NEW HELL HOLE NEWS
JULY 13, 2011
New Hell Hole News #31 July 13, 2011 OK, here is the difference between Ad Seg (administrative segregation) and death row and what they’re doing that’s illegal and violative of our 1st, 5th, 6th, 8th and 14th amendment rights. Ad Seg prisoners are sentenced to a term of years in prison (penal servitude) as punishment (not for punishment). Under Sandin vs Conner, they can be subjected to punitive conditions and, to punishment otherwise, within the context of their sentences, as long as it doesn’t rise to the level of being an atypical and significant hardship in relation to the rigors of ordinary prison life. That standard has been loosely interpreted to mean anything short of beating them to death. Ad Seg, as administered in Texas prisons, is a very punitive environment and despite prison officials protestations otherwise, there is overly abundant record evidence in many cases to prove that TDCJ runs Ad Seg as punishment, period. A.P. Merillat of the ‘Special Prosecution Unit’ has testified in 10-20 capital cases that TDCJ runs Ad Seg punitively as a dumping ground for prisoners they dislike for whatever reason and that they are very violent, dangerous places with many opportunities to get hurt or act out, etc. (On the future dangerousness prong in capital cases, most recently Bill “$5 Bill” Coble’s retrial. I have Merillat’s and other’s testimonies. It’s dynamite, for our purposes.) Death row prisoners, on the other hand, are not sentenced to any term of penal servitude, but only to death as our punishment---after we’re convicted and sentenced, we are not TDCJ prisoners. We’re still wards of the counties from which we came. Back in the 1930-40’s, when a bucket of KFC and a lynching were popular Sunday-after-church events on the courthouse lawn, the legislature decided to build the “Short Row” at the Walls and enacted code Crim. Proc. 43.17 but that wasn’t in a CCP until 1965 or so - before they enacted the CCP in ‘65, it was found elsewhere in the law. Anyway, that’s why it commands we be “safely held” by the director of TDCJ until such time as our convictions and sentences are either carried out, reversed or commuted. They can’t make us work because we’re not sentenced to penal servitude and, a court couldn’t sentence us to penal servitude and death on top of or, at the end of it, ‘cause that would violate the 8th amendment, double jeopardy, etc. We are not segregated because we’re the worst-of-the-worst, like Ad Seg - capital offense doesn’t mean “worst” in any sense. There are plenty of capital offenses that morally are not as bad as straight murder. Think about it. If you need examples, I’ll supply plenty. We’re segregated only because we’re sentenced to death and prison administrators think that “we have nothing left to lose” so we’d be more “prone to act out” and do something to an officer, etc. The death sentence itself, not us, presents the security risk. The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that we are not similarly situated to Ad Seg for purposes of 1st, 8th, and 14th amendment analysis. They’ve also ruled that any punishment outside the context of our sentences without due process is presumptively illegal and violates the 8th amendment. So, we (death row) enjoy a “higher” status legally; our rights fall somewhere between that of a pretrial detainee and a convict sentenced to prison, see? Thus the Sandin vs Connor standard cannot be applied to us. The only way TDCJ can legally punish us is pursuant to a major disciplinary conviction because only with a major case do you get any due process protections---advance notice of the charge, 24-hour hearing advance notice, right to a counsel substitute, a recorded hearing, a written record, the right to call witnesses and present documentary evidence, etc. Texas, since Ruiz, has consistently sought was to evade their responsibilities regarding due process and punish us, retaliate against us too, on mere whim of whatever clown is in power back here at the time. Huntsville headquarters has helped them by consistently weakening the due process required before we can be punished, in direct violation of Supreme Court precedent. However, as we all know, Texas has a long history of bucking Federal law and doing whatever they want - Senator Whitmire was not long ago quoted in the news at a Criminal Justice subcommittee hearing, in relation to illegally blocking cell phone signals around prisons in violation of FCC regulations “Damn the Law! Damn the FCC! Just do it (block signals) and see what happens!! Do it now! Block cell phone signals in our prisons!! and other such drivel. First TDCJ started cheating in disciplinary hearings. They ordered Disciplinary Hearing officers (DHO, must be rank of Captain or above) to find prisoners guilty no matter what. Lie, cheat or steal, just “git’er done, Bubba.” “No excuses, just results” became their motto. So more and more prisoners were forced to appeal their false disciplinary convictions through the grievance procedure---back then they had shorter time limits to answer a grievance and you could halt an unjust punishment before it got started good. As long as TDCJ had active special master oversight through Ruiz, the appeal authority over in Huntsville and the wardens on the units were pretty fair about reversing improperly wrought convictions. The minute Judge Justice pulled the special masters when he found they were in substantial compliance, TDCJ immediately reverted to form and quit 1
being fair about it, started rubber-stamp denying any grievance. Somewhere along the line, the TDCJ General Counsel’s office created this lil’ boilerplate rote response and today they deny just about any appeal you file even when you supply irrefutable proof of your claim: “Disciplinary #XXXXXXX has been reviewed. An investigation was conducted. The charge was appropriate in relation to the offense. It appears that the evidence presented was sufficient to sustain a finding of guilt. No due process errors were identified. The punishment imposed was within agency policy guidelines; therefore, there is no valid reason to overturn this conviction. NO FURTHER ACTION IS WARRANTED.” (All in uppercase caps. Ha/ha, ain’t that cute?) So, prisoners were forced to start filing federal habeas actions alleging violations of the federal due process standards in order to get a bogus disciplinary conviction overturned. The seminal case on this is Superintendent vs Hill out of the U.S. Supreme Court where they say the standard of proof for conviction in a disciplinary case is less than that required in a criminal trial because a disciplinary hearing is an administrative matter, not a judicial function, so it only requires “some evidence.” Most Federal Circuits interpret that to mean some reliable or substantial or trustworthy evidence; but, the 5th Circuit (Ha/Ha) interprets it to mean any evidence, even false evidence where the officer is proven to be lying, will suffice. (No, I’m not kidding.) As we all know, the 5th Circuit, like TDCJ administrators, state Senators, attorney generals and governors, etc, has a bad habit of flouting federal law, state law, constitutional mandates and U.S. Supreme Court decisions. Sad, but oh, so true. Then the 5th Circuit made another rule that’s as bad and worse where death row is concerned: In any disciplinary conviction, unless it affects the length or duration of your sentence, you cannot get federal habeas relief. Usually in population if you get a major disciplinary case, they’ll take some of your accrued good-time and that enables you to get federal habeas review of the disciplinary conviction because it sets off your projected parole date further in the future and literally guarantees that when you do come up for review, the parole board will give you a set-off of another year or two. This standard presents a real problem for death row for two reasons. 1.) No matter what sort of screwed up case you catch, you cannot appeal out of it because death row has no good-time to lose so it can’t affect the length or duration of your sentence and you cannot file a federal habeas on any death row disciplinary conviction. TDCJ is well-aware of this fact and so now they just use their lil’ boilerplate rote response that I recited, supra and rubberstamp all disciplinary appeals. 2.) TDCJ uses disciplinary convictions to trigger leveling classification, which is nothing but a longer range form of punishment that TDCJ tries to sell as “an administrative response to prisoner’s ill behavior in an attempt to modify it in a positive manner.” (i.e. punishment, not classification.) “Behavior modification” and “administrative response” are nothing but fancy terms, using $25 words, for punishment and those who implement punishment upon a convict. “Politically correct speech” as used by today’s ultra-conservative Republicans and their minions who run TDCJ is always used to side-step the truth and reality in order to sell otherwise untenable concepts, like illegal punishments masquerading as “behavior modification” and a “non-punitive classification process.” This latter came about because the 5th Circuit, again misinterpreting U.S. Supreme Court precedents, ruled that where prison officials alter a prisoner’s access to programs, activities, housing, commissary, security level, other day-to-day areas of existence in prison by administrative necessity and do not intend it as a punishment, the prisoner is not entitled to any due process beforehand and cannot challenge it in a habeas setting. TDCJ promptly created “leveling classification” and implemented it on death row on July 17, 1997. It had already been implemented on population about 2 years before that. At that time a lot of my friends were being attacked by the administration for various reasons not related to security or other identifiable legitimate governmental objectives, so I was writing grievances for them in an attempt to vindicate their rights. About ½ of these prisoners were white, ⅓rd were black and the rest, Hispanic or other races. Cary Steve Staples was the Assistant Warden for security then and it was he who was the orchestrator of these attacks. This continued on until 1999. After the escape attempt in November 1998 it got worse, so I filed suit. I later won all the remedies I asked for, except money damages, in 2003 but it was an off-the-record settlement. At that time, the rank here would put someone on level II or III and leave them level III for at least three 30-day periods or sometimes as long as six 30-day review periods and Level II for at least two 90-day review periods or maybe four 90-day review periods or, more. I alleged in the suit, and the court agreed, that this constituted multiple punishments for a single disciplinary offense, which were wildly out of proportion to any disciplinary charged offense and, in many instances, no disciplinary case at all. I didn’t get an “on paper” court settlement because death row was never part of the Ruiz case and so it would have 2
required separate findings and independently ordered prospective relief, which the judge was reluctant to grant because TDCJ, the Governor and the A.G. were making a loud clamor in the media about ending Ruiz. They just did not want to put TDCJ under another set of court orders, as they’d been more or less in a Federal receivership in Guarjardo (mail) and Ruiz (conditions) for 30 years, so a new consent decree for death row in Skinner vs Staples and TDCJ, et al. was out of the question. My suit also claimed that leveling implemented in regard to minor disciplinary cases where you get only a lieutenant (Lt) as disciplinary hearing officer and the right to make a statement, but no other due process protections or, no disciplinary case at all, constituted illegal punishment without any adequate due process. Judge Justice had previously found that leveling, as administered, was punitive. So, after I settled my suit with TDCJ, they, in October 2004, rewrote the leveling criteria to make it very vague so it wouldn’t sound like punishment on its face, due to what I've previously told you about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that, for death row, any punishment outside the context of our sentence being presumptively illegal and violative of the 8th amendment; where it’s done with no due process or, inadequate due process beforehand. When I filed litigation on that, the deputy director for operations and the administrator of classification in Huntsville, through counsel, filed responses stating that although the criteria was vague, no death row prisoner would be leveled except pursuant to a valid major disciplinary conviction and that the leveling criteria which mentions, for Level II, that “the offender may have been involved in an incident or have received a disciplinary case that warrants placement in a more restrictive level” would be interpreted to mean major disciplinary case conviction before any prisoner was leveled, because the only way to properly document an “incident” is via generation of a major disciplinary case. This was backed up by the Ruiz findings and the implementation of the Ad Seg plan which specifically states that prisoners cannot be leveled except pursuant to a major disciplinary conviction and there was a provision in the death row plan of that time that anything not specifically covered in the death row plan reverts to the Ad Seg plan. Additionally, when TDCJ ended Ruiz, they agreed in writing with SR plaintiff’s counsel Donna Brorby’s office that all prisoners would henceforth be promoted out of Level III in 30 days without a major disciplinary case and put on Level II; they would then be promoted out of Level II in 90 days without a major disciplinary case and put on Level I. Before the ink was good and dry on this agreement, then Major Timothy Lester began eroding it by making up his own rules, sort of like the infamous “Three Strikes” laws enacted by California and later followed by other states, where he arbitrarily decided that three minor cases of any description equals a major and he can level you for them. Shortly after Ruiz ended, TDCJ rewrote all the disciplinary rules and gutted due process for all prisoners, including death row, when they reclassified a whole range of then major disciplinary offenses to make them minor offenses while at the same time they now allow a mere Lt., with virtually no due process whatsoever, to act as disciplinary hearing officer and issue major disciplinary punishments on minor disciplinary cases. Then TDCJ began stacking punishment on top of punishment by leveling death row prisoners for any minor disciplinary case at all. The reason this happened is because death row is generally one of the most well behaved prisoner populations within TDCJ. Prison administrators, however, (falsely) believe that in order for the leveling system to remain viable they have too have some prisoners who are the bad actors being made an example of and, they instruct the officers working the pods to give them a bad rep with the other prisoners in order to convince them that level II & III on the dreaded F-pod is not a place you want to go. There are fires, floods, run-ins every day, shit slingers and psych patients who not only throw shit but eat it too and paint themselves with it, etc. The place stinks, is full of choking pepper gas, one or more sections are weekly on lock-down status due to misbehavior, etc. Sometimes that is semi-true; but only when the rank provokes it. They paint it as hell on earth and, sometimes, it has been. So the rank is always harping on the officers to “write cases, write cases!!!” and the officers respond, “Write ‘em up for what?! Ain’t nobody doing nothing!” Thus they just keep on lowering the standards and basically punishing us for nothing. Don’t believe me? Don’t worry, I’m about to prove it to you irrefutably. In 2004, this raving idiot, Billy Hirsch, came over here as Assistant Warden for Security and said, “Ain’t no one on death row gettin’ no privileges” while he’s here (this in response to a prisoner who asked him about reinstating in-cell piddling so we’d have something to do to pass the time) that if it was left up to him, we’d be sitting in our cells in nothing but our underwear on a bare mattress and that we had it too good as it is and he was doing away entirely with the death row plan and running the whole building according to the Ad Seg plan only and moved a whole pod of Ad Seg’s in here to prove it. The he had the death row plan taken off the law library holdings list and proceeded to classify us according to the Ad Seg plan criteria, which of course is punitive in nature and scope. To this day, they still classify us on Ad Seg forms instead of death row forms. The day Billy Hirsch walked in here and did all this, death row became a toxic and punitive environment. It remains so to this day, in the present time. 3
Then in 2008, Warden “Tiny” Timothy Lester re-arrived on the scene in November and we had to suffer two and a half years more of his particular brand of insanity. Lester was like the Wizard of Oz -the fellow behind the curtain whom the little black dog exposed. Personality-wise, he reminded me of Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg in “Mutiny on the Bounty”, an old black and white movie set in the ‘40s. Before Lester left on June 24th, he had the welders seal up the rat-holes on all the doors. For those of you who don’t know what a rat-hole is, let me explain. The cell doors here slide back and forth on a track in the top of the door and a guide 6” off the floor on the bottom. The doorway is a portal and the door on the outside slides to cover it and it locks by use of an electromagnetic drop pin. The door is thus actually on the outside of the threshold. The bottom of the door is 6” off the floor. So, you used to have a 30” wide by 6” high open area there so that, even locked in the cell, you’d have some way to interact with your fellow prisoners and safely socialize by use of a “life-line”---prisoners here makes lines out of old onion bags or the fiber strings out of old sheets. In this way you could send your neighbors 4 or 5 tacos made from commissary-bought items or share books, magazines or newspapers. Ad Seg prisoners who were here before us were so violent (they go crazy easier and quicker than we do because they’re treated more harshly in general and have virtually no contact with the outside world) that they would use the bottom door opening to snare a guard’s legs and when he fell, pull him to the door & start stabbing him or, for those doors in front of a stairwell, spear them as they’re coming up the stairs. So to stop that, they welded a solid steel plate on the bottom outside of the door that reaches to within a half or threequarters of an inch off the floor. Being that the bottom of the door is four to four & a half inches thick & the door is on the outside wall of the cell, that leaves an opening roughly four & a half by six inches on the end of the door---just big enough to get a rolled up magazine, newspaper, bag of tacos or bottle of Gatorade or soft cover books through. That’s normally the stuff we share. We coordinate our book orders outside so that we don’t unnecessarily duplicate. That way, we get the maximum amount of diversity to read and one book goes a long way, because we share them over a whole pod of 84 prisoners. All we have to do in here is read and write or play chess over the run. They’ve taken everything else away from us. We play Scrabble or dominoes too. But we are otherwise extremely isolated in here and we have no TVs, thus no news or other windows as to what’s going on out there. I have not seen a TV since 1997. So, with that little rat-hole you maintain your sanity because when this cell you’re entombed alive in starts whipping your ass, you can get out there on the run and one of your friends is just on the other end of that string, so you can get out of that bed and reach out to someone. We get only 1 hour a day, 4 days a week, out of our cells, in a cage in the common area right in front of our cells. So the majority of our time is spent in this 7 ft by 12 ft concrete and steel tomb with only a toilet and sink and steel bunk in it. I’ve been here 17+ years, the experts on SHU (Special Housing Units) environments, in a published story in Time magazine a year or two ago, said that about five years is the maximum anyone can sustain in a place like this and still be called some semblance of sane. I’m not sure how I’ve managed to keep my sanity this long. I guess it’s because I’m an Aries and stubborn as the goat I was born under, Azazael. I have an iron hard will and just refuse to give in to “authority”, the state of Texas government minions or the crooked D.A.’s who falsely convicted me and want to kill me for something I didn’t do. Others are not as lucky (or, as cursed, depending on how you look at it) as I am. Many here are illiterate or, although literate, have no help out there. We look out for those unfortunate prisoners and we make sure we talk to them, share with them, try to give them something to look forward to and hold on to, for their sanity. Then too, there are those here who depend on their hustle to survive. Some of them draw and sell their artwork to others here for stamps, sundries, food and hygiene/clothes items they need. Those prisoners will now be doing without, lying in their bunks to let insanity claim them. Those who wash clothes for a hustle can no longer do that. The activity, something to do, some small goal to attain for today, has kept them sane all these years. I recently wrote Warden Butcher and told him that it was a stupid, stupid mistake to weld those 4” x 6” plats over the rat-holes and that whoever made that dumb-ass decision will soon live to regret it, I am certain (because I’m going to see to it, as I am doing right now). Living under a sentence of death is one of, if not the, most debilitating experiences you can imagine. It literally crushes you under its weight. All of the prisoners here who’ve been here more than 3 or 4 years are psychologically damaged. If you had people like Dr. Craig Haney, Dr. Terry Kupers, Dr. Stuart Grassian and people who work with them to come in here and individually assess each prisoner, you’d see how damaged they are. I see it every day. It’s bad. And, Texas is not playing with this death penalty biz either. They kill one, two or three of us almost every week. The pall of death is always looming over us. All of the recent “security measures” enacted by the clowns who run this place do nothing at all to enhance security, but 4
does everything to drive these prisoners crazier. Well, here’s why they’re going to live to regret it: Each county who sends a prisoner here, it costs upwards of a million dollars to try a capital death penalty case. Then it costs the county and state at least two million more, or three, to go through the appellate stages in state and federal courts. When a prisoner goes crazy, like Scott Panetti, Victor Saldano, Raymond Riles, Charles Mines, Caesar Fierro, Douglas Feldman, Nelson Mooney, Steve Staley, James Bigby, Rulford Alridge, Steven Butler, Syed Rabbani, Emanuel Kemp, Jamie McCloskey, Larry Hatten, Britt Ripkowski, Travis Green, Bill Gates, Robert Woodard, Alvin Braziel, Jonathan Green, Marcus Druery, Steve Long, Paul Devoe, and any number of others who’ve more recently “lost it”, they send them to the psych unit at Jester IV, where they try to get them “stabilized” (Ha/ha) i.e. lucid enough to kill them. Their attorneys file what’s known as a Ford claim, saying that they have become too insane to execute. The prisoners I named above, those are just the ones I personally know are crazy. I’ve not been off of F-pod for 13+ years except for five months on death watch November 2009 to March 2010 and a short stint on Level I July-November 2010, so I’m sure there are more crazies on the other five pods, I’ve just not seen them. My point is, now that they’ve sealed off the rat-holes and truly isolated the prisoners from having any social interaction with each other, in the next few years you are going to see many more suicides and crazies. So it’s going to cost the state waaaayyy more to litigate all these Ford claims--- and they are expensive because sanity (as judged by experts) is a many splendored thing relatively speaking. Ha/ha It requires multiple experts on both sides and is usually fiercely argued. So all those counties that paid all that money to kill these guys are not going to get to do so only because of lil’ Lester Pester and the other idiots he panders to, since they put in their lil’ surveillance camera system. Ha/ha. That was thanks to Senator John Whitmire and his dear friend, death row prisoner Richard Tabler. Now all the rank back here and all the administrators (i.e. Wardens) are either watching the cameras or acting in front of them, trying to win a Golden Globe, Emmy, Oscar, Sag or Academy Award for their performance. All we hear now is “They’re watching the cameras!” and how many officers have gotten written up this past week, every week. Likewise, Captain Patrick Dickend and Major Daniel Dickerson (population major who filled in while D.R. Major Joe Smith was gone---he’s on vacay but he’s gone permanently, now. Major McMullen from Diboll Unit took his place. (No word yet on what he’s like) have decreed that the officers must write a case a day. We are currently on lock-down (AGAIN!!) and I’ve caught eight cases in about 10 days, doing nothing but lying on my bunk, minding mine. No, I’m not kidding. Quotas on cases are illegal and unconstitutional. Additionally, in a brand new “interpretation” of policy (Death Row Plan) which I quoted earlier, Captain Patrick Dickend has decided that the “involved in an incident” language for Level II criteria means he can subject death row prisoners to the extreme punishments associated with level II and/or level III placements with only a minor case, or no case at all and force them to endure at least 90-120 days of property, commissary, radio, mail-postage, recreation, visitation and other restrictions with no due process whatsoever! In a minor disciplinary case, you get virtually no due process at all. Once written the case you are allowed to make a verbal or written statement and that’s it. The disciplinary hearing officer is a mere Lieutenant (Lt.) and you cannot call witnesses or present documentary evidence; you get no recorded hearing, no counsel substitute, etc. The other deleterious effect this has is that it keeps everything “in house.” Capt. Dickend is a very sloppy fellow when it comes to disciplinary paperwork. Capt. Dickend is the chairman of the death row classification committee (DRCC). If you have a major case, it’s another captain out of population who is the disciplinary hearing officer (DHO) and that whole process is out of Captain Dickend’s reach. But now, it’s death row lieutenants under Capt. Dickend who are hearing these cases and naturally they will do nothing but convict a prisoner on any charge in order to uphold their captain’s leveling committee decisions. The other thing is, we are getting no “meaningful opportunity to be heard” anywhere in this whole process. That is the standard set by the Supreme Court as to what constitutes administrative/due process under the 1st, 5th, 8th, and 14th amendments in a disciplinary/classification process before such extreme punishments can be meted out. First of all, we are not allowed to even attend our so-called classification hearings at all and there’s no such thing as a death row classification committee in reality anyway. What happens is the classification administrators, Mrs Atkinson and Mrs Aragon, decide which prisoners are to be brought up and Capt. Dickend and one of his lieutenants sign off on all the I-203 Ad Seg placement/leveling forms then later that day a Sergeant and a medical worker---Lvn or one of the psych docs sign off on them. Then they’re sent to the prisoner and that’s all the notice we get. No opportunity to be heard at all. On the disciplinary cases, the Lt’s on night shift hear them and even if you check “yes” on “Do you wish to attend the hearings?”, they will not call you out, nor come to your cell to conduct a hearing. They just find you guilty in absentia and notify you later by mail. So, with no opportunity to be heard at all you can find yourself on Level II or III. The courts have previously ruled that Ad Seg, who can be punished within the context of their sentences, cannot be leveled over any minor case or, any number of them, because only in a major case setting do you attain enough due process protections to support any decision to strip you of all your property and privileges for extended periods of time. 5
Yet, here is death row, who cannot be punished at all outside the context of our (death) sentences absent the full panoply of due process protections of a major disciplinary hearing. Yet, we’re being punished on mere whim and these lieutenants are upholding Capt. Dickend’s leveling decisions no matter what because they work under him---he’s their immediate superior! So we’re being subjected to these extreme punishments over and over with no due process whatsoever! Even worse, when they do write cases, it’s for the craziest bunch of silliness you ever heard of. Following are some examples of what I’m talking about: On 4.03.11, Douglas Feldman, #999326, was written minor disc. Case #20110222434 for possessing two bottles of urine, which he’d collected in a bottle the day before to show the nurse when she came by, for this he was continued on level II, although he was never served the case and convicted in absentia. On 03.28.11, Bobby Hines, #999025, in case #20110211684 was infracted for “making an unauthorized commodity transfer to Daryl Wheatfall, #999020, who was in 12B-30 cell by transferring an unknown container.” This case was really insane. Hines was in BB dayroom at the time. That’s B-pod, B-section. Daryl Wheatfall in 12B-30 cell is in the B-pod C-section! So, unless Bobby Hines can walk through two sets of bars and a solid concrete wall, there’s no way he could have given anything to Wheatfall 120 ft away! Even if he had a line, C-section 30 cell is simply not accessible from BB dayroom. Wheatfall was written a similar case. The cases on both were ultimately reversed after they spent 50 odd days on level II for nothing. More importantly, if it was an “unknown container”, it certainly can’t be proven it was a “commodity” of any kind. Secondly, “commodity transfer” is inappropriate language to sustain such charge for trafficking and trading (T and T). The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, in Teague vs Quarterman, 482 F3c 769 (2007), defined what constitutes trafficking and trading thus: T and T are bilateral transactions requiring a commodity exchange, which then requires at least the knowledge, if not the actual participation of, both parties. By this language a “commodity transfer” is insufficient to allege any conduct upon which a conviction could be had. The term “bilateral transaction” as used here means along two lines, there and back. It thus requires an exchange of items; something given for something in return, usually at a profit for one or the other. This is because “trafficking and trading” was meant to stop extortion and prisoners loan-sharking or hogging up the commissary and reselling it at a profit, to others, “running a store”, usually two-for-one. T and T was never meant to be used in the way the unit administration is now misapplying it and they are doing so only to pander to Senator Whitmire and the controversy he created over Tabler passing his phone around for others to use. Prison officials are supposed to provide us with a secure environment in which we can socialize and share with each other. Now they are punishing us over their failure to do so. We have a 1st and 14th amendment right to associate with each other, to share and to socialize. But Senator Whitmire, a lawmaker in the Texas Legislature, doesn’t know this??! How absurd. So he was screaming on the TV news and in newspapers “How are they able to pas this phone around?” When what he should have been asking was how it got past the perimeter fence to start with. Here on death row is the end of the line for such an item. If you create a market for something, a need, someone is going to figure out a way to fill that need, for a price. What caused prisoners to want a cell phone to start with? Billy Hirsch. He created the (fake) office of “Death Row Intelligence” (What a misnomer!!!) in 2006 and installed Officer William Cook as his lackey. All Cook did was read the mail of prisoners Hirsch disliked for whatever reason and try to glean information Hirsch could use to retaliate against that prisoner. For example, if you write a pen-pal and tell her “I just live for your letters, I don’t know what I’d do without you!”, Hirsch would start interdicting your mail from that pen-pal and destroy it. When this started happening and all kinds of mail turned up missing and prisoners were otherwise being retaliated against for things they said in their letters but, which violated no rules otherwise, they became wary of the mail and scared to write out, for fear of retaliation. They wanted an alternate means of communication that Hirsch couldn’t sensor. That created a market for cell phones. I’m not too sure that Hirsch didn’t know that would happen and, possibly, intended exactly that result. Why? Hirsch had a pathological hatred of “European women.” He set up several news stories that were very derogatory towards “European women” who love, write and visit prisoners here. One or two of those stories is reprinted on my website. 6
Read them in the death row news section of my website. You’ll see what I mean. But I’m digressing, back to the bogus disc. cases and leveling, punishment with no due process... On 04.04.11, Capt. Dickend sent the new Death Row Intelligence (DRI) officer to Jose Villegas, #999417, cell to search it in order to thwart his coming up for level I. The new DRI, Helen Sheffield, took a number of items out of Villegas’ cell which amounted to nothing more than some junk that wouldn’t even make a nuisance contraband case: “a piece of copper wire, altered headphone pieces, 2 rolls scotch tape, 2 rolls masking tape, “kites”, 238 envelopes without name and # in return address portion per policy; Lg spear with hooks and line, hard cardboard, 8 Lg envelopes belonging to #999249, 13 card stock (not allowed), heavy duty electrical wires altered (fire hazard), 20 colored envelopes (not allowed), 9 stamped envelopes without name and # per policy”. Villegas was written minor disc. case #20110220902 for some of these items on 04.05.11 and Sheffield, being the brainiac she is, alleged Villegas possess them “at the 12 bldg Intelligence office” a day after she allegedly took them on 04.04.11! Obviously Villegas could not possess something a day after Sheffield allegedly took it out of his cell and he certainly could not have done so “at the 12 bldg Intelligence office” to which he has absolutely no access and has never been in. Prisoners, even escorted by guards, are not allowed in that office. But wait, none of that was enough to level Villegas for! No! So, Cpt, Dickend just made up a charge out of thin air and leveled him for “possession of razors.” The only problem with that is Vellages had no “razors”, none were listed on the confiscation sheets which I quoted verbatim above. He was never written any case for possession of any razors either. So here he’s spent another 90 days on level II for nothing, with no due process whatsoever and no case at all. I wrote two grievances for Villegas---one, an appeal of the disc. case #20110220902 he was written but not leveled for, which is currently at Step two, 5 days outside the 35 allowed the Step two authority in which to answer, with no answer yet. The second, an appeal of the bogus leveling decision which was grievance #2011146859 and filed 03.28.11 was finally answered by Warden Simmons after almost 75 days, on 07.12.11. Usually it takes them no more than 20 of the allowed 40 days at Step one to answer. Here they had Villegas illegally classified and all they had to do to verify it was a simple check of the disciplinary records to see if Villegas had no case for “razors.” They should’ve immediately upgraded him to level I. Instead, they just sat on his grievance and filed for extension after extension until he came up for level I anyways and here’s Simmon’s answer: “Upon investigation, it was determined you were downgraded because you needed closer supervision and you were upgraded to level I on 07.05.11. Therefore, this matter is resolved. No further action is warranted” (Paraphrased). Ha/H Ha/Ha. This is a perfect example of what I say about the peonistic minds running this shit hole. They are so un-professional and chinchy minded, they just cannot stand for a prisoner to suggest they’ve done anything wrong, much less prove it, that they will go to any length to deny a grievance, even when it requires criminal conduct in order to do it. Violating the civil rights of a prisoner and/or official oppression are criminal offenses. Illegally subjected a prisoner to 90 days of level II punishment with no due process at all and no disc. case to back it up, absolutely constitutes official suppression, especially where the State official involved, Simmons, was notified of the error on 03.28.11 and illegally used extensions on grievance to continue the illegal punishment. On 03.02.11, Felix Rocha #999291 was downgraded to level II for allegedly “refusing/failing to obey orders to leave day-room/assign housing.” Rocha tells me he was never given any such order and never failed to obey it. He was in his cell when they came and told him “You’re level II. We’re taking you to F-pod” and stripped him out, cuffed him and brought him down here. On 05.03.11, I filed a Step 1 grievance for leveling him without any disciplinary case because he was never served any case at all; none was written. A few days later he was moved a level I pod, yet remained level II, just so they could evade his grievance and get him away from me so that I couldn’t file a Step 2 for him. Lester did this with several prisoners I filed grievances for because he incorrectly believed that if I couldn’t complete the grievance process on them, it would preclude me from filing suit under the PLRA (Prison Litigation Reform Act) standard which require exhaustion of administrative remedies before a prisoner can bring suit against prison officials for violations of his Constitutional rights---but what Lester failed to realize is, I’d already filed a grievance of my own on illegal leveling and exhausted it long ago. As I’m only using these prisoner’s leveling and grievances as examples to support my claims, I only needed to file them at Step 1 in order to put prison officials on notice that their actions are illegal, so they can’t later plead “qualified immunity” and get out of it. On 04.22.11, Virgilio Maldonado, #999249, was placed on punitive level III and put on 7 days of food loaf 7
restriction and 6 months of container and hot pot restriction due to “staff assault with hot water” where it was alleged he had “chunked” hot water on the Capt. Dickend’s niece. It was not Maldonado who actually did it, but another prisoner close by and the female officer, in her confusion after being scalded and burned, remembering she’d earlier had words with Maldonado at the day-room over his recreation, blamed him for the assault. Maldonado does not speak English very good and so when they accused him, the Sgt. stated “You did this” to which Maldonado stated: “If you say so, I did it.” What Maldonado meant was “I realize it is futile to argue with you because if you are going to blame me for it, regardless of whether I did it or not, you will assume I am guilty and I will be punished for it anyway”---that’s why he said, “If you say so, I did it.” Maldonado is also a diabetic and not in good health. He was never written any case at all. He was held in an empty cell naked, with no clothes and no bedding for over a week. Although it’s been in the 100s for over a month, he still does not have his fan or other level II/III property. There’s a permanent I.O.C. in the unit file from past direction Gary Johnson stating that no death row prisoner on any level is to be without their fan for any reason. Death row prisoner Emile Duhamel, #000796, had to die on 07.09.98 in what was then the hottest summer on record and he died of heat prostration while on psych meds although TDCJ lists it simply as “heart failure”, in order for the I.O.C. to be issued on fans for the rest of us. About 3 ½ months ago, I got Maldonado his fan. Then DRI Helen Sheffield came and took it from him. As I showed in Villegas’ case, Sheffield has a habit of aggrandizing and embellishing cases and she likes to target Mexicans and other Hispanics. Although, she’s lied to me too and taken my property for improper/inappropriate reasons as well. On 05.09.11, I wrote grievance #2011153231 for Calvin L. Hunter, #999483, in appeal of minor disc. case #20110210951 for violating a posted rule, “climbing the bars”, in the day room. There is no such posted rule and never has been all the years I’ve been on death row. This case was dated 03.28.11, yet was never served to Hunter until 04.01.11 and never heard by any DHO. Hunter was never provided any hearing result or dismissal. There’s a chin-up bar in the day room. We are encouraged to climb on it, too. The SSI’s (Support Service Inmate---porters who clean the pods) climb the bars all the time to wipe the dust off them and no one writes them cases. Hunter was downgraded to level II for this bogus case on 03.29.11. The totally incorrect answer at Step 1 was “The issue presented is not grievable.” Um...duh. Disciplinary case appeals certainly are grievable! The result was signed by Madam Savannah Hall, 05.09.11. She’s a real cutie, our grievance investigator, but dumb as a box of rocks. On 03.24.11 Jose’ Noey Martinez (#999219) was written Major Case #20110206124 for making “an unauthorized commodity exchange to Wesley Ruiz, #999536, by passing a bag of commissary cookies from day-room to 12A-E62 cell.” This is a real humdinger here. Martinez is accused of T and T with an inanimate object: 12A-E-62 cell. Of course even if he had given them to Wesley Ruiz, #999536, it’s perfectly OK to share your cookies with a friend. He didn’t sell them, he gave them to him. Wesley Ruiz was not in 12A-E-62. He lived at 12A-F-83 at this time. I guess Ruiz broke into 62 cell and stole the cookies? Martinez is still on level II for that atrocious crime! Guess he didn’t cut the Major in and pay his protection cookies that month. Carroll Joe Parr, #999479, was infracted for a dirty U.A. (urinalysis, Medtox Surescreen) and leveled with no disc. case at all. First he wrote the major and told them the test produced a false positive, he hadn’t used any drugs and requested a blood tox screen; which GC/MS is the only certain way to determine if he had used drugs. The Major’s response was: “We do not administer blood tests. The (Medtox Surescreen U.A.) tests are accurate and then the sample is retested for accuracy.” This is a blatant lie. Medtox own literature, available on the Internet, states the test has a false positive as high as 80%! Next, Parr complained of being downgraded in level based on the false positive U.A. result, yet written no case. The Major’s response: “The policy states an offender can be downgraded due to behavior and/or a disciplinary---no case has to be filed.” Another blatant lie. It states no such thing! Then Parr requested a meaningful opportunity to be heard by being allowed to attend his next reclassification committee hearing, so he could at least present his side of the matter. The Major’s response: “Denied.” So, he filed a grievance. The answer: “You were reduced in level by the DRCC. You will remain a D-2 until 05.19. No further action warranted.” He filed a Step 2. The answer: “Your Step 2 grievance has been investigated by this office. You were appropriately advised at the Step 1 level. You were reduced in level by the DRCC on 02.19. You will remain D-2 until 05.19. The Death Row Plan states that a disciplinary case is not required for DRCC to change an offender’s level. No further investigation is warranted by this office.” The Death Row plan is available on the TDCJ website. I challenge any of you to read and find the language which says, “A disciplinary case is not required for the DRCC to change an offender’s level” from level I downgraded to level II or III. Leveling classification is based solely on disciplinary convictions!!! That’s how Judge Justice found leveling is 8
punitive, in the Ruiz case: Because it’s based solely on disciplinary convictions. On 03.03.11, Adam K. Ward, #999525, was placed on level III for allegedly “jacking” the food tray slot in his cell door. “Jacking” as in hijacking, taking something not yours and refusing to relinquish it, on orders from an officer to let go and let him close it. If such an incident occurs and they have to get the goon squad (aka extraction team) down here to get the slot back by force (pepper spray and a “run-in”) then yeah, it’s level III action because that’s assaultive or aggressive behavior, see. But that’s not what happened here. Ward is a fairly young kid, 28 years old, and small---about 120 lbs, 130, somethin’ like that, maybe 5’5” or 5’6”. Two days before this incident, he was coming out to rec when an officer got in his face and started threatening him. Ward will try to avoid trouble if he can, but when it’s directed at him, he tends to go all in. So he sat down on the stairs and asked to see rank. The officer involved tried to kick him down the stairs. The Sgt. came and told him to get up. When he did, the officer involved pulled his (Ward’s) t-shirt over his head so he couldn’t see (it’s an old, old trick the guards use so you can’t see which ones are assaulting you) and touched him up pretty good. When he fell on the ground, legs flailing, they say he “kicked” an officer and falsely charge him with assault. Then the shakedown team raids his cell, gives him only a portion of his legal material, jacks the rest and falsifies paperwork---Prop-05 &-08 conf. forms. So this next day he’s in the bean-hole (aka food tray slot) talking to the guard, trying to get Lt. Duff down here to get his privileged legal material out of the hands of the state---who shouldn’t ever have it to begin with. The guard tells him, “Well, if the slot’s jacked, Duff’ll have to come down here to get it back?...” Suggestion, suggestion. Ward says, “I don’t want no case for that, I got enough trouble already” and the guard tells him “Don’t worry, I won’t write you up”...mmm-hmmmm...Well, he didn’t write a case, either. Instead, Capt. Dickend just arbitrarily leveled him to level III and gave him “leg irons” (i.e. shackles on his ankles) for 180 days/6 months. This was improper because, since no use of force resulted from the incident and no case was written, there was no evidence documented to support level III placement. Worse, “leg irons” (Bubba) restriction is a form of a use of force (U.O.F.) that can only be used as long as there is a documented need for it---i.e. he’s kicking the shit out of the officers every time they open his cell door to get him out for something. “Leg irons” is not available as punishment for any reason and not available for refusing to allow the guard to close the bean-hole. It’s also not available for 180 days/6 months at a time, but only 30 days. On 03.29.11, I wrote grievance #2011129000 for Ward. On 05.17.11, Lester Pester finally answered it and did not deny a single thing I alleged, but did not answer on the merits either and instead gave some defensive, rote, non-answer which stated “All offenders on death row are classified as Administrative Segregation Death Row. They are level I, II and III based on their behavior. This is in accordance with the Death Row Plan. No further action warranted”, signed by ‘Tiny’ Tim Lester Pester. It’s real funny, he was only an ASSISTANT warden, not WARDEN, but he had this huge rubber block stamp in real thick print that said, WARDEN LESTER. He’d stamp a grievance with it and then there’s his lil’ tiny, effeminate signature beside it. His rubber stamp was like, twice the size of Warden Simmons’ and he’s the Senior warden. That seemed in poor taste, to say the least, especially since Simmons is 2 feet taller than Lester’s 5’2”. (I’m joking, Simmons ain’t 7’2” tall...be he thinks he is. Lester is 5’2” or 5’0”, though.) Judging by his stamp though, you’d think he’s 10 feet tall, at least! Back to Virgilio Maldonado, #999249, when he filed the grievance I wrote for him, they immediately retaliated after he asked Lester why they did not put him back on level I. Lester says, “You know why” and a few days later, with no case on anything, they put him on level III again and moved him to #78 cell F-pod. So he wrote to his lawyers and the Mexican consulate and tells them what happened to him, they suddenly put him back on level II and move him to #63 cell F-pod. No answer to his grievance and he’s now on level II and/or level III twice each since April 22, 2011 to the present, a total of 88 days on punitive levels with all the attendant extreme restrictions and deprivations, with NO disciplinary case at all and NO due process whatsoever. Punishment is on a whim! If that is not a violation of all this man’s due process rights, if this is not arbitrary and capricious violation of his 8th amendment rights, I don’t know what is! They wrote, “No level I” on the plate over the button to his cell door. Back to Adam Ward, #999525. On 06.20.11, Ward comes out to go to rec., he’s got some old pieces of headphone magnets in his shoe because he believes it helps the arthritis in his feet. The officer strip-searching him, Everett, is the Geek 101 version of a wannabe guard, complete with pocket protector and 15 pens, his own lil’ handmade lanyard on his vest---you get the picture. He probably weighs 270-280 lbs. He steals Ward’s lil’ magnets outta his shoes. When Ward inquires “Why?”, Everett mumbles something about “they’re contraband. I’m confiscating ‘em.” 9
Ward says, “OK, so if you don’t give ‘em back, I’m jack the run and call for rank, tell ‘em you brought me out of my cell with no shackles on, since y'all illegally got me on this bullshit shackle (Leg irons, Bubba!) restriction”. Ward is cuffed behind his back and virtually helpless. Everett jumps on this kid, and more or less, does a belly flop on him he outweighs lil’ Ward by at least 110 lbs or more. He knocks Ward to the floor and injures his ribs, back and pelvis. I saw him black and blue with bruises the next day, but at that time the nurse says, “Oh, he has no injuries” on the use of force camera. And they put him back on level III (he’d recently made level II) for refusing an order to get up and walk back to his cell. Failing to obey an order you cannot obey is not a reason to downgrade to level III, which requires assaultive or aggressive behavior as its placement criteria. Once Everett knocked Ward down and beat him up, Officer Darrick Seale put shackles on Ward backwards as he lay on the ground, so how is he supposed to “get up and walk back to his cell”?!! He’s cuffed behind his back!! He can’t get up. Nobody could. It’s roughly the equivalent of being hog tied. On 06.27.11 in case #20110309429, Erick D. Davila, #999545, was written a minor case alleging he “threatened to inflict harm on Ms. Seek in that, said prisoner, he would bash my face in and that I don’t know what he, the said prisoner, was capable of”. Everywhere you see the word “prisoner”, above, that’s my usage. The case actually said “offender” but I eschew that particular politically incorrect word because it automatically leads on to falsely assume we’re always in the wrong because we’ve “offended”, which is bullshit. The correct term is prisoner - one who is held incarcerated or otherwise, against his will. Otherwise it’s quoted verbatim, non-sensible as it is. I know some Harmon’s and, inflicting them on anybody is not a threat or assault of any nature. They’re a peaceful family and harmless. It’s supposed to be “harm on”. This supposedly happened on F-pod F-section. One of the requisites of a threatening case is that the person in question has to feel that the thread is real and places them in imminent danger of bodily harm. This case alleges Davila was in the dayroom when this occurred. F-pod F-section dayroom is covered over with ½” diamond expanded metal. Seek was 12-15 ft away from Davila when this incident occurred and there’s no way he could have done anything, not even spit on her, from that distance. The woman in question, Madam Seek, is a commissary worker, a civilian. Now, I heard the entire exchange between the two of them and I can tell you that not only did Davila not threaten the woman, he was merely asking her why was he not allowed to go to commissary, although on restriction he’s allowed to go once every 30 days and it’d been more than 30 days since he last made commissary, but they still didn’t let him make it and he was wondering why. Madam Seek smarted off to him: “I’m not God! I ain’t got no control over what that computer lets me sell you!!” Davila knows the game- - the argument escalated and he eventually told her: “I know you don’t work back here, but, the way you talk to somebody, if you did work back here, some nigga would slap the shit outta yo’ azz and that’s why you ain’t back here! This’ death row, bitch, you don’t know what some niggaz is capable of back here!” and started laughing. Seek had two or three SSI’s with her and they all started laughing, too. Seek got mad and told Davila: “Naw MFer, YOU don’t know what I’M capable of!!” Davila just laughed some more and told her, “You can’t sell no wolf tickets back here, girl!” and walked off back to the back side of the dayroom to talk to one of his friends in the cells on one row that face the day-room and told them what Seek had said and they were all laughing at her. Of course, her actions and responses were funny. In the parlance of TDCJ and prison society, if you know an officer is doing or saying something that could get them hurt or injured and you want to give them a “heads up” without seeming like you’re somehow snitching or caring too much for the laws, you tell them exactly as Davila did: “Somebody” would do this or that. In TDCJ philosophy/prison societal rules, that’s not a threat. Seek knows this, they all know how it’s run down here and how it’s done. But she got hot and lied on Davila. On 07.11.11, blowing this minor case out of all proportion, Capt.Dickend takes Davila to DRCC (Death Row Classification Committee) and levels him anew for this case, writing “remain D-2” and the reason as “pending staff assault by threat”, so now he’s aggrandized and embellished this little minor case into a potential level III offense by calling it an “assault”, which is totally ridiculous. Rodney Rachal, #999056,, on 06.04.11, was written a minor case, alleging he jacked the food tray slot (aka bean-hole). He was downgraded to level II and put on 7 days of food loaf. What caused this was that 2nd shift, although fully staffed with 3 officers, are lazy and do not want to do nothing, so they’ve learned this little trick of denying all level I’s recs after 6:00 pm by falsely telling prisoners that all recreation has been cancelled and so has their showers due to staff shortage and that they’ll be put on the (non-existent) list for stuck-out rec on Sunday, the Lt. said so, blah, blah, blah. They think that because the prisoner is level I, he better not say nothing, or they’ll write him a case and level him for it, to level II or III. and, by the time Sunday rolls around, he’ll have forgotten about it anyway, probably. Rodney almost died here a few years back, he has a very serious and potentially terminal illness that is chronic and could kill him if it’s not managed on a day-to-day basis with anti-retro-viral therapy. This illness has also made him legally blind, he can see now out of only one eye and has 20/200 vision. Level I’s get only 2 hours of rec a day out of 24 hours and only five (5) days a week. His rec and shower mean everything to him because that’s all the activity he can enjoy. He’d already gotten screwed out of several days this way and was tired of it. So he asked the officers to call the rank and tell them that he is asking to speak to them. The officers refused because to do so would mean exposing their lies and improper cancellation of rec and showers. 10
They can get away with this as long as no one says anything about it, by merely writing “V/R” on the shower sheet/activity log by each prisoner’s name, meaning they “verbally refused” their recs and showers...when actually it’s the officers denying them. Because of the “V/R” on the activity logs, those prisoners are presumed to have voluntarily forfeited their recs and showers. So they do not qualify for stuck out rec on Sunday. This sort of thing is becoming rampant back here, getting worse by the week. So here is death row, men who are living the last days of their lives and about to die, being treated worse by far than population prisoners when it’s supposed to be the other way around; and worse, being punished with no due process whatsoever. Major Smith was very punitive-minded and retaliatory in a very peonistic & chinchy, small-minded, yet venal, way. Anytime someone writes out of here something he doesn’t like, he’ll send his pet Sheffield DRI or the shakedown team to tear their cell all to hell and confiscate their property for inappropriate reasons, then smile in their faces and gloat over it. Death row doesn’t have much, but most of what we do have is hand-me-downs we got from our friends who were murdered by the state and/or it was bought for us by people on the outside, whom we love and so it holds great sentimental value for either reasons, because of love or, for the dead, it’s all we have to remember them by. Can you even begin to imagine what I suffer for even writing this column/articles exposing this? I’ll tell you, I’ve lost all my property. I had an electric razor, tri-head Norelco. They don’t sell them anymore. It was left to me by Martin Draughon, when he got out. I had it legally converted and had property papers for it. Gone. Countless books, religious items, my rosary from the Vatican, which was designed by Pope John Paul II and sent to me by him. He is long dead and gone; I can never get another one like it. He kissed and blessed it himself before giving it to Don Guido to bring to me, all the way from Vatican City in Rome. My wedding band and my pinkie ring, both of which I’d had for over 30 years. More recently, all my religious and occult sciences/masonic/mystical books were taken from me along with my fan, boots, watch, (free-world) multi-outlet, cell lamp, and numerous other items. The rank here and the upper echelons of the administration secretly hate and despise people here on death row and mistreat them in the most ruthlessly insidious ways you can imagine. This woman who runs the mailroom is personally involved in the case of a death sentenced prisoner here. So she’s got a very bad hatred for all of us and refers to us only as “You Fuckers.” This prisoner recently had his daughter go to Sam’s Club and buy him 100 sheets of carbon paper, 1,000 envelopes and 36 legal tablets and had Sam’s Club send it to him by UPS. The mailroom supervisor, herself, denied it by falsifying the I-153 denial form. On the invoice from Sam’s Club, it has their return address and his daughter’s name and address as the purchaser and this prisoner’s name, number and address as the person “shipped to”. So the mailroom supervisor writes on the denial “Sam’s Club” as the sender but instead of their address, she writes the daughter’s (purchaser) address under Sam’s Club. Then calls it in to Huntsville MSCP/DRC with this incorrect information. They look up the Sam’s Club addresses for Houston and this address listed, of course, is not one of their locations - because it’s the daughter’s (purchaser) address. So Huntsville denies the package as “unverifiable; not from part listed in return address.” This poor prisoner is a Mexican national who speaks only broken English and cannot write English at all. The mailroom supervisor, Ophelia Olvany, does this sort of thing to many prisoners here, including me. I don’t think I’m any saint myself, do not get me wrong; but, I can truthfully say that I have never and, would never, stoop to the levels these pathetic fools do, to nitpick, hate on, back stab, retaliate against, and otherwise mistreat prisoners who have little of nothing and cannot defend themselves otherwise because the very people who are responsible for affording them due process and doing the right thing, are instead robbing them of it, hiding it and lying about it, while snickering behind their backs at how they screwed them over. And you, the public, your tax dollars pay these clowns salaries you have a right to demand a little more from and, a little better of, your state officials, and you should do so! Jeff Blackburn, an attorney with the Texas Innocence Project, says that I have an attitude toward and (intense) dislike of, law enforcement and (TDCJ) authority. He is absolutely correct. All of the above, and more, are the reasons why. A guy in population who gets screwed over has time to regroup, to recover, and recoup his losses so, it’s not too bad for him---he’s out there where he can move around and do something for himself. It won’t take but a day or two, he’s flying again. A prisoner on death row, however, is locked in a box and isolated. He has only a finite number of days in which to live before he’s executed. So anything taken from him, he likely cannot get back and that is especially so now that they’ve sealed up the rat-holes and isolated us further, literally entombing us alive. 11
The things I see go on here, I’d liken it to a thief who goes into the mail boxes of old folk’s and steals their welfare or Social Security checks; or someone who’d rape and sodomize a paraplegic in a wheelchair. Mistreating those who’re about to die and using the notoriety of a death sentence to do it, to hide behind as an excuse; it’s just so far down in the various castes of sorriness, it makes me ill. Mistreating people just because of their status or situation, which allows them to get away with it. We have some very good officers working here. I mean that strictly in the sense of humanitarian. The problem lies not with them, they get mistreated too, by the same rank and admin who forces them to mistreat us. OK, this was way too long, but everybody asks me to explain it and give dates, times, actions-type examples, so there you go. These are only some examples, too. There are many, many, many more and some, much much worse. Goodnight & have a pleasant evening. ‘Til next time, Hank Update 08.08.11--Whooooooo-weeeee! What a week! On 07.28.11, I was taken to the Major’s office and given a date for November 9, 2011, 5 days after my brother’s birthday. Jose Villegas, #999417, was made level I for one day. He never got his property back, nor was he given his Level I property they were withholding and despite his meritorious grievance, which he “won” on paper, they turned right around and put him back on level II the next day and gave him another 90 days of punishment for an old minor case, which they should not be allowed to level him for in the first place, after he’s spent 110 days on level for nothing. Virgilio Maldonado, #999249, is so rail-thin after being on level for so long for nothing. He came up for level I on 07.26.11, but was arbitrarily denied and given “Remain D-2” for no legitimate or discernible reason at all. Hank 999143 Polunsky Unit H W Hank Skinner 3872 FM 350 South Livingston TX 77351-8580 h.w.skinner@gmail.com http://www.hankskinner.org Facebook http://on.fb.me/Justice4Hank Twitter http://twitter.com/Justice4Hank Newsletter http://eepurl.com/cYCIE For those of you who use JPay to write, don’t forget to always include your postal address and your e-mail address after your signature, so I can reply. www.jpay.com don’t forget to enter my TDC number as an 8-digit number: 00999143.
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