPLE ARE GOING TO FIGHT A THING THAT IS WORTH FIGHTING THEY MUST GO FOR THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM INSTEAD OF ATTEMPTING TO DEAL WITH THE SYMPTOMS AS THEY HAVE BEEN CONDITIONED TO DO. THE ONE THING WHICH SEPARATES THE MAKERS OF HISTORY FROM THOSE WHOSE HISTORIES ARE MADE FOR THEM IS THE POWER TO ALTER THEIR ENVIRONMENTS — THE POWER OF CHANGE, PEOPLE NEED TO EDUCATE AND DE-CONDITION THEMSELVES, THEIR CHILDREN, FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS. THERE NEEDS TO BE MORE HOME-SCHOOLING — EDUCATING PEOPLE TO WHAT MATTERS MOST IN THE WORLD, BECOMING MORE SELF-SUSTAINING, GROWING FOOD AND LIVESTOCK AND BECOMING FREE-THINKING PEOPLE OF SUBSTANCE WITH INTEGRITY ENOUGH TO STAND AGAINST THE BEAST.

Ron Schilling #32219, OCI

Notes From Sand Ridge

2008-04-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

Notes from Sand Ridge by Chas. A.
While our oldest patient made it to 103, we did have a recent death here. This may lead some to believe that they will never leave this place alive. Nor do some care; there is a certain comfort level here that may not be available during community release.
Is there any alternative to this civil commitment scheme which places 275 convicted sex offenders in very close proximity to each other. We are learning to be social as opposed to the anti-social activities which victimized people,young and old.
A dissenting opinion is delivered (7/29/07 WIS State Journal) by Sharon Patrick, a member of the Sand Ridge steering committee: "If anything, they are over socialized. We're providing these guys with a free lunch...the longer they're (the patients) are in this institution, the less they're going to want to get out." Ouch! But she is right.
She is correct on two accounts: in this "closed" society, the sex offenders tend to group (socialize) by class. The aggressive rapists try to take the high road and act superior, the incest offenders occupy the middle ground, and the highly manipulative child offenders stick in an underclass of scorn. Granted, it was worse in prison where the rapists could hide their conviction by their aggressive nature. These is another sub-culture: the homosexual community; when you put people together who are subject to sexual entanglements, trouble can brew. Read: "love triangles." These serious relationships formed here (out of desperation or choice) can lead to serious trouble when a friend is "disrespected" by another or intimidated in any manner. Good friends are apt to offer assistance and the treatment modality falls by the wayside. These social liaisons become more important than any progress possible in treatment and become a severe hindrance.
Secondly, the comfort level here can be very high. I have as good a medical coverage as the governor,and it doesn't cost a week's wages (per visit) as is the policy in prison. The food is good. The pay is a disappointment after having been lowered from $6.50 to $2 per hour. They are talking about raising it to $2.50 as an incentive to those who remain on the same job for six months. Enrichment activities are multitudinous: leisure gardening, hobby and music (as in some prisons); cooking class, card making, U.S. geography, book club and the annual Talent Show. REG tournament and leagues are ongoing. Some specialized REG activities can involve 8-12 patients and two highly paid REG therapists who are assigned. Guys can be active and busy or sit on the unit playing cards or hide out in their rooms.
The food and kitchen activities on F Unit, however, lead to disparate societies from the rest of the facility. Only the "haves" can afford to purchase the gourmet food from local groceries while the others try to ingratiate themselves into this elite group or just steal from the unit refrigerators. The canisters for our gas grills cost $16 to the unit budget and are available almost any time upon request. The grilled corn on the cob was excellent back in summer. My pork chops didn't make it out there; they were pilfered from the freezer. Many guys gain 15 pounds within the first six weeks of residency. More than a few become obese. Dr. Thornton is right: "Therapy is like losing weight; it takes a lot of personal discipline. Meanwhile, the (19) guys on skill Care Unit have settled in to a "paid retirement" venue courtesy of Wisconsin taxpayers. They have round the clock nursing care and air conditioning.
After all these "social activities" are successfully completed and a guy is released to the community, they become cut off from all Sand Ridge associations, positive or: negative, and become isolated in their new placement. Many will revert to smoking and video game habits. Such still plagues some of the younger guys ("gamers") here. People who can't live in this solitary physical atmosphere (opposite from Sand ridge) can go "stir crazy" and become at risk to reoffend. Many get revoked and rejoin this (dysfunctional) society. Want to see how they really think and act (after years of therapy?) Check out the behavior and conversations "among friends" on the yard where no one is closely supervising.
So it would seem that legislators would have to be out of their minds to approve the expansion that is proposed in the current budget. It would double capacity by 2009. As it stands, DHFS can hardly hire enough therapists to staff the few (2-12) hours of therapy that are scheduled per man per week. I attend therapy two days a week but the state has to feed and house me all seven days, 52 weeks per year (after year.) Court hearings are routinely postponed. So many "setbacks" are almost programmed into this experience, it may take years or decades to complete. Several guys have been under this (980) regimen for 13 years. Various stages of treatment are constantly being revised.
Perhaps a "line item" veto will nix this self-fulfilling prophesy: "Build it and they will come."
There might be a hidden agenda with the proposed plans for expansion (wrecking our garden enterprise)as with a capacity of 500-600, this "white elephant" could be converted to a maximum security prison to treat incarcerated sex offenders who were in the last half of their sentence. The only problem might be for Sand Ridge staffers to get these new clients to give up their prison mentality: "It's us against them."
It would be more cost efficient to have a director/warden and assistant in place for 600 men as opposed to the present 275. Staff therapists are already in place. Yes, it would be a costly maximum security facility but could probably be accomplished for half the current cost of approx. $100,000. They might have to install a few watch towers but everything else is in place.
The current 980 committees could easily be moved to special housing in the communities, at the end of airport runways, in FEMA trailers, or isolated locations. Send a minibus around two days a week to pick them up and take them to therapy sessions. If they exhibit any violations or suspicious behavior, revoke them and send them back to prison, an outcome few here would choose. This was the original intent of the law: to offer a "least restrictive" placement as the first option. That was the main selling point when the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld 980 as not unconstitutional. (Note the Abrahamson dissent.)
Many other states have implemented this system, most notably Texas, a state famous for locking up a sizeable portion of their population.
By the time you read this, we may have the budget answer. Build the expansion and let the other areas of state budget continue to get short shrift: U.W.tuition continues to rise. Local school districts continue to be squeezed/ bridges and highways are in disrepair, and taxes continue to rise. Or sanity can prevail and 980 be modified to reflect the true needs of this population as well as fiscal responsibility.
Until then, I'll just stay here and enjoy life. I wouldn't be this safe on the street.

The Future Depends on What We Do In the Present

2008-04-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Future Depends on What We Do in the Present
by Chas. Anderson

It is unlikely that Gandhi was referring to the present state of affairs in Wisconsin and the U.S.A. We find ourselves in a local midterm election race that portends to repudiate the war-mongering of George W, Bush and contrasts two local politicians in a battle for governor.
One of them, Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay is surely proud of his Two Strikes legislation in Congress and the other, James Doyle, presided over the expansion of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections and the implementation of 5980. All of these measures promise to siphon off precious funds from both the federal and state budgets in an infamous "war on crime" effort. Actually, it is an attempt to punish crime rather than forestall it. (read: 9/11.)
I realize much of this legislation is aimed toward protecting our most valuable resources, no, not timber, cheese, or oil, but our children. Not even a few years removed from childhood, however, the current war in Iraq threatens to decimate a new generation. With 2800 dead and tens of thousands injured, we are not yet approaching the levels of Viet Nam (60,000) but the results will be the same: a total waste of human life and effort.
At all costs, we have protected these young men from sexual abuse as youth and then sent them off to Iraq to be executed by insurgents. We have also sacrificed family men in the fray, former reservists, leaving women and children without their parent (Breadwinner) for long periods of time, some never to return alive or intact. How does this protect our children?
In Wisconsin the hysteria directed at sex and other offenders has resulted in scarce budget resources being diverted to the Dept. of Corrections at the expense of UW and local school funding, while transportation and DNR budgets have also suffered. Social, services has also been affected as SRSTF now eats UD a disproportionate amount of DHFS costs.
Does any of this national or local campaign really protect our children and enhance their future? Kids are still being victimized in many ways. Has any of this effort prevented gross physical abuse by distraught mothers or sociopathic step-fathers or boyfriends, sometimes resulting in death or severe injury (shaken baby syndrome?) Much of the public effort, aimed at stranger sex abuse is misdirected (including sex offender registry) since this type of event accounts for only 6-7% of sex offenses involving children. * CPR Newsletter, Santa Fe, NM 10/06
The Adult Diagnostic & Treatment Center in Avenal, NJ reports recidivism rates of 13% for untreated sex offenders and 9% for those completing treatment. *ibid This rate is clearly less than drug offenders, not in the crosshairs of political effort.
Prof. Thos Zander (Marquette Univ.2005) questions the propriety of trying to single out certain sex offenders based on controversial diagnoses whereas most offenders confined under §980 could be supervised intensely under house arrest while participating in the Thornton program via closed circuit TV or Internet.
This essay is not to be construed as me trying to evade responsibility for my criminal behavior. I pled guilty and served 13 1/2 years of a twenty year sentence, finishing in October,2005.
What we are doing in this country and state is mortgaging the future by our recent, actions in the present. We are stressing punishment and conflict instead of emphasizing education, recreation, enrichment, and responsible adult interaction. Currently, only half of Black and Hispanic kids graduate from high school in the U.S.A.*CBS news 10/23/06
These children are our endangered future.