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Religions > Atheism |
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"_ G O D _" |
| Date: |
19 Oct 2005 03:21:30 PM |
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Prison Guards and Wardens Are Out of Control ! |
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Prison Guards and Wardens are out of control!
by B. Cayenne Bird
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=3024
This letter drafted by the family members of prisoners
throughout California deserves to be shared with the
citizenry who cannot know of their suffering due to an
unconstitutional ban on the media.
U. N. I. O. N.
United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect
P.O. Box 340371
Sacramento Ca. 958334
U.N.I.O.N. Grievances/Proposed Solutions
Mr. Roderick Hickman,
Secretary
California Adult and Youth Correction Agency
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
1515 S Street, Suite 502
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Mr. Hickman:
Because you are the executive at the top reporting directly to Governor Arnold
Schwarzenneger, the man he appointed as Secretary of the Agency for Adult and Youth
Corrections, our grievances can only be settled by you. We've been told that what
happens inside California prisons is ultimately your responsibility. I have prepared
this letter to adivse you of our collective serious objections and capabilities.
Over the past seven years, we have united in a statewide communication system and
daily newsletter to report to California media and legislators the tragic fiscal and
human loss happening in voter-financed penal institutions. As you know, our action
system is called United for No Injustice, Oppression, or Neglect (U.N.I.O.N.) We
consist of a coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to reforming the
criminal justice system from arrest through parole. Additionally, 52 publishers and
journalists subscribe to the newsletter and consider it a very reliable news source
in California for what is really happening behind the walls.
We have 6,000 subscribers to the newsletter who are inmate families, groups, lawyers,
authors, legislators and other alarmed citizens. Many are in the helping professions.
We are training oppressed and uneducated people how to build a voting group large
enough to change any law or recall any politician through the initiative process. We
are pastors of large congregations, priests, social workers, public defenders, civil
and defense lawyers, educators, physicians and nurses - humanitarian organization
leaders, almost all of us families of inmates from every imaginable occupation.
Somehow the arrests crossed over into the middle and upper middle class. It isn't
just family members of the poor and uneducated that you have caged and there are now
3 million of us attached to a state inmate in California. We know the formula for
successful organizing and each and every U.N.I.O.N. subscriber is committed to reach
our goals for reform through ACTION.
The point is that we are intelligent and we do know how to organize, write letters to
editors and author stinging books. We are skilled at giving speeches and appearing on
television and have a weekly series which plays on 100 public access channels. We
know how to draw crowds and picket to draw attention to injustice and inhumane
treatment of U.S. citizens mistreated daily in California's prisons and jails. We
know how to organize initiative campaigns and recalls and are experts in how to deal
with onerous bullies and thugs. We do not operate from a position of fear.
During the past seven years, we have brought to everyone's attention in CDC and the
legislature thousands of instances of unbearable incompetence which result in
needless suffering and dying and lawsuits costing taxpayers millions, if not billions
of dollars which could better be used to actually rehabilitate and/or to prevent
crime from ever happening.
We have scores of family members whose loved ones in prison are in desperate need of
medical attention and relief from extreme psychological torture. Your ombudsmen are
useless except for a minor transfer, they are powerless and a bunch of milquetoasts.
Perhaps you are insensitive to the six lawsuits we've caused to be filed because that
is taxpayer money. Are you going to be insensitive about us standing outside your
office shouting out to the other voters that you are responsible for torture and
murder of our loved ones? Can you put a dollar value on that truth that we are about
to bring to the surface because you will not give us remedies or even acknowledgement
of our problems?
There are three emergency situations that need to be remedied today and others within
a few days. Nora Weber is an insurance agent who kept very careful records of the
torture of her disabled son in prison. She filed a lawsuit because no one would help
at any level of government. There is extreme retaliation taking place at Corcoran
prison on her son and he is being starved, shot up on dangerous drugs and denied pen,
paper and postage stamps. He needs to be taken the hell out of there and put in the
nursing home at Delano.
The busters are trying to put a third strike on him while he is in a hospital bed
dying. How low can your prison guards go? I think we are all witnessing the answer to
that question with the continued abuse of Mark Grangetto. His transfer needs to
happen today as he is down to 100 lbs. at 5'8" tall.
The only decent doctor at Corcoran - Dr. Moss David Posner was put on Administrative
Leave because he wrote an article about his challenges to provide medical care within
the system. At a time when people are dying because there aren't enough qualified
doctors, you are allowing one of the best ones to be fired? This is outrageous! That
CMO Dr. Klarich is the criminal, if you are compelled to fire someone how about
firing that bad doctor who is participating in and allowing the abuse of Mark
Grangetto?
The third emergency is the transfer of Eric K'napp who has been unlawfully
transferred four times since April for retaliatory reasons. He, too, has abuse
lawsuits pending but his legal case is in the 3rd District Appellate Court right now
and looks very promising because there has been a recantation. That's right, evidence
of factual innocence has been recognized by the court and putting him in the normal
orientation lockdown at yet another prison in the midst of this legal trial is cruel
and unusual.
By allowing Pleasant Valley Warden James Yates to have him for less than two months
and then transferring him to a facility where he will surely be stabbed and possibly
killed you are a party to endangerment. I have editorially blasted Salinas Valley
across the nation as being the heart of the Green Wall. This prison where rookies are
hired is always on lockdown, and Eric K'napp has a medical condition which does not
tolerate isolation well. All of this disruption in his life and blocking his access
to the courts in order to ultimately send him to a place where the guards will surely
pay off other inmates to kill him is beyond inhumane. I am holding you personally
responsible for whatever happens to him there.
Eric K'napp is going to continue to exercise his First Amendment rights which is why
he is getting passed around like a hot potato. The wardens don't like his lawsuits or
our UNION folks reporting what their loved ones are enduring in their bloodhouses
directly to the media.
It has required a legal settlement of $123 million per year in additional inmate
medical care to make the point that abusing and medically neglecting peoples' family
members is unacceptable. Not to mention virtually thousands of inches of articles and
letters to editors so that the voters could see what they were buying with their tax
money. We have learned that just asking nicely without noise- making and activism
doesn't work.
We have witnessed some improvements but they are so minuscule in proportion to the
size of the problems that we are compelled to take a stronger stand against practices
that you and the lawmakers accept as business as usual.
I have detailed the preceding so that it is clear we have the numbers, the education
and the ability to fight back in a meaningful manner which all of the Wardens and
rogue CDC/CCPOA members need to fully comprehend.
Our eyes and ears are everywhere, inside every jail, every prison and every juvenile
detention facility. We cannot be deceived with public relations cover ups, lied to in
any way, or convinced that we shouldn't put an end to this needless suffering and
dying. We're here to stay and we're growing daily with ACTIVE WORKERS who are
unafraid to fight back for the safety and well- being of their loved ones. You have
ticked off the moms, the wives, the sisters and the grandmothers (not to mention
other family members) by allowing too many abuses.
That said, we can either engage in an all-out battle where we outnumber all of you,
since there are at least three million people hurt, or you can accept that we are
dead serious about the following items and set about to make changes. We're way past
being merely fed up. This is what we want to see NOW, not six months or years from
now - but NOW! We've been waltzing with concepts and empty promises for seven years.
It is past the time for us to actually see these reforms take effect.
1. This fact is foremost. There are too many people in prison. Conveyor belt laws
such as Three Strikes need to be eliminated and non-violent offenders need to be
released. Such conditions endanger the public safety as people are just becoming
sicker due to inhumane treatment. There are many forms of alternative sentencing at
the court level. While it may be CDC's job to warehouse human beings sent to them by
the court, some administrator needs to exhibit the courage to say "HALT! We have too
many people in custody and we're not going to accept anymore non-violent inmates
because we cannot properly care for them within the current budgets." Anyone who buys
into this mistreatment by continuing to accept non-violent inmates is just as guilty
of crimes against humanity as Governor Schwarzenegger
2. The mentally ill only become distraught and depressed in the hostile environment
of prisons and jails. Careless double celling of 20,000 mentally ill inmates with
light offenders is causing murder and mayhem, and unnecessary lockdowns. CDCr is
creating it's own form of mental illness which is making people worse than they were
before incarceration.
A. Special, accommodations such as hospitals should be provided for the mentally ill
so that they can be healed instead of psychologically intimidated, victimized,
robbed, raped and physically tortured or murdered in vicious prison and jail
settings. Retribution style justice makes "custody" the opposite of "healing." The
current methods are not a solution to crime and the mentally ill should not be
punished, nor should innocents be exposed to their demented disorders.
B. The mentally ill are never going to be able to follow "rules" - that's what
distinguishes them as "mentally ill." Mentally ill inmates have no business in prison
at all. End the practice of using pepper spray on the mentally ill to get them to
come inside from the walk alone cages.
3. The practice of continuous lockdown in whatever form, whether it is "modified
programming", "full lockdown" or "fog alerts" that last all day needs to end. Putting
two men in a cell the size of a bathroom for days, hours and weeks on end is just
wrong. Guards are made more vulnerable to violence when people are so severely
mistreated. Here's what we know about a better way to handle people who need more
help than anyone else in prison - young gang members. These mostly young people might
also be tremendously mentally ill, or they may be under-educated. The power struggle
doesn't work to help them to recover. Medical and psychological tests should be
administered on every prisoner when they are committed and then routinely conducted
every year afterward.
.. a. Never mix three gangs on the same yard. NEVER. Two of those gangs are going to
attack the third one. Don't you know anything about gangs?
Provoked riots is a way that CCPOA justifies itself to the public but we're wise to
this game and we're not going to stand for it any longer. Two compatible races/gangs
on each yard will GREATLY reduce violence. This is only common sense. Some gangs are
compatible with one another.
c. Hold only the people responsible for disturbances accountable instead of blanket
punishment lockdown for thousands of men.
The mental breakdown from isolation and continuous lockdown is severe and there is no
real treatment, except to offer mind-numbing drugs instead of stimulation of the mind
by educational opportunities, some sun and exercise in good air. This should be done
in compatible small groups. Military studies show that group punishment and isolation
simply do not work.
Guard overtime is costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars according to
the Legislative Analyst. It shouldn't require weeks on end to search the cells
looking for contraband. We believe this is an inhumane ploy mostly designed to
benefit the guards. It is unacceptable to us that this continue.
*********
Psychological intimidation, limited access to legal libraries, interference with mail
and packages and retribution for filing complaints against Guards are unacceptable to
the people of the U.N.I.O.N.
We believe that prison guards intentionally create lockdowns by provoking through
psychological intimidation temper outbursts from men who are already emotionally
broken people. We have reports of social gatherings, pot lucks, training meetings and
other guard fun going on while inmates are cruelly caged for hours, days, months and
years.
Often, the guards believe they are above the law and want to justify their jobs and
overtime to the voters. They get bored with routine and tranquility. Many have
retribution-style training and enter this occupation with only a high school
education to live out a "wanna-be" cop fantasy. Some are fearful that the inmates
they kick around and psychologically torture with constant cell searches, destroying
pictures and legal material, and a thousand other taunts might fight back with
physical violence. They go to great lengths to create lockdowns over minor situations
such as a cell phone found or a plastic cafeteria tray missing.
We're not referring to one or two days but months, years and excessive punishments
which gives the inmates no quality of life.
Individual wardens and their employees are making up the rules as they go along,
completely disregarding the inmate's Title 15 and D.O.M. which should be used as the
final authority. The "system" is out of control and the inmates have nowhere to turn
for help. The media is banned, the guards exercise retribution if they file a 602 or
a lawsuit. Medical care is withheld as a "punishment" for months and years on end if
inmates even dare to speak out. CDC MUST enforce these two sections of the penal code
and provide serious consequences to Wardens and Guards who deviate from your own
rules.
Penal Code §147. Every officer who is guilty of willful inhumanity or oppression
toward any prisoner under his care or in his custody, is punishable by fine not
exceeding four thousand dollars ($4,000), and by removal from office.
Penal Code §149 Every public officer who, under color of authority, with out lawful
necessity, assaults or beats any person, is punishable by a fine not exceeding ten
thousand dollars. ($10,000), or by imprisonment in the state prison, or in a county
jail not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
We believe that administrators should have no less than a Master's Degree in
criminology and that guards should have a minimum AA degree which includes basic CPR
and some courses in teaching and social work. Everyone would be better off if you
sent the bar bouncer types back onto the streets and hired someone besides the
present bullies and thugs.
********
Food
The new heart healthy diet is causing needless hunger among inmates. This diet might
be practical for people who can eat anytime they want since carbohydrates are known
to burn up quickly. But for inmates who are given three eating periods with one of
those consisting only of a cold, mystery meat sandwich at lunch, the hunger is
intolerable. Mystery meat full of sodium and nitrates is not heart healthy.
We want real meat back on the menus because protein is more filling and nutritious.
The word protein is Greek for "first importance" because every function of the human
body depends on adequate amounts of PROTEIN. For those people who want protein
alternatives to meat due to religious reasons and/or special diets, we support that
position too.
The majority of the inmates want REAL poultry, beef, pork, chicken, fish and decent
quantities food so that they are not continually suffering symptoms of starvation.
Some people do not metabolize carbohydrates well at all and this creates a medical
condition known as hyperinsulinism, written about extensively by Dr. George Atkins
whose 30 year studies (and 10 million books sold) are widely used by thousands of
American physicians. A carbohydrate-based diet creates a pre-diabetic condition which
ultimately develops into diabetes for many people.
Inmates are human beings and deserve fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and starches in
greater quantity and quality served in a SANITARY manner. God help the thousands of
inmates who do not have family to send them money for canteen so they can pay
exorbitant prices for junk food to stave off the hunger pangs. It's outrageous and
very likely contributing to the present violence throughout the prison system.
Blood sugar regulation is different for everyone and when it gets low or is deprived
or shockingly contaminated, nothing but chaos will result.
The heartbreak of families witnessing their loved ones underfed is unnecessary. As
you know, we UNION people have a way of turning heartbreak into lawsuits. Cutting
food will no longer be a cost-savings. We will name individuals responsible for this
insanity in lawsuits from the lowest aid to the top callous legislators who sit idly
allowing this great abuse. It's a promise we can and we will keep! Cease the heart
healthy starvation diet immediately.
Prisoners in ad seg at CSP Lancaster are being starved with one and two tablespoon
portions. Somebody is skimming and this is causing suffering.
***************
We believe that many suicides are either homicides or caused by extreme psychological
intimidation. Guards should be neutral instead of voicing degrading opinions to
people who may not even be guilty. It seems that there is no justice in the courts
and that the prisons are filled with innocent and/or mentally ill people who deserve
to be treated with more respect. Our files are full of abuse at all 33 prisons, all
the jails and all the juvenile detention facilities.
This all comes back to a testosterone-driven revenge mentality which endangers
guards, inmates and the public. This red-neck attitude may be rooted in tradition but
this is the year 2005. Restorative justice techniques will stop the never-ending
cycle of revenge. Murders, beatings, injustice in CDC's kangaroo courts are causing a
strong reaction from people who are already downtrodden and hopeless.
Not one U.N.I.O.N. family has any trust whatsoever in our criminal justice system.
That's because it is totally corrupt and ineffective. Instead of cutting back on fair
trial expenditures, we should be increasing budgets in this area. Ultimately, the
taxpayers pay dearly for what is meted out in the name of justice. People begin to
take the law into their own hands - both inside the prisons and in the neighborhoods.
A little common sense would go a long way toward reducing violence. We want the
degradation of our loved ones to stop.
Conditions where men are living in gyms with exposed pipes and bunk beds stacked
three high are just as cruel as continuous lockdowns. Toilets are spaced 12" apart
and offer no privacy dividers is an affront to common decency.
Human waste on the walls, floors, poisoned water supplies, filthy kitchens and
showers endangers the public safety since there are highly contagious diseases such
as Hepatitis and Tuberculosis to name a couple which can be transmitted to families.
Clean up ALL the hellholes to reduce the costs of rampant disease. California prisons
are on a par with those in Tijuana and are an international disgrace.
We've had it on this point! When did it become acceptable for a minor violation to
result in a deadly disease due to administrative callousness and ignorance? You are
not dealing with herds of livestock, these are the loved ones of California's voters.
Many are veterans. Many are simply addicts who need rehabilitation, or geriatric
seniors who are well past the point where they are a threat to society. Too many are
even innocent or over-sentenced. We are dead serious on this point - clean it up or
we'll clean you out through the power of the vote.
**************
Although the families of the death row prisoners you are about to participate in
murdering in our name with our tax dollars are not members of our UNION, we want to
make our position on this monstrous action very clear. Killing prisoners to prove
that killing is wrong does not deter the mentally ill from acting out their
illnesses. Blood cannot wash out blood.
We do not want these prisoners killed and the Death Penalty needs to be abolished.
People are learning more about the initiative process and this move is going to cause
an uprising of unparalleled participation because we are at the end of our patience
with injustice and barbarism. Clemency is what is needed here - not murder as it sets
a very bad example to all the children who think the Governor is some sort of a hero.
And you need to do away with the visiting cages on death row which are an abomination
and unnecessary.
Visiting is inexpensive therapy and gives hopeless men and women a reason to live.
Yet even after hundreds of us testified against a CDC rules hearing we are still
experiencing intimidation of families who attempt to visit.
We know that the legislators failed California when it violated our State
Constitution by ending all visits in 1997. But the people of the UNION also know very
well how to bring 6500 people together to raise money for lawsuits and initiative
campaigns. We are not morons incapable of collecting 200 signatures each to change
any law, recall any politician or file a class action lawsuit. If rehabilitation,
education and healing are the goals then visiting must be viewed in a completely
different light.
The families of prisoners are innocent victims and to mistreat devastated people is
not only cruel and unusual, but certain to bring about violence in the institutions
and neighborhoods. It's a downright stupid action. Overnight family visits should be
restored and used as a reward system. This would certainly give incentive to
rehabilitate.
The families of prisoners should be treated as crime victims with the same respect
and benefits, not as criminals.
We have posted at our website a complaint submitted against Mule Creek Prison which
details 22 pages of problems. It was composed by 87 inmates. At least 90% of the
problems described in this document apply at all prisons, jails and juvenile
detention facilities in California. There are many proposed solutions in that
document as well. We have it posted online at this website address:
http://www.1union1.com/mulecreek.htm
Our general website address containing a collection of our published articles,
campaigns and subscriber complaints, as well as informative studies and books
authored by our subscribers can be found here.
http://www.1union1.com/index.htm
The human bondage industry cannot continue to operate in its present manner without a
tremendous response from the families connected to hundreds of thousands of people
victimized by these inhumane practices and failure to adhere to laws. Enough said.
Most sincerely,
B. Cayenne Bird,
Director U.N.I.O.N.
At this time, we are asking concerned citizens to call into Secretary Roderick
Hickman's office, send him email, fax him letters and join us for a picket of his
office.
To help him recognize the problems and put some value on the lives of prisoners by
standing up for them for a change
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
1515 S Street, Suite 502
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 323-6001
E-Mail:
elizabeth.drysdale@cdcr.ca.gov
Fax: (916) 442-2637 Hickman
--
_____________________________________________________
I intend to last long enough to put out of business all *****-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The army that will defeat terrorism doesn't wear uniforms, or drive
Humvees, or calls in air-strikes. It doesn't have a high command, or
high security, or a high budget. The army that can defeat terrorism
does battle quietly, clearing minefields and vaccinating children. It
undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
sweatshops and special interests.Where people feel powerless, it
helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
___________________________________________________
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