Prison Life January-February 1996
Download original document:
![Brief thumbnail](/media/cache/f4/4d/f44d127b0252cef572d4e48592c56f16.jpg)
Document text
![Brief thumbnail](/media/cache/f4/4d/f44d127b0252cef572d4e48592c56f16.jpg)
Document text
This text is machine-read, and may contain errors. Check the original document to verify accuracy.
JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1996 Ab~ut the C~ver A prisoner shoots up in his cell. Photos and design by Chris Cozzone. FEA1'1JRES 21 Drug VJar lGl Just say " Know." What every fool should kn ow before getti ng into the drug business. 34 High $n the Range Just your typical state joint-drenched in drugs, bursting at the seams and no one listening to a 2 4 King Rat Former DEA agent Michael Levine reveals how rats rule the criminal justice system. Lazy prosecutors and inept agents depend more than ever on double-dealing crimina l info rmants to make cases. Pn~m l.aft· l\~' Jf IOr,·M)70'Jj.mn.tn·l-dnu.lr'\ 19tJ(), ;\: umbtT I.I'II"'(UI l .ifr 111.1~3/IIW '"pub· li' h t·cl hununt hl) I~ Joint Venture Media o f Texa~. In c., 1436 West Gr.ty, Su ite 53 1. Hou..~on. TX 77019. J•,-i,..m I 1ft.- lllolJ.;MIItC' '"" prmtt:d m the- l:SA .nul .tll ri~h ~ .l lt' r c.·~n t•cl l•t'X• lr. J uint \"c·murc· \ lt.·th .t ufTr' ·''· InC'. p.ut uf tlu~>lxJol. rn;n be· n.:produn·cl or tr.lll'flllllt'tlm .111\ fw rn 1H IJ', olll\ llll ',UI,.\\ IIfu nll .... Ill I t'll pc;fllll•)lion ttf tfH: publ1..tn;n. l ' n,uhcitt•d rn.llltl'o( I I J'I" oiiUl 'H p lutiUJ.:l .! ph ...Ill' th e II'"I~ Hhi iHiit,, t tf t lu· '"'ndcn, Allll·Hcr·, -.c.: ul to l'ri'-tnt (jfc· lllol~ollill l' \\till "• IH'otll'lloi' IIIIUIIUh11un.1lh .l~'l)itllf,•d fen- tht_• pub h(,IIIOn 01 brcK:hun·, .uul ,ll(' 'Ubjt_·c I IU l'll'tlll Lift• m.1g.11111t''' unrt•,lltt tt•ct ti~ht tcJ •·ch t .md ccun mcnt. Sm~lc cup it:' m th t• l '.!), S.t'l:"",. !',uh· "''iption l.th'' Ulll_' \l',tl lit u.s. s~~.iO fol li i" ttt•, : in C.a n :ul .l, S:lj ; .tn .u ldiunn.ll S l'.l c·l"l'\\ llt'll'; .tllfM\,thh· in l 't f nn ch u n ly. l'lt·,, ..... m.ul .tll 'ulh<'riptiun orch·r~ and ch.mge \ tu l'li<.Ou l .1k ~I .•K· a.tnlt' 'tui.N'nptum Oc•t)..trl mcru , 11:\6 \\'t•,t Gr.l). Suitt· 531, I h m,tun, TX iiO I ~I. I'OSTMAS'rEil: P\to;t'l' lu m .ucl .uldn·\' t h.m~t'' to Pli\1111 Lift• MaKo~~inc· , 1·136 \\'c·,t ( ~1"<1}'. S uitt· :,;q , l l ou~ wn , ' I X 77()1!.1. App!U\ ,,) 111 111.1il.u '.lull C:l.1" JHht:tgc· r.ltt• j, pend ing ill IICimton, T X ,m d .ulclitiml.ll fllollllll~ 1)lliu•. 4 PRISON LIFE warden who cares. 4 6 Junk in the Jfiint Get high. Do crime. Go to the joint. Get high . Do crime. N othing changes. The drug economy knows no barriers. 5 7 VJsmen Casualties ef the Drug VJar How government drug war troops target the most vulnerable prey- women, mothers, low-level dealers and mules- then squeezes them. ---DEPAR1'MEN1'SVoice of the Convict 6 In-House Counsel 69 Contributors Column 8 Tattoo of the Month 72 Word Mail Call 10 11 Mail-Order-Mall 78 Guest Editorial: 12 Classifieds 79 Ask Bubba 82 In-Cell Cooking 83 The R ight Verdiclfo·r the Wrong M an Block Beat 15 Callouts 19 Cellmate of the Month 32 Resources 84 Family Matters 65 Pen Pals 86 PRISON LIFE 5 TRUCE: A JOINT PROPOSAL by Richard Stratton & Kim Wozencraft When the tymnt has disposed offoTeign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing to f ear f rom them, then he is always stirring ujJ some war or ollun; in order that the people may require a leader. - Plato f we care abo ut th e futu re o f this coun uy, it is time for Ame ricans to admit th e War on Drugs has bee n a ro ut-n o t just a failure, but a catastrophe. We lost th e War. Drugs won. We lost the War for good reason: we c h ose th e wro ng e n e my. Yo u ca nnot win a wa r waged aga inst p la n ts and c he micals. It was bogu s to begin with , a wa r n o o n e- ce rtain ly n o t the gove rnme nt-wa nted to win . The real e n e mies-igno rance, d rug ab use and addic tive be h avior- survived th e war unscathed and are as prevale nt as eve r. As ve te rans o f the con nict, we believe the time has come to call a tmce. We com e to th e n egotia ting table fro m o pposite sid es o f the Dru g War battlefield . Kim is a fo rme r cop whose fi rst assign me nt was unde rcove r na rco tics. She got strung o ut in th e lin e o f duty, t h e n se rve d a fe d e r al se ntence in '82. Richa rd is a re tired marij ua na a nd hash ish smuggle r who d id 8 years o n 25 befo re win ni ng re lease th rough th e cou rts in '90. O ur e xpe rie n ce in th e wo r ld o f illicit d rugs is exte nsive, fro m th e h ighest ech e lon s of in tern ation al traffic ke rs to the foot soldi e rs m a kin g re ta il stree t sales, fro m th e bac k roo ms o f po li ce stati o n s to t he walled fo rtresses of o ur vast p e n al syste m , we have seen and b ee n p a rt of th e wh o le corr up t and dead ly wo rld of th e Drug Vh r. O u r na ti o n is awash in d rugs, licit a n d illi cit. G u n b a ttles r age in o ur ci t ies as riva l ga ngs see k to ex pand th e ir turf o r j ust ge t eve n fo r yesterd ay's kill ing. Acco rd ing to m a instr ea m m ed ia o u tl e ts, c ri m e is I 6 PRISON LIFE ra mpant. We a re to ld it's a ll because o f drugs. The war on crime is esse nti a lly th e Wa r o n Drugs. But the viole n ce is no t abo u t drugs. It is a bo ut mo n ey. As a n a rticle e n titled "T h e Wages of Proh ibitio n " in The Economist (Dec. 24, l 994) ma kes plain, once you d ecla re so me thin g illegal its ma rke t value increases so expone n tia lly that it becomes impossible to stop despe rado e n tr e pre n e u rs wh o wou ld b eco m e rich trad ing in tha t product. T h e numbe rs a re clear . Do p e is a multi-billion do llar indusuy. The Drug War is the biggest cash cow tl1e federal gove rnment has h ad going for it sin ce the fall of the Evil Empire. The sa me people who gave us th e Cold War and the war in Vie tn am, the same people wh o h ave r un th is county h ead ove r heels in to de bt, no w give u the Wa r o n Drugs as j ustification for the ir invasio n u pon o ur private lives a n d th e ir d isasu·ously overstuiTed budge t. H e re is an issue o n which bo th the Rig ht a nd t h e Le ft ca n a n d sh o u ld ag ree: T h e go ve rnm e n t' s War on Drugs has e ro ded our righ ts as Americans, both in nocent and gui lty; debilita ted th e eco n o my; a nd fo m e nted a n a unosp here whe re the po lice run a mok, invade o ur ho mes, beat us, ki ll us a n d seize our pro pe rty, all in the name of pro tec ting us from ourselves. Conse rvatives and rad icals will have a meeting o f the min ds whe n they realize tha t the real e nemy in th e ' "'ar on Drugs is freedo m. Po li tician s, cops, j udges, physicians a nd t h e m illi o ns o f Am e ri can s wh o use drugs d a il y kn ow th a t th e Drug Wa r is a to tal bust, ye t th e gove rnme nt continues to raise the battle cry because it is in th e ir inte rest to keep t h e m yth o f th e War a live. Like all wa rs, th e Dr ug War e n ric h es t h o se who profit on our wea knesses. Many wh o kno w th e Wa r has bee n lost yet favor continua tio n o f crim inal pe nalties fo r drug possessio n a nd use a rg ue th a t to legalize drugs wo u ld cause us to become a nati on of drugaddled zomb ies. Perha ps they unde rstand that addictio n is a fu nda mental flaw, or trait maybe, of our species, living as we do in the late Twe ntieth Century. We a re a na tio n of addi cts, whatever substa n ce o r act ivity the addiction is directed towa rd . Food, sex, work, ga mbling, sho pping, d ri n king, watching TV: it doesn 't ma tte r what we a re addicted to. Laws wo n ' t change it. What matters is that we learn to conu·ol o ur addictive be havior. Drugs a re here, ava ila ble, a fact o f li fe. In te rd ic tio n d oesn ' t wo rk. The tO ta litar ian wo r ld o f priso n is a h otb ed o f dru g activity. If we ca n ' t kee p drugs o ff the cell bloc ks o f o ur m ax imum sec ur ity priso n s, we wil l never be a ble to successfu lly pro hibit th e m in a free soc ie ty. It is fo ll y to th ink o t h erwise. Po liticia ns wh o claim to be working towa rd a "drug free Ame ri ca" d efraud th eir vo te rs. Ma king so me d rugs illegal me re ly e n a b les drug add ic ti on by a llo wing the addi ct to b la me t he d r ug fo r th e add ictio n . We wage war on pla nts an d in e rt substa n ces instead o f trying to un d e rsta nd a nd lea rn to control addi ct io n . We bla m e th e su bsta n ce, the evil fore ig ner who produces it, o r the despicable d eale r who provides it, inste ad o f fo rcing t h e co nsum e r to ta ke r esponsibi li ty fo r hi s o r h e r b e h avior. Som e p eople become a ddicte d to d rugs, o th e rs d o n o t. Those who care a bout the mselves and o ther p eo pl e a nd who want to lead healthy, active lives usua ll y kn ow when to say, "No, th a nk you ," to d rugs. T h e do ctor wh o presc ribes Prozac o r Va li u m o r so m e kind of slee pi ng ta ble t is viewed as giving solace through his legal remedy. Peo ple who ta ke illega l drugs often say th ey do it fo r th e sa m e re aso n as th e patie n t wh o see ks re li ef fro m th e ph ysic ian: because it works. Drugs, li cit o r illicit, d o allevia te pa in . But drug addi ction o n ly co mpo unds pa in. By te lli n g us what d rugs we a re allowed to become a dd ic ted to, a nd pun ishing us wh e n we beco me addicte d to controlled substances, the government is u·eadi ng o n o ur m ost bas ic ri g h t: th e rig ht to d e termin e o ur own be havior, with th e corresponding obligation to take respo n sibili ty fo r our actions. Ne ithe r drug use n o r drug addictio n is responsible fo r the burgeo ning prison industry. The Drug War is. T he War is responsible for the corruption of o ur pol ice fo rces, o ur prosec uto rs a nd j u dges, and as it co rrupts th ose peop le it empowe rs th e most aggressive a nd unscrupulous elemen ts of o ur so ciety. The Wa r is responsible for the prolife ra tio n o f fi rearms a nd violence on the streets. By calling the ir anti-drug effort "war," the governmen t has legitimized the use of weapons-by bo th sides. The War has also meant a m ultilate ra l surre nde r of pe rsona l libe rties. Am eri ca ns now submit to be in g surve illed , sto ppe d o n the highways a nd searched , having the ir urine ana lyzed, th e ir pho n e lin es ta ppe d , th eir childre n turn ed to info rmants a nd th e ir la nds a nd h omes in vaded by marauding d rug cops, a ll in the name o f waging this shadow wa r. The a uth orities may seize o ur cash , o ur ca rs a nd o ur h o mes, eve n if th ey o nly su spect wro ngd o in g . We have to p ay lawyers to try to ge t o ur assets bac k, wh e the r convicted of illegal activities or not. What we propose is a tru ce, pe rh a p s p a rtia l at first to see h ow it wo rks, but with th e ultim a te goa l of pla ci n g respo n sibili ty fo r c h oices nu mber of h eroin addi cts in th is cou ntry. To say pot use leads to heroin add iction is another case of placing b la m e on a substance; a subs tance can have no malice o r ill will, it si mply is, whe ther add ictive or no t. We invest it with mystiq ue wh e n we say it is so harmful th at it must be mad e illegal. The o n ly real relation ma rUuana has to hero in is that bo th mus t b e purchased on the b lack market. Deregulation of marijuana does n ot necessari ly lead to comp le te d ereg ul ation of a ll drugs. T o offe r cocaine a nd he roin in t he shop window of o ur pha rmacies would be too tempting for m a n y, an d a n enticem e n t to so me wh o o the rwise wou ld n eve r consider using either drug. But marUua n a, by a ny a nd all standa rds, is less h ar mfu l th a n two p rese n tly lega l, th o ugh co n tro ll ed an d clearl y very a d d ictive drugs: a lco h o l an d to bacco . Alco h ol a buse is d irectly respo n sib le fo r at leas t 150,000 deaths a year, tobacco abou t 400,000. Ye t \Ve may choose to use alcohol o r tobacco withou t 1·isking im p ri so nme n t. As we become more ed ucated abou t the d a nge rs of these su bstances, som e o f us may thi n k twice be fo re lig h tin g u p or toss ing one back. Bu t th e c h o ice rema in s ou rs to make. The governm ent is not in ou r ho m es te ll i ng us wh at to do. We a re respo nsib le fo r o ur own we ll-being. We are free to m a ke c hoices. T here h as neve r been Ame rica would do we ll to investigate a d ocumented case of ma rijuan a th e busin ess possib ilities. Afte r a ll , killing anybody, though its illegality o ur Co n stitutio n was printe d o n fo rces users to ris k imp ri so nm e nt, even d eath . Th e substance itself is he mp pa per. De regu latio n wo u ld e nta il do in g rela tively be nig n. It has a lo ng histoaway wi th crimina l pen a lties fo r pos- ry of u se as a m ed ic ina l h erb. But session of marU uana, permi tting ind i- u nde r the aegis of Wa r, th e poli ce vid u al s to gro w pla nts for p e rso n a l have arrested ove r e ig h t m i Ilio n cons um ption, a nd lice n sing la rge Am e ri ca ns and th rown them into the scale growe rs a nd sellers. Li ke tobac- j ustice system 's labyrinth. Eight m ilco a nd a lco ho l, ma rijuan a co u ld b e lio n . Thin k of the lives dam age d or sold with app ropriate regulatio ns fo r d estroyed by crimin al prosecutions, qu a li ty co ntro l in p lace . Instead of p riso n sente n ces a n d felony records. wasting billions of dolla rs chasing pot Th ink of t h e tax dollars was te d to h ead s a nd rippin g up c ann a bi s im p ri son marij u a n a o utlaws. T h in k plants, we would crea te a badly need- of how much we could d o to info rm, ed influx of capital into the legitima te ed u ca te and ass ist drug ad d icts if th ose same d o lla rs \Vere spe nt in a n economy. The argu me nt th at ma rUuana func- effort to help ou r fe llow h u m a n s ti o n s as a g ate way to th e u se o f r athe r th a n to wage a vic ious a nd stronge r, d an gerous d ru gs falls a part un wi n nable war agai n st our ve ry whe n you look at th e num ber of regu- selves. III] lar ma rijuana sm o ke rs ve rsus th e abo ut dru gs wh e re it b e lo ngs : with the individual in a free American society; in cases of min ors, with the ir pa re nts. We suggest the place to begin is with th e c u rrently sc h edul ed dr ug tha t see ms to b e the least harm ful o f a ny of t he p rese ntl y illicit drugs, less ha rmful eve n than many legal drugs, a nd o ne tha t is used regu larly by 30 to 40 million Ameri cans. Deregulate marUua na, lega lize c ultivation of h em p , incl ud ing cannabis sativa a nd indica fo r the myria d uses to wh ich it can be put, gran t a mn esty to th e hundre<;Is of th ousands o f people curre ntly in prison, on pro ba tio n or o n pa ro le lo r having grown o r possessed this p la nt, a nd see if, in a year o r two, we h ave in fact beco me a n a ti o n o r h eroin a ddi c ts. Ge rm a n y recently legalized cultivatio n of he mp fo r use in ma kin g pape r, clo th , rope, oil a nd ma ny other p rod ucts; they' re in o n th e groun d floor o f a po te ntia lly huge marke t. He mp farming is a lso an eco logica lly sou nd pro posit io n. PRISON LIFE 7 Our n e w con t ributin g e ditor Mansfield B. Frazier was released from fe d e ral p rison to a halfway house in May 1995. His first book, FROM BEHIND THE WALL, Commentmy on C71'111e, Race and the Underclass, was rece ntly published by Paragon House. He lives in Cleveland whe re he is workin g on his n ex t book o f essays a nd a collection of sh ort stories. George C. Gray co-wrote "High on the Range," and contributed to "Junk in the .Jo in t." He is a j ournalist in Albuque rque, New Mexico, where he curre ntly works o n films a t IZNME-TV. Marc Levin, AI Levin a nd Daphne Pinkerson of Blowback Productio ns a re award-wining documentary fi lmmake rs whose Prisoners of the Wm· on Drugs, produced in association with Prison Life magazine, a irs o n HBO J a nuary 8, 1996. The Blowback team is a t work on a six-part history of the CIA for th e Discovery Chann el and a lso has a new HBO / P1ison Life documentary in d evelopme nt. Th rough his wri ting, public speaking a nd on-line particip atio n , former DEA Special Agent Michael Levine has beco me o ne o f the m ost fo rmidable foes of the governme nt's wa r on drugs. His books, Deep Cover (De lacorte, New Yo rk , 1990) a nd The Big White Lie (Th u nd e r' s Mouth , New York, 1993), writte n with his wife and writing p artn er, Laura Kavan a u-Levine, te ll th e inside story of how th e illegal drug trade is contro lled at its hig hest lev- e ls by the CIA. Levine's n ew book, TTiaugle of Death, is a fac t-based novel abou t revenge and the deep cover hunt fo r a deadly a nd addic tive sex d rug. Michael Montalvo is one of tl1e natio n 's foremost jailhouse lawyers. With his victory in U.S. v. 405,089.23, Monta lvo ti1reate ned to slaughte r the government's sacred cash cow: asset forfeiture. And h e did it a ll fro m the law library a t USP Lompoc. Now in his third year o f law school, Montalvo in tends to become a licensed me mber of the Bar afte r release from prison so that he can continue to resist the drug war by c ha lle nging th e un co nstitutio nal means the governme nt employs against U.S. a nd fore ign citizens. He h as a bai l motion before th e Ninth Circ uit Co urt of Appeals pending ti1e o utcome of his direct appeal, and he rece ntly filed his brief in the Supreme Court o n the double jeopardy issue he won in U.S. v. 405. Susan Rosenb erg is a U.S. political prison e r serving 58 years for weapons possession. After over ten years in maximum security fe deral prisons (including two yea rs at the Lexington, Ke ntu cky Hig h Secu rity U n it (H SU) fo r women that was fina lly closed as in huma n e under pressure from human righ ts groups a nd the AC LU Natio n al Prison Proj ect), she was recently tra nsferre d to DanbUJl' FCI for wome n in Con necticut. She is an AIDS e ducator a nd p eer advisor as well as a pri ze-winning poe t a nd write r. He r sho rt story, L ee's Time, publishe d in th e October 1994 issue o f Prison L if e, is curre ntly be ing a dapted fo r a fea wre film. Rosenbe rg is gu est e ditin g a sp ecia l iss ue o f Prison Life o n politi cal prisoners to be publish ed in 1996. J e ff Stewart served 52 months o f a 60-month se nte nce in federal prison for g rowing m a riju a n a. Si n ce his r e lease in Novem b e r , 1994, he h as b ee n worki n g with his sister, Juli e Stewart, at the na tional headquarte rs ofFAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) in Washin gton D.C . J eff is in c ha rge o f program deve lopm ent for FAMM a nd he is pursuing a bach elo r 's d egree progra m in business education. Money Back Satisfaction Guaranteed! Optical, Inc. P.O. Box 680030, Dept PL16 North Miami, FL 33168 Prism Optical has been selling prescription eyeglasses to inmates across the na tion for over 34 years. You may select from a full line of eyeglass frames for men and women, including designer styles, metal frames, and sports glasses, discounted 30-50%. Yo u can have your prescription lenses ground by Prism Optical, and choose from a number of lens option s, including photochromic lenses, ultra-thin lenses, fashion tinting, and UV-filtering and scratch-resistant coating. Single vision, bifocals, trifocals and invisible bifocals are available. Prism g uarantees that the glasses will fit correctly, and the catalog provides guides to gauging the correct size of the temple and bridge. 8 PRISON LIFE APPEALS KENNETH A. WEBB Attorney at Law 30 Years' Experience in Criminal Appeals A complete list of published crimi nal appeals in which Kenneth A. Webb represented the appe llant, together with the disposition made by the court in each appeal, is available fo r your review by writing to Kenneth A. Webb at the address below. 3155 W. BIG BEAVER ROAD, SUITE 206 TROY, MICHIGAN 48084 PRisoNLIFE January-February 1996 EDITOR & PUBUSHER Richard Stratton EXECUTIVE EDITOR & ART DIRECTOR Chris Cozzone EDITOR-AT-LARGE Kim Wozencraft MANAGING EDITOR Jennifer Wynn CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Edward Bunker, Mansfield B. Frazier, Donnie Martin, Susan Rosenberg EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Pamela Widener DESIGN & LAYOUT Bobo Boggins CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: BEHIND BARS Henry Herz CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS: FREEWORLD Steve Conway, Steve Gressok CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Tony Hardman, Steve Krueger CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: BEHIND BARS Alex Friedmann, Michael Montalvo CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: FREEWORLD George Gr'!y, Michael Levine, Jeff Stewart Pleas send me my AFRO-UN ITY Swimsuit Calendar I have enclosed check or money order payable to "Hawks" for $12.95 Name ____________________________________________________ Address ------------------------------------------------ City/State (Zip - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PRISON UFE EDITORIAL OFFICE 200 Yorick Street, Ste. 901 New York, NY 10014 Tel: (2 12)229-11 69 Fox: (2 12)229- 1334 CANADIAN SALES OFFICE Robert Rowbotham, Canadian Managing Director Ken Bean, Assista nt 253 College St., Suite 444 Toronto, ONT M5T 1R5 Tel: (905) 773- 1746 Fox: (905) 773-8088 JOINT VENTURE MEDIA of TEXAS, Inc. CIRCULATION MANAGER MoryMizwo ADVERTISING DIRECTOR A. Richard de Antoni OPERATIONS ASSISTANT Janette Sherlock SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION & INQUIRIES 1436 West Gray, Suite 531 Houston, TX 77019 CAll: 1-800-207-2659 INTERNET ADDRESS HTTP:/ magozine@concom.com/ plmog Address inquiries online to Stan Dickens (sdickens@doyston.com) PRINTED IN U.S.A. PRISON LIFE 9 by Chris Cozzone, Executive Editor JY e ore in touch with a lot of people in federal and state p risons. Many of our connections ore "in-house reporters" or editorial advisors; othe rs ore just friends. Long before you see our concepts and ideas in PLM, they are put to the test by consulting w ith our homiez. Most o f th e time , they agree with what we' re doing or where we're headed. When we run pieces on shitty prison cond itions or exp ose scams like UNICOR, they all soy "cool." Stories on successful ex-cons like Eddie Bunker and Jimmy Santiago Boco, or respected convicts like Herby Sperling, always get us thumbs-up, too. O ther times, we ore warned not to run something. A lot of prisoners suggest we keep away from stories on riots ond gongs because they'll get the mag censored (like they did in our October '94, March '95 and May-June '95 issues). O r they'll tell us not to run stories on snitches, like the one on Dona ld Frankos in the October '94 issue, because "those punkass rots don't deserve the space or attention ." The a rticle, "Challenging the Convict Cod e," in our July-August '95 issue was warned against, too. "What's wrong wit' youse guys?" one guy said. "Y'con't change do code." But we ron oil tha t shit anyway, because our code tells us to run the truth no matter what. When we begin bowing to censorship, we'll be just like any other weak-ass mainstream publication. N one of our sources hod a problem with a n entire issue devoted to prisoners of the wa r on drugs. "Long overdue! " w rote one guy. "It's time people heard the o ther half of the story," said another. Then we told them we were going to run someth ing about the drug scene in prison. Here's some early criticism: "You' ll blow it for a lo t of people," wrote one woman. "That's just what the public wonts to see: how all these 'coddled' prisoners ore hanging out doing drugs in these country club prisons. Nice going ." It was not our original intent to do a feature on drugs in prison, even though we knew it was a big port of prison life. But when we got inside and sow how the drug scene in pri son reflects th e 10 PRISON LIFE failed drug war on the streets, we felt we hod to confront this contradiction. As we were working with Blowback Pro ductions on the HBO d ocumentary, Prisoners of the War on Drugs, we visited dozens of prisons across the country. During the course o f the filming , and as we put together this issue, we got both video and stills of prisoners doing drugs behind bors. "You can't put a picture of o prisoner shooting up on your cover! " "The poliricions will use it against us! The d eportmen t of corruption will use it as on excuse to crock down on us and stop visits. n "You can't do that!" one dude wrote. "You're supposed to be the voice of the convict! You're on our side!" Well, we ore. A lot of people out there need help. The war on drugs is o mess. The focus of the drug wor is not trafficking and distribution, it's possession arrests. While these petty criminals have little or no impact on the overall drug trade, many of them ore more than just recreational users. Many ore addicts who need help. As you'll read in this issue, the federal and stole departments of correction do little more than scoop these guys off the street and throw em behind bars. Because there ore little or no treatmen t programs, and because the prison environment is deluged with system con do is keep the prison environment clean. If there's any place in the world that should be clean, shouldn't it be prison? The fact that drugs ore just as available in prison as they ore on the street makes a mockery of the government's wor on drugs. I mean, if you can't keep a controlled environmen t like prison clean, how ore you ever going to clean up the streets? "It's the visitors ," a lo t of guards and wardens hove told us. "They bring in all the drugs, smuggled in their buttholes and other cavities." That's what John Q. Public thinks. The truth is, most of the drugs in prison get in through the guards. They con bring it in bulk and make big buc ks under the table. The authorities know this. If visits were really the problem, they would 've been stopped a long time ago Our mission is to show what's going on behind bars. If we pull our punches or slan t our stories to kiss the Man's ass or hype some inmate's bullshit, we wouldn't be the Voice of the Convict. :::~----------~~--~-~---- people gel no help and drugs, these remain addicts. The some argument that says nonviolent people turn violent due to the prison environment con also be applied to drugs. A few years in the system and what happens? Drug users become drug addicts; drug addicts die. Since we all know that rehabilitation is 0 dead word, we figure the least the This month's envelope art: j ed Millrr is the rn1ist responsiblefor the envelope above. A victim of the 3 Strikes laws in California, j ed is loclwl njJ at Sau Quenlin. Douglas Brrg of Eastern Correctional Institution in Mruyland, also one of last )'l'ar's Art Behind &n:s winners, m•aterl tlu• ot/u>r two envelopes on the next page. SQUEAKY COMES CLEAN Dear Richa rd Stratton: I saw your Sept./Oct. '95 story on exconvict Eddie Bunker, and want to write to both him a nd you. As Eddie told you, he and I were swarmed by federal drug agents in the hallway of the Hollywood Holiday Inn sometime in the early '70s. We had no t gone there to score or to discuss a drug deal but to review my notes for a proposed book. I had first me t Eddie a bout h alf an hour be fore when, by th e arra ngement of m u tual friends, he picked me up from the o ld county courthouse and drove me to the h otel. I found Eddie to be a cold and taciturn monk durin g the r id e to the hotel; chit chat was d efinitely n o t in order. Then, within seconds after we stepped o ut of the h otel elevator , agen ts streamed o ut of rooms like cockroaches. Th ey must h ave occupied the whole floor. I was shoved into a room and intermi tte ntly ign o red a nd ridiculed, as agents came in a nd out, disrespectfully rifled and read my notes, a nd after a n h o ur o r so, told me to go. T h ey wanted Eddi e. I learne d la ter th a t h e h ad bee n booked for some ridiculo us d o llar amount of drugs. didn 't see Eddie again until o n e brig ht day when h e a nd a mutual friend stopped by th e Dodge van where my fe male frie nds a nd I were living to drop off an e normously co nspicuous rifle before they went to ro b a Beverly Hills ba nk. I accepted this piece of artillery open ly, as if it were a set of drapery rods. It wou ld 've been in poor taste to argu e. Eddie h ad b ee n to ld that our va n had bee n tailed while we lived beside the courthouse. He himself h ad only recently b ee n let out of j ai l under a false agreement to h elp the feds catch a bigger fi sh , and it could 've bee n assumed by then that they suspected th eir bait was b ad. As it turned out, Eddie's ve hicle h ad a tracking device on it, and h e was re-arrested that d ay fo r bank r obb e ry afte r b eing c hased by seve ral bran ches of local and federal police. During the next mo nths I was living between cities, getting into some troub le of my own, but not o f my own doing. I sp ent six or eight weeks in a central California jail c ha rged with a sh ooti ng d eath th at had occurre d when I was in a n othe r city. I was visited the re by a bow-tie guy who said he was Eddie Bunker's Los Angeles public defender on the H oliday Inn case. ---~=====--------~I-_:_I was wi lling to testify for Edd ie, but - after th e interview, the lawyer could no t say wh eth e r o r n o t he would call me. I think now that I d idn' t ask him eno ugh questions. The murder ch arge against me USA was dropped because I could prove my n o,vh e reabouts, but instead of being released, I was given over to the custody of the Los Angeles she riffs, transported and charged with the robbery of a 7-11. At a prelimin a r-y h earing, I was positively ide ntified , with e motional emphasis, by two indig n a ntly sur e witnesses, bound ove r for tri a l, a nd spent maybe two mo re months in custo d y before th e true perpe tra to r , whose only resemblance to me was by gender, confessed to the robbery. It was during this bizarre stay in the co un ty jail tha t I was ye lled awake, bad gered into hun-y-up-a nd-wait lines, and taken totally unpre pared into th e much larger and mo re po lish ed federal co urtroo m o n behalf of Ed ward Bunker. There he was, well-dressed, at a wide counsel table far across th e courtroom, and he re was I on exhibit in a short-hemmed hand-me-down j ail dress, my face dotted with a forgotten d ry blob of toothpaste/ pimple cream. On the witness sta nd I was asked something that h ad n o t co me up in the conversatio n with the man asking it of me now: ·w hat was Eddie wearing on the day he was arrested? In the previous e ighteen mo nths, I had been arrested in five counties seve ral times for auto theft, at least twice for murder, three or fo ur times for trespassing, once for dissuasio n of a witness, and now for robbery. Most of my friends were in jail; Charlie Manson a nd several others recently sentenced (continued on page 81) Old G lor For United States a d-'-Y ...""aea o.n1y PRISON LIFE II THE RIGHT VERDICT FOR THE WRONG MAN by Mansfield B. Frazier h e swiftn ess o f th e n ot-g ui lty ve rd ict in th e O .J . Simpso n trial shows how re pulsed the jury was by racist, corrupt cops li ke Ma rk Fuh rm an. An ax io m o f law is tha t whoever comes into court accusing a nother must himself h ave clean h a n d s. Fu h rma n' s han d s we re stained with black blood. T he verdict was a n indictmenL of racism a nd co rruption in ow· criminal j ustice syste m. T h e prosec uto rs added furth e r in su lt to Fuhrma n 's c ri min ality fi rst by pro mo ting h im as t h eir key witn ess, th e n t ryin g to save face by sta tin g to th e ju ry, "Yes, Fuhrman is a racist. But h e is a n a no maly, a rogue co p." Su re , li ke the co ps wh o beat Rodn e y King . Or like th e co ps who ro utine ly h a rass, co e rce a n d bru ta li ze b lac ks because they know they can ge t away with it. Mos t b lac k Am e r ica ns a re a ll to o awa re th a t ma ny cops are racists. A growing numbe r of wh ites a re now recogn izing tha t la rge numbe rs of our police ope ra te ou tsid e T 12 PRISON LIFE th e la ws th ey a re sworn to up h o ld . These o u tlaws with badges a nd g u n s a re co mm o n in b ig-city po lice fo rces. The ir ve ry presence in a case ca n, a nd ofte n d oes, ta int th e o utcome. T hough most white po lice officers are no t as d e praved as Mark Fuhrma n, virtually all of th e m will pro tect racist o r co rru pt cops a nd become wi lling accomplices by t heir complaisance. A hard core of bad cops co rrupts a n e ntire police force. If Fuhr man pla nted th e blood y g lo ve at Simpso n 's esta te, he did it because he believed Simpso n had killed white peop le. Like so man y othe r white p o lice officers, Fuhrma n acted as if his first a nd o n ly duty was to pro tect white ness a nd its privileges. Had 'icole Sim pson a nd Ron Go ldm a n bee n b lack, Fuh rm a n m os t li ke ly wo ul d no t have cared en oug h about the outcome of the case to conside r p lantin g evide n ce. The impunity ~ith which Fuhrman perjured himself indicts every police department in America. All cops are capable of committing similar illegal acts because they know that the system they operate under will allow them to get away with it. So much wrong has been done in this country under color of authority-and behind the blue wall of silence-that Detective Fuhrman had no cause to hesitate when faced with an opportunity to plant evidence and bolster his case. "Badly captured; well held," is the secret rule of thumb of many police agencies. Why should OJ. Simpson. be treated any differently? Cops don't make reputations and get promotions by sending Joe Blow to prison. They actively seek high-profile, career-enhancing cases. Some will go to any length to nail a celebrity suspect. Where shoddy, slipshod and outright dishonest police work had been good enough to win conviction after conviction in the past, Fuhrman and his accomplices had no reason to believe it wouldn't work in the Simpson case. Much of the fear that drives the white militia movement is founded on what these people have seen the government, in the jack-booted form of its police agents, do to blacks and other minorities. They fear that the noknock warrant, the stop-and-search with no more probable cause than a hunch (usually based on race), and the flagrant disregard for the rights of non-whites will spill out of the ghettos and imperil their lives. They understand that once the mad dogs within police agencies get a taste for the blood of citizens, they will not be sated. For when a bad cop is caught, police brass circle the wagons. They never clean their houses of those unfit to serve. Racist and overzealous cops are allowed to undermine all our liberties and make a mockery of the principles our forefathers fought and died for. The most frightening aspect of the corruption of our criminal justice system by cops like Mark Fuhrman is that the judges who are in a position (and indeed have a sworn duty) to expose and punish such blatant abuse of the law tum a blind eye to the Constitution and allow fundamental concepts of justice and fair play to be trampled under the guise of fighting crime. Testifying by police and other authorities is routinely winked at by those who are in a position to halt such egregious injury to our court system. Crime has replaced communism as the scare tactic to use on the willingly misled majority. With statements such as, "You're either with us or against us," and "We'll do whatever it takes to get the bastards," the fascist mentality is dividing the land. We have reached the point where it takes..a beloved athlete (albeit a black man) and a multimillion dollar defense team to ensure that justice is served and our rights are protected. OJ.'s guilt or innocence became a secondary issue to the tactics of the police, and rightly so. A solid house won't stand on a rotten foundation, and a criminal cannot be brought to justice by illegal means. Our system of law holds that it is better for a guilty man to go free than for an innocent man to be convicted. And again, rightly so. The police, in their zeal to convict, denied the families of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman a fair prosecution of the man accused of (and, despite many blacks protestations to the contrary, probably guilty of) murdering their loved ones. The police will now compound this failing by refusing to investigate any further. No one will ever be tried and convicted for these crimes. The case is over. American justice is no better served because into all of this the "race card" has been played. , I wish my race didn't have the luxury of interjecting the race card into this or any other case or situation. It is crippling to blacks and protective of a corrupt system. It provides blacks with a strategy even when racism is not operating. It gives us an all too convenient way to duck responsibility for the nefarious acts we, like every other group, commit. To have full and true equality in America, we must be held as accountable for our misdeeds as anyone else. But the very real specter of racism prevents this and robs us of the right to be held responsible for our good and bad deeds as individuals. Unless and until justice is meted out fairly and in a color-blind manner in America, we will always have to question any and all police action because too often racism and the corruption that goes along with it distort the proceedings. Of equal or larger concern to the black community should be the reaction of some of our members to the OJ. case. Here we have a black man who completely disavowed and relinquished his blackness when it suited his purposes. We championed his cause when the white world he abandoned us for turned on him. We surrounded him with our support, our care and our love without mentioning his former desertion. We as a race have been far too quick to forgive those who betray us in this manner. Michaeljackson similarly quit the race and we just as quickly embraced him and his cause because we were afraid that his and OJ.'s blackness wouldn't allow them to receive fair treatment at the hands of a white judicial system. Thus, we are forced into supporting men who, by their actions, have proven that they have no love for their own black race, men whose lifestyles border on the pathological, the shameful and the downright disgusting. Shame on us for not qualifying and attaching strings to our support. If we _allow these black men to so use us, and to turn their backs on us when fame and fortune lure them away, but who then rush back when trouble arises, what message does this send to the rest of the world? It says that we are at best children who will allow ourselves to be treated in any shabby manner while we remain as loyal as lap dogs. Shame on us for not setting higher standards of racial fealty for.those we shower with admiration. In Simpson and Jackson, we find the closest approximation to royalty blacks are allowed in America: athletes and entertainers. We worship and idolize them for escaping the stigma of what white America attempts to portray its black citizens as, yet we make no demands on them for our love. These men managed to transcend the color line by negating rather than celebrating their blackness-but at what price to us as a race and ultimately to themselves? Today, for example, when a black youth is discovered to have talent with some kind of ball, he is given an athlet- O.J.'s guilt or innocence became a secondary issue to the tactics of the police, and rightly so. PRISON LIFB 13 Underwear- Fruit of the Loom 100% cotton, white, Sizes S -XL, 3 Per Pack 'Briefs $4.99 ' Ribbed Briefs $5.99 ' Extended Leg Brief $5.99 'Elastic Waist Boxers $7.49 ·crew Neck T Shirt $6.99 Neck T Shirt $6.99 ·rank Top $5.99 ·v Big/Tall Underwear- 2XL-3XL 1 00% Cotton, white, 3 Pe r Pack ' Briefs $7.99 'Elastic Waist Boxers $10.99 · crewneck T Shirt $9.99 Neck T Shirt $9.99 'Tank Top $8.79 ·v Thermal Underwea r-Forester Natura l color, Sizes S-XL ' Long Sleeve Shirt $7.99 ·orawers $7.99 Big/Tall Thermal Underwear Natu ral color, Sizes 2XL , 3XL, 4XL ' Long Sleeve Shirt $8.99 ' Drawers $8.99 Socks-Fruit of t he Loom Whit e color, 6 pair per pack, Sizes 10-13 ' Athletic Tube $6.99 'Athletic Crew $6.99 'Low Top Athletic $6.99 Sweats • SWEATSHIRTS 100% Cotton; Colors: White, Black, Purple, Green, Orange, Red, Royal B lue, Turquoise; Sizes 8-XL $10.99; Size 2XL $12.99 -5WEATSHORTS Jam Length; 100% Cotton; Colors: Black, White, Natural, Red, Royal Blue, Forest Green; Sizes 8-XL $8.50 • SWEATPANTS 50/50; Colors: Black. White, Purple, Gold , Royal, Red, Raspberry; Sizes 8-XL$9.99 •HOODED SWEATSHIRTS 50/50; Colors: Gold, Royal Blue, Black. White. Green, Red; Sizes 8-XL $12.99; Size 2XL $14.99 Shirts ic scho larship, usually to a white university. If his prowess con tinues to develo p, h e is g iven a sports ca r, a n exp ensive watch, a nd all too often a white cheerl eade r lO marry-at which point he loses all connection to his race. Li ke every othe r race, we need o ur heroes. They offer us hope that th e wretch ed third o f our race still mired in poverty, d egradatio n and ig n ora nce will o ne day rise above the ir squalid conditio n. But just as we accord o ur h eroes admiration , so we must require that they do their duty to the rest of us. W.E.B. Dubois stated in The Soul of Blac/c.Follts that races advance by the excep tional member reaching a high e r vantage-ground a nd the n reaching back and li ftin g his dulle r brothe r up. Sadly, this isn ' t happening e nough within the b lack race. We have been too busy ido lizing the wealth y and famous of our race to notice how qui ckly they have disavowed the down trodden a nd the disenfranc hised. Did the H o llywood branch of the NAACP, which staged a rally fo r Mich ae l .Jackso n, raise its vo ice above a peep to protest th e Rodn ey King beating? Neve r mi nd tha t King is a ne'er-do-well who will constantly be in some son of trouble with th e law. The fac t re mains tha t if we don' t move to pro tect the rig htS o r th e least a mong us, th e r igh ts of all o ur race a re a t risk o f being violated by those in authority. And so it is with OJ. and Michael. Yes, their rightS deserve protection, too. But we, ord inary black me n and women, have rightS also. \Ne have the rig ht tO demand that those in th e position to d o somethin g do just th at: Something. When we tru ly mawre as a race we will demand tha t ou r he roes live up to their rol e as mod els for th e rest of us a nd that they d o not be tray us by becoming pse udo-whi tes. T he O J. verdi ct has done mo re to call much needed a tte ntion to the ende mic co rruption and racism in ou r crimina l j ustice system than the couml ess Rod ney King-like vio la tio ns that ta ke place o n our city streets every day. In this case, it may be tha t it is be tte r for a guil ty man to go free in orde r to d e mo nstrate to the rest of us how g uiily we a re o f allowing innoce nt men a nd wome n to be treated unfairly by o ur criminal j ustice system beca use o f' race. It's just too bad that th e ma n himself is such a d isg race lO his people. rrn •HANES T EE SHIRT 50/50; Colors: Black, White, Ught Blue, Mint, Yellow, Fuchsia, Gold, Navy, Purple, Red, Royal Blue, Jade, Teal; Sizes 8-XL $5.99; Sizes 2XL-3XL Available Colors: White, Black, Navy, Red. Royal Blue $6.99 •HANES LONQ SLEEVE TEE 100% Cotton; Co!ors: Black. White, Ash, Purple, Red, Navy, Royal Blue, Jade, Teal; Sizes 8-XL $8.99; Size 2XL $9.99 *TURTLENECK SHIRT Long Sleeve; 50/50; Colors: Black, White, Purple, Gold, Royal Blue, Green, Maroon; Sizes 8-XL $12.99; Size 2XL $1 3.99 Jackets • Nylon Outer S hell/ Kasha Lined Windbreaker Colors: Gold, Purple, Silver, Red, Black, White, Navy. Royal Blue, Maroon; Sizes S-3XL $ 18.99 •Solid Satin Jacket/Kasha Lined Colors: Silver, Black, White, Red, Purple, Maroon, Navy, Royal Blue; Sizes S-3XL $24.99 ORDER INSTRUCTIONS: On a piece of paper, list Specific ltem(s) being ordered, size, color, quantity and dollar amount. Also Include your name, number and facility address. Include $4.00 Postage and Handling. Mall check or money order to: CELL SHOP PO Box 5248 North Bergen, NJ 07047 Or just send for an attractive free Cat alog. Include any suggestions or comments. 'Please allow 2 w eeks f or Delive ry after payment is received. Thank You. (;J~I~I~ 14 PRISON LIFE FROM DEEP W ITHIN THE PURGATORY OF AN AMERICAN PRISON "Humorous, always compassionate, and painfully real. Bravo! A well-crafted sojourn into prison life." -Piri Thomas, author of Down These Mean Streets "A remarkable writer.... The evidence is not just of talent but of tenacity and courage that most of us can hardly imagine. • - The New York Times By the author of The Boys In Cell Block "C" Sllf)l 1 V INTAGE 0 BOOKS Now In Paperback, $11.00 "All the News You Can't Confine" BLOCK BEAT America's National Prison Newspaper Januan;-Februan; 1996 ----- RIOTS ERUPT IN U.S. PRISON SYSTEM It was the most widespread and cost- direct response to Congress's refusal crack laws are a race thing and how ly uprising the American penal system to amend the unfair sentences for th ey shou ld be changed. Finally, we has ever experienced. When it was crack cocaine offenses. C4 was sen- thought, somebody understood what over, 70 federal prisons across th e tenced to over nine years for posses- is happening. " country were locked down. Various sion of 4.9 grams of crack. If he had According to a study by th e U.S. sources said anywhere from 20 to 40 been caught with powde r cocaine, he Sentencing Commission, about 14,000 prisons had gone off. The unprece- would've received a slap on the wrist of the 90,000 federal prisoners are dented rash of rioting r esulted in and two months probation. incarcerated for crack offenses. The dozens of injuries to prisoners and staff On October 18. the House of Rep- study also shows that 88% of these and caused tens of millions of dollars resen tatives voted 332 to 83 to reject a offenders are black, 7% are Hispanic in damage, overtime pay and lost rev- proposal by the Federal Sentencing and 4% are wh ite. In contrast, 32% of enue from closed Federal Prison Indus- Commission to modify the 100 to 1 offenders convicted for powder tries factories. sem e ncing disparity between crack cocaine crim es are white, 27% are As yet, the full extent of the casual- and powder cocaine. Under current black a nd 39% are Hispanic. The Senties and damages is not known as federal law, possession or distribution tencing Commission's report to ConBureau of Prisons officials continue to of five grams of crack cocaine means a gress r ecommended removing the shroud the disturbances in secrecy. At mandatoqr five-year sentence without dispari ty in se ntences for crack and press date, at least one federa l peni- parole. To receive the equivalent se n- powder cocaine. tentiary (USP Atlanta) "Whenever the opposiwas still locked down, and tion spoke out during the USP Leavenworth seems d ebate," re ports C4, "their to be under a communiargum ent h ad n o merit. cation blackout-we have When they came out with heard nothing from our 'We just need to lock usual sources at Leaventhese people up,' there worth, and other prisoner were experts who opposed advocacy groups report this as unjust. At the time that they, too, are co nthey took a voice vote, cerned that prisoners in everyone in the TV room Leavenworth are being jumped up, happy. It realkept incommunicado as a ly looked as if something result of trouble at the was going to be done. But maximum security pen. then they took the count. Although major media We couldn't even look at outlets reported some of each other. We were in a the incidents early in the state of disbelief. "There was no question course of more than three weeks of rioting and lock- Prisoners and experts agree crack laws target minmities. A guard at 0/da- there wou ld be tro u b le. down, they relied on fed- homa State Reformatory monitors two drug prisoners: Lionel Fortenberry People were saying, 'The eral prison officials for (middle), who received 100 years for fJossession of crack with intent to dis- more they lock us down , information and quickly tribute, andAldofus Wade (right), wlw got60 )'eal-sfor conspiracy to disttib- the more we're gonna dropped the story as BOP ute crack. Photo IJy Ch1is Cozzone. tear this shit up."' spokesmen refused to According to a prisoner admit there was a crisis. ' - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - ' at FCI Talladega, a riot Reports from prisoner witnesses tell a tence for powder cocaine, you would there also broke out soon after the different story. have to be caught with 500 grams. debate. There was a chain reaction "The feds are saying it's racial," says The day the proposal was defeated, from prison-to-prison. C4, a prisoner at the Federal Correc- riots broke out at five U.S. prisons. "It was spontaneous," reports one tiona! Institution in Memphis, TN . Upri sings at oth er institutions soon prisoner. "The frustration felt by all of "But it's not. During the riot, you had followed . us in the federa l institutions has Crips and Bloods from LA, you had "Everyone was in th e TV room reached the boiling point. We got no gangs from Chicago, you had white watching the debate on CSpan," says more parole, no more good time, no guys, all in this together. There 's C4. "We were following th is bill from more educational programs, and nothing racial going on." day one. During the debate, congress- more time than rapists and killers, all The uprisings, explains C4, were in me n and judges explained how the for a few rocks." PRISON LIFE 15 BOP Crisis ( co~nued from previous page) During the lockdown, prison guards harassed prisoners who are members ofFAMM (Families Agai nst Mandatory Mimimums) and singled them ou t as ringleaders due to the group's advocacy effo rts, which include eliminating the disparity between crack and powd e r cocaine sen te nces. FAMM 's newsletter, the FAMMgram, and Prison Life have bee n accused of facilitating communication between prisoners. "The only communication we had," says C4, "was through our fami lies, altho ugh this is the first d ay I've been able to make a call-a full two-and-ahalf weeks after the uprising. Because this co untry has a way of lockin g up fa milies, word gets spread through the home. 'Yo ur brother at so-and-so pdson called today.. .'" Federal Di tri ct Judge Ri chard Cona boy. who, as Chairman of th e Sente ncin g Commissio n , ove rsaw pre paratio n o f th e Commissio n 's report, said tha t he had bee n .. forewarned th at if something isn' t don e soo n th e re may be undesirable results." And in fact the BOP predicted tro uble bac k in 1993 after d istu rbances in three prisons related to the crack laws. Ye t, once the troubl e began , th e BOP typically overreacted a nd, according to inside witnesses, the g uards provoked disturbances at several institutions. "You would no t be lieve what is going on in this place," reports a pris- o ner at FCI Marianna, Flo rida. "In the ea rly ho urs of O ctober 25 (Wedn esday), there was work call. The people left th e units but quietly congr egated in the ya rd for a peace ful no wo rk d emo nstratio n. But the peo pl e wh o run this place are just itching for a fight. They had the ir SORT team r eady. They came in numbe rs, all dressed in black with black helme ts, black sh ields an d with arm ame n ts. They ca me in with AR-15 assau lt machine guns that each ca rried a 30 round ammo clip. Also, th ey came in with sho tguns, tea r gas guns and tear gas foggers. They bombarded the yard with tear gas. We've all bee n locked down since. "Now the SORT team, who look just like Nazi SS troopers, bring u s o ur box lunch and try to intimidate us day and night. Tod ay the SORT team came into o ur cell, made a shambles of it, and took away my ce llma te on some bum excuse. "All weigh ts, pool tables, ping pong tables and other recreational stuff have been taken away. I feel that the govemment, as well as d1c warden here, wants us to go off so that they can keep us on lockdown. All o ur windows have been bolted shut, there are bars going up all over the place. This place really looks li ke he ll now. They eve n have thre e peo ple to a cell-o ne slee ps on the floor. H e re come 15 SS troopers to take o ne more prisoner tO the hole." At the minimum-secu rity fede ra l priso n camp in Atlanta, pri so ners report th at a SORT (Specia l Operations Response Team) sq uad invaded the camp while priso ners slep t. The SORT team then began beating priso ners indiscriminately with clubs. ..We've never seen an ything like this," said Monica Pratt of FAMM, after prisoners and fam ily members called to report the beatings. "Som etimes th e re is a good explanation. But the stories are coming together to paint a very disturbing picture ." In o ne instance, a blind prisoner at the camp was clubbed by SORT team members. A re po rt fro m USP Lo mpoc also atu·ibu tecl much of the u·ouble to overzealous g uard s. "Du ring lun ch, two cops pushed a black kid fo r taking an extn dessert. H e put it clown, but the co ps kept pushing him. The kid pushed back and shit flew: Peo ple were jumping, co ps were running to pile on, several fights broke o ut. The cops almost lost control. It took iliem about 3 to 4 minutes to regain orde r. Several guards were injured. 'They were e mbarrassed ; n ow they're pissed. To get even , th ey've condu cted hosti le shaked owns and destroyed personal property. Firearms we re broug h t in for th e first time since Alca traz. A SORT tea m has arrived: he lme ted, jackbooted , clubcarrying troops are in comple te contro l now. They want to hurt th e co n victs to get even . I think this wi ll probably last a while." At FCI Memp his, whe re there was ta lk of an upri sing eve n before the debate. the actual rio t b roke two days after me vote. "A work strike had been one of the altern atives," a prisoner said, "but the PRISON RADIO SHOW WINS AWARD H ouston 's Pris011 Program (KPIT, 90. 1 FM) won th e Best Radi o Talk Sh ow titl e in a co ntest sponsor ed by th e Houston Press. Airing Fridays between 9 and 11 p.m. , the progt·am was laun ched in 1980 by Ray Hill, a former Texas prisoner and gay rights activist. As a manager o f KPIT, Hill started the radio call-in show for Texas Depanment o f Corrections prisoners and their fam ilies. Hill wanted "to cast some lig ht down the clark channels of the criminal justice system,., he says, and the hour-lo ng show quickly doubled in le ngth . The Prison Program ran on Sundays a t fi rst, but Hill found that the time slot was causing prisoners to miss th eir suppers. Its new slot on Friday nights is a time when, Hill says, "convicts do n 't generally have a hell of a lot to do." Hill learned that first hand when he was convicted of burglary and sentenced to 160 years in 1970. Luckily fo r the prisoners who use his show·as a lin k to th e o utside wo rld , H ill wo n an appeal o n hi s se ntence and was released after four years behind bars. 16 PRISON LIFE I I l, outrage was so great, we wanted something full-strength." · "It broke out at chow time while everyone was eating," reported C4. "All of a sudden, units were on fire. There was chaos from noon until tenthat night. I was locked in my room and the whole unit was smoking. We thought everything was burning up. But my celly next door kicked my· door off its hinges and got me out. "There were people everywhere. My homeboys were at another unit so I _ went to see if they were okay. There were police everywhere, not shooting guns but cameras, trying to capture everyone on film. We saw the warden. He turned around and rani The goon squad came in but turned back when the prisoners ran to the rec yard. It was a mess. The Beale Unit was on fire, the Memphis Unit was totally destroyed. We even tore up the UNICOR factory some. There had to be millions in damage. "A lot of guys were hurt from fire and smoke," C4 continued. "At least one person is in critical condition. Thirty or 40 suffered from smoke inhalation after the goon squad smoked out a building. Then we were given masks and told to get our homeboys from the buildings that were smoking. Then we were all locked down." Prisoners at FCI Memphis were locked··down for two-'and-a-half weeks. "They kept us in busses," says C4, "10 busses outside the complex. Some slept outside in the cold. We didn't even have shoes for three days. We were fed bologna sandwiches." During the lockdown~ prison~rs say, the institution did everything it could · to cover up or downplay the riot. "The goon squad came in ~nd tore up everything," says C4. "They took everything that was written. I had a diary I was writing in. It's gone. They're trying to hide the fact that this was not a racial thing but in opp(}sition to the unfair crack sentencing. "They shipped out all. the leaders by now. They were put on busses, destination unknown. They shipped off the Muslims and anyone connected to . the Nation of Islam, too, I think, because of the Million Man March. Gangl~aders and those who were heavily jacketed are also gone. I'm sure they're recording this phone conversation-then I'll be gone, too." Although several prisoners voice regret in having to resort to violence, C4 sums it up: "We know it's wrong," he says. "But we've been denied so cold, so bluntly, tha~ we just don't care PRISONER DEATH. PURSUED IN HIGHER COURT Kingston, Ontario-October 24 marked the second anniversary of the death of Robert Gentles, a prisoner at the maximum-security Kingston Penitentiary. Gentles· was 23 at the time of his death, said to be·causec:I by asphyxia. During a lockdown, guards stormed and maced Gentles' cellwhen he refused to lower the volume of his radio. Gentles was taken to a segregation cell, hands cuffed behind his head, and placed face down on a bunk. He never got up. According to Tidy Francis of the Black Action Defense Committee in Toronto, "Robert Gentles didn'tjust die. He was executed." Robert Gentles was a 240-pound, prisoner rights activist serving a 31-month sentence. He was handled by at least six guards trained to deal with violent incidents. Mtera brief inquiry, the government closed the case. Ontario's chief pathologist cited the cause of death as "positional asphyxia." Gentles' family and anti-racism groups throughout Canada were outraged. Exercising a rarely used. Canadian law, the Gentles family filed charges of manslaughter and criminal negligence causing death against the six guards in September 1994. By March 1995, charges against folir of the guards were dropped, leaving only Brian Aitchison and Sean Wylie to stand trial. During th~s time, Wylie was transferred to a minimum-security institution, where prisoners filed complaints of abusive behavior. On June 22, all charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. Of grave importance to the family are the three conflicting autopsy findings between prosecution and independent pathologists. Dr. David Dexter, a Kingst~n pathologist, performed the initial autopsy on Gen ties and refused to offer a specific cause of the asphyxia du_ri~g the inquiry. In an earlier hearing, however, Dexter told a Justice of the Peace that "Swelling at the back of 9entles' neck could be the result of pressure being applied." Despite this testimony, he failed to mention any swelling in his original post-mortem report. Dr. Frederick Jaffe, a retired forensic pathologist retained by the defense, said that after reviewing Dr. Dexter's file and performing a second autopsy, "All findings point toward a death due to smothering, probably by a pillow." The government reported the guards used reasonable force and that the swelling behind Gentles' neck and a cut over his lip were irrelevant. Ontario's chief forensiC pathologist, Dr. David Chiasson, argued that "It is highly unlikely Gentles was suffocated, since it would have taken considerable force to hold down a 240-pound man." The defense points to the siX guards present and the fact that Gentles was handcuffed. ·On the second anniversary of her son's death, Carmetta Gentles led a vigil and march through Kingston, ending outside the prison. Attorney Julian Falconer, hired by the family, will pursue the charges in a higher court. In the initial court appearance, Correction Officer Wylie was.represented by a successful, outspoken Toronto attorney, Alan Gold. Paid by the Corrections Service of Canada Union, Gold is known for representing high-profile clients for high fees. The Gendes family has filed a separate civil suit for $10 million against the warden; the Correctional Service of Canada Union, and the six guards. -Tom Mann anymor~." PIISOI LIFB 17 HELP WANTED Books Beyond Bars respectfully regrets the delay in responding to those who have written and requested catalogues. A catalogue of over two million titles would be too voluminous and cost prohibitive to send to each detainee. However, we would like to supply one price and title list to the libraries of each institution and continually update them as we receive our updates. Books Beyond Bars, a subsidiary of Captive Marketing, offers inmates and their families the same access to the more than two million books currently in print in the free world. We also carry a current price and title list for all 1nagazines currently in circulation. Please send us the name of the director of education and/ or the individual who oversees the library and we will contact them on behalf of the prisoners at your institution. We are currently putting together a mail order legal research kit for inmates wishing to learn the correct use of a law library. Also, please feel free to write to us and explain the special needs of your particular institution. Help us to help you gain better access to free world books, magazines and other literary services. Here is a list of a few of our special services: • Spanish translation of legal documents • Federal pleadings reviewed by accredited attorneys and paralegals • Legal research syllabus for proper use of law library research tools and teclmiques On the Astral Plane ... • Computer-generated Astrological Charts • Computer-generated Midpoint Trees • Computer-generated Chart Analysis $5.00/page $2.50/page $15 $5/chart $10/chart $25/chart Books Beyond Bars, Publishers • P.O. Box 4865 • Hialeah, FL 33014 Or call (305) 444-0120 (No collect calls please.) Don' t waste your time! Write today. Thank you for your valued patience and patronage. Books Beyond Bars is a subsidiary of Captive Marketing, Inc. We do not mail hate or racist literature. • Libras En Espanol. TAKE ACTION! REPEAL THE DRUG LAWS! SURVEY Prisoners and Families of Prisone rs-Telephone your sena tors and congressmen once a month with the following message: Repeal the mandatory minimum sente ncing laws that pertain to drugs. Decriminalize drugs and stop wasting my taxes incarcerating drug offenders. Dial 202/ 224-3121 to speak to your representatives. If you don 't know their names, call your nearest post office for the information. - Thomas R. Geers, USP LewisbU1-g. "GETTING HIGH IN JAIL" Legal vs. Illegal Drugs PRISON EDUCATION. Boston University is interested in forming a national assoc iation of colleges that co ntinue to offer educational programs for prisoners. Any readers who might know of college programs offe red at federal, state or county joints that have su rvived the '94 Crime Bill, or former inmate students whose college programs have been cut due to the loss of Pell Grants (include n ame and address of eliminated program), please contact: Walter J. Silva, Director of th e Prison Education Program at Boston University, Metropolitan College, 808 Commonwealth Ave nue, Boston, MA 02215. For the past 25 years, Boston Un iversity h as offered college programs at the following prisons: MCI Norfolk, Bay State Correctional Center a nd the women's prison, MCI Framingham. PELICAN BAY LIFERS have recently formed a support group but would like to see how other cons are running their own groups. If you h ave any suggestions, ideas o r any helpful literature, please send to: Dr. George Leavitt, Pe lican Bay State Prison, P.O . Box 7000, Crescent City, CA 95531-7000. Can you answer yes to any of the following questions? 1. Did you swallow, or were you injected with any kind of drug (medication) after you were taken into custody by the police, through the time you were sentenced for your current commitment? 2. Was this a " mind-altering" drug? Did it make you feel different from the way you normally feel? 3. Was this drug given to you before or without your signing a written " informed consent" form? 4. Was this drug(s) given to you by a medical doctor or psychiatrist? 5. Before being arrested, were you taking these same medications or just after you were arrested? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, please write to the two addresses below and state who you are, what state and county you' re from , and what drug(s) were administered to you in jail. It is illegal to take a defendant to court under the effects of mind-altering drugs w ithout due process of U.S. and state laws. Write to: B. Buechler, 825 Battery St., 1st Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111 or B. Yaley, 1606 Milvia Ave. , Berkley, CA 94709 Thank you for your help and participation in this survey. INCARCERATED NATIVE AMERICANS: The Native American Church, Inc. is a legally incorporated and recognized entity which fights to protect and establish Native American Freedom of Religious Rights in all ironhouses across Turtle Island (U.S.A.) The NAC is not a prison gang or a disruptive group but merely see ks to practice ancestral religions. NAC h eadquarters is in Houston, TX; chapters have been established in WA and CA, and more are p lanned for OR and OH. The NAC supplies limited religious ite ms to incarcerated Native Americans if you have been approved by the DOC to receive these items. Native American brothers an d siste rs in other states inte rested in starting a chapter should write to: David Thunderhawk, #399488, Rt. 1, Box 150, Coffield Unit, Ten n essee Colony, TX 75884. Lib ~ ration to all prisoners! A-ho Mitakuye Oyasin! PRISON LIFE 19 VOICE OF THE CONVICT ------------ ------------------ --------- -----------------· FOR 1 YEARCall: 1-800-207-2659! Check or Money Order 0 Visa 0 MasterCard Card # _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Exp. _ _ __ 0 Name_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Number_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ Institution _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ ______ Address _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ___ City_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ State.________Zip Code._ _ _ _ _ __ 6 HARDCORE ISSUES 0 ENCLOSED IS $19.95 (Canada $28.75) Please allow 6-8 weeks for delivery. . Make check or money order payable to Prison Life Magazine (U.S. $ only). Send to: Prison Life, 1436 Gray, Suite 531, Houston, TX 77019. In Canada, send to 253 College St., Suite 444, Toronto, ONT M5T1 R5 (Canadian $.) DRUG efBple LfBcked up lGl Y.fBU -Get Decades A3 peli tician3 in the l 98G 3tried te 3 he~ that they were "doing some thing" in the wa r on drugs, mandatory min im um se nte nces for drug offe nses beca me co mm o n . T he ex pectatio n was that m a nda tory minimum would reduce the availa bility of drugs by re du cing th e numbe r of suppl iers, b ut 1he expecta ti on has not come tru e. Wh at has co m e tru e is a living nightma re of barbaric punishme nt for small-time oiTcn ders. The governme nt's war on drugs has succeed e d wildly in packi ng priso ns, but that's about a ll. • The numb e r of adu lts in sta te an d federa l priso ns o n drug charges more than tripled between l 986 and 199 1. • Ne arly l in eve ry 3 new state prison ers is a drug offende r, up fro m I in 25 in 1960. Much o f the priso n p op u latio n explosio n is due to ma ndatot-y m ini mum sentences imposed by Co ngress in 1987 fo r eve n th e sma llest fe de ral drug vio la tions; many states have adop ted mandatot-y m inimums as we ll. THE ORIGINAL CULPRIT:SENTENCING RE FORM ACT Alth ough mandatot-y minimums arc some times co nfused with the federal sentencing guide lines, it is important to u nde rstand the distin cti on. Through 1983, federal judges e njoyed broad se nte n cing discretio n. T hat latitude allowed judges to tailo r the sente nce to the facts of the individ ual case; it a lso resulted in large se ntenci ng disparity. In 1984, Congress e n acte d the Sentenci ng Reform Act, perhaps the most signi ficant c han ge in se n te n c in g policy in American histOry. T o begin with , th e ac t a bo lish ed parole in the federal prison system. In additio n, th e Sentenc ing Re fo rm Act de legated to th e U.S. Sente n cing Commission broad discretiona ry powers to create a body of sente ncing g uide lines that the fede ra l couns would be req uired to fo llow. T he g uide li nes have been fuJl y operative in th e federal courts for severa l year . The g uidelines begin by assigning a base-level sente n ce to each type o f crime. That se nte n cin g level is the n e n h an ced by aggrava ting fac to rs (such as perpetrating t h e crime in a n unusually brutal ma nner) and reduced by mitiga ting factors (such as accepta nce of' responsibility fo r th e c rim e) . The co mpu tatio n th e n provides the sente nc ing judge wi th a particular range within wh ic h he may sente nce the d efendant. Sentencing guide lines have bee n criticized for th eir rigidity and severity. T he defendant's perso na l c haracteristi cs a rc "not ord ina rily re levant. " Tha t a pe rso n has bee n em ployed fo r th e Jast 30 years, raised three c hildre n, and contribu ted th ousa nds o f voluntee r ho u rs to charity d ocs no t en title he r to any se nte nce re duc tio n co mpa red to a pe rson wh o has nc\·er held an honest j ob or clon e anything for th e community. T he 700 pages o f fede ra l se ntencing gu idelines are, in the words o f Federal District judge j ose Cabranes, "nearly un inte lligible to victims, d e fendants, an d observers, n ot to me ntion the lawye rs and judges in volved . Disparity is rife, though much o f it is now hid- ---~ PRISON LIFE 21 den within th e guideli nes the mselves a nd in th e silent exercise o f discre ti on by police office rs a nd fede ral agents, prosec utors, pro bation o ffi ce rs a nd fede ral judges." SEALI NG THE DEAL: MAND ATORY MINIMUMS Whil e m a ny fed e ral priso ne rs a re semen ced according to the guide lines c rea ted by th e U.S. Sente ncing Commission , th e re are also statuto ry mandato ry minimums for ce rtain c rimes. Whe n statuto•·y ma ndato ry minimums e nacted by Cong ress co nflict with the sentencing guidelines, the mandatory minimums prevail. Thus, if the senten cing guidelines specify a senten ce in the 5- to 6-year ra nge, but the sta tuto ry ma ndato ry minimum requires a 10-year minimum se nte n ce, the 10-year se nte nce is imposed . Today th e re a re ove r 100 fed eral laws specifyin g ma ndato ry minimum se nte nces. Alth o ugh a few mandatory minimums h ave existed since 1790 (for piracy and murd e r), suc h se nte n ces did not become widespread in th e federal system unti l 1956, when they we re e n ac ted as part o f fed e ral effo rts to contro l narcotics. T he fed eral mandatOI)' minimums we re re pealed in 1970, as Re publican a nd De mocra tic me mbe rs of Congress recogni zed the fl aws in the mandatOI)' minimum approach. But in 1984, Congress e mbarked on a process th at continues today, adding vast new numbe rs of mandatory minimums, particu la rly fo r c rimes involving drug or firearm o ffe nses. In fact, 94 pe rcent o f fede ral manda tory minimum cases invo lve four laws cove ring dr1,1gs or wea po ns. Th e m an d a tory minimum s a re ex tre m e ly tough on drug offe n ses and make drug weight almost th e sole facto r in setting a drug c rim e sen te n ce. Fo r exa m p le, me re ly possessing m o re th a n fi ve grams of c rac k cocaine requires five years in fed e ral prison. (An individ ual packe t of sugar in a restaurant weighs a bo ut o n e gram.) The on ly fac tors o th e r than drug weig ht th at may be co nside red in the se n tenc ing are (1) if the de fe nda nt has prior convictio ns (in whi c h case th e ma nd a tory minimum is r aise d ) and (2 ) if th e U.S. Atto rney makes a motion sta ting that the defendant has provided "substa nti a l assistance" in obta ining th e convi c ti o n of a noth er drug criminal (in whi c h case th e co ur t h as disc retion to sentence the defendant to less tha n the mandatOI)' minimum ). In 1988, Congress added conspiracy to commit a drug offense to th e list of c rim es with m a nda to ry minimum s. Co nspiracy c harges e n ab le prosec utors to cas t a wide n e t in a ppre he nding suspected drug o ffe nd e rs. For exa mple, if a woma n te lls a n und e rcover fede ral agent whe re to buy some LSD, a nd th e age nt th e n buys som e LSD from a pe rson who possessed five g rams of LSD, th e woman , as a "conspirato r," is subj ec t to th e same m andatOI)' minimum as is the pe rson wh o ac tually possessed tJ1 e LSD. Beginning with New York 's Rockefe lle r Law in 1973, almost every state has e n acted its own manda tory minimums. T he tre me ndous e mphasis o n imprisoning drug offenders h as resulted in a correctio ns boom: • In Washing to n State the numbe r o f drug priso n e rs has r ise n 966 pe rcen t since 1980. • In New York State 45 p e rce nt of all n ew priso n co mmitme nts are fo r drug convictions. • Illi no is prisons n ow hold fi ve Limes as ma ny drug priso ne rs as th ey did five years ago. • T h e dire c tor of Fl o rid a' s Departme nt of Co rrec ti o ns describe d th e drug war as "th e primary e ngine fueling th e e normous g rowth ex pe ri e n ced by Flo rida's correctio nal syste m. " • In T exas, the number o f drug offe nders in prison rose 350 pe rcent fro m 1989 to 1992. • A wh opping 70 p erce nt of federal prisoners are drug offende rs. Th e co mbin a ti o n of mand a tory minimums a nd the sente ncing guidelin es res ults in seve re se nte n ces for fi rst-tim e drug offe nde rs. In 1990, 88.9 pe rce nt o r all drug o ffe nd e rs in federal co un wh o had no prior co nviction for a ny o ffe nse were se nte nced to priso n . In co n trast, 79.4 percem of fi rst-time vio le nt c rimin als we re se nt to priso n. Drug offe nd e rs with no pri o r r ecord were se nte n ced to a n average priso n te rm o f 68.4 months, compared to 56.2 months fo r vi o le nt criminals with no prior record. "REAL OFFENSE" SEN'I'ENCI NG & DUAL PROSECUTION: FURTHER MISCARRIAGES OF JUS'I'ICE Most peo pl e b e lieve th a t in th e Ame ri can c rimin a l justice sys te m a pe rson may be se m enced fo r a c rime o nly if he p lead s gu ilty to th e crime or is convic ted of the crim e after a trial. Alth ough conviction-based sente ncing was th e practice in Am e rica for most o f its histot)', it is now be ing replaced with "real-offense" se nte ncing. Under real-o ffe nse se nte ncing, a pe rson who is convicted of a ny crime may have his sente nce in creased o n the basis of any oth e r o ffe n se th at th e prosec u tor a ll eges was com mitted-eve n though the supposed real offe n se was neve r proven in a court of law. Incorpo rated in the fed eral sente ncing gu idelines, real-offense sente ncing is also used in NevJ York a nd othe r states. Al lega tions about th e supposed real o ffe nse may be based o n hearsay, re putati o nal evide nce an d o the r "evide nce" Lhat would not be admissible at tria l. An actual example of real-offense se n tencing involved a defe nda nt who was acqu itted of possessing a ce rtain quamity of drugs and convicted of possessing a sma lle r quantity. The court sente nced him o n th e basis of the highe r a moun t, even though he was acquitted . Fede ral prosec u tio n a nd impriso nment o f a defenda n t who has already bee n prosec u ted in state cou rt is refe rred to as "dual prosecution." Durin g the Reagan and Bush years, administrative guide lines o n dual prosecutions we re g reat ly re laxe d . The double j eopardy cla use of the Bill of Rights mig ht be thoug h t of as a protection aga inst dua l prosec ution , but that cla u se, like th e Fourth Ame ndment, is n o t n ea rly as p owerful as it used to b e, as inte rpreted by co urts who co nf u se bei n g tough on crime with being tough on th e Constitu tio n . Thus, t h ere are more a nd more cases like th ose of Rufin a Ca n edo. Canedo pled guil ty to possession of 50 kilograms of cocaine and was serving a six-year state sente nce. Federal prosec utors cam e a nd demand ed th a t she testify against h er h usband, whi ch she refused to do . H e r g uilty plea in state co urt was usable evide nc e in fed e ral co urt. And so she was se n te n ced to a federal 20-year mandatory mi nim um . H er sta te prison tim e is not cred ited against he r federal sente nce. JUDGES: NO FRIE NDS OF MANDATORY MINIMUMS As long as there have been mandatory minimums, there h ave bee n judges who fo und the resulting sentences repugna nt to prin ciples of justice. In New Mexico in 1981, o n e judge resigned after being fo rced to send to priso n a man with a clean record who had brandished a gun during a u·affi c dispu te. By May 1993, 50 se ni or fede ra l j udges, such as J ack B. We instein and Whi tman Kn app o f e w York, h ad exercised th eir p re rogative to re fuse to hea r drug cases. (Senior judges a re allowed much more control over thei r doc kets th an a re o rdi nary d istri c t j udges.) Many co nservative, Reaga na ppoi nted federa l judges have denounced the 5- a nd 20-year mandatory mini mums as draco nia n misca rriages ofjustice. Fede ral Disu·ictj udge Stanly H a r ris remarked, "I've always bee n co n sid e red a fa irl y hars h se ntencer, but it' s killing me t h at I'm send ing so man y low-level offe nders away for a ll th is time." A Gall up survey of 350 state a nd 49 federa l judges wh o be lo ng to the Amer ica n Bar Associatio n fou n d 90 perce nt op posed to th e fede ra l manda tory min imu ms for drug offe nses. The sen tenc in g gu ide li n es did so mewh at bette r: 27 p e rcent o f the judges th ough t they had worked well, wh ile 59 pe rcent th ought th ey had worked poorly or not a t al l. Fifty-nine pe rce n t of the j udges thought th e federal se ntencing guidelines should be scrap ped , whil e 30 percent did not. T he judges o f' every federa l circuit in the Uni ted Sta tes have e nacted reso lutio ns calli ng for re peal o f the fede ra l m a nd ato ry mi nimums, as h ave the American Bar Association and the Federal Co urt Study Commi uee (crea ted by Congress). The na ti o nal incarceration budget is about $25 billion a nnually. This figu re is about as hi g h as th a t of the muc h-malig n ed Aid to Fa mi lies with De pe n d e nt Children program . Taxpaye rs h ave justifiably b egun to ask wh e th er th e $22 .5 bi llion spe n t o n AFDC h e lps c ure pove rty or, in fac t, ca u ses p ove rty throug h its p e rverse in centives. It is tim e to begin askin g whe th e r the $25 billio n spe n t on priso ns is a n in te ll igent res po n se to a nati on al d rug e pide m ic. Exce11Jled from the Calo lnslilule Policy Analysis, Priso n Blues: H ow Ame ri ca's Foolish Sente n cing Policies Endanger Public Safety, by David B. KofJe!, May 1994. by Michael Levine ''Gentlemen, in this business, you're only as good as your rats.'' -Lecture on the Handling of Crimina/Informants from U.S. Treasury Law Enforcement Academy, August, 1965 "I'm looking for Mike Levin~, ex-DEA," said a man's voice. "How' d you get this number?" I said. It was close to midnight and my wife and I were in a San Francisco hotel on business. "Man, you don't know what I went through to find you." The voice belonged to a well-known California defense attorney who saiP, he'd tracked me through my publisher. "I'm in the middle of trying a case," he said. "I need you totestify as an expert witness. The judge gave me the weekend to find you and bring you here." ''Whoa! Back up," I said. "I'm not a legal consultant." "But you're a court-qualified expert. I checked you out. I read your books. I read some interview you did. Didn't you call the drug war a fraud?" "A huge fraud. But because I talk about thieves, crooks and dopers inside the government doesn't mean I'm gonna work for them on the outside." 24 PRISON LIFB Days before this phone call I had turned down a six figure offer to work as a co nsu ltant for a Bolivian drug kingpin I'd spent h alf my life trying to put in jail. I was a firm be liever in if you can ' t d o jail, don ' t do the sale. "Look, I'm defending the guy for expe nses," snapped the attorney. "He's bee n working sixty ho urs a week fo r the last three years parking cars-does th at sound li ke a Class O ne fucking cocaine deale r to you?" Class O n e was DEA's top rating for drug d eale rs. You had to be the h ead of a criminal organization a nd dealing with tens of millio ns of do lla rs in drugs eac h month to qualify as a Class One. Pablo Escobar and the fabled Roberto Suarez were Class Ones. He had my curiosity. "You can prove your g uy's a parking lot a tte n dan t?" I asked. ''I'll Fedex you his time sh eets. Bette r yet, I' ll se nd you everythi ng-unde rcover video-tapes a nd DEA's ow n re ports. You tell me if the guy's a Class One." "Why me?" "DEA couldn't ge t a ny dope from Mig ue l (not his true name)-not eve n a sample. So th ey charge the poor bas- tard with a n o-dope co nspiracy. Did you ever hea r of a nything like th at? A parking lot attcndanL o n a no-dope conspiracy? The n they bt·ing in a DEA expe rt from Wash ington to testit)' that a true Class O ne doper doesn ' t give sam ples. You and I both know that's bullshi t." His words flashed me back lOan incident I d escribed in The Big While Lie. It was .July 4, 1980, and I was in a suitc at the Bue n os Aires She raton, sitting across a table from on e of th e biggest do pe deale rs alive, Hugo Hurtado Candia, as h e ha nded me a one-oun ce sampl e o f his me rchan d isenin ety-nine p erce nt pure cocain e-as a prelude lOa huge coca ine d eal. The man was part o f a ca rtel th at was two wee ks away from ta king ove r hi whole country. Th e lawyer was right: it was pure bullshit. But it was the kind of bullshit I had always been aware of. The re's enorm ous ca reer pressure on stree t agen t to make as ma ny Class One cases as th ey can, fo r a simple reaso n: fede ral agencies justify their budge ts with sta tistical reports to Congress a nd Co ngress loves to sec C lass Ones. The age nts with the h ighest percenLage of Class Ones are the guys who get mon etatl' rewards a nd promotions. And over the yea rs the professional rats, who origina te more than 95 perce nt Art by Stephen Conway PRISON LIFE 25 of a ll drug cases, had lea rn ed that selling a C lass O ne to th e governme nt was wo rth a muc h bigge r re ward payment. Many o f th e m kn ew the DEA's criteria for a Class O ne be tte r than a lot of the agen ts. Unfortunate ly, in DEA and other fe deral agenc ies-where agents a re trained to be dupli citous to begin with and the n exposed to deceitful, lying, scum bag politicians and bureaucrats who want results that make th em look good and don ' t give a da mn how you ge t them as long as yo u don' t e mba rrass the m by getting caugh t-the re were agen ts who wou ld bend the facts in their own favor. They'd write up a mid-level elope deale r o r a street peddler as a C lass One, based o n "evidence supplied by a previously reliable info rmant," withou t corroborating th e nn's info rmation. To me, that kind of bull hit was no d iffe re nt than a ll the fed e ra l prosecutor with an eye o n public office who exaggerate d th e im porta nce of the ir case to a media that would swallow j ust about a nything as long as it sold papers and got ratings-and it was downrigh t harmless compared to some drug cza r facing 20 mi ll ion Am e ri cans o n Lany King Live a nd saying , "We've turn ed th e co rn er on the drug war," 10 furth e r his po li ti cal career. If you put a ll th e d o pe rs th e 26 PRISON LIFE press had re pon ed as "linked to the Med e lli n o r Cali cartels" hand-i n-hand, they'd circle the fucking Eanh . Bu t DEA n yin g a n ex p e rt witness ac ro ss country to ma ke a pa rking lo t a tte ndant look like a Class O ne coke deale r in a fede ral trial was some thing I'd never heard or. "You d idn ' t a nswe r m e," I said. "What do yo u th ink I can do for yo u?" "Whe n l cross-examin ed the DEA ex pe n he named your book, Deep Cover, as o n e of th e boo ks he read to qual ify as an ex pert. Now I wam you to testifY that he's fu ll of sh it." "The re ' goua be some th ing you 're not te lling me. " "IJ I'm te lling you t.he tru th , wi ll you be here on Monday?" Just the thought of me go ing h ead-to-h ead aga inst the small elite agency I'd bee n part o f for a lmost a quarter of a ce mury put kno ts in my stomach. Outside rs hear about the blue of wa ll sile nce, but n o d escriptio n I've eve r heard really does it justice. To m ost g uys in narco ti c enfo rcement, th e scummy bottom o f life's barrel is the CI- the crim ina l informant-the rat. Th e re's only o ne thing lowe r: a cop who turns rat on his own. And to me, going to work for a dope r was exactly tha t. "H ow did the thi ng get started ?" I aske d. "A C I approaches DEA with a deal. He 's wanted in Argentina and Bolivia. He says, 'If I get you a Class One arrest here, will you get the ch arges dropped agai nst me over there?"' "How much did they pay him?" "Over thirty thousand fucking dollars. And they admitted he's gonna get more when the trial is over." Thirty thousand was n o t all th at much for a C lass One, but I wasn't going to say anything. "And Mr. Car-parker , wh at kind of rap sheet does he have?" "Nothing!" I held the phone away from my ear. "This is his first arrest." "What kind of rap sheet does the ra t h ave?" H e laug h ed. "This g uy's been busted a ll ove r South America for eve ry kin d of co n job in th e book. He eve n tried to sell his wife's vital organs whi le sh e was in a coma." "Come on, counselor," I said. "If I'm telling the truth, will you be here Monday?" "I listened th is far," I said. "If you wan t to send me your stuff, I'll look at it." The telephone woke me early the next morning. It was a retired DEA agent I'd worked the street with for two different federal agen cies. "People called me, Mike" he said. "And I said, 'No way, not Mike Levine. ' You ain't gonna testify for some fucking dirtbag." "I' m not do ing anyth ing ye t, " I said, marve li ng at th e speed of the federal gra pevine. "I agreed to look at th e case file." "The guy's a scum bag, piece-of-shit dope lawyer. H e's like all these guys- every time his mouth moves he's lying. The case was righteous, Mike. Don't fall for itnot you. " When I hung up, my sweet wife and partner, La u ra, was studyi ng me. "You're as pale as a g host." "He's someon e I really respected . Did I sound as mealymouthed as I think?" "No,just really shaken ." The Fedex package was d elivered to my room on Saturday mo rning. I opened it to find a stack of reports including Miguel's work records, the transcripts of aud io-tapes, the rat's fi le (much of it blacked out, as I expected) and a video cassette. It was the DEA's whole case. The work records were straightforward. Miguel worked for a large parking lot ch ain, punching a time clock for an average of sixty hours a week for th e past three years, at minimum wage. He also had a little side business of delivering lu nches to workers in the area. And, as the attorney had claimed, he had no prior criminal record. The CI (I' ll call hi m "Snakeface"), on the other h a nd, was wanted in both Bolivia and Argentina for bad checks, petty theft a nd every kind of scam known to man. He h ad a tota l of seventeen c ha rges outstanding against him. His favorite scam was selling cars he didn't own. His o ther parttime source of income during the last four years was selling drug cases to DEA. Snakeface first comes to Washington, D.C. from Bolivia with a wife a nd two kids wh om he pro mptly abando ns, returning alone to South America. T hi ngs don't go too well and in a sho rt time he 's back in the U.S., on the la m from police and scam victims in two countries. Miguel, a fami ly friend and fellow Bolivian, tries to help out by giving Snakeface part of his lunch delivery business. In the meantime, Snakeface's wife suffe rs a cerebral h emorrhage a nd falls into a coma. While she lies d ying, her grieving husband tries to sell her vital organs. Whe n the sale of h is dyi ng wife's heart, lungs and kidneys doesn 't work out, Snakeface decides to sell Miguel, organs and all, to the DEA as a Class One cocaine dealer. Snakeface's first move showed me th at he was no novice in p laying the federal rat system. Instead of calli ng t he local Washington, D.C. office of DEA, o r th e FBI, he called DEA in California. He described Mig uel as "Chama," the "East Coast distributor fo r a huge Sou th American ca rtel dealing in shipmen ts of thousands of kilos of cocaine into the U.S." a nd "th e h ead of hi s own c riminal organization "- a description th at just happened to fit th e c rite ria for a DEA Class One violator. T he reason Snakeface approached a DEA office in Southern Californ ia, as far away from Washington, D.C. as he could get, was a move of shee r co n man beauty. His experience as profession a l federa l rat had taught h im about the insane competition for h ead lines, budget and glory between the myriad American federal enforcement, spy and military agencies- 53 at last co un t-involved in some form of narcotic enforcement or anoth e r. He knew that the California agents, afraid that the East Coast agents or some oth er agency would steal th eir case, wou ld keep Cha ma King of Cocaine a secreL. California DEA reacted exactly as Snakeface had predicted. Instead of calling the Washington, D.C. office and asking the m to c heck out the information, they sent Sna keface airline tickets a nd money to go to Californ ia so they co uld get their first evidence- a recorded telephone conversation-and lock tl1e case in as a California case. Next Snakeface told Miguel, "Look, I've got this American Mafiosi in California who is dumber than a guava. The guy's so dumb he's even se nt me a ir plane tickets to fl y o u t the re an d set up a cocaine deal. I'll tell hi m you 're the capo de tutti frutti o f all Bolivian drug dealers. You tell this boludo th at you can de live r a ll t h e cocaine h e wan ts. H e' ll give you a co uple hundred t h o usand d o llars out fron t. Th e n yo u a nd me take off back to Bolivia ri ch me n and open up a chain of drive-in theaters." So Migue l-me-Car-Parker went along with the deal. He had failed the U.S. government-financed test of his honesty; a test th at, accord ing to my training, was called Entrapment. Now we c ut to Snakeface in Soumern California making his first DEA-tapped phone call to Chama King of Cocaine. H e calls th e parking lot where Miguel is supposed to be waiting, prepared to p lay the role of Ch ama King of Cocaine for some capo di tutti dummo he knows wi ll be liste ning in. Only Miguel isn't mere. "He's home sick," says tl1e woman who answers the parking lot phone. Do the DEA age nts stop here and ask, "What the hell is the East Coast distributor of hundreds of millions of dollars wort h of cocain e a nd th e head of his ow n crimi n al PRISON LIFE 27 o rgani zatio n d o in g p arkin g cars al l day lo ng?" 1\o. They call his house a nd tape-record the call. Mi g u e l answe rs. He's in a bad way. He a p o logizes to Snakeface, explain ing tha t he's home with a terrible hangover. Then he te lls th is lo ng, co nfused story about some friend of his ge tting drunk in his room, stealing his pa nts a nd wrecking his car. "Shit," says Ch a ma King o f Cocaine, "in th e mo rn ing I co m e o ut a n d I d on' t see m y ca r. Ma n ! 'Tha t so n-of-abitch,' I said. 'Shit! Wh e re's my car? Shi t! ' I was sad ... Shit! It's li ke the o nly o ne I have to go to work." Sn a keface, with som e effort a nd d o ing a ll th e ta lking, fina lly stee rs the conversa tion into some garbled code-talk that sou nd s mo re like Robe rto Duran ll)1ing to explai n the Mo nroe Doctrine to Mario Cuo mo than a drug deal. Snakeface: "Yea h , wh a t I'm trying to do is-since it's a matter whi c h is quite serio us-big-a nd fro m th e o th e r thin gs th a t I've seen like t h is, when we can't be p laying wi th, with unclear words and ... that's why wha t I, what you did , a nd I asked you if you 'd spoken with him, because I know that he has th e fin a n cial capacity and afte r all he's, he·s a partner of, of, of [major d rug cartel leade r] and, and in the e nd anything will yield a profit if we' re h anging on to a b ig sti ck that's o n a big branch and , and we won't have any proble ms. Right?" Chama King o f Cocaine: "Of course." That was about as clear as it ever got. If it was a d ope conve rsati on, the fact tha t he was ta lking across three th ousand miles o r te lephone wire fro m his ho me pho ne-some thing a hi g h-sch ool crack deale r wo uldn ' t do-didn ' t see m to bother Chama or the agents in the least. At th e e nd o f th is co nve rsa tion , did th ese ex pe ri e n ced, hig h ly tra ined age n ts say, "This guy doesn ' t so un d sm art e no ugh to be a Washington He ig h ts steere r," or, "Let's pull th e a utopsy re port on the rat's wife." Nope. T hey opened a C lass O n e invest igati o n targe ting Mig ue l the pa rkin g lo t a tte ndant, and paid the ra t his first thousand d o llars. An d th e re was plenty more to follow. T h e pac ke t of repons in d icated th a t the investigation lasted e ig h t months, during wh ic h tim e Snakeface su ccessfully pimped th e DEA agents a bout Chama King of Cocaine whi le simulta neously pimping Migue l abou t "Tony" (a DEA unde rcover a~e~; t), describing him as "tl1e Dumb-a nd-Dumber of the Maim. During t hat time, Califo rni a DEA conducted no in vestigatio n o f Mig ue l whatsoever. The record showed n o te lep h o n e investiga ti o n to asce rta in whe th er Mi g u e l was making telepho n e calls to any real d rug dealers; no fina ncial inves tigation to see what he was do ing with his drug mi lli o n s; n o surve illance th at would have revea led th a t Chama King of Coke was a working stiff who lived in a oneroom a partmen t. They d id nothing but write down as faCL whatever th eir rat told the m. For eight mon th s Snakeface sta lled the Californ ia agen ts by re p o rting th a t Chama was in th e process of puttin g togethe r a m ~j o r shi pme nt o f cocaine; and the agents continued to pay him . In all , he received a noth e r 29,000 in informant fees, p lus ex pe nses, whic h included perio di c trips back to Califo rn ia fro m Washin gto n to be debri efed 28 PRISON LIFE o n his progress. Fo r e ig h t m o nths th e age nts nagged Sna keface into trying to get Migu el to de live r a sample of cocaine, any amo unt, j ust someth ing to prove he was really in the business. The sa mple n eve r came. Mig ue l d id n' t eve n know a nyo ne who could sell him a small amoun t. And if h e did, he d idn' t have th e money. Snake face was afraid that if he paid for t h e a mple himself, th e Ca liforni a agents might ge t wise to him . So he came up with a cleve r solu tio n: he told the agen ts th at Class One d eale rs don't give samples, on ly small dealers give samples. Wh en, to his asto nishm e nt, they be lieved him, h e took it o ne step furth e r: he to ld them Migu el would not make the deal un less th e age n ts put part o f th e m o n ey- $300 ,000-o ut front, a nd said this was another sign th at Miguel was a true Class One dealer . Snakeface had enoug h expe rie n ce selling cases to th e Feels to know they wou ld n eve r front th at kind of mo ney. He also knew tha t the Feel's indecisio n a nd the slow-moving burea u cracy co uld give him quite a few m on th s o n salat)'-wh ic h is exactly wha t ha ppe ned . After eight months, the Californ ia agen ts fina lly decided tha t if Chama wou ld n ' t deliver dr-ugs to the m witl10ut front mo n ey, they' d get him on video-tape prom ising the m cocai n e a nd acce pting th e mon ey- all they'd n eed to prove him guil ty of conspiracy to possess and distributeand th e n bust his ass. Migue l would face e nough cha rges to make him a guest of th e Ame rican tax payers for mo re years than he had left o n this earth. T he n<H.lope conspiracy arrest would also give the age nts th e ir Class One stat and maybe a headline from th e ever gullible press. By this time Snakeface had not o n ly received $30,000 in ra t Cees, but a ll charges against him in South Ame rica had disappea red . What a country! Now Sn a keface had two final duti es to pe rform for his maste rs: bring Migue l to Califo rni a fo r his arrest a nd the n testify in co urt. More m o n ey was pro mised to come a fte r Mig u el 's convictio n . How muc h , we ' ll never know. Th e stage was n ow se t fo r the fina l ac t th e video ta ping of th e crim e. Only th e re was o n e re m ai ning sn ag. Migu e l didn 't have the money to come to CaliCornia fo r his own a rrest. In a final irony, DEA had to pay fo r his trip. At last, d ressed in h is best Sears casuals and pre pa red to play th e ro le o f a Class One cocaine d eale r fo r what h e th oug ht was a live audi e n ce o f Malia retards, Miguel was o n his way to Califo rnia, like a big Bolivian turkey on his way to e njoy Thanksgiving d inne r. It was close to midnight when I keyed the videotape of the cl imactic unde rcover mee ting betwee n C ha ma King of Cocai ne and Tony Capo ofThe Three Stooges Mafia Family. The scree n flickered to life. Center scree n, Cha ma a nd T ony (the DEA unde rcover) faced each oth er across a table. Be tween the m was a piece of ha nd luggage containing tl1ree h undred g rand in hundreds and lifties. Several proble ms were imm edi ately appare nt. First, they hardl y share d a co mm o n la ng uage. T o ny's Sp a n ish was rudime n tary a t best and Miguel spoke on ly a few words of En g lish . Ton y, for examp le, ke pt refe rring to the "p e r- cento," unti l Miguel finally figure d out h e was trying to say "purity"-a wo rd a nyone who did drug dea ls in Spanish would have known in his sleep. Second, ne ith e r man kn ew his role. It was like Peewee H erman and Newt Gingri ch playing dress-up and pre te nding to d o a drug d eal. Chama was dressed like th e ho te l ma intena nce ma n , a nd T ony li ke an Elvis impersonator. eithe r knew the mechanics of a real Class One drug deal, or any real drug d eal for that ma tter. The'f was no discussion of specific amounts, prices, weights, mee1.1ng places, d e livery dates, provisions for testing the merchan~ise before deliveJ]', methods of delive1l' or prearranged trouiJ)e sign als. lothing h appened th at resembled a real drug dea l, which is typ icall)• a paranoid event all about specifics. What the agents had on video wasn ' t authentic enough for a Stallon e movie. The only thing clea r was that Tony was aski ng Mig ue l to promise that if Miguel was a llowed to leave the room with th e $300,000 h e would delive r a n unspecified amo unt of cocaine within 20 to 30 d ays to an unspe c ified loca tion . Pretty good for a pa rking lot atte nda n t. Miguel e agerly assured his new bene factor that he would ma ke th e d e li ve ry. He was th e n a llowed to exam ine th e mon ey, al'le r which th e undercover DEA age nt asked him if h e was happy wi th what h e saw. Migu e l, who must h ave been thinking that America truly was a land of gold-paved streets gua rded by idiots and that h is friend Snakeface was a ge nius o n a par with Einste in, or a t least H oward Ste rn , assured Tony tha t he was very happy. With all the e le me nts of the crime of conspiracy recorde d o n vi d eo tape, Ton y co nclud ed by sayin g "Wh ew! Thank you ve ry much and I'll wait for your call." "O.K.," said Miguel, h is eyes bugged ou t with disbe lie f as he got to h is feet holding the money. "Hey, dude," said Tony, "I' ll be here a little whi le. I have to make a few calls. Bye." Migue l's loo k as he starte d to le ave with the money said: Fee t, d o n ' t fai l m e now. But the y didn ' t have fa r to goa bout a half dozen steps be fo re he was arrested. PRISON LIFE 29 COLLECTOR's ITEMS-PRISON LIFE BACK JUNE '94 ISSUES ARE SELLIItG O..,.,AS,.! OCTOBER'94 Former DEA Agent Michael Levine Debunks the "Phony" War on Drugs ; Snitch ' n' Bitch: Confessions of a Government Rat; 3 Strikes, You 're In-For Life! ; Prison Fiction : Lee's Time by Susan Rosenberg. JANUARY '95 PLM's First Cover Woman , Karen White-One woman's triumph over 18 years in hell; Ground-breaking journalism exposes the scam on UNICOR: The Economics of Imprisonment; Julie Stewart, founder of FAMM. MARCH '95- 1fi ~~ Art Behind Bars-Winners of PLM's 1st annual Art and Writing contest; Exclusive Interview with Controversial Filmmaker Oliver Stone; First Amendment Rights of Prisoners by William Kunstler & Ron Kuby; From the 'Hoods to the Pen: Gangbangers Speak Out. MAY-JUNE '95 Gangland USA: Part II of PL M's Inside Look at Prison Gangs. Learn the shady history of Texas prison gangs from an O.G.; John Gatti 's Lawyer Bruce Cutler Tells Why the Feds Want Him In Jail; Contract On America by Richard Stratton; Liberating Prison ers With Kindness: Jennifer Wynn on Bo Lozoff. The first six issues of Prison Life are sold out. But you can still score our latest issues. Packed with prison vival strategies and hard-hitting from the inside, these issues are going fast. Own a complete set of Americ~'s hottest magazine. Only ten smacks a shot while they last, and that includes postage & handling. JULY-AUGUST '95- llliJJI1ill.illJM Novelist Kim Wozencraft on the Controversial Case Of Mumia Abu-Jamai-Convicted of killing a cop, this outspoken journalist may have been framed ; Revising the Convict Code; Prison Life Reveals the Truth About So-Called " Resort" Prisons; PrizeWinning Ex-Con Poet Jimmy Santiago Baca. SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER '95 America' s Greatest Living Convict Writer Eddie Bunker, by Richard Stratton ; Real People on Death Row; The first look into the Alcatraz of the Rockies; Inside the Capital's Cage; plus fiction by Dannie Martin. NOVEMBER-DECEMBER '95 An inside look at Alabama Chain Gangs; A CURE for Crime; Gettin' Out & Goin' for the Green ... Legally! 3 ideas for starting your own business; plus Animal Factoryfiction by Eddie Bunker. Zip _ __ Prison Life, 1436 Gray, Suite 531, Houston, TX 770 19. call 1-800-207-2659. I clicked off the video. If DEA stood for Dumb Enforcement Admin istration, Miguel undoubtedly was a Class One vio lator. But a drug dealer he d efinitely was not. Had the agents responsible for this case bee n working for me at any time during the seven teen years I was a supervisory agent, I would h ave j erked the m into my office for a private conference. "There are a million real drug dealers in th is country," I wou ld have told them. "Th ere's probably a couple of hundred working within a square mile of th e office. If you've gotta go 3,000 mi les and spend a qua rter of a mi llion in taxpayer bucks to turn a fucking parking lot a tte ndant in to a Class One doper, you oughta be working fo r the CIA, or Congress, o r whereve r else you ca n convert bullshit to money." I would have put them on probation and moved to fire th e m if th ey couldn't do the job. I had done it before. But was this any of my business now that I was retired? And if Miguel wasn ' t a dope dealer he was certainly a thief, wasn't he? "What are you going to do?" asked Laura. "I wish I knev1," I said. "It's pure entrapment, but th e idiot did his best to sound like a doper. If I'm gonna go against DEA, I do n ' t want to lose." There were things happening to me and things in the n ews that had been on my mind during the days leading up to this phone call , and that would keep me up for the rest of the night. The first 'vas the shooting of the wife and son of Randy Weaver by FBI agents during a raid at Ruby Ridge. T he guy was supposed to be a white supre macist and I'm a j ew, but we had some thing powerful in common: the unbeli evable pain of having our childre n murde red. What had my h ead spin ning in disbe lief was that the case aga in st Weaver that had provoked the raid in the first p lace-possession of a sawed-off shotgun-had been set up by a professional rat like Snakeface, and Weave r had been found innocent by reason of entrapment. I kept flash ing back to an incident from th e beginning of my career , whe n I was serving with BATF, enforcing the federal gun laws. The rat's n ame was Ray. He h ad a g lass eye, no front teeth and a rap sh eet as long as a cheap ro ll of toi le t pa pe r. He was my first CI and would be the prototype for many hundred s to follow. "I met this guy wh o wantsa sell a sawed-off shotgun for sixty bucks," said Ray. "His n ame is Angel. He's a blac k Puerto-Rican. " He flashed me his goal post smile. "One a the m Young Lords," he added, naming the Maospouting Latino organization that was high on the BATF list of favorites. "How do you know it's a violation?" I asked. A sho tgun h ad to have a ba rre l length of less than 18 inc hes to be a vio lation o f the Natio n al Firearms Act, wh ich was the law we e nforced. Ray winked his good eye at me . He kn ew the Jaw as well as a ny age nt. He made his living selli ng drug and gun cases to the governm ent. "Whe n the dude left th e room to go to the j ohn , I measured it. How much is it worth if I duke you in to the guy?" I explained th at if Angel delivered the gun in a car, we would seize it and the informant fee would be raised accordi ng to the value of the car; or if Angel was somebody newsworthy it would be worth a couple of hund red. But Angel-Nob ody-with-one-gun was only worth a hundred bucks (the n twice the average weekly income in the U.S.). Ray already knew all this. Like all professional stools he just wanted th e arrangement spelled out beforehand. If I didn ' t take the case or he d idn ' t like the d eal, h e knew h e mig ht still be a ble to sell it to th e FBI or anothe r ATF agent. "But the dude is a Young Lord, that's got to be worth some thing extra." "People can say they' re a nything . We' ll see who he is afte r I bust him. " Following my insu·u ctions, Ray set up a buy/ bust mee t. Later that night, covered by a team of about a half dozen unde rcover agen ts, I me t Angel, a ne rvous eigh teen-year-old, on Bruckne r Boulevard in the South Bronx. The kid had the gun in a paper bag just th e way Ray said h e wou ld. I ha nded him th e sixty bucks, took the gun and busted him. On the way back to h eadquarte rs in lower Manhattan, someth ing happe ned that Ray didn ' t count on. vVhe n I told Angel tha t possession and sale of a sawed-off sh otgun ca r ri ed a se nte n ce of 25 years in federa l prison, he blinked a few times and turn ed rat himself. (continued on page 74) Genuine leather rifle sling Ms/1 order speclsi/ ONLY 895 Kit Worth $20.00 or more finished/ Learn leathercraft as you complete this adjustable rifle sling. Popular basketweave pattern is pre-embossed -just stain, lace, add hardware and sling is ready to use or to sell! Includes pre-cut leather strip, lace and hardware. Order now and get a Special Bonus! ~~~~~- Send $8.95 check or 11.0. (no coupons pleaae) plus $2.00 pstg..Mg. to: Tandy Leether Co, Dept Pl196, P.O. Box 791, Ft Worth, TX 76101. Umit 2. Offer ends 6/30196. TX residents add 7.25% tax. Good In U.S. and U.S.~ only. Allow 4-6 WMka delivery. For 1996 ~1-llne leathermft Cllalog only, send $3.00 pstgAldlg. (rthrlded on lim order) to address above. Law Offices STEINBORN & ASSOCIATES (U.S. v. McCllslin: U.S. v. $405.098.23) • Cri minal Defense • Forfeiture Double Jeopardy • Recovery of Seized Assets Representing the Accused since 1968 Steinborn & Associates 30th Floor, Smith Tower 506 Second Ave. Seattle, Washington 98 104 206-622-5 1 I 7 fax: 622-3848 Internet: SURLAW@AOL.com AvaiIable for representation, or consultation with your attomey. PRISON LIFE 31 FAR FROM HOME? NEED YOUR LOVED ONES? If you are far from home, the Law Offices of Benning hoff & Ramirez can ass ist you in m ovi ng you closer to your loved ones. We have been able to accomplish this both in the fede ral system and in various states. We have fo und tha t the chance for rehabi litatio n is g rea tly improved w hen there is proximity to famil y and loved o nes. If you find yourself far from your family and loved o nes, please w rite to us. We w ill employ all of o ur years of experience to he lp you. Our ra tes are reason able and we w ill provid e a very prompt response. INTERNATIONAL PRISONERS Oo HOME! Not only do we have years of experi ence moving priso ners closer to the ir fa milies, bu t we' re a lso a ble to assist prisone rs in re turning to the ir h o m e la nds to compl ete their sen tences. Tra nsfers can be arranged to the following countries: Austria, Belgi um, Ca nada, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Icela nd , Ire la nd, Ita ly, Luxembo urg, Ma lta, Ne the rl a nds, Nor way, Po rtuga l, Spain, Swed e n, Switzerla nd a nd the United Kingd om. LIBERTAD TEMPRANA PARA PRESOS HISPANOS Los prisoneros Hispanos, especialmente en el sistema federal, pueden ser transferidos hacia Mexico, Espana, Bolivia, Peru y Panama para recibir libertad temprana, y vivir cerca de sus seres queridos atraves de los servicios del Bufete de Benninghoff & Ramirez. Atraves de nuestras oficinas hemos proveido Ia transferencia a muchisimos prisoneros Hispanos. Los prisoneros transferidos podran recibir libertad immediata bajo fian za, libertad temprana para trabajar, y tiempo libre por buena conducta. Tambie n, hemos tenido mucho exito con prisoneros a los cuales se les ha negado Ia transferencia anteriormente. Favor de escribir a Ia siguiente direccion para que reciba un folleto descriptivo prparado especialmente para prisoneros Hispanos. Write to (Escriba a): BENNINGHOFF & RAMIREZ P.O. Box 1355 SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA 32 PRISON LIFE 92675 Rap Sheet Name: Yusuf Abdush-Shaheed Age: 37 Birthplace: Newark, New Jersey Conviction: Murder in a drug-related armed robbery Sentence: 30 years-IS-year mandatory minimum Time Served: Almost 15 years Ambitions: To help young convicts re-enter society on a straight, sincere path by Pam Widener Those of yo u who ch ec k o u t the Prison Life/ HBO docume m aqr o n J an uary 8, Prisoners of /he War on Dntgs, will see ou r Celly of the Month, Yusuf Abdush-Shaheed, standin g in the yard a t East j e rsey State Prison, explai ni ng in cold, hard terms how easy it is to make drug deals in the j o int, a nd why 75 perce n t of Ra hway prisoners fee l drugs are a necessary part o f making life be h ind bars more bearable. The sce ne is brief but the message is clear: "If it wasn't for drugs in prison, you' d have a lot more viole nce. Ain't110//ting in h e re," says Shah eed. "Whe n yo u got a nger, frustration, p rison and lime... tha t's gon na b reed viole nce. They should feel lucky there are g uys li ke me inside the pe nitemiary with some thing to sedate th e viole nce." But this perspec tive, and the role of d r ug deal er, is actually a reenac tme nt of Sha heed's former self, the three-time lose r wh o cam e into t h e syste m a t the age of 2 1 - a h eavy d r ug user with a heavy attitude. And it is no t a past he likes to d we ll o n. "I' m more concerned with who I am now, a nd where I'm go ing," says Shah eed , now drug-free fo r te n years. Tha t his role in th e docu mel1lary is so powerful and compelling only em phasizes the d e pth of h is personal conversions. Shaheed spel1l the first fo ur year of his incarceration ll]ing to escape the real ity of a 30-year sentence with 15 years to do before possibil ity of parole . "If I had this time to do, " he th o ught, "I was going to do it with what I though t at the tim e was my freed om- freedom to do the things that I did before in th e street. An d what I did o n the street was I go t high and robbe d people. "I wasn ' t surprise t hat you cou ld actua ll y do dru gs, get hig h , buy and sell do pe in prison. Because you hear sto ries whe n you ' re in the g h e tto, a nd you hea r stories in t he co unty jai l, th e n it a ll ju st co m es to rea lity wh en you get to priso n. " The cha n ces of brea kin g such a cycle are slim . Fo r years, Shah eed wo re a mask in priso n - a tough-guy mask, a "swpidjai lho use pride th ing," h e now calls it. He saw his options as: prey or be p reyed upon. And getting hig h ke pt him fro m h aving to face what was under th e mask. But Shah eed says the re was always a voice d eep inside te ll ing him he wou ld so me day have to sto p. "You run a nd you run a nd you run, and then you realize tha t you have to confront yo urself. Fo r m e it was a p rocess from wantin g to c h ange to ac t ua ll y taki ng steps to cha nge." Sh a h eed's ex pe rie n ce h as been re lig ious thro ugh a nd thro ugh. When he re lates the story of his earliest motivation to ch ange - and to stop ge tLing high - he describes an epipha ny: "I was sitting and looki ng out the window, looking over the wall, and I thought about my tim e and j ust how my life was going, and I said, ' We ll, it's time to stop. It's time for me to really stop.' Earlier in th e day, which happe ned to be the designated Rahway "Fa mi ly Day," Sha heed had go tten h igh on ba rbitura tes, reefer and coke - his usual combinatio n - to try to wash those kind s o f thoughts away. An d for th e first Lime in his four years of inca rce ration, the drugs d idn ' t work. His inner voices were still getting thro ugh to him. "For once in m)' life, I wanted to give it an hon est hot. I wa nted to try to live my li fe with in cerity. Because I h ad bullsh iued myself for so lo ng, I just wanted to u-y be ing real with myself. " Expressing h is d ecisio n to his crew wasn ' t easy. Shaheed was a leader a nd they didn ' t want to break off the relaLionship with him, but they also didn 't want to stop getLing high. Eve nwally, tho ugh, wh e n it became clear to them th at Shaheed 's d ecisio n to live drug-free was fi nal, they joined h im. In an ironic twist, Shaheed's na tural qualities as a gang leade r were what he lped get h is prison crew off d rugs. An d now his pas t life as a drug d eale r an d use r is part o f what ma kes h im so accessible to the young me n h e h elps to ge t straight. T o bo lster his ch ance fo r recove ry, Shah eed sought o ut a prisone r-run drug program called ew DirecLion an d got in vo lved with e nco unte r g ro ups. But after six m o nths, h e knew th ese grou ps we re n ' t go ing to be e no ugh . "I needed more to he lp reinforce me, because I kn ew th a t at a ny time, if I got into a ce rta in m ood, I could get high again ." It was slow in coming, but th e re inforceme nt Shah eed need ed fin ally cam e wh e n he was a ble to e mbrace th e te nets of Islam. "I never in my wildest drea ms thought I would be a prayi ng p e rson. I looked a t p eo ple wh o prayed as people who were soft - wea k - not able to d eal with reality." But afte r focusing more o n re ligion, a nd reading m ore, Shaheed eve ntua lly came to feel the power of praye1· and to become a prac ti cin g Muslim . "Prayer is just one thing," he insists. "After you pray, you got to get up and work. You've got to work towards what yo u're praying for. " 'A'hen Shaheed was transferred to a j e rsey pre-re lease ce nte r te n m onths ago, the supe rviso r fo r the ch ape l, Abdu l Ka rim Muhammad requested to the warden tha t Shah ced be th e Isla mi c represe ntative. Fo r a lmost a yea r , he h as bee n g uiding congr ega tio n , praye r a nd cia scs teach ing th e basics of Isla m. To Shaheed this is 'j u t a noth e r way of g iving back, wh ich is somethi ng I pla n to do fo r th e res t of my li fe. I ' m n o t j ust do ing it ..I > 1 I , , y now beca use I' m inca rcera ted . I t's somethi ng I owe myse lf, a nd I owe it back to the society I co me from. I don ' t intend on going to a no ther pan of the community. I want to go rig ht back to th e sa me co mmunity where I d id the ro bbing a nd th e hurting, and u-y to help with some healing." Despite th e work credits Shaheed is earning (enough to max ou t in 11 months), h e is sure that when his m andatory minimum is u p in two months and he goes before the p a rol e board , h e will b e denied. "Wh ic h m ean s that when I walk out, I wa lk o u t. No parole, I d o th e who le se nte n ce." The Musli m te n ets arc now t he strong inn e r voices for Sh a h eed: "My faith is in Allah, n o t in th e parole board . othing is going to happen without Alla h ' pe rmission ." And if he can 't get back to his comm unity, to his wife a nd fi ve childre n , h i · role on the in sid e is clear: to set a n e xamp le for yo u nger people who a rc on th e ir way out of the system. "Th is is a pre-r e lease ce nte r, wh e re you have kids between I8 an d 25 who are d o ing a year a nd then going back o ut into society. I try to ma ke th e m loo k at their o ptions. I say, 'Loo k at what you did , but nov; look at some o f your o ptions go ing out. What you can d o.' In ou r classes we look at re-entry fro m an Isla mi c perspective. How important it is for them to be since re. The biggest thing is sincerity. Relig io n is sincerity. That's what re ligio n is. Re ligion is sincerity. That's it." [ll] PRISON LIFE 33 ' ' Drug~ar in · tbe ~i\d ~est here's not much to see in Granite, Oklahoma: a convenience store, a gas station, a restaurant that never seems to be open and people who give you weird looks because they can see you're from out of town. There's not even a McDonald's in Granite. What you will find there, besides a lot of sky and farmland, is the Oklahoma State Reformatory, a high-medium security prison vvith a population bigger than its neighboring town. The prison lies hidden behind Granite Mountain, which rises several hundred feet at the edge of town. On one side of the 1nountain, you'll see fields where farmers tend the crops according to the season. On the other side, b e hind the steep walls of the prison, the convicts watch the seasons pass. At the turn of the century, the mountain was an actual granite quarry manned by prison chain gangs. You can still see strings of numbers where the old-time cons have taken a stab at immortality by chiseling in their prison i.d. numbers. Now the quarry is the prison dumping ground: Rolls of rusting concertina wire and junked building material lay strewn beneath an old watchtower. Built of the mountain's rocks, the tower stands vacant and gaping. Today, the only rocks quarried at Granite Mountain go to supply a dying tombstone business in town. T Th e p ri son was bui lt in 1909 for Okla h oma 's juve nile de lin quents. After a few years, th e state turned it in to a medium-security pri so n for adu lts, though the te rm "reformatory" stayed . But as priso ners a t OSR will tell yo u , t h e re's n o t mu c h reformin g g o ing o n behind those gra nite walls. In ma ny ways, OSR is yo ur typical state pe n. It could be Sa n Que ntin, it could be Rahway-its lo cation, d eep in Ame rica 's h eartla nd, in the middle of now h e r e, maue rs n ot. The escalating conseque nces of the country's war o n drugs have b loa ted this priso n with co nv ic ts, wh o not on ly have li ttle h o pe of a future b ut wh o a re a ngry a t havin g to live in a bo minable, overcrowd ed conditions. T he prison , p lagued with escapes, has had three warde ns in the past six months. T here 's a 60 pe rce nt prisone r une mployme nt ra te, no treatment fo r the hundreds of convicted drug add icts, and drugs are as easy to score as gu m in a candy store. Half of OSR's overcrowd ed p o pulatio n li ves in a condemned cellho use. Orig in ally, OSR had two tripletiered cellh ouses. But in 1987, u n de r fed e ra l co urt o rde r, th e cell ho uses we re conde mned and th e prison had to build pod u ni ts in t h e yard. Last year , in defiance o f the fede ral co urt order, OSR reope ned o ne of the conde mned cellho uses a nd the tri-tie red bloc k is n ow doub le-bunked. Eve n with th e un lawful reo pe ni ng , th e prison is runn ing at 135 pe rcent capacity. "They got people sleeping on floors in so me ce lls," says Eas t Cellho use prisone r Ho m e r H a rd igr ee, one o f OSR's drug cases who has spent time in Alcatraz and Mario n. "The re's no t one empty bunk anywhe re." The overcrowding is a direct result of the wa r on drugs. Six ty pe rce nt o f all OSR prison e rs are in for drug use, possession or distributio n . Tha t p e rcentage climbs to 9 0 p e r ce nt wh e n yo u add those se n te n ced fo r drugrelated crimes. Okla h oma has h ad a h ard-o n f01· crazy d rug laws ever since the war o n drugs b ega n. In 1994, it led th e n ation in loc kin g up mo re male o ffe n ders pe r ca pita th a n a ny o th e r sta te, a nd for the last te n years it has been n um ber one fo r loc king up more wo me n pe r cap ita no t only in the U.S. but in th e world . In Okla ho ma, possessio n o f a co up le j o ints ca n get a su cke r 20 ye ars straight time. And it has. Victo r Warr ing ton was sla mme d with 20 years fo r po ssess io n o f ma r ijuana with inte nt to distribute. Distribution does n ot mea n actually selli ng weed. If you happen to b e a gen e ro us pa rty host, yo u ca n get ha mme red fo r it. Wa rrington had 12j oin ts o n him when he was a rrested . "I've bee n in sin ce '92," says Warringto n. "Ame ri ca's dru g laws? T h ey' re a bsurd. They're passing ou t too much time fo r drugs, u·eatin ' us like we went o ut a nd killed some bo dy." Sam Shoals got nailed , too . H e e nded u p with 25 years. "I h ad a c rack pipe," he says. In Okla h o ma, p ossession of a c rack pipe is a Class A misde mea no r . "But th ey too k it, ra n a substan ce tes t th roug h the pi pe a nd fo und residue o f crac k cocaine. T h ey gave me 25 yea rs fo r th at bullsh it. 25 years .. ." Ho mer Ha rd igree workin g as a truck drive r , ta king speed to kee p awa ke as h e drove from Oregon to Flo rida whe n he was pulled ove r by a city co p in O klah o ma C ity. Beca use Ha rd ig r ee's prior offe nse was 19 yea rs o ld , h e was considered a first-time o!Tend e r. Still, he was sla ppe d wi th a n e ig ht-year sente n ce for possession of o ne gra m of m eth (s ho r t fo r m e t h a mph e tamine) . "I a ttribute my low sente nce to th e fact that I had e n o ug h mo n ey fo r a lawye r," h e says. "If I h ad to re ly o n the state, I wo uld 've gotte n 50 years." Most o f the prison ers locked up for drugs have had to rely o n the state for their d efe nse. Mo re o fte n th a n n o t, O th ey e nd up with a se nte nce that wi ll kee p th em be hind bars for several d ecades. As in New York a nd L.A., most a rc yo un g Afr ican-Americans from urba n ghcnos. At OSR, th ere is a n abundance of African-Ameri cans doing tim e for crack cocaine. Anthony Ed wards, a first-Lime offender, was busted with a straight shooter that h ad residue in it and was given 30 years. Ten )' Stevens got ca ug ht traffick ing a n d was slapped wi th 15 yea rs for his first o ffense. Rodney Vi cks go t 20 yea rs for possession; Aa ro n Butler got 25 years fo r trafficking, distribution and possession; Terrence J efferson got 15 for unlawfu l d e li ve ry of narco ti cs; a nd Ton y Mil es got 15 for distribution. But those senten ces are considered light by Okla homa standards. Lione l Fortenberry go t p in c h ed for possession of cocaine with in tent to distribute and end ed up with 100 years for his crime. The cops d idn't even find drugs on Aldofus Wade, but h e was g iven 60 yea rs for conspiracy to di stribute. Wade's fa ll partn e r , wh o sold the drugs to und e rcove r cops, had enoug h m o n ey to hire a la wyer. He got off with half th e time Wade got. "Too Sh ort" was give n a life se nte nce for distributi on and u·afficking in cocain e wh en h e was 18 years o ld-that was 22 years ago. H e h as n ow lived longer in priso n t h a n h e has as a free man. Mark Sanders has on ly been in o ne year but the judge gave him life, too. "They gave me a li fe se nte nce for an 8-ball o f cocai n e," says Sanders. "You d ig? On e 8-ball. This isn ' t th e answer. I deserve to be in prison buLl don't deserve a li fe sente nce." If c rack cocaine is th e ba n e o f Africa n-Ame rica n s, th e n "crank" is th e sco urge of Ok la h oma's low- income whites. In th e Midwest, crank is re fe rred to as "poor m a n's cocaine." It is easy to ma ke and sell. Thirty-seve n-year-old Do nald M cCalev wa busted fo r possessio n of meth and received 120 yea rs; Ke ith Brooks got 43 cale nda rs fo r conspiracy to manufa c tu re. De nl ea Morrow receive d I 05 )'Ca rs for his in volvement in man ufacturing crank. 'This is no t what I had planned fo r my fulllre," says Morrow, known through ou t th e Midwest as th e "Grand Master of Meth." "Bu t what do you expect? The citizens of this counll)' a rc obvio usly pretty damn stupid. If you g ive a man a life senten ce for drugs, what's to preven t him from killi ng to keep him fro m getting that sentence? By puLLing peo ple away for life for th e same thin g yo u do with so meone taking a g un an d killing so meone, yo u 're sending the wrong message to socie ty. You're equating murder wi th taking drugs. v.re've been o n this drug kick, but it ain 't got noth ing stopped. It's a futile elforL" Morrow's a nswer to th e war o n drugs is simple: legalize evC J)'thing. "If yo u just d etac h th e drugs and make th e m legal," he says, " you just le t 'em run their course. T his is fucking Ame ri ca wh ere you ca n have the pursuit of happiness. If the pursuit of happ iness is two good-loo kin g blondes, a motherfu cking p ack of syringes a nd a pound o f K c ream, I say fuckit. ·· SR's for m e r warde n , Ja c k Cowley, do csn ' t advocate legalizing d rugs. But h e does ad mit to big problems in correctio ns as a resu lt of th e war o n d rugs. Cowley was th e warde n of OSR for two and-a-ha lf yea rs b efo re he was tra nsferred last September. An o utspoke n critic o f co rrections, he has bee n called a lo t of thin gs in h is 25yea r ca ree r, "mave ri ck" being the most common. 'Tm a li ttle proud of th at," he says, "becau ·e I don ' t typically agree with bureaucrats when it co m es to th e treatment of offend e rs. I believe the sys tem ca n work, but I thi nk it h as gotten off h e rding them a ro und m o re tha n trying to he lp them he lp themselves." Com ing from someone wo rk in g fo r th e Okla h oma DOC, Cowley's p e rspec tive on th e war o n drugs is even mo re radi cal. 'The wa•· o n drugs is a failure a nd a success. It's a mi se rab le fa il u re because it h as not stopped drug use in thi s cou ntry. But it's a g rea t success because it's the best econ o mic boom we' ve eve r see n . Prisons are big business. It's th e gr01vth indusll)' of the '90s a nd the profits are overr idin g th e expe nses. Th e public is not wi ll ing to c h a nge beca use the upper class h asn ' t fe lt th e pain yet. The poor fo lks are the .--- - c li e nts o f the system. That's wh y we have poor p eo p le in t h is cou nU) '- tO be the cl ie nts. Un til th e ri c her "The war on drugs is a failure and a success. It's a failure because it has not stopped drug use in this country. It's a great success because it's the best economic boom we've ever seen." -Jack Cowley, former warden at OSR. 38 PRISON LIFE ... ;,t'• '· people fee l th e effec t, noth ing's going to change." To O klahoma prisoncrats, Cowley was a da nge ro us man to be re prese ntin g th e department of co rrections. It was no su1·prise, then , whe n they transferred him o u t of Gran ite in Se pte m ber afte r two priso n e rs esca p ed. Two wee ks b efo re th e escape, Cowley rece ived word that there was som e digging going o n in th e conde mn ed ce llh ouse. He se nt his officers to investigate, he said, but they told him there were n o signs of tunne lling. So wh e n two co ns escap ed through a good-sized h o le and took a local woman a nd he r baby hostage, Cowley was taken off guard. After a high-speed chase, the men were ap preh e nded . T hey h ad ra ped and killed th e woman. Another we llknown escape occu rred last year when a priso n er too k o ff with the associate warde n 's wife who wen t with him e ither wil ling ly o r as a h ostage, de pending upon whom you talk to. Cowley says th e esca pes gave people the excuse they needed to get rid o f him. "Primarily," he says, "I got a n ew boss a nd h e wanted so m e bod y e lse h e re. He a nd I a re fairl y diffe re nt philosophically whe n it comes to manageme nt." Tha t ma n was Ga ry Mayna rd, now th e Southwest regional direc to r fo r the Oklahoma DOC "He was the warden a tJ oe H arp Correctio n al Facility before I was," says Cowley, "and h e h ad it when t h e re were o nl y 400 priso n e rs . H e had a rio t th e re, too. In fac t, they've had a riot a t both of his prisons." Cowley took ove r th e prison several yea rs la te r whe n the pop ul atio n h ad doubl ed . "It was b eco min g a model facility," h e says. "We still had so me wo rk to d o, but he [Mayna rd ) didn ' t want to sec anothe r soft insti tutio n. O ve r h e re, they didn ' t like th e way th e institution was h eaded. They still li ke th at pla ntation me n tali ty. So I got nailed . On the last escape, I told so m e staff to look for tun n els because I h ad gotten word tha t some tunn e lling was go ing on. An d th ey did n 't go look." The priso n ers wil l te ll you th a t Cowley was framed. T hey also report that staff was antagonistic toward him because he would ofte n give the prisone rs re ponsibili ty. "They fe lt threa te n ed by tha t," on e prisoner said. owley's te mpora11' successo r was Ass ista nt ,...... ....-Regio n a l Directo r Justin J o n es. For a month and a h alf b e fore th e n e w ward e n was c h ose n , J ones ran things a t OSR. Despite th e adm in istrati o n 's attack on Cowley, J ones' perspective on correctio ns and the war on drugs is surprisingly similar. "I thi nk it's time for evei)'thin g to be re th o ug ht," h e says. "We' re fi ll ing th e priso ns, not winning the war o n C dru gs. If we co n tin u e o n the sa m e path , we' ll bankrup t o urselves. Right n ow, evei)'th ing's a Ban d-Aid effect: build more prisons, add more beds. I d on' t kn ow if this is really a war, but the victim is the publi c. You're creating a wh o le ge n e ration of peop le who'll be unemployed when they get o u t, wh o will h ave the stig ma of b e ing a co nvi cted fe lon. You're doi ng noth in g on the preven ti o n end. You house th e m , they co m e b ack, you house them some more, they come back." Both Cowley a nd J o nes agree that as many as 90 pe rcent of OSR prisone rs a re incarce rated fo r drug-related c rimes. "Whether it's b urglary, a property c ri me or a vio lent o ffe nse," says J o n es, "th ey we re e ith er under th e influe nce o r th ey were doing a crime to suppo rt a habit. " Tim Waldrup got five years fo r escapi ng from a county jai l while he was in fo r possession of meth, a case h e late r beat; Shaun Miller is doin g 15 years fo r assault and battery that had to do with drugs; Ma..xwell Kagen go t 40 yea rs for attemp ted burglary to support h is habit. Dann y Clark was a lso a n ad di ct when he was popped [o r a variety o f charges: kidnapping, a rmed robbe ry, burglai)', forgei)', larceny, assaul t a nd battery on a p olice o f'ficer , abscond- PRISON LIFE 39 ing and escape. He was sente nced to 25 years. "Everyth ing I d id ," h e says, "I did for drug ." J e rry Pe lley was a drugstore cowboy when th ey busted him in Lough ton, OK. H e now has 175 years to se rve, five d iffere nt c ha rges that spa n three sta tes. "All th e mo n ey I got," h e says, "I used it a ll for drugs. T hat's alii basi- cally d id. Whe n I'd rob a drugstore, I'd go check into a Holiday Inn o r a Howard j o hnso n 's a nd I 'd do it. I mean, I wasn 't out the re elling to a h undred umpteen peop le." The re is o nly one progra m in th e state of Okla homa for p risoners who ne ed he lp for d ru g ad d iction: th e Life line progra m at j oe Harp Correctional Facility. The waiti ng list is so lo ng th at yea rs can p ass be fo re an addict is a pproved and admitted. Robert Todd Clark has a lready b ee n approved to enter the drug trea tm ent program, but h e has n o idea how lo ng it wi ll take him to get tl1ere. "I believe I' m being denied ad mitta nce because o f overcrowding," he says. "It's a mess." Accordi ng to Warden j ustin j o nes, mo re programs like Li fe lin e are critical. "lf t h e state al located more m o n ey to tr ea t ment programs, it wou ld do more to p reve n t c ri me in the long run. What we need is more prevention. I f th e ave rage drug o ffe nder serves three to seven yea rs, eve n at t he lowest security level, it's gonna run yo u 24,000 a year to house him. 'ow mu ltiply tha t by the number o f years he 's incarcerated. If you look at the eco nomy of scale, if you wa n t someone puni sh ed fo r doing drugs or committing crimes to suppo rt a habit, at so m e point you h ave to loo k at the law of d iminishing returns. "I do n 't th ink prison d e ters people from any c h em ical ad di ction th ey h ave. Most p a ro le o ffi ce rs wi ll tell you th a t their worst cases a re d ru g offende rs because tlle recidivism rate is so high with this group." "Every day it's a struggle," says Da n ny Clark. ''I'm always on edge. I tried to te ll th e m when I was getting sentenced that I needed drug treatme nt, but I've rece ived no n e in t h e two years I've been he re. They kee p lllrning me down. Do you know how hard it is to be drug-free in the pen?" V ncent Pa ul Candelaria has the perspective of an o ld-Li me convict. H e was at t h e Santa Fe prison du ring the riot in 1980, which claimed the lives of 34 convicts. Cande laria was o ne of the prison negotiators who put a n early end to the rio t a nd saved the lives of guards the prisone rs too k hostage. He was g ra nted clemency for his ro le d uring the riot, but two yea rs la te r was convicted for th e d eath of a po lice o fficer, for whi ch h e received 4 14 years. H e is cu rre ntly a ppealing tl1e co nviction . At Gran ite, Candelaria kicked the heroin habit tha t had been the motiva ti ng force beh ind hi s criminal ac tivity. H e h as been clean for twoand-a-half years. . "I didn ' t go th ro ug h a drug treatme n t fac ility," he says. "I did it myself. 1 did it because of tlle oppor- In Memory of Yogi A pt!rson I cared abou t and understood mo re than anyone is dead now. Randy "Yogi" Gwinn was a man of honor and dig ni ty; a man who c-ould not be hem by force or circumstance. I It: can!d li1r others and had a heart as big as the problem whkh c·nckd his life. Yogi died from a drug overdose. It is ha rd to accept how he died, and that h e is gone . It's even ha rder to lose one of the fe\\ friends l have le ft to a da mn drug problem. If someone would have don e this to him , h e would h an · ta,tt·d hi, own blood. My Iiiend had a problem. Eighteen years of incarceration and the problem was still there, even inside this "co ntrolled" environment. His biggest problem was not drugs. but r.\lher the indill'crcnce from a vindi ctive system and tlw malicious way that the present govern or took all his hopt' away. Mam tinws we talk(·d about his freedom , and how he Wlt.'i going to IIHUT) his girlfriend and h ave children. His fare would light up. and for just a second he ' d be cominccd that all of his dreams would be reality. But a few months before he died , he found he was going to ha'e to spt•nd a lot more time in pl'ison. Yogi didn't talk much anrmore. He fe ll into a pit of dt'prcssion and d espair. My friend i'> dt•ad uow. Drugs will kill a perso n. That is a bitter lt'sson to lt·a•·n. In a m atte r o f seconds you willlca\'c this world and meet vour Creator to account for vour dct:ds. Bitt how abo ut tho~c.: who kill o ur hopes and bury us ali\'e in this hell-hole called prison? Which death is worse and who is responsible for tho~c souls who cannot afford to gn·c a damn anymore? The adminisu·ators of d1is state have a lot to leam. Befo re th ey can raise a finger to point out the deeds of a convict, the)' should all look at the mirror and see wh o the real criminals are. Some peo ple m a)' accu se h im fo1· his weakness and think h e g o t wh a t h e d eserved . I h ave a fe w wo rd s inside m y ch est fo r those who fa lsely po int fin gers a t the troub le, and maliciously pro lo ng the pain of those wh o are e nslaved by this for ce. Sta nd ing ta ll in th eir o wn ch a p e l of g lass, th ey t h row r oc ks a t o th ers n o t re a lizin g that so m e d ay they will mi ss a nd h it th e ir own walls. Live lo ng, my brot.h er. Vin ce nt P. Cande la•-ia Oklahoma State Reformatory To th e left of th e entran ce is th e Eas t Ce llhouse , whi ch alth o ug h co n d e mn e d , has bee n reo pen ed to ho use prison e rs. The la rger West Ce llhouse, to th e rig ht of th e e n tra n ce, re ma ins close d . Th e pod units sca tte re d throughout th e ya rd h o ld mos t of OSR's prisoners. Photo by j ohn Thomas. PRISON LIFE 41 "and think they're do ing some th ing, they're n ot. Drugs are eve rywh e re. Out th e re. In h e re. And th ey' re n ot go n n a ch a nge th aL. Not by lock in g people up anyways." Acco rding to o ne of the g ua rds a t OSR, ma rijua n a is th e most wide ly used drug, followed by crank, heroin and crack. "\Ne try to kee p it down ," h e says, "but it gets in h e re. Usua ll y visitors b ring it in , som e times it ge ts thrown over th e wall. " "Visi tors?" says one prisoner. 'T hey may bring in small amou n ts, bu t shit, we go t hypod ermi c n eed les in he re, m an. You te llin ' me peo ple p ut that shit up their ass?" For five bucks, you can get a cap of weed: e n o ugh for a slim j oinL. Fifty b uc ks will get you a sh o t of h e ro in , abo ut te n c.c.s. T ypically, pri so n va lue is two to three tim es stree t va lue . Beca u se o f th e hig h un c mployme m rate a t OSR, ma ny prisoners withou t money reson to hustli ng o r viole nce. he pri .one rs at O ~R won) ' th at th e vto le n ce wtll on ly get wo rse. T h ey kn ow the DOC will not give the m anothe r Cowley o r j o n es-someo ne who's going to g ive the m a chance or do anyth ing about treatme nL. They kn ow th ey' re going to get a hard-ass. "This isn ' t go nn a be a bo ut th e m taking away our HBO," says one priso n e r . "T h ey've alread y do n e th at. 1o, we' re in for some dee p shi t whe n this n ew wa rd e n-wh oeve r h e iscomes in ." Vincen t Pau l Ca nde laria will be go n e by th e t ime the n ew wa rde n arrives. He is being transferred back to the pen in Santa Fe. 'This prison is Disneyland compared to some of the joims I've bee n in ," says Ca nde laria. "But I'm getting ou t becau se I kn ow wh at's co ming. It's the best time for m e to leave. Th e overc ro wdin g h c t·e-thc y got a big problem. It won ' t take mu c h to ki c k it o ff. T h e prisoners a re frustra ted and pissed o ff. Th ey go t rid o f Cowley beca use of p o li tics. When th e n ew h ard-ass wa rden comes in , the priso ne rs arc gon n a have a lot of shi t take n away from th e m. "I don't wa n t to see a n o the r riot. Sa nta Fe is still vivid in mr mind , so methi ng I'll always re me mbe r. "Whe n the riot hits here, th ere will be a lo t o f killing. The o ffice rs who a re wo rking the yard wi ll suffe r . The T tunities. Becau se t he wa rd e n who was h ere-Cowley- gave me a c hance. And since I've bee n he re , I haven ' t hun anybodr or do ne drugs. But a frie n d o f m in e d ied h e r e six month s ago. H e ro in , yo u kn ow. If yo u ' re o n it, yo u ' re go nn a get it no ma tLe r whaL. " 42 PRISON LIFE Acco rd ing to th e prisoners, drugs are ea }' to score. "It's a nythi ng you want," says Roderick 1\anedy, serving time for a drugre lated robbery, "any time you wam. If you got the mo ney, it's here. " "As muc h as they'd like to cover up drug usc in prison," st~ ys j c rry Pe lley, o n es up th e re in th e g uard towe rs, Lhey'll just stan firing at people. A lo t of these office rs ask me if it's time to quit. I tell the m th e}' should consider findin g a new j o b beca use a ri o t is a real po ·sibility." 0 n O cto be r 9, 1995, O SR was g ive n a n ew wa rde n , th e ph il oso phical o pposite o f a Cowley o r j on es. Afte r 12 years with the Oklah o ma DOC, Ke n Kli nger has his own opinio n of the war on drugs. "1 work fo r th e Oklahoma De partme nt o f Co rrectio ns," says Klinge r, "and I suppo rt wha t the laws a re . If th e drug se nte n cing is 10 0 years, th e n I suppo rt th a t. I d o n 't think they're fa ir o r unfair. I Lhink we have a process in Lhe syste m and wha teve r th e co n victi o ns a re in th e state of Oklahoma, I support." Kl inger has plans fo r OSR: "This institution will not be run the same . This institutio n will become a sec ure fac ili ty. The missio n o f this agency wi ll be put first-that mean s, to pro tect th e public, th e n e mpl oyees, the n the offe nde r, always in that orde r. H ow you pro tect the public is you ma ke sure no bo dy escap es. You protect th e staff in ma king sure it's a safe a nd sec u re e n viro nm e nt. Yo u protect the offe nde r by making sure th ey d on' t wa lk aro und killing eac h o th er. How you do th at is you have a lot o f co ntro l m ech a nisms p u t in place. I'm not gonna destroy any prog ra ms th a t h ave bee n tar ted, b u t they' re gonna be modified , and contro l mechanisms a re go nn a be pu t in p lace tO ma ke sure th at staff conu·ols the facil ity. T ha t's wh a t's sujJ/JOsed to h a ppe n . Yo u ' ll see K-9 uni ts used m o re, yo u ' II see m o re ra ndom searching, you ' ll see more things like that. "Warden Cowley was the righ t man a t th e rig h t tim e for this facility but rig ht now, I'm the righ t man." t didn ' tta ke lo ng fo r Lhe viole nce e rup t at th e Okla h o ma Sta te Reformatory. On ovember l , 1995, a rio t bro ke out a t OSR. It sta rted as a confrontaLio n a mo ng several black and NativeAme ri ca n priso n e rs, but soo n 200 prisone rs we re invo lved a nd g ua rds in th e co rner towers we re firing shots d own into th e yard. o bo d y was kill ed, al though six or seven p ri so ne rs required medi cal treatme nt. Whe n it was ove r, the entire facili ty I to was locked d own for e igh t days. The re was ta lk of a permanent loc kd own an d c h ang ing th e prison's h igh-m edium securi ty status to maximum . But a t press time, th e faci lity was return ing to no rmal, with limited yard move me n t. The o fficials labeled it a me re "d isturba n ce," bu t p riso n ers who too k pa rt in it said it was mo re than that. T hey also said th e inciden t was o nly th e beginni ng. h e gua rd tower ove rl ooking th e junkyard q ua rry stan d s d esolate a nd stark against th e big Okl a h oma sky. Decades ago, g u a rd s statio n ed in th e tower observed convicts toiling away at the mou n ta in, m ak ing big rocks into smalle r rocks a nd hauling their cargo to the site whe re Lhe walls of G1·ani te would be built. Soon, th e o ld tower and qua rry may have to re-ope n. As OSR becomes mo re b loated with prisone rs o f th e war on d rugs, a n oth e r pr iso n may n eed to be built. They may eve n h ave to reb u ild OSR, o nce its wa lls are broke n down [II] from within. T )[ joint. Think he'll ever come out clean and so If the American government were really serious about winning the war on drugs, wouldn't prisons be the most drug-free places of all? Think about it: What other environment offers more opportunity for control? With cops and cameras galore, solitary confinement, lockdown, stun guns, searches and high security, prisons should be squeaky clean. Yet the drug scene rages in prison. The drug business in the joint is as profitable and as structured as it is on the streets. Dealers get rich, prisoners die of overdoses, guards are on the take and junkies walk out after years of confinement, ready to do whatever it takes for another fix. 48 PRISON LIFE "Nobody can convince me that there's a county jail, a prison or any other place where people are locked up that there aren't drugs," says the former warden of East Jersey State Prison, Patrick Arvonio, 20 years on the job. "I think there's a drug problem in every prison," says Justin Jones, assistant regional director of the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. '1ust recently, one of our prisoners on death row took an overdose of drugs the night before he was going to be executed. They had to revive him so they could kill him. The point is, somebody got the drugs in, even in maximum security, on death row. Nobody in their right mind would say their prison is drugfree." Between 1986 and 1991, the number of adults in state and federal prisons on drug-related charges has more than tripled. "Prison is a microcosm of the streets," says Jack Cowley, formerly the warden of Oklahoma State Reformatory in Granite. "Whatever's out there is gonna be in here ... the drugs, the violence, generally all the bad characteristics of what's on the streets." Visit just about any state institution and you'll find a tliriving drug trade. Neither prisoners nor authorities hesitate to talk about drugs openly. When we visited the state prison in Granite, we spoke with Jerry Pelley, sentenced to 175 years for five drug-related robberies. Are you drug-free? "No. No. No." You're not afraid for us to print thaP. "No." What's your drug of choice? "Cocaine, speed, heroin. Whatever comes in. There's no way they can keep drugs out. They've been trying for as long as they've had prisons, but they haven't done it. And now, with the drug war raging in here and out there, I don't see any difference." Ralph Sowell, a crack dealer doing 21 years at East jersey State Prison, boasts about dealing. "I've been selling drugs ever since I came to prison, and I've never been caught," he says. "You can make approximately $3,500 to $4,000 a week here selling drugs. Anything they sell on the street is triple in here. A $10 bag of dope on the streets goes for as much as $40 in here. And everybody wants a piece of the pie." East jersey's Lieutenant Connell is well apprised of Ralph's drug dealing: ''The rumor we get is that he'll do 5 to 10 bundles a visit. You're talking about 50 to 100 bags per visit, three times a week. On the street a bundle goes for about $70. In here, you can sell it for about $300. So ·he can make about a $230 profit per bundle, and if he's doing 10 bundles like is rumored from some of the information we get, you're talking $2,300 a visit two or three times a week. That's a lot of money." It's more than a C.O. makes. Authorities seem resigned to the fact that shutting down operations like Ralph Sowell's wouldn't make much of a difference in the prison drug business. 'We'd be very naive to think that if we put Ralph Sowell out of business that would change the drug trade in this institution," says Lt. Connell. "When he falls, five different dealers will come to the forefront to take his place. So it doesn't matter if we frisk Ralph's cell·or Joe Jones's cell. You have so many inmates incarcerated for drug-related crimes, who are involved in narcotics on· the street and want to perpetuate that addiction wh~le they're in jail, and if the demand is here, someone will find the supply." Naturally, corrections officials blame visifors for bringing in the drugs. "Women carry drugs in their vagina," says Lt. Frank Pascucci, a 20-year veteran of East Jersey State Prison, "and then pass them on to inmates who bring it back in their mouth or in their anus. And there's no frisk known to man that's gonna f'md it there," he laughs. Sometimes a snitch tips officials to the name of a dealer expecting a package through a visit. Officials get the names of the people on the dealer's visiting list and try to apprehend them before they get to the joint. But clever cons can thwart even wellplanned efforts. ''The dealer has an unrelated inmate's girlfriend bring it in and give it to her boyfriend, who in turn will pass it to someone, who in turn will pass it to Ralph Sowell or somebody like Ralphy," reports another EastJer~ey official. "His girlfriend's clean, he's clean. We can squat on him as often as we want, frisk him as often as we want, try to bust his visitor coming in and.she won't have it. But the stu~ will still be coming in and it will be his." East Jersey official Tim Dill believes there's no end in sight to the drug trade in prison. "There are just too many ways to get drugs in," he concedes. 'We've had some ingenious attempts." Like the time someone sent green olives in a food package. The pimentos had been removed and replaced with small red balloons filled with heroin. 'We once found drugs in ajar of peanut butter," says Lt. Connell. "Dug down deep and found narcotics." The jar had been heated in a microwave to smooth out the peanut butter, and then resealed to give the appearance of being unopened. "Once someone dropped off a pizza for a relative and underneath the cheese were decks of heroine," continues Lt. Connell. "It's limited only by the imagination." PRISON LIFE 49 that locke up . that .....,_.,.... on or any · are , ere aren,t drug~. warden ofEast]ersey State pnson. -Patrick Arvonw, former The guards may complain about visits,out many say it is guards who do m ost of the drug smuggling. " Less than 10% of drugs com e in through visits," says an experien ced dealer who served a d ecad e in federal institutions. "Just as on the streets, where you have drug cartels supported by corrup t governm e nt officials, the major drug operations in prison rely on collusio n with authorities; on corrupt guards who abuse their p ower for profit. The maj or drug op eration in one federal joint wh ere I did time involved two guards who p icked up drugs at a P .O . Box, brought them in a week later, and got paid on the street from the d ealers' freeworld associates," he says. "The drug business h ere is very lu c rative," adds "Ringo," a Sing Sing co nvict with a decad e down. "A lot of gua rds use d ealing as a way to su ppleme nt th e ir income, a nd th ey' re a lways getting bus ted. I kne w a prisone r who was awarded work re lease for getting a cop to bring in cocaine. He wou ldn ' t have made it ho m e t hat easy because he was in o n h is second murde r charge. "Just recently," he continues, "a recreation civi lia n got ca ught up in a sti ng. A rat bastard in mate set him up. The depa rtment of corrections gave h im a m icro p ho n e a nd marke d mo n ey. T h e civilian go t busted o n th e o utside with the mo ney h e was su pposed to buy drugs with ." On October 27, 1995, four corrections office rs at a fe deral prison in Atla nta were indicwd on charges of trying to smuggle marijuana, cocai ne and heroi n into the prison. Since 1989, 13 staff m e mbe rs a t the crowded, max imum-security state prison in Graterford, Pe nnsylvani a have been arrested o n c harges of trying to so PRISON LIFE smuggle drugs. Eleven prison e rs have di ed of drug ove rd oses at Graterfo rd a nd about 20 p erce nt of the u ri ne tesL~ done on prisone rs each month sh ow sign s of drug use. In Marc h 1995, three priso ners were fou nd in a cell, a ll with hypod e rmi c need les and a ll un conscious fro m drug overdoses. Wh e n 650 state troope rs recently desce nded o n Graterford in a surprise nightti me raid in tended to curb the d rug trade th e re, ove r 60 caches of drugs we re seized. As a result, n in e ran ki ng officers a t the prison re tired or were transferred, and 21 prisone rs suspected of drug tra ffic ki ng were moved to o th e r prisons, acco rd ing to Martin F. Ho rn , Pen nsylvania's Corrections Commissioner. Heroin is the most popular prison drug because it puts you in a " fuck-it- all" type of m ood. " You nod o ut and chill," says one con. Pot is a dangerous drug to use because it stays in your system too long, although users can sometimes s ucceed in " flushing" the drug from their system by drinking a lot of water. "Cocaine doesn't see m to be as prevale nt in prison because it's so expensive and, from what I've been told," says an East j ersey prison o fficia l, "it's a great high , but it's a short o ne. Whe reas with he roin , you ca n buy one $30 bag a nd be hig h for nin e or te n ho urs. T hirty d o lla rs of cocaine m ight only last you 45 minutes." As o n th e streets, drugs are cu t with othe r substances to in crease profits. In the joint, aspirin a nd flour a re most co mmonly used. "I once heard of a guy wh o used his AZT medicine," says Ringo. et you two caps "Ten bucks will g h for two slith of reefer-enoug joints." "But a lot of guys sell beat shit when they get bad packages from th e street, n he add s. "Instead of not selling it, they do, causing big proble ms. It happens all th e tim e. In fact, most of the stabbings and figh ts here are drug-re lated." Anthon y Goom bi was in the disciplina ry unit at Granite when we spo ke with him. ''I'm in he re for battery. They' re saying it was ove r drugs. They say we robbed this guy for his dope. This oth er guy confronted us about stealing drugs from a g uy. H e says we robbed him fo r some marijuana a nd vali ums." With plenty of cash to buy goods from the commissary, privileges from guards and sex from other prisoners, dealers in the joint live well. "A drug dealer is looked upon highly here," says Ringo. " He's a big man. Usually he'll have bodyguards-flunky kids who like to get high-who will do everything for him." Michael J o nes, a.k.a. "Snowball," is do ing life at East J ersey State Prison for first d egree murde r . Openly homosexual, he has been d own fo r 20 years and knows the syste m inside a nd o ut. Although h e doesn't do drugs, h e has made himself into a kind of drug pimp, negotiating deals on behalf ofjunkies who only have th eir bodies to sell. "Most o f the time, if a guy's got a drug habit," h e says, "h e will h ave sex with a n other inmate for drugs. No malte r what type of hig h he's o n he will have sex with a nother g uy in p rison so h e can get his drugs. "A new guy who wants drugs wi ll go to a homosexual first, because th ey kn ow th at fags kn ow mostly eve rybod y," h e says: "No w-if a guy just co me in and h e go t a h abit, and I kno w h e got a ha bit, I'm going to make som e mo ney off of him . lt's easy. I wou ld take him to a no ther prisoner and say 'Hey, you see th is fine thin g right h e re? Yo u wa n t a blow j ob? He's yo urs. You can get him a nd do him anyway you want to do him , just give him a li ttle b it of that dope and give me a box of cigarettes for myself. "' (Continued on fJage 54) an't get in here thin' you c ain't no d and go lay . I'll just th~t TV. Fuckit, smoke 7:e in my cell, loo ad " 't gonna hurt nobo Y· State Reformatory. ''""-'"'·"' Hill, a prisoner at Oklahoma PmSON LIFE 51 RIKERS HIGHLAND By Anthony Wareham Ri lum Island, six miles from Manhat- tan, is the world's largest penal colony. With 12 j ails a nd more being bui lt, the complex holds nearly 20, 000 jJrison ers seroing a yem· o-r less of cily time or awaiting transf er to an ttpstate f acility. Once u sed as a du mping groun d f or the city's garbage and subway e.'l:covalion nifuse, the island was converted into a prison complex in 1957. Planned as a model penitentiary, the jails today are di1·ty, antiquated and overcrowded. Anthon)' Wareham, an ex-con, ex-heroin addict, questions the logic of methadone main tenance as the primmy f orm of drug tn!atment at Rilters. 52 PRISON LIFE Rikers lsland, a t least in t h e wojails (C95 a nd C76) I 've p e nt tim e, if yo u 've g ot th e commissary, th e cas h o r th e cigare ttes, you ca n always find some drugs to help pass the time. For me, this was a mixed blessing, because it was my drug addictio n that kept cata pulting me back to the isla nd. H e ro in was my dru g o f c ho ice . Before my most recent bo ut, I h ad been su<tight fo r several years, which had reward ed me with a good j ob, a long-ter m re latio nsh ip a nd a Ma nha tta n apartm e nt with all the trimmin gs. My d ownfall bega n whe n I visited a buddy in Londo n. The pla n was to indulge for a couple of d ays and the n resume my sobe r life whe n I re turn ed to New Yo rk. Pro b le m was, after I go t bac k, I conned myself in to thinking I could continue sh oo tin g h eroin recre- a ti o n a lly. T o make a lo ng story sh o rt, wi thin six mo nths I'd lost my job, m y a p a rtm e nt, m y g irlfrie nd a nd most everything I owned. T h e n I started ge tting a rrested . My habit had me so stru ng out I could n ' t do a n yth in g in t h e morn ing b efore feed ing th e mo nkey. This included a tte n di ng co m m un ity se rvice a nd making it to court. So one by one my a rrests turn ed into wa rra nts, un til even tu ally j ai l tim e was th e o n ly alte rnative the judge could con sid e r. I blew eve ry ch a n ce th e co urt gave me, and I had gou en so used to kicking do pe on the Ooor of Manhattan Central Boo ki ng th a t th e nurses knew me on a first na me basis. I got used to a rriving at Rike rs like the wa lking d ead with one goal in mind- METHADONEl Do p e fi e n d s like myse lf we re always amazed to find that the city's liberal a ttitudes toward cr iminology extend to the detoxification of heroin addicts via methadone, a synthetic form of heroin. Most amazing, methadone maintenance is offered for entire sentences (at Rikers, that means up to a year). Any misdemeanor offender admitted to the New York City Department of Corrections with a habit can receive 40 milligrams of methadone. each day of his or her incarceration. Methadone is so powerful it keeps addicts "straight" for over 24 hours, whereas heroin lasts only 4 to 6 hours. To describe the program as popular with prisoners would be an understatement at best. There are, however, some serious problems with methadone treatment. One is that an addict can leave jail with a worse habit than he came in with. For me, I could have used jail time to kick the habit and get a sober perspective on life, but I never got to the point where I was able to say no to dope. It's far more difficult to make the decision to be drug-free if you haven't had a drug-free day in years. Historically, jail provided that period of sobriety from which countless alcoholics and addicts have been able to see there is another way to live, and then choose that way. But while methadone is neither a substitute for sobriety nor true treatment for drug addiction, it may still be preferable to no intervention at all. It is virtually free when compared with the cost of true drug treatment, which makes methadone particularly seductive to bureaucrats under pressure to do something about the drug problem. We can teach our youth that drug use is for losers, but we must acknowledge that until an addict is ready to quit, he will continue to suffer, and suffer even more while addiction to illegal drugs demands criminality. Methadone addicts are free from the need to commit crimes and from the health dangers of injecting street drugs. In this way, methadone can be part of a rational response to addiction. But it is no panacea. Prisoners, like all of society, cannot afford to be confused about the ultimate effects of methadone. At best, those on methadone settle down to a life of quiet addiction. But many do not. They inject cocaine instead of heroin and continue their criminal activity. So sub~tantial is the problem of heroin and methadone addicts getting arrested that New York City has an entire jail with some 3,000 beds for detainees needing three times a week if I had the cash. methadone. One jail bag (about half a street For new detainees like myself bag), goes for $20, or a carton of ciggoing through withdrawals on the arettes. If I wanted reefer, the most bullpen floor, methadone was the prevalent drug at Rikers, I'd trade a light at the end of the tunnel. If I can pack or two of cigarettes for one jail just hold on until I see the doctor, every- joint. thing will be all right. And sure Eventually, however, I decided to enough, my time would come: The stop. I came to the conclusion that doctor would take one look at me something had to change if someand within a few hours the pain thing was to change. The Rikers would be gone. Once you're on the Island thing was getting old fast. I monkey juice, Rikers isn't such a bad realized that if I kept coming to Rikplace. You can sleep 16 hours a day, ers, signing up for methadone and you can· eat (or not eat) the prison getting high every chance I got, I food. Even if the days drag on a bit, would keep walking out the door an addict and starting the whole cycle you're half in the bag anyway. If you're not in the methadone again. If you are ready to quit, jail program and want to catch a buzz, can be as good a place as any· to you can always find someone looking begin to make changes. Narcotics Anonymous was where I to sell his supply for a few packs of cigarettes. Although a guard watches began to put things into proper pereveryone drink his dose, the clever spective on my last visit to Rikers. It consumer will hold the liquid in his helped me find the strength to get mouth then "spitback" into a bag or myself off the methadone, and to cup and sell it later. Doesn't sound become totally drug-free for the last too savory, but a little methadone four months of my incarceration. Of course, in-patient drug treatgoes a long way in beating the jailment is what a great many prisoners house blues. Predictably, the trade of prescrip- want, and even more desperately tion drugs at Rikers extends to other need. Prison is not where someone medications: Klonipin, Elavil, Dal- with a drug problem belongs, but it mane, Zantac and even Dimetapp is where a justice system strapped for are all popular and available nightly cash and compassion has dropped if you have the cash. Of course, you them. But even if your facility doesn't can get them for free if you can con- offer drug counseling, you can work on your problem anyway. Just admitvince the doctor you need them. Street drugs, too, are widely avail- ting you have a problem is a big part · able at Rikers. I discovered this my of the solution. A counselor once told me that the first day there. It was 2:30 p.m. when I awoke, having slept like a log thanks most important thing long-term to my first dose of methadone. I was treatment provides is not the lecstill high when I staggered into the tures, the meetings or the 12 steps. bathroom to take a shower. Before I It's clean time away from the drug. Time away from drugs is worth reached the stalls, an officer peered in to adviSe me that the showers were fighting for. If you can say no. in jail, closed until after the count. As the where there is nothing to do and C.O. approached, I noticed a prison- you've got plenty of excuses to get er who had shielded himself from the high, then you have a good chance at officer's view. When he saw us, he staying clean once you're out. You'll probably find some others like yourstood abruptly and walked out. As I spoke with the C.O., I noticed self to talk to, maybe start your own the guy had left a fully loaded syringe meetings. Groups like AA and NA on the bench behind him-in plain will send you free literature. So while jail will never be the Betty view. He'd been hiding in there, trying to find a vein when I blew up his Ford Clinic, it can be used as a theraspot. If the shit had hit the fan, his peutic community. It's the best place to start getting sober, if that's what plan was that I would take the rap. You can imagine that for an addict you want to do. As an ex-con with 18 spending his first day in jail, the sight years off dope told me, "If you want of a loaded syringe did a number on to change your ways on the outside, my head. I even entertained the idea you better start while you're on the of taking his dope myself after the inside. It's not going to happen in OJ] C.O. left. Once I knew my way the receiving room." around, I found I could score two or PRISON LIFE ss I want here? Can I get an~t ~ng nds on when "Sure. But It epe ?" Prices? you looking f or· "What are Heroin. will get you a shot "Fifty bucks . .th About ten c.c. ' s."-InterVIeW WI h. at Oklahoma S . in the Hole a pnsoner conunenting on Because drugs have become so avail(Continued from j)([ge 5 1) At Sing Sing, says one convict, some strung-out g uys who won't sell sexual se rvices will sell things th e ir fami ly gives th e m, like neakers, shirts and sha mpoo, for d rugs. T hese are the "cold dope fiends, the guys who fuc k up sooner or late r wh en they run up a bill. They e nd up checki ng in to protective custody." Take Duane Hammery, for example. He's in protective c ustody at East.J e rsey Sta te Pr iso n because of an un paid d rug bill. "I did some he roin and I couldn ' t pay, so I came he re . I was in fea r for my life. I owed $ 100, and you ca n ge t hun fo r that amount of mon ey. In h e re, heroin is like gold." But eve n in ad seg, an add ict can still get a fix. "Wh en you h ave an addic ti on to so methi ng," says a no th er East .Jersey State prisone r in ad seg, "it's a sic kness. It's n ot something yo u can j ust stop, especially whe n you sec o Lher guys getting h igh. T here's drugs in ad seg. T he re's drugs a ll over. The re's more d rugs in the re than a nywhe re." 54 PRISON LIFE able in prison, and sentences for drug crimes span two or three d ecad es, m a ny p eople wh o don 't come in as dope fiends pick up habits o nce they're in. ''The re are so ma ny guys who catch habits in here it's not fun ny," says Ringo. "Being locked up in a cage fo r 20 years sucks. It takes your hean away. You become an a nimal. You want to escape the reality, forget you've become pan of the system, so you turn to drugs. You get high to forge t a ll that you've lost." Clear ly, m ost people who buy ju nk in the jo int a re addicts, no t recreational users. Those who wan t to qu it say th ey don ' t have the support they need. "Anybody who has don e drugs a ll his life doesn't li ke th e m ," says .J e rry Pe lley at Granite. "I was talking to a friend of min e last n ighL, and I said, 'Dan, don't you wish we co uld qu it?' And h e said, 'Yeah , man. But it's j ust not that easy.' "And it's not that easy. Especially when you don 't have any su ppon a nd you 're doing so much Lime. They have o n e drug unit in this whole p rison and it Lakes an act of Con- gress to get in ... If you're doing a long time, like I am, you can't get in because th ey don ' t give a shit about you." Prisoners and a u tho ri ties a like say that drug progra ms fo r priso ne rs are e ithe r nonexistent or are so poo rly run as to be virtua ll y ineffective. "The drug programs h ere a re a joke," says a Sin g Sing priso ner. "Guys who participate just do it to loo k good a t th e board. It's mandato ry to get drug treatment if yo u have a drug crime. But th e place where they give drug trea tme nt is full of drug u se rs a nd pushe rs." Several studies sponsore d by the 'ationa l Institute o n Drug Abuse ha\'e shown that professionally run drug u·eatme m programs, on the whole, a re successful in reducing dmg abuse and crime among partic ipants and in increasing their abi lity to ho ld a j o b. Treating drug addi ct io n medically rc~ther tJ1an criminally is also more cost-effective. Case in poim: In New York State, a one-year reside ntia l drug treaun e nt program costs less than S20,000 per parti c ipant, wh e reas incarce ration cos ts the state n ea rl y S30,000 per prisoner , according to the Correctiona l Associa tion or eiV York. Research and ratio nale aside, allocating m oney for the rehabil itation of convict drug addicts isn' t h igh on the publi c's priority list. Former Warden Arvo nio pai n ts a grim picture of th e co mb in ed1·esu lts o r America's fa iled wa r on drugs, ma ndatory minimums a nd th e lack of fund ing for drug u·eaunem: "Th e mandatory minimum se ntence in New J e rsey sta rte d with a new penal code in 1979. Since t hen, many m o re people have bee n loc ke d up , so obvio usly th e mandatory m inimum is n o t a d e terrent. All it did was make us more crowded. "Meanwhile, I am not getting any mo re resou rces to run th e kind of u·eatme nt programs th ese drug add icts need. Even th oug h a g uy may co mmit a n assault or a rme d ro bbery, the fact remain s th at when he goes bac k out o n th e street h e's going to continue to use drugs, he's goi ng to conLinue to be invo lved in that culture. There's a feeling in the general public tJ1at once you've bee n in prison , some miracle's going to h appe n so th at when you go back o ut there, you aren't going to commit crimes anymore. Well, tJ1 ere is IIIJ no miracle. We' re basically ware housing people." PRISON LIFE 55 qiJE, PLAIN lANGUAGE LEGAL ~IPrnccillFllCCA\llJLTI IVf1ill\illJPill1 IFCIDill Til ~ II ~ J1AlTIOOA\I\jo The Citebool< is the only bool< written which contains solely positive case law. It gives you a clear and concise understanding of what your constitutional rights really are, how to work your way through the legal system, then obtai n the relief you seek at a fraction of the normal cost. It is also the nations #1 legal assistance manual for both the layman and professional. It is a MUSI Hl¥110011 for any individual considering involvement in our legal system :····························································································································~ ····························································································································· Plese send the books checked helow: Send us _ YEARLY EDITIONS. ....... YEARlY EDITIONS ARE PRINTED AND SHIPPED EVERY OCTOBER. COST IS $27.45 ($24.95 + $2.50 S5H) QUARTERLY UPDATES........ QUARTERlY UPDATES ARE ISSUETJ DURING THE MONTHS OF JANUARY, APRil, JUlY AND OCTOBER. COST IS $f09.80 FOR UPDATES AND MUST BE ORDERED ON A YEARLY BASIS. "Citebooks" at $24.95 each: Postage at $2.50 each: Florida residents add 7°/o sales tax: Total enclosed: For 2 Day priority Mail add $5.0 0 For Overnight Mail a dd $17 .0 0 it 0 Check here for [luarteriiJ. Updates 0 Check here for YeariiJ. Editions Send my Citebook[ s T' to: 11 Name._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Dat e._ _ Address_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ Cit y & St ate._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Zip_ _ Call f o r s pecial pric ing o n ord ers of 2 5 or mo re. lllflflllllllllll lll l lfl llfll lfllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllfllfllllllltlttll~llllllllllllllllllll llllllllllllllllllllllllltlltlllllllllllllllllllllllllltltltttlttltlltlltllllllllllllllllfllllltlllllllll by Susan Rosenberg he wa r o n drugs has beco me a wa r o n wom e n in the dru g trad e: th e wives a nd girlfrie nds o f drug d ea le rs, tl1c runn e rs, mu les a nd drug use rs. ln th e IOl tg-te rm e r s unit a t Danbuq• FCl fo r wome n, many p riso ne rs a re se rving le n g th y senten ces with n o ho pe of parole. For the mos t pa rt, th ese life rs a re first-time, n o n-vio le nt o ffe nd e rs wh ose com·ictio ns a re rela ted to drug conspiracies. T h e majori ty are Blac k o r Lati n o . T hey leave th eir children a nd families on the outside in ru in. Though some women are fo rtuna te e nough to have fa mily m e mbe rs wh o re ma in un sca thed by the c rimina l prosecution-a loved o n e who can h o ld so me sembla n ce o f fa mily I ife toge the r- many have no o ne to care fo r th eir chi ldre n. Without fa mily at h o me, t h ese women lose the ir c hildre n to the state. Gone. In a mauer o f m inutes, everything th e woman h as kn o wn in t h e making of h e r life is over a nd do n e with. Only p riso n time lies a h ead , ofte n mor e p r ison time th an there a re years left to live. T T h e le n g th y se nte n ces, a nd th e o ften great d ista nces fa mily me mbe rs o r frie nds must travel to visit p riso ne rs, ma ke it n ear ly impossib le for a woma n to m aintain tics with the o utside wor ld . Whe n t he re is little ho pe of release, wo me n prisone rs quickly lose to u ch with those they leave be hin d . If yo u a re 35 years o ld a nd you ge t a 45-year sente nce unde r the n ew sen tc n cing laws, yo u must do at least 40 yea rs, whi ch mea ns you ca n walk o ut free a nd clea t· a t age 75. If you have a n a tural life sen te nce, yo u n ever walk o ut; yo u d ie in the wome n 's prison hospi tal cente r a t Carswell AFB, Texas. Many wome n d o th e tim e . They struggle th rough every d ay a nd find a way to cop e. Some don't know how to survive in prison; th ey e n d up on psyc h o u·opic medi ca tio n. Increasing ly, wo men who have information to u·ade will use it to get a tim e cut; o the rs, wid1 no information to trade, e nd up do ing len gthy sente n ces. T he severi ty of th e pu nish me n t, th e very le ng th of th e sentence, is inte nded to be coe rcive. A~ a result, more and more women are targeted by drug agents a nd pressured in to becoming snitch es. The co nvict cod e o f sil e n ce h as been d isma ntJed piece by piece by the sta te. \'\'h en a wo ma n is a walki n g "co nte nts und e r pressu re" a bout to explode, a nd she fin all y does, it means sh e has been bro ke n. She has been bo ug ht by the governm e nt a nd can a nd will be used again and again. Once a defe nda nt gives in fo r mation in exc h a n ge fo r se n te n ce le ni e ncy, the governmen t owns h e r. To j ustify this to th e mselves, th ese women e nd up seeing d1eir captors as all-p owerfu l. It is the governme n t d1at ho lds their fate in its h a nds; it is th e gove rnm e nt t h at must b e obeyed. Othe r pr iso ners are seen as a threat. Build ing unity a mo n g wo me n prisoners becomes close to imp ossible. Eventually, a mo re pe tty fo rm of sni tch ing ta kes ove r. T he u·ade of inform atio n in prison may n ot rise to the level of informan t trial testimo ny or "coop eratio n," as p rosecu tors e u p he mistically call it, but i t can an d d oes preve n t PRISON LIFE 57 Ramona DiFazio • Arrested with 8 1/2 grams of cocaine and a gun • Sentenced to 145 years in prison Don' t ask Ramona DiFazio to explain her charges . Li ke most , she can't make heads nor tai ls of the legal morass of mandatory minimums and federal sentencing guidelines. All she knows is that she was arrested in 1992 for 8 1/2 grams of cocaine powder, and a gun . For t hat s he received a sentence of 145 years, with 75 to do. Her only prior convictions were a D. U.I . and possession of hal f - a-gram of cocaine, for which she received probabation . "I can't for the life of me figure out where all these years came from," says DiFazio from the Federal Correctional Institution for Women in Danbury, cr . "There was no violence . I smoked cocai ne for two y ears, b ough t and s old s mall amounts to pay fo r my habit, and now I'm here for the rest of my life . " Sentenced at age 32 , DiFazio will have to l ive t o 107 to complete her time . Ramona DiFazio grew up i n Newport News , VA . She f i nished high school and worked as a bartender at a local tavern, "Ellie ' s," a job she held for 14 years before her arrest. She volunteered a t a home for the e l derly and on weekends could be found cleaning the garages of senior citizens. A pot smoker since her teens, DiFazio started smoking cocaine in her early 30s . "Some friends from school and I would pool our money, then I'd get the coke and sometimes cook it up. I'd get my share for free, sometimes make a little Ironey," she says. "But this was no Noriega drug ring . I wasn't the mastermind cocaine queen they painted me to be . " When DiFazio got to court, her public defense attorney, who had met her only an hour before the trial , mispronounced her name . After it was over, she was cha rged with con spiracy to possess and distribu te 3,000 pounds of cocaine . "They used hearsay evidence from a local dealer who turned out t o be an inf ormant . They said I cooked and smoked half an ounce a day, and then they added to that charge information from somebody that my boyfriend made trips to get 2 kilos at a time, once a week, which is a ridiculous lie, and they multiplied that by weeks and months over a certain amount of time and came up with the 3, 000-pound figure." Like many small-time drug users and dealers the government wants to put away for life, DiFazio was turned over to the Feds and given a new dose of charges . "They said we (DiFazio's boyfriend, his brother and his girlfriend-also first-time offenders now doing life sentences) were too big for the local police . So they switched us over to the DEA and call ed i n the Feds . Under the con s p iracy charges, I got 58 PRISON LIFE everything they were charged with . .. 20 y ears for each conspiracy : conspiracy to possess , conspiracy t o sell and conspiracy wi th i ntent to possess and sel l . And another 20 years on each of the substantive counts (actual sal es). " Possession of an unlicensed gun , wh ich DiFazio said she and her boyfriend used fo r sport at a local shooting range, got her another five years . The gun was in DiFa zio' s car when she was arrested . "I was i n a dark p arking lot , and all of a sudden a group of men came rushi ng a t me . I was scared and pulled out the gun . Then I saw their badges and said, 'Oh shit.' I put the gun in my pocket . I tol d them I had a gun on me , and they pul led me out of the car and beat my face i nt o the trunk, over and over . I never resisted . I just spread ' em and laid over the car . They had me by the hair and kept beating me , saying I' d better coop erate because my boyfriend t old them I did all these things, which was just a ploy to get me to spit something out." With the recent denial of her fed eral habaeus corpus appeal, DiFazio plans to bring her case before the Supreme Court . In the meantime, she's taking paralegal courses t o help her understand the technicalities of her case. "I'm doi ng t he best I can. I'm going to college and trying to b e t ter myself. I j ust hope I don't leave here i n a wheel chair." women prisoners from exercising collective power over the actual and difficult conditio ns of their lives. The Burea u of Prisons plays an active role in this coercion. Although the Bureau claims it is only involved in custody, not in th e te rms of punishment, and th a t it is n eutral and only carries out the directives of the courts, this is not so. No longer is prison itself sufficient punishment. No longer is the loss of freedom e nough. Now the purpose of imprisonment is also to ensure total "cooperation," total subservience to the all-powerful government. While the re may b e diffe re nt government agencies-FBI, DEA, IRS, BOP and so on- the re is only one system. Most peo p le who get busted don't think they will wind up giving information to the government. But threats of lengthy sentences begin before the indictment and continue into the first several yea rs after conviction. Before the imp lementation of manda t011' sentences, prisone rs had a right to request a sentence reduction. The motion was called a Rule 35. The re were various grounds on which one could bring this motion, including fam ily h ardship. If a prisone r could demonstrate to a judge th at h er imprisonme nt was causing her family undue suffering, the judge could reduce th e sen tence. Though no t common , se nte n ce r eductions under Rule 35 gave priso ners hope, a chance for a break in th e unrelenting prison time. Now a Rule 35 mo tion ca n o nly be brought by the prosecution. Rule 35 h as been transform ed into a government too l whereby compliance, or snitching, is th e only grounds fo r sente n ce r eduction. The motion h as been reduced to a single-page list of categories with a box for a check mark nex t to each. Under the first category, "Debriefing," a re four sub-categories: d ebriefing on own role; d ebriefing o n o the r principals; debriefing o n gene ral activities of the conspi racy; debriefing on crimin al ac ts. The se nte n ce reducti o n d e p e nds o n h ow man y boxes contain c heck marks. In the years I was locked up at the ma ximum-sec urity women's unit in Maria nna, Florida, I witnessed man y tim es the process of women prisone rs being broken. The unit, call ed Sha wn ee, is uniqu e in the feder al priso n sys te m. It is th e on ly super maximum-sec urity unit for women. Many prisoners a re se nt the re d irectly fro m senten cing proceedings. This is not because they a re a securi ty threat and n eed mo re supervisio n; few wome n require max imum-secur ity Angela Farris • Charge : Conspiracy to Distribute LSD • Sentenced to 6 1/2 years "I was a Dead Head," says Angela Farris, 27. "A casual drug user, more of a pot smoker and a beer drinker. " Far ris was travelling with some Grateful Dead fans through Tennessee when the group was pulled over. "I had nothing in my possession," she recalls. "But because my codefendant had half a gram of LSD on him, and ended up being charged with over an ounce, and I was physically present, I was charged with conspiracy to distribute. The whole thing just kept getting bigger and bigger. It snowballed . I still don't understand how I wound up with federal charges." Farris, now at FCI Danbury, is nearing the end of a six-anda-half-year sentence. What has been most painful is being away from her son, whom her parents have been taking care of since she was sentenced . Farris says she knows many women at Danbury whose husbands, boyfriends or lovers got caught up in something and because the women l ived with them, they got charged with conspiracy. "The conspiracy laws are so broadsweeping . They're almost impossible to disprove . It's something out of an Orwellian nightmare," she says . "It's pretty frightening." conditi ons. Rathe r , the purpose of Shawnee unit is to subject the wome n wh o are se nt there to th e worst of conditions-maximum iso latio n-to g ive them a taste of the way the rest of th eir lives wi ll be unless they give in to th e government. For ma n y, it is unbearable. The coercive threat is explicit. I saw wome n with life sentences, 100-year se nte nces, 40-year senten ces, pass through Shawnee's five electronically contro lled doors. Whi le they lay in their cells, the impact of their new lives hit the m. They walked out, transferred to easie r priso ns, with ten , seven or four years left to go . They h ad called the special agents or prosecutors, or responded when law enforce ment officials contacted them; Rule 35 motions 1ve re offered, p rosecutoria l powe rs exercised , accompanied by promises of protection and even money. Belle is a 40-year-old African American woman who h as a life se ntence for h er involvement in a drug conspiracy. PRISON LIFE 59 She is th e mother of tee nagers a nd yo un gste rs. Before h e r arrest, Be lle was the backbon e of h e r fa mily. She is a large, smilin g, expa nsive woman whose eyes c rink le a t th e co rners when sh e tells a story. T he full life sh e once kn ew as a m o th er is go n e; though she tries to stay involved in the lives o f her children, t h e fami ly t ies u n ravel with each passing month. Along with 12 co-conspirators, Belle so ld a bou t a kil o of cocaine a week . The Colo m bia n cartel th ey we re not. They didn't make millions of dollars, th ere were no murders in the case nor a n y bribes or threats to public officials. They we re local people involved in a small-time o pe ratio n labe led "big time" by self-serving DEA age n ts. Seve ral of the people who we re convicted a nd se ntenced to decades in prison had no knowledge of the overall conspiracy. T hey were selling co ke on the side to make e nds m eet. When DEA busted Belle, th ey to ld h e r th ey were go ing to put h er away forever. They to ld her th a t h er best friend had already rolled over on her. T hey said several o thers were ready to ro ll. They bro ught Bell e's teenage d a ug hter in and told h e r th at if h e r m o th e r fail ed to rat o n o th e rs, sh e wou ld be wheeling he r mo the r's body out in a cheap p ine box after she died in prison. "Debriefl" they all screamed a t Be ll e ove r a nd ove r for months. He r o ptions, they explained, were life in priso n or coopera tion-whi c h meant a t most five yea rs in prison , three yea rs with good co nduct. Belle is the first to admit that selling co ke was wrong. Like m a ny o th e r m others who ge t caug ht up in th e drug trade, Belle told herself she was selling cocaine to give her childre n a better life. Because of the diffi culti es she faced in providing for h e r famil y, she o pted fo r existence in the unde rg ro und economy. "It was an easy way o ut of a bad situa ti on ," she says. IL was later that h e r addi ction too k h o ld. "I know th a t crack addi c tion destroys peo ple, an d I ' m g lad it's over." She says this no t to justify her ac tions, but to place the m in context. As of the present, Belle refuses to ge t past that first ch ec k ma rk o n the Ru le 35 motio n. H e r positio n is that sh e did th e c rim e, so sh e must ta ke th e weight for her actions. She refuses to d e brief o n a nyon e other than he rself. Sh e is fo ur years in to a life se ntence. Sh e did go back to th e a uthorities and d e brief o n her own role in the conspiracy, but that wasn 't e n o ugh for the U.S. Atto rn ey to recom me nd a sente nce red uctio n. Again, so PRISON LIFE Patricia Young • First-time Offender • Charged with Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana • Sentenced to 24 years "I'm a woman and a mother. When I got in the system I was stripped of all pride . You are stripped of every piece of clothing. You squat, you cough, you spread; you are told when to get up, when to eat, what to wear. You quit thinking for yourself, and unles s you can build a friendship, find some warmth and a sense of family, you just keep dying every day. A little more of you keeps going inside yourself .. . " Patricia Young and her husband of 30 years, Cl yde, were living on a farm in Alabama when the DEA raided their property and arrested them. "We had about 500 hogs at the time," Young says. "We also owned a dairy with about 250 milking cows, which the government has now. They just came and took them all . " Patricia and Clyde believe they were set up by a neighbor who wanted their land. When the Young's refused to s e ll it, they say he used government contacts to fabricate a case against them. • Sandra Ospina • Arrested for Transporting Cocai ne • Sentenced to Eight years t o Life Sandra Ospina is your typical mule: foreign born, female, first offender. Before she was sent to Bedford Hills Correctional Institution in New York, she lived in New York City, working in a factory. "I'm here because I was transporting drugs from Columbia . I was very young, 20 years old. I got married to my boyfriend and we were living a very difficult life. I never learned English until I came to jail. He didn • t know English either . n When Ospina was pregnant with her second child, she stopped working. "We started owing money to our families. Then we couldn't afford to buy food so we decided to buy only formula for the kids. "Things started going very bad for us and in that time I was visiting a friend and she introduced me to a guy and we started talking and became friends . He came to our house and saw we were living a hard life. He asked me if I wanted to go to Columbia . He never told me exactly for what, but in the back of my mind I knew for what. "So I went to Columbia, to his family's house. His brother set everything up . He got the cocaine, three kilos, and then put me on a plane. I was arrested at the airport when I got here." Instead of the $5,000 Ospina was desperately counting on, she received an eight-year-to-life prison sentence. Her children are living in Columbia with her family. "Being away from my children breaks my heart apart," she says, crying . "One day I spoke with my son . It was his birthday, and he had a party . He said he invited this person and that person. 'Who else?' I asked, and he said, 'My mother. • And I said, 'Oh yeah? Who is your mother?' And he said, 'Nobody. • N they told her, "Give us what we want and you can walk out in 18 months." It is diffi c ult to imagine how one might face such a choice: 18 m o nths versus life in priso n. Be lle didn't go for it; and she struggles with this decision every day. I can see it in h e r face when sh e thinks n o one is looking. When she went back to be debriefed on her own role, a nd she saw he r children in th e visiting room, they had grown beyo nd recognition. At th at m o ment, h e r beliefs were more d ee ply challe nged than at any previous point in her life. It is the foulest of bribes- your beliefs or your life- a n un conscio nable action by an all-powerful state. Soon, Belle will n o longer be of any use to law e nforce me nt. If sh e ho lds out and resists the pressure to inform on others, h er options wi ll close. H e r punishment, the forfe iture of he r life, so exceeds the crime that it is difficu lt to compre hend un less you consider the government's agenda to target the most vulnerab le defe ndants and coerce the m into snitching. What they are sayi ng is that the crime itself is not so bad; they seek to punish excessively only those who refuse to te ll on others. Belle, like most wome n casualties of the drug war, was a low-leve l playe r. The white m e n who run the inte rnational drug cartels have the p ower and mo ney to buy and bargain th e ir way out of priso n , often by snitching. American society is dom inate d by wh ite supremacy in its institutio n s, particularly in the criminal justice system. The gove rnm e nt h as targeted the African American community with its so-called war on drugs and crime. With the h e lp of a complaisa nt mass me dia, we are barraged with images and pro nounceme nts tha t demonize and criminalize the African American. T h is disregard for th e value of life, and particularly non-white life, is part of the fa bric of American social relation s. T h e natio n was founded upon the d estru ction of Native American life a nd th e importation o f Afr ica n slave labor. Now the means of dealing with people of color has been relegated to the prison syste m wher e it has become a rule th at one must e ither snitch or rot behind bars. When the most callo us a nd cynical manipulations of sentence length are the main devi ce the government e mploys in its war on drugs, a total corruption of the sys tem prevai ls. That the government, through its law e n forceme nt agents, can say to a woman, a mother, a pe rson with a past and a present and hopes for a future, "Your life means shit to us, and your freedom nothi ng at all," is a betrayal by the state of all basic human rights, and a degradation to the humanity of us all. lli1 PRISON LIFE 61 Listen in on SASSY SORORITY GIRLS - See how bad two sorority sisters can be when they answer your phone call and decide to tease you. CHEERLEADER CONFESSIONS "Eavesdrop" on this very private phone line as three wild cheerleaders tell you what turns them on the most. BACHELORETTE PARTY Find out what happens to the only male stripper at an all-girls' bachelorette party. ~4 Ad\fentures to Choose From! f Rich Girls 1 Sassy Sorority Girls Private Yacht Party1Horny Hitchhikers Motorcycle Mama 1Eager Beavers 3 Screamers I South of the Border Action Rub-a-Dub in the Tub I A Tale of Two Titties Female Bonding I Pearl Necklace 2 Alabama Alice 1 Drugstore Cowgirl Jenny & Suzi I Too Big for Brenda Kneepad Nancy1 Knob Gobblers 4 Bachelorette Party I Secretarial Interview Tammy & Tina I Cheerleader Confessions Backstage Visitors I Stewardess on Flight 69 • Each Audio Tape S9.95! • "Deluxe Set" - All 24 Titles-that's a full two hours of steamy adultsonly adventure- on 2 specia l, long-playing cassettes for only $19.95! Cassettes are professionally sealed in plastic and contain no explicit graphics or nudity on covers. All product is shipped in plain packaging with no indication of contents. ---- -- - --------- - -- ORDER BY MAIL! ---------------- - -NAME lletrtlfythat llm iBorolder.l ADDRESS STATE Quantity[Tape I #1 #2 #4 #3 @$9.95 ea. _Deluxe set(s)@ $19.95 Add S3.50 P&H - (CA residents add 8.25%sales tax.) Deluxe Setls) (all4 on 2cassettes) ZIP TOTAL Send check or money order to: Western Audio, 175 Fihh Ave., Box 2205, New York, NY 10010 ~'FORFEITURE *DOUBLEJEOPARDY ¥' WJUTS OF HABEAS CORPUS ';, APPJ::ALS * !NEFFECT!VE ASS!S1 /lNCE OF COUNSEL '"DEPORTATION '1' IJ\IINf!GRA T!ON Se rving th e n e eds o f inmates a nd those acc used of criminal misconduct in fed e ra l a nd state courts nationwide. 10 Park Place South Suite 212 Atlanta, GA 30303 (404) 525-8802 62 PRISON LIFE IJAD,LJADQJI71? lt\E :JU.DG;E DE.NNI%:? MY'""' ;5AYS HE'.S rr MAkl~G ME AN EXAMPLE." "" UFE Win-lOUT PAR01..E .. eAU$E ~E COP$ FOUND A ''NlCKf.t."'"' BACX OF TOBACCO IN M.Y POCKET ,:/7 ;5 ME.~ .SAV"' PRISON LIFE 63 Don't serve the time, let the time serve you THE PRISON LIFE FOUNDATION D on't incar cer a te ; educat e . e Personal Transformation through Education e Fully-accredited GED, College and Vocational Degrees e Scholarships and Funding for Prison Educational Projects e Courses and Study Materials Deli vered Directly to the Prisoner/Student Please tell us your educational interests. GEDIH.S. Degree D Liberal Arts B.A. Science B.S . Business VocaLional Other (Specify) Name Address D History D Biology D Accounting D D D English D Computer Sciences D Chemis try D Pre-Law D Marketing D An D Philosophy D Engineering O M.B.A. T he Prison Life Foundation, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization devoted to helping prisoners break free from the cycle of c rime and incarcerati on through education. The Foundation , togeth er wi th Prison Life Educational Services, Inc., sponsor full y-accredi ted GED, co ll ege a nd voca tion al co urses through corresponde nce learning. If you are inte rested in learnin g more about educational opportuniti es o ffered by the Prison Life Foundation , pl ease fi ll out a nd return the attached questionnaire to The Prison Life Foundation, 350 Fifth Avenue , Suite l 905, New York, NY 1011 8. FIRST DEGREE HORTICUlTURE WITH AQQR~II-TED s·or11NY By Jeff Stewart O n Fe bruary 25, 1990 I was sitting alone in my Afra me cabi n 30 miles north of Spo kane, Washington, whe n the re was a knock at th e doo r, My ca b in was off t h e bea te n track so I fig ured it must be h unters whose car h ad broken down or maybe someone in need of d irec tions. Instead , it was three agen ts fro m th e Drug Enforceme nt Agency. "Fede ral agen ts!" they sh om ed. "We have a warran t for your a rrest." T hey threate n ed th at ifl d idn 't le t th e m in, th ey would be bac k with a sea rch warrant a nd tear my ho use a part. I fig u red that th e q uarLer o unce o f pot o n the co ffee table wasn ' t wo rth having the h ouse wrecked, so I co nse n ted to the search. "An y weapo ns inside?" th ey asked. "Any guns?" "We'll have to walk through th e kitch e n ," I said, "wh ic h has a few kn ives in it." O n ce inside, t hey h a n dcu ffed m e a n d sta rte d fir ing questio ns. "All right, whe re is it?" th ey ke pt asking. Th e n th ey sat me down in the living room a nd mad e me wa tch wh ile t h ey sn oo ped a ro u nd. "This p lace is pre tty tidy," Agent Eric Levy rema rked. I guess he fig ured a nyon e who smoked pot must also have fil thy personal habi ts. Afte r satisfying the mselves that the ir search wou ld produce no thing, two agen ts put me in the rear seat of a Ford Bro nco. T hey made a poin t of me ntion ing tha t the Bronco had been seized fro m some othe r u nl ucky ci tize n . A th ird agen t fo llowed in my car, t.he la test additi on to th e ir fleet of confiscated vehicles. Two ho urs earlie r, I h ad been read ing th e Sunday pa pe r with my ca t curled in my lap and watching NCAA baske tball on TV. ow I was on my way to the Fede ral Building to be finge rpr inted and h ass led by pu b lic se rva n ts. O n ce insid e, th ey wouldn ' t let me take a leak until I sig ned a d ocume nt stati ng that I had co nsented to th e search and bee n read my Mira nda rig hts. I in sisted I n eeded a lawyer b u t th ey wou ldn ' t le t me call one. Fo ur d ays late r I was arra ign ed in Fed e ral Co u rt o n charges o f manufacturing mo re th an 100 marijuana plants. Wh e n th ey told m e I was facing five to 40 years in p rison with a possib le fi ne of$2 millio n, the room began to spin. Had I no t h ad t.h e lectern to stead y me, I pro ba bly wou ld have hit the floor. ~I It a ll began in late 1989 whe n three guys and I d ecided to g row some po t. I had knmvn two o f th e th ree, Terry a nd Ken , since hig h sch ool. T h e t hi rd g u y, Chu ck , ca me in late r o n Ke n 's recommenda tio n . Chuc k was ou r "te nde r, " H is job was to stay on the pro pe rty, wate r the p la nts a nd ma ke sure n o on e came po kin g around . Chuck h ad d o n e seve n years a t Soledad priso n in Califo rn ia a nd to ld us he was d ying of lung can ce r. H e h ad been o ut fo r five years and was living o n Social Security in a p rimi tive cabin 30 miles fro m the growing o pe ra tio n. I fe lt bad ly for th e g uy a n d offe red h im a warm , spacio us mo bile ho m e, ple nty of fire wood , weed to sm o ke a n d a fridge full o f ve n iso n in exch a n ge for ta king care o f th e PRISON LIFE 65 pla nts. Ke n , wh o knew him best, o ffe red him a portion o f his sh a re of a ny even tual harvest. A few weeks after Chuck sta rted tending the plams, he invited a ne ighbo r, Fred, over to smok e a j o int. A week later, Fred returned and they smoked again. At some p oin t, Chuck showed Fred the pol we were growing. Freel, who was o n some kind of paro le or probatio n from th e stale of Idaho, wen t straight to the Washingto n Sta te Pa trol in Spokane. Thro ug h th e di scove ry motion my atto rn ey fil ed , I learned that b o th Chu ck a nd Ke n had tolcl the prosecuto r everythin g th ey co uld t hi nk of dom u rinalyses. I was ex pected to be home by te n o'clock each night a nd to stay there until six the next morning, a hig h schooler's hours at th e age of 35. But I' m g ra teful to h ave spe n t th e summer with Dad. Shortly afte r I was sent to p rison, he d ied o f cancer. Dad a nd his wife j an d id a lo t fo r me that summer. Spokane is a bo ut 90 miles north of my ho me town in Pullm a n , Washi n gto n. We h ad to make ma ny trips to Spo ka ne fo r m eet ings with my lawyer a nd to ta ke ca re of my prope rty. My belo ng ings had to be packed a nd sto red. All the whil e, my fathe r was patie nt an d understanding. I o n ly wi sh h e' d lived to see me wa lk out of prison. \1\That was ha rdest fo r m y fa mily to acce pt was why I hadn ' t been will ing to ·'help myself," as th e prosec uto r phrased it. It was clear t hat if I were not wi lling to provide th e gove rnme nt with "substa ntial assistan ce" I wo uld r ece ive the fu ll fi veyea r se nte n ce wit h o u t possibility of pa role. Years later, a t th e in st illltio n in Spoka n e, a g u y to ld me, "You don ' t c h oose to h o ld you r mud because o th er people are wo nh protectin g (even t h oug h th ey mig ht be) . Yo u choose to do the tim e because of who yo u a re." I could h ave ratted my way ou t, bu t I would have had to live with myself the rest of m}' life. I COULD HAVE RATTED MY WAY OUT BUT I WOULD'VE HAD TO LIVE WITH MYSELF THE REST OF MY LIFE. a bo ut me-i ncluding things that were completely f~tl se. We also learned that C hu c k was n o t suffe r ing fro m lung ca nce r but fro m AIDS, which h e had contracted in prison . He died about a year la ter. Ken a lso h ad a record . He had clone a yea r at California Stale Prison ten years ea rl ie r on a ma r ijua na offen se. In exchange for the ir willingness to testify aga inst me, Chuc k a nd Ken received two years' probati on. The pro ecu to r call ed me the "leade r ," the "organi ze r ," beca u e I had supplied th e seed s fo r th e o pe rati o n. Ke n a nd C hu c k also agreed to tes ti fy aga inst Terry, our e lectrician. Terry's lawyer was clever e n o ug h to ask me to testify for t h e defense. He wanted me LO ex plain tha t afte r wiring t h e sh o p , T e rry h ad bee n excl uded from th e operati on , making it impossible fo r him LO know th e number o f pla nts we we re g row ing. Th is argument co nvinced th e prosec u to r to dro p the five-}'ear mandatory se men ce aga inst Terry a nd to settle for "minor pa n icipam·· conspiracy c ha rges. Like m yse lf, Te rT}' plead ed g ui lty. He received 2 1 mo n ths. ~ l y fathe r was pre em at my arraignme nL and to ld th e judge he had a job for me o n his wheat farm. The j udge felL I posed no th reat to th e comm unity and I was re leased o n my own recogniza n ce. T h e te rm s o f m y re lease req uired attenda n ce at a substan ce a buse treatmen t p r ogr a m a nd ra n66 PRISON LIFE W en I was forma ll y se nn eed in Septe mber of 990 to th e ma nd a tory fi ve years without possib ili ty of parole, my judge, fede ral Distri ct Court judge Ro be n Me ic h o ls sta ted tha t "it was n ot wh at [h e] wo u ld d o." H e criticized th e fac t tha t h e was fo rced to g ive m e more ti me tha n h e felt was a ppropriate. H e pe rson all y wro te to m y siste r , julie, and my mo th er a n d me in the weeks that followed. Shortly after my case, he refused to hear drug cases, as se nior judges are pe rmitted to d o. judge Me ichol also d ied of cancer while I was in prison. judge MC1 ic ho ls asked me in open court whe n wou ld be co nve ni e nt for me to self-surre nde r . I couldn ' t believe my ea rs. A ste n ogra ph e r flipped thro ug h a des k calendar a nd whisp e red to thejudge that ove m- ber 1st was a Mo nday. The j udge asked me if that wou ld be a good day. ovember 1st was seven weeks away. Se lf-sur-rendering is no ca kewa lk. On the a ppoimed day, my mother and I drove to the Federal Prison Cam p in She ridan, Oregon. It was hard on me but doub ly tough on my m om . Like most parents, she b lamed herself for my troubles. And a t tha t point, none of us knew whe n , o r if, I'd be a ble to see my famil y aga in. Add to this t h e fac t t ha t l h ad a valid pass po rt and e no ugh mo ney for a plane ticket to a faraway desti nation . l began to wonder why anyone wou ld se lf ~s u rrender. Sherida n Fede ral P riso n Ca mp is about an h our southwest of Po rtlan d . Wh e n l a r r ived in late 1990, it was abou t a year o ld. Much to my amazement, the doors never locked and the windows ope n ed . Th e re is no fence aro un d th e faci lity, and whi le I was th ere four o r fi ve g uys wa lked away. Afte r the usual new-guy questions a nd mistakes, my overridin g emotion was ela ti on. After mo nths o f a nti cipating shanks, stabbings and brutal homosexual rape, l was tre mendously relieved to find that She rid a n was differen t an d I woul d live to te ll about it. Th e in it ial e latio n borne of th e re lease of momhs of mouming anx iety wore o ff q u ickly. I was assigned the j ob o f unit o rderly, cleani ng tl1e dorm a nd the adj acem bath room , for wh ic h I was paid aro un d fi ve do llars a month. At th at tim e, Sherida n o ffered a few j un io r college courses through a nearby college. It was while in prison that I began my secondary educatio n in earnest. It was something of a revelation to sudde nly like school afte r h ating it years earlier when I was in college. In time, I learn ed a bout anoth e r priso n cl ose r to my home called Geiger. Geige r is a contract facility run by Spo kane Co un ty th at leases bun k space to the Feels. It is also co-ed: about 150 wome n and tl1 c sa me number of me n. Still more surprising to me was tha t tl1e BOP actually a llowed priso n e rs to re qu es t tra n sfe rs fro m one in titu tio n to another. I put in a request to be moved and sure e nough, six months late r, I '~as approved. At Geiger, I fo und my sta nd-u p cod efe ndant Terry. He expla in ed the ropes to me, but oon afte r my arrival I learn ed that Geige r is co nsidered a sni tch camp. It was tough to be civil to people who had give n up tl1eir grandmo the rs for a few momhs o fT tl1eir sentences. Geiger is q uick to u·ansfer out anyone who rocks tl1eir little boat. You ca n do your time with wo m en a nd wear your street clothes, but you can ' t call a rat a rat. Som e of th e inma tes made a fu ll-time job of running to the staff with every li ttle tidbit. Even tua lly, tl1oug h, I found tha t, as in most p laces, a few good peo p le co ul d b e fo u nd, a nd that makes all the d ifferen ce. I e n ded u p being assigned to work a t nearby Fai rchil d Air Force Base as a n orde rly for th e m ili ta ry police statio n . H ard ly my fi rst c h oice of jobs. Still, it paid a bo ut $40 a m onth, th e Ai r Force peo ple treated me we ll a nd th ey we re defin ite ly m ore fr ie nd ly tha n the guards at Geige r. I took a few college courses and contacted tl1e College Board in Princeton, NJ. They agreed to let me take College Level Equ ivale ncy Program (CLEP) exams and tl1e Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). CLEP tests a re a great way to ob tain co lle ge credits qu ickly a nd cheap ly. I took tile SATs a nd scored a 1400, th rowing cold water o n the "use d rugs, d estroy your mind " theory. I also contacted O hio U niversity in Atlle ns, O hio, wh ich offers over 100 courses lor prisoners. It is by far the best correspondence program I've e ncounte red. Basically, I discovered that if you 're really d e te rmined to lea rn , th e re a re ways. You just have to work at fi nding tile m. I j o ined th e Toast masters Club to bone u p o n p u b li c sp ea kin g a n d played on a co-ed softball team. I realize tl1at my time at Geige r was notl1ing li ke most people's prison time. My sis- ter, J uli e, sta rted Fa milies Against Mandatory Minimums in tl1e spring of 1991. H aving a direct li ne to FAMM 's excell e n t inform a ti o n a nd .J ul ie's u·emendous moral support made my time much easie r. Still, having my Dad d ie of can cer o nly an hour's d rive away was no t easy. Be ing inform ed of h is d eath with a guard sitting besid e me is a me mOI)' that will never leave me. Since my re lease, I've learned no t to d own p lay re-e ntry. Adj u stme nt to the free wo rld doesn ' t happe n with a snap o f th e fin ge rs. Even after a re la tively short im priso n m e n t, it ca n be dam n ed trying at times. I was fortuna te, h owever , that FAMM n eed ed a boo kkee pe r. And I' m still in school, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average. Every n ow and m e n , someo n e asks Jul ie and m e to speak about cri m inal j ustice issu es. But when I talk a bo ut tile prison syste m, I know that in many ways I' m hard ly qualified to comme nt. Yeah , I was in th e war, but I neve r saw the fox h o les o r the r ice paddies. My expe rience was more like being o n a hosp ita l shi p moored in a safe harbor. My sister, J u lie, h as taken the fig h t to our na tio n 's Capital, and to the lawma ke rs wh o ma ke the d ecisions th a t se nd o ur yo ung me n a n d wom e n to priso n for le ngth y mandatory terms for growing or using a plant. Knowing my case was tl1e catalyst for j ulie.'s work with FAMM ma kes th e wa r years I spem seem wortlnvhile. lii1 POST CONVICTION ADVOCATES Federal and New Jersey State Appeals, Habeas Petitions, Parole Revocation Hearings, Sentencing Memoranda, Forfeitures. Dedicated, competent, experienced staff. Electronic Research. Cassandra Savoy, Esq. 141 South Harrison Street East Orange, New Jersey 07018 (201) 678-1515 PosT-CoNVIcTioN RELIEF ATTORNEY THE WINNINC DOUBLE JEOPARDYFORFEITURE DEFENSE STRATEGIES OF "$405" Learn th e method used to win the landmark case, u.s. v. $405,089.23, 33 F.3d 1210 (9th Cir. 1994J amended 56 F.3d 41 l1995J, the most devastating victory against the government In recent legal history. And learn it from the source. Order your set of the $405 Supreme court briefs complete with appendices of case history and law. This set is over 400 pages and contains the government's Petition for Writ of certiorari with the highest ranking prosecutor's best arguments attempting to reverse the $405 victory (184 pages>. and the Respondent's opposition Brief (With reasons to grant certiorari, and affirm $405J which details the proper form and facts, law, arguments, authorities, history and policy considerations showing why $405 is a correct decision (228 pages>. Learn the method, thinking , style and argument to use in your double j eopardy- forfeiture case. To order this 400 page set of briefs, send $100.00 plus $8.00 S&H to: Legal Briefs, Dept. P 611 S. Palm canyon Drive Suite 7-566 Palm Springs, CA 92264 ALSO INCLUDED free are: 1> The Supreme c ourt Brief of amicus curiae, sup· porting the federal prosecutor's petition written by the Attorney Generals of 41 states and two commonwealths, claiming that their state criminal law enforcement and asset forfeiture programs will be damaged; 2l the gov· ernment's petition for rehearing in the Circuit court. written by nine prosecutors; and 3l the winning opposition brief by the respondents in pro se which defeated the government and affirmed the landmark decision. use these briefs to learn persuasive argument to defeat prosecutors. MICHAEL]. O'KANE (305)569-3099 • FORFEJTIJRES • 0 ESIGNA110NS • FEDERAL C RIMINAL APPEALS • Au PRISON T RANSFERS 14 01 PoNCE Dtl LEON Dt.VD. Sum; 200 CoRAL GAtli.ES, Ft 33134 ALL INCARCERATED MEN FREE Brochures! Cut Red Tape! Meet Women Worldwide and in the U.S.A . LADIES run your ad FREE! Send SASE or (2) 32c stamps to: REACHING OUT P.O. Box 21136 Castro Valley, CA 94546. PRISON LIFE 67 A win~ direct line to every ning case in the Federal Courts since "Strickland v. Washington"- all gathered together and summarized in this comprehensive text. A 70 page index leads you t o exactly the right case with almost 800 examples of ineffective assistance. with every reference to a win~ nlng case. Over 300 cases decided since Strickland, and 200 before, are gathered togeth~ er and indexed according to the precise factual Issue considered in the decision. Defense attor~ neys across the country are using this book to save untold hours. and even days, of research. If you have ever tried to find INEFFECTIVE ASSISTANCE OF COUNSEL .. WINNING CASES IN THE FEDERAl COURTS GOOD case law to back up your Ineffective assistance arguments. you know how difficult that can be. Here It has already been done for you. Every case In this book is briefly summarized, with emphasis on specific facts which led to the finding of Ineffective Assistance of Counsel. Seeking an evidentiary hearing? You'll find the case law you need to support your arguments in Ineff ective Assistance of Counsel. In a large looseleaf binder. this book is supplemented at least twice annually. The S120 .00 purchase price includes all supplements issued during the following 6 months. Supplement service is $42.00 per year thereafter. To order send your pay~ ment of $120.00 plus $8.00 S&H to: SOUTHWEST UGAL SERVICES P.O. Box 57091 TUCSON, ARIZONA 85732 EXPER' LEGAL HELP IS AVAILABLE AND THE POST CONVICTION LEGAL GROUP® MAKES IT EASY TO SECURE. We are in the process of forming a cooperative association of the best and most experienced criminal defense attorneys in the country. One phone call will provide you with the name and credentials of the attorney that best suits the specifics of your case. Our members are responsive. They have demonstrated their skills in the criminal courts and earned the respect of their clients. If you are an attorney, your participation is invited. If you are in need of legal representation, your calls or letters are invited. Calll-800-207-2659 for further information. Post Conviction Legal Group, 1436 Gray, Suite 531, Houston, TX 77019. 68 PRISON LIFE u.s. v. $405,089: THE NEW DOUBlE JEOPARDY RUliNG How it Can Set You Free or Get Your Assets Back by Michael Montalvo Jailhouse Lawyer O n December 5, 1994, the front page headline of a San Francisco legal newspaper proclaimed: "Who Needs Lawye rs?" and "With a case no d efense a ttorney would touch, federal inmates have dealt a h uge setback to the war on drugs." The four-page story went on to tell h ow I won a lan dmark victory for my fellow convicts Chuck Arlt and Jim Wren , in U.S. v. $405,089.23, 33 F.3rd 1210 (9th Cir. 1994). The rul ing h eld that a civil forfeiture of pro pe rty is prohibted by th e Do uble J eopardy C la use when the forfe iture is based on the same offense already p rosecuted in an earlier proceeding. I have to adm it that it felt pretty good to read that this ruling was like tossing "a grenade into every U.S. Attorney's office from Arizona to Alaska," and that "[t] he decision was so alarming to the government that West Coast U.S. Attorneys and their forfeiture experts hastily arranged an October summit in Seattle hoping to find a way to neutralize t he opi nion ." It was es pecially satisfying since t h ese same U.S. Attorneys h ad ridiculed my doub le j eopardy claims every year since 1989, when I sought injun ctions to prevent the government from forfeiting my properties afte r I was illegally convicted. My 1989 j ury trial was based on false testimony of rewarded snitches concerni ng activity fro m 1982 to 1986. My case was an old-law "Pre-Sente ncing Guidelines" case. turn ed my old-law life sentence in prose on direct appeal, got remanded, and then received a new-law life sentence without the possibility of parole for the old-law indictment. Now I a m back o n direct appeal again, hoping to win on doub le jeopardy grounds. My post-conviction civi l forfeitures became th e fi rst place punishment for the same offen se as the criminal co nviction. I got the first criminal se n tence vacated on appeal, b ut the civil forfei ture for the same offense and conviction was affirmed. Whi le a\va itin g a thi rd tri al in 1989, my outside legal runn e r gathered history a nd legal research on "splitting the cause of action, " which is pro hibited in litigation. My researc h led me through lengthy legal treatises and case authorities from the 1800s on related legal concepts of claim preclusion, issue preclusion, the doctrines of merger and bar, mu ltiple prosecutions and multiple punishments. Each of th ese legal concepts was related to the Double J eopardy Clause in some way an d each concept was routinely violated in my case- and in many o th er defandants' cases. The appellate court vacated my sentence on August 4, 1992, and reman ded my case for a discovery vio lation and de novo sen tencing. Thus I sat in Lompoc pen itentiary o n August 4, 1992 as an unsentenced prisoner. In October 1992, I enrolled in a four-year law school, hoping to earn a J uris Doctor Degree in order to take the State Bar. In November 1992, the inth Circui t Court of Appeals affirmed the civil forfeiture judgmem in a separate appeal and denied my double jeopardy claims. 1 was still I had written the double jeopardy issue in the $405 open- unsentenced, but now the civil forfeiture became the fi rst ing briefs in 1993 wh ile locked up in tl1e U.S. Penitentiary val id , fina l an d fully satisfied judgment of punishment at Lompoc, California, without the assistance of an attor- (even though the court had denied that forfeiture of assets ney. In fact, no attorney I knew would touch tl1e issue until was "punishment" at that time.) In December 1992, two fellow convicts, Chuck Arlt and months after I had won the appeal decision on September 6, 1994. After they saw the sign ificance of the ruling, many J im Wre n, app roached me and asked me to save the ir attorneys offered to help, but I didn 't entirely trust lawyers p roperties from forfeiture. They had federal, State of Nevaafter my experiences at trial. da a nd State of Californ ia civil fo rfe iture actions on stay I have been a prisoner of the unconstitutional drug war and pending sin ce th eir criminal trials. I looked at the govsince 1987. That's more than eight years of being h eld as a e rnm en t's complaints, thought about it for a wh ile, a n d political prisoner. From th e day I was a rrested, I started then decided to do it because I saw a double j eopardy issue learni ng th e law, but I couldn 't learn it fast enough to beat ide n tical to my case. The proble m was th at every court three successive prosecutions of one scheme- split up to d ecision in every Circuit, including my own, had denied disadvantage me- by an overzealous ATF agent who, li ke doub le j eopardy defenses to fo rfeiture actions based o n the rest of t h e ATF, was a psyc ho with a badge. I over- prior criminal proceedings for the same o ffense. But afte r How I Found the Kev to the Double Jeopardv Door PRISON LIFE 69 swdying doub le j eopardy an d forfeiture in te nsely sin ce 1989, I knew I could win the issue if the judges would fo llow the Constitutio n. On j a nuary 7 , 1993, Arlt, Wren a nd I made an agreement. I sta rted d efending th eir property interests in all three forfeitures while I continued my law school curric ulum and prepared my own motions for the remand s in my case. Opportunitv Knocked On june 29, 1993, th e U.S. Supreme Court issued Austin v. U.S. , and h eld tha t civil fo rfeitures unde r drug sta tutes were "punishm e nt." This was perfect timing. I was alread y well-versed in fo rfeiture and double j eopardy. I decided to make a fo ur-part attack. In july of 1993, I. prepared a moti on to d ismi ss my resen te ncing as moot based on the Double j eo pardy Clause since I h ad suffe red a separa te civil forfeiture as "punishm e nt" for the sa m e indicted o ffense. In Septe mber, I prepa red th e appea l briefs for $405 o n th e double j eo pard y issue for my clients Arlt and Wren. In O ctobe r I fil ed a p e titi on for a writ of H abeas Corpus re lief fo r myself in the local federal district court sin ce I was now un se nte n ced (vacated ) and h ad alread y received full "punishm ent" by forfeiture. Also , I had the same double j eopardy issue as my lo ng-time friend and fellow prisone r , Pe rry McCullogh , to insert in his dire ct appeal brief, (U.S. v. One 1978 PijJer Cherollee Aircraft). I figured the fo ur double jeopardy a ttacks on asset forfeitures and convictio ns wo uld be the best way to get before a good judge. Th e rese nte ncing motio n I filed in m y case went before a hostile judge, whom I was smck with. Sure e n ou gh , in j a nuary I994, I went for resente n cing and told th e judge in clear la nguage tha t h e had n o power to resente nce me for the crimin al case since I had suffe red and satisfied a n inte rvening civil forfeiu1re of my property for the same offense in a sepa rate pro ceeding. He to ld me I was wro ng b ecause he'd bee n a judge for twe nty yea rs. ine mon ths later, I won the $405 case o n the same issue. I was very appre h ensive when newspaper reporte rs and a n ABC n ews crew came to USP Lompoc to interview the convict who wounded the Fed 's cash cow-asset forfeiwre. I kn ew firstha nd that convicts always get screwed in interviews with th e press. The public d oesn ' t want to h ear th at the government's snitches are pe1jurers. The public wants to believe law e nforce me nt is no t corrupt. This time the re porters seemed to have a d ifferent a ttitude. The ABC reporter asked me why this simple con ce pt, that forfeiture o f prope rty for a drug crime is a punishment implicating Double jeopardy, had not been exposed sooner. Why hadn 't any lawyers figured it out earlie r? Why did it take a convict to win this major legal issue? I told her th e obvious a nswe r, that g enerally very few lawye rs care abo ut us, a nd that most c riminal defe n se lawye rs, until now, didn 't know anything about th e arcane a reas this law involved. For a mo nth a fter $405 was publish ed, th e d efe nse lawyers were still asleep. I knew the prosecutors would ge t c razy o n $405. So I wro te d oze ns of le tte rs to promine nt c riminal de fe n se attorneys to inform the m that my case co uld revitalize th eir business (a sure-fire way to inte rest a ttorneys) a nd could ei ther get their drug case clients out ofjail or recover their forfeited assets wh e n there were two sepa ra te proceedings based on the same o ffense. Well, that mailing lit the $405 fire. Many attorneys wrote back, saying they wanted to "take over" the case now that I had already won it. Th ere was no way I wou ld trust a street lawyer with 70 PRISON LIFE so huge a victory for convicts. Besides, I knew that no lawyer could possibly duplicate the many years of research and pleading experience I h ad with double jeopardy and forfeiu1re laws since 1989. This was a convict victory against the government, and no lawyers were n eeded after the fact to screw it up. I e nvisioned the government pressing up on any lawyer who could get control of $405, and threatening him with an IRS audit unless he worded his further pleadings to loo k good but lose. Maybe I was paranoid, but I remembered all the lawyers rolling their clients into pretrial guilty pleas when I was in the county jail awaiting my trial. I've seen lawyers sabotage their clients in trial and on appeal to help prosecutors win. After $405 was published, the prosecutors a ttempted to control the damage by launching a media campaign to manipulate the press to create fear and hyste ria. I read predictions that "courts will be flooded with attempts by defend a nts to r eve rse convictions or dismiss pending indictme nts" (which is actually true), and "other inmates would likely try to recover untold millions in dirty money, as well as cars and houses paid for with drug profits" (whi c h is hostile and irrelevan t). The prosecutors who we r e quoted in the press never once admitted that they had been intentionally violating d efendants' constimtional rights and stealing billions in property or incarcerating citizens in complete disregard of the Double Jeopardy Clause fo r years. One prosecutor claimed that "all kinds of bad guys are on the verge of being let out of jail. The public is going to love it when half these guys ge t out ofjail and the other half gets a check cut for them from the government." T h e prosecutors cried, whined and bellowed that they weren't given the opportunity to make oral arguments on so important a case. A San Francisco prosecutor said that "the result in this case is offensive. We're not dealing with innocent p eople or sympathetic people ... " Another said, "They did not n eed a lawyer. They had an advocate in [the judge who wrote the opinion]." I saw the handwriting on th e wal l. The power-drunk prosecutors got their dirty hands caught in the constitutional cookie jar and didn't have the honesty or the courage to admit it. Amazingly, instead of admitting the error, they blamed the convicts for being d ouble punished: it was their own fault; the judge was soft on crime and h ampering the noble crusaders of law and orde r. In sho rt, prosecutors were going to fight $405 and deny accountabili ty for the billions of dollars seized, which have disappeared into agency use. The government was going to protect its perks program for law enforcement officials who like those Me rcedes, new trucks, Rolexes, homes for pennies a nd anything else they wanted from a defendant. On September 30, 1994, my friend and fe llow political prisoner, Perry McCullough, won the same double j eopardy issue in U.S. v. One 1978 Piper Cherokee Aircraft, 37 F.3rd 489 (9 th Cir . 1994) based on the $405 argument wording th a t I h ad provided to Perry when h e was preparing his app eal here a t Lompoc. Now convicts had two major double j eopardy victories. On October 14, 1994, nine prosecutors filed a joint petition for reh eat·ing, and suggested re hearing en bane in the Ninth Circuit. They p etulantly de manded the wi thdrawal of $405 from publication, claiming it would cause immense damage to their asset forfeiture program. The prosecutors asked the Court of Appeals to appoint counsel for my clie nts. I read the government's pe tition for rehearing and thought it was a terrible waste of ink and wood pulp fibers, an unjustified, hysterical overreaction. Nonetheless, I d ecided to imple ment a back-up strategy since the govern- ment was obviously trying to make the en bane court think that the opinion panel had lost their minds and were soft on convicts. I knew my legal analysis of the facts and law in $405 were solidly based on constitutional law and Supreme Court decisions. I wasn't worried about the poor legal analysis of the government's petition. Just in case the panel requested it, I wrote a response expressing my intention to represent my clients Arlt and Wren as a law student, pursuant to the Circuit Rule. I didn'twant the court to take up the prosecutor's amazing suggestion to appoint counsel for my clients-a sure way for the government to undermine this ~onvict victory in the drug war. I wrote an opposition for Arlt and Wren to decline the government's unusual concern to have counsel appointed. It sure was swell of the government to want to help my clients, but we just didn't trust them. Meanwhile, many outside attorneys were expressing great interest in being involved in $405. A representative from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Asset Forfeiture Task Force came to visit my clients and me and offered support in the way of a Brief of Amicus Curiae. On January 23, 1995, the Appeals Court ordered the claimants to respond to the government's petition. I decided that a show of support from the legal community was necessary window dressing to counter the prosecutorial attacks on the panel. I sought amicus curiae briefs from organizations and carefully selected some attorneys to participate in one of my client's response briefs Qim Wren) with me, while I retained responsibility for claimant Chuck Arlt's response brief. I then circulated my $405 response brief to the NACDL Task Force attorneys for their amicus brief preparation, and sent copies to defense attorney Jeff Steinborn, who won a district court double jeopardy issue in U.S. v. McCaslin, and his associate, jeff Finer, who won the issue U.S. v. Oakes, for them to prepare Wren's response brief. The defense was now a team, and we submitted three response briefs to the government's petition, supported by respectable members of the legal community. Qn May 31, 1995, the Ninth Circuit panel denied the prosecutor's petition for rehearing and rejected the suggestion for rehearing en bane. Since then, hundreds, maybe thousands of motions have been filed, but few, maybe half a dozen, have been granted. 20/20 recently contacted me to discuss what they called the "$405 Fallout" and how my legal work has caused "convicts and drug dealers to be released because they were tried twice." Unfortunately, and despite all the hysteria, no one I know has been released from prison or has received his property ·back. However, the prosecutors, while screaming that the $405 ruling destroyed asset forfeiture, have quietly and quickly changed their policies from "multiple proceedings" for assets and criminal prosecutions to a "single" proceeding by indictment for jury trial, and they lost nothing but an unconstitutional practice to enrich themselves without accountability. In September 1995, California Lawyer magazine wrote an article about my legal work as a convict. Entitled "Take iny Porsche-please," it shows how prosecutors are now going after the crime and the assets in one proceeding. "Do You Have a $405 Claim?," the article asks. "If so, is it a claim sufficient to get out of prison, or get your property back? Don't make the wrong motion." This important question will be the subject of Part Two, to be published in the March/April issue of Prison Life. U1l Got Nothing Else To Do? Take This Course! "The second that you make a man truly free he becomes truly good. And it is only that individual who has lost his belief in himself and his own pride of goodness and his own pride of being and his own honor who is dangerous. Because after that it doesn't matter what he does. It doesn't matter what he does to anyone, including himself." Quote by L. Ron Hubbard ', Criminon™ is a non-profit activity dedicated to helping inmates and juvenile offenders. We provide a correspondence course based on the booklet "The Way to Happiness," written by humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard. Through studying this easy-to-read booklet and course, a person has the opportunity of adopting for himself guidelines for a happy and decent life ... guidelines which make sense to him and which he can agree with and actually apply to his life. One graduate of the Way to Happiness course writes: "Since I have completed the Way to Happiness course, my life has made a turn toward a road full of happiness while previously my life was on a road to nowhere-lost, unhappy and very dangerous. I don't know how I managed this far, but I did and the big step I took is to get to be a better person, as much as possible in realms of life. I believe that my outlook on life is in focus, toward goals I never thought I would set or achieve. I am happy and free with morality. Thank you Criminon™." L.D. Maryland. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS COURSE -AN OPPORTUNITY FOR LIFE! Criminon™ is made up of a group ofvolunteers and as such we raise money for the inmates ourselves. Our funds are limited. We ask you pay $30.00 (to cover books and postage). For anyone who cannot pay, this course is free of charge. It is never too late! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Yes! I would like to get started on the "Way to Happiness" correspondence course as soon ~s possible! N arne_______________________________________ I.D. # ---------------------------- Full Name of Institution------------------------------------------------------Address or P.O. Box#---------------------------------------------------City----------------------- State/Province---------------- Zip/Code-----------Please mail to: Criminon™ Canada, P.O. Box 14024, 2398 Lakeshore Blvd. West, Toronto, Ont. Canada MSV 4A2 Criminon7 M is a trademark owned by A.B.L.E. International and used with its permission. @ 1995 All Rights Reserved. Gmteful acknowledgement made to L. Ron Hubbard Ubrary for pennission to reproduce selection from copyright works of L. Ron Hubbard. PBISOI LIPB 71 KING RAT (continued f rom page 31) Angel claimed he had a partner in the deal, a guy named Ray h e'd me t o n an unemployment line a few days earlier. "The guy tol ' me he knew a sucker who'd pay sixty bucks for an o ld shotgun he could get for ten in the pawn sho p. Ails we got to do is cut the barre l. He say if I cut it and make the de live ry, h e puts u p the te n for the gun and we split the profit. H e was rig ht there when I cut it. H e even marked it." What Angel had described, without realizing it, was that his crime never would have happened if it hadn't been provoked by a paid government rat- en trapment. In those yea rs th e ru le was that sim p le: if th e cr im e wou ldn 't have happened without a CJ or an undercover agent planting the idea, there was no crime. The justice Department wouldn' t prosecute it. In fact, an agen t co uld ge t himself into serio us trouble by bringing an e ntra pment case to th e U.S. Atto rney's office. How things have changed. It too k me two days to corroborate Angel's vers io n o f eve nts a nd get all charges dropped agai nst hi m. The federal pr osecutor thanked me and told me I had just learned the most important lesson I wou ld ever learn as a Fed: " ever trust a crimi na l informant, Mike. " Over th e next twenty-five yea rs I wo uld hear th ose words repea ted th o usand s of times by agen ts, co ps, training instructors and prosecutors, ye t I neve r heard a prosecutor say th em to a jury. Everyone who has eve r carried a federal badge knows how easy it is to convict someo ne who 's been e ntrapped on little more than a n informant's testimo n y, as lo ng as the informant was clever enough to h ide his tracks, the victim gullible enough to fall for the trap, and the agents and prosecutors amb itious an d immoral enough to go for headlines, statistics and winning at all cost. Until a few years ago, I had believed that most of us in federal law enforcemen t were people whose pride and consciences would not allow that to happen. I was no longer so sure. After the Ray-An gel case, I continued on with BATF for three more years before transferring into narcotic en forceme nt. During those years I never saw another sawed-off shotgun case involving a CI accepted for prosecution by the two federal courts in New York City. There was just too much possibility of informant entrapment. Yet in the Randy Weaver case, the question of how the hell a CI entrapment/ sawed-off shotgun case was ever allowed to become a military invasion of a n American citizen's home was not even being asked-either by our political leaders or by the media. The question in my mind was, What happened to the people of conscience in th e Weaver case? Yo u can't just blame it o n the ra t-a professional rat can't entrap anyone unless a governm e nt age nt with more a mbi tion than conscience is wi lling to look the other way. The other thing going o n in my life that would aiTect my decision was that as a result of my books, I'd bee n A 74 PRISON LIFE rece1vmg letters from federal prisoners who claimed th ey had been set up by lyi ng criminal informants working for the va rious competing federal agencies e nfo rcing th e drug and mo ney laundering statutes. Guys like Lon Lundy, a o n ce suc cessfu l businessman, husba nd and fath e r from Mobile, Alabama, a man with no criminal record who was set up by a CI in a no-dope conspiracy case and received a life-with-no-paro le sentence; or Harry Kauffman from Cleveland, a o nce successful used car dealer, husband and father, who was conned by a CI into accepting cash, alleged to be drug money, for some cars and charged with money laundering. And many, many others. They we re men of every race, religion and national origin in the federal priso n syste m . Most had no previo us criminal records, most had had the ir homes, businesses and financial assets seized by the federal gove rnm e nt, leaving their families destitute. Each had received a priso n sen tence of more than twenty years. These were men whose lives and families had been destroyed. Their letters to me were desperate cries that affected me deeply. In many cases the rats ended up with a perce ntage of the asse ts seized as a reward for their work. My 25 years in th e justice syste m had taught me that there were plenty of bureaucrats and politicians who, if th ey didn ' t like the way you exercised yo ur rights as a citize n , or if they thought th ey could make headlin es, po litical hay or a pro motio n by your a rres t a nd pr osecution, would not think twice about using the gove rnme nt's legions of paid belly-crawlers to target yo u . Few peo ple have th e m o ney of a j o hn De Lorean to adequately defend th emselves against a slick rat. The o nly thing, in my experience, that sto pped these rats with badges and rats in public office, were people of conscience in positio ns of authority and a kn owledgeable an d watchfu l m ed ia. For seve ra l years I had bee n see ing no evidence of e ither. And as pub licly outspoken as I ha d bee n abo ut th e pho n y drug war bureaucrats and politicians, I fo und this all personally threatening. Finally, the most pain ful iss ue of all was th e murder of my so n Keith by a man who had two prior murde r convictions in New York State; a man who was o n th e street-according to o ur political leaders-because there isjust not enough money to put everyone in jail wh o belongs there. Yet I had in front of me a file that spoke of federal law enforcement spending many hundreds of tho usands of dollars to arrest and convict a parking lot attendant as a Class One drug dealer. ''I'll do it," I heard myself say the next morning. "I wen t over a ll yo ur stuff. You've got a better entrapment defense here than j ohn De Lorean had." There was a long sile nce on th e phone. "I didn't claim entrapment as my defense theory," said the attorney. I started to ask him why and stopped myself. It no longer mattered. The atto rn ey's o pening state me nt claimed Miguel was innocent of a ll charges-not that he had been entrapped into committing the crime by a governme n t rat working on commission. Miguel, o n camera, h ad done h is best to p lay th e ro le of Chama King of Cocaine; he had accepted money and promised to deliver drugs, wh ich was all the government needed to prove conspiracy. If a judge didn't explain to a jury what e n trapment was, not even Johnnie Coch ran cou ld get h im off. And once t h e tri al h ad begun, no j udge wou ld allow a change in the defense th eory-it was a simple matte r of law. But Miguel's gui lt or innoce nce no longer ma tte red to me . I h ad so meh ow committed myself me ntally a n d emotionally to go to war. I wan ted to u-y and make the issu e of the growing power of rats- those with and wi thout badges-as publ ic as I cou ld. T h ey weren't only hurting peop le who had fai led a n ho n esty test, th ey were spen d ing billions in taxpayer d o llars for nothing but phony show trials, and they were fi lling the jails with peo ple who were, at worst, no n-violent dupes, while our nation 's streets ra n with th e b lood of in nocents. My testimony for the defense lasted all day Mo n day a n d in to Tu esd ay morn ing . A co u p le of g uys I used to work with sa t wi t h th e prosec u tion, watch ing me in disb elief. During a break one of them ca me up to me , stared at me for a lo ng mome nt and said: "It's a shame you h ad to go tha t way." I said nothing. T he re was n othing I could say. I h ad known th e guy fo r more th an 25 yea rs. We had se rved toge the r in two fede ral age ncies. I was sure h e was not capable o f bri nging a mess like Miguel Car-parker into federal court, but he would never viola te the b lue wa ll of sil ence ; he fel t the need to protect people I th ough t d idn't deserve it. Whe n yo u become a Fed you take two oaths, one to protect th e bureaucracy and th e peo p le wh o pay yo ur sala ry, a n d th e o th e r to protect th e Co nstitution. No fed e r al agent can live up to both. We would never speak aga in. During my testimony I pointed out dozens of p laces in th e ta pes wh e re Tony and Mig uel's actions indicated that neither of th em knew what a real drug deal was li ke, and stated that in my opi nion th e crime n eve r wou ld h ave h appened h ad it n ot bee n for the CI's actions a nd the agents' failure to con tro l him and prope rly investigate his allegations. I managed to get in th at "if th e Federal government is going to use su itcases full of taxpaye r dollars to test th e honesty of Ame ri- ca n citizens, in ste ad ofworking the parking lots of America, they ough t to be running th eir tests in the halls of Congress wh e re it might do us some good." As soon as I got off th e witness stand I headed back to New York. The wh o le t hi n g h ad been a trau matic, shitty experience for me. The attorney said h e'd call to let me know the verd ict. T he judge had refused to instruct th e jury that they could find the defendant inno ce n t by reaso n of e n u·apme n t, but the attorn ey was still hopefu l. In New York a message was waiting fo r me from anothe r Californ ia attorney th at would qu ickly take my mind off wh at I h ad begun calling "The Beavis an d Butth ead case." T h e attorn ey rep resented Donald Carlson, a forty-five year old executive for a Fortune 500 computer company. A federal task force comprised of Customs, DEA, BATF a n d Border Patrol agents who had j ust graduated from a param il itary assaul t school the wee k before, wea r ing b lack ninj a outfits, he lmets a n d flack vests, using flashbang g renades a n d au tomatic wea pons, h ad invad ed Mr . Carl so n' s upscale, suburban San Diego home. O n e o f th e invadi n g Fed s did a Rambo-ro ll, fi ring fifteen rounds fro m his submac h in e gun, h itting everythin g in Mr . Carlso n 's foyer but Mr. Carlson. Oth e r agents h it their mark: Car lso n was sh ot three times and arrived at the hospital in c ri tical cond itio n . Th e tea m had exec uted a sea rc h warran t based o n the u ncorroborated, uninvestigated word of a professio nal rat. Mirac ul ously, desp ite the b es t efforts of th e this newly formed suburban assau lt squad, Mr . Carlson h ad survived. H e wan ted to sue th e gove rn me nt. "We'd li ke to retain you as our consul tan t," said the attorney, a soft-spoke n, thoughtfu l man with a n impeccable re putation for in tegrity. "How d id this happen ?" I said . ''That's wha t we'd like you to tell us. It seems th at this task force h ad a search warrant seeking 5,000 pounds of cocain e and four armed-and-dangerous Colombians in Mr. Carlson's garage. T h e warran t was apparently based on the word of a criminal informan t. " I immed iately started poring over th e reports and statements. Dawn had begun to light th e sky before I realized I h ad read t h e who le ni ght th rough . It was o ne of the most frigh te ning exa m p les of out-of-co n tro l, LIFE ON DEATH ROW Prison Life Is planning a SPECIAL ISSUE on DEATH ROW and the DEATH PENALTY IN AMERICA We want to hear from condemned prisoners: poets, essayists and fiction writers. Tell us your stories. How you wound up on DEATH ROW; how you feel about the death penalty; how you face day-today existence knowing you are to be put to death. DEATH ROW ARTISTS. Send us your work for possible inclusion In this SPECIAL DEATH ROW EDITION of Prison Life. Address all replies to: DEATH ROW, c/o Prison Life, 200 Varick, Ste 901, NY, NY 10014 PRISON LIR 75 almost comically inept federal Jaw enforcemen t I had ever seen or heard of in my career. In short, a low-level professional rat/ petty thief/druggi e who'd been selling stree t-leve l dope cases to a local south Florida police department convi nced a team of agents representing four federal agencies that he had become a trusted member of a major South American drug cartel. They overlooked the fact that the rat spoke no Spanish and see med to have a hard time putting together an intelligible sentence in English; that most of the people he was implicating as members of t hi s Colombian drug ring weren ' t even Spanish speakers; that the rat's credit was so bad that the phone company refused to furnish him with a telephone (the age nts had to give him a cell u lar phone, which they took back when he started making unauthorized phone calls); that a local cop had called the rat a liar. The rat's storythat he had been doing pushups in a California park when he was first approached by a stranger and asked to join one o f th e notoriousl y paranoid Colombian cartels-would have been d issed at a UFO abd uction co nve ntio n. None of this bothered the Feds. They put the CI on payro ll for three months, accepted everything he said as fact, implicated dozens of innocent people in government files and com puters as drug u·a£fickers belonging to a trafficking organization that didn't eve n exist, and obtained four search warrants-including the Carlson warrant- based on nothing more than the rat's uncorroborated words. And then, ignoring the words of a San Diego cop who call ed the rat a liar, they Ramboed the suburban home of a computer company executive in the manner of Desert Storm and almost killed an innocent citizen . "Holy shi t!" I th ought. "What is going on here?" The fede ra l grapevine must have been buzzing. I was contacted by cops and agents who wanted to see some of these guys go to jail. A San Diego cop who had taken part in the investigation- but not the raid-was quoted as saying that the agents involved shouldn't be carrying guns and badges. A lot of Feds fe lt the same way, but they weren 't going to break the blue wall of silence. One did, however, send me 76 PRISON LIFE a copy of a Congressional Report he thought might be helpful, of hearings chaired by Congressman J o hn Conyers J r. The title of the report tells its story: Serious Mismanagement and Misconduct in the T1·easury Department, Customs Service and Other Federal Agencies and the Adequacy of Efforts to Hold Agency Officials Accountable. The hearings not only found evidence of al l of t he above, they also fo und there was "a perception of cover-up" in these federal agencies for a ll their misdeeds . In spite of this report being issued within months of the Carlson shooting, the killings at Ruby Ridge a nd the massacre at Waco, Texas, it went virtually ignored by the media. I had served part of my career as an Ope ra ti ons Inspector and began doing what I used to do for the government-documenting violations of rules, regulations and Federal Jaw on the pan of agents. I began what would become two reports noting hundreds of instances where the Feds violated their own rules, dozens of ind ications of federal fe lo nies-false statemen ts, perjury, tampering lvith evidence and coercion of witnesses-and violations of the U.S. Constitution. I also found and noted in my reports-just as Congressman Conyer's r eport notedpowerful indications of cover-up going righ t to top level manage ment of DEA, Customs a nd the Justice Department. Powerful people wanted the Carlson incident to disappear. I was not going to let that happen. Or so I thought. A couple of days into my work o n the Carlson case I got a call from Miguel's attorney. The jury had found him guilty of attempted possession of cocaine. The charge ca1-ried a mandatory minimum sentence of twenty years in prison. "The jury said they weren't very impressed with ei ther your testimony or the government's," he said. "They voted on what they thought was the Jaw. Miguel promised he 'd deliver the coke for the money, so he's guilty." The attorney said he was appealing the conviction. The CI , in the meantime, was paid wh atever h e'd been promised and was probably off selling more cases. Even I had to admit, it was a good livi ng. I hung up fee ling like shit. Weeks later, after I had su b mitted the Carlson shooting report, recommending that the agents and prosecutors involved in the case be fired and prosecuted, I was full of hop e. A rat cannot be king unless the people who are supposed to con trol him become as immoral and corrupt as he is, and I was going for their th roats. The Carlson case would be the example that all Ameri ca ns sho ul d see of what was going wrong all across this country. I looked forward to the civil trial and testifying publicly to my reports. It wouldn 't be a congressional hearing, where th e facts testified to are usually only the ones th e politicians want to hear so that they can comfortably r each th e conclusion they agr eed upon long before th e hearings began. I was eve n going to call Court TV. I was at war. Miguel's attorney called me again. "The judge reve rsed h imself. H e 's granted a new trial on the basis that Miguel should have h ad an entrapment d efense. Will you be available to testifY?" "Sure," I said. "I'd love to." It would be months before learned that the attorney and the Federal prosecutor had worked out a plea bargaining deal. I 'm not sure what Miguel pled guilty to, but he ended up with a ten-year prison sen tence. I suppose it could have been a lot worse. It would be more th an a year before I would learn that the U.S. government in the person of San Diego U.S. Attorney Allan Bersin, had decided to settle with Mr. Carlson, avoiding a trial and the p ublic revelations o f my reports. Mr. Carlson's attorney made a public statement that because they were settling without a trial, the misdeeds of the government were being covered up. The government paid Mr. Carlson 2.75 million . Part of th e final agreement was that the government's reports of its own actions be classified. The U.S. Attorney of San Di ego made a public statement exonerating the agents and prosecuto rs of a ll wrongdoing. He said that "the system" failed Mr. Carlson, but that the agents and prosecutors were to be commended for having done their jobs. Within weeks the government would also settle with Randy Weaver, paying him $3.1 million. Once again the legality and morality of the government's actions in entrapping Weaver in the first place were never even questioned. This was also the year that Quibillah Shabazz, Malcolm X's daughter, would be charged with conspiracy to murder Louis Farrakhan. The young woman, according to the press, had been set up by her fiance, who also happened . to be a long-time professional rat for the FBI and who was reportedly paid $25,000 for his services. It seems, though, that once the prosecutor and the FBI got their headlines, they lost all stomach for their case against Ms. Shabazz and agreed to a plea bargain that freed her. I didn't think the prosecutors were freeing her out of pity. They had spent an enormous number of taxpayer dollars to charge her with conspiracy to murder. They were protecting their own butts and covering up perhaps one of the ugliest cases of rat entrapment on record. I flashed on another professional rat I knew in the DEA who had turned every friend and relative he'd ever had into government cash as if they were deposit bottles. One day he came crying to me, actually bawling big wet tears, that he'd met a woman and for the first time in his life was in love. She lived in California and he was broke. He needed enough money to get there. "I'm a piece of shit," he said. "Please don't deny me a chance to turn my life around, Levine." I bought him a one-way ticket. He was there a week when I got a call from a Los Angeles DEA agent checking on the guy's record. The rat was trying to broker a deal on his fiancee. I watched the Senate hearings into the federal government's a.ctions in both Waco and Ruby Ridge and heard, for the first time in my life, liberal Democrats and the liberal press, who for decades had criticized the tactics used in federal law enforcement suddenly refer to them as "our federal agents" and defend their actions. It was clear that their real interest was to protect the President and Attorney General for their actions in two of the worst screw-ups in law enforcement history. At the same time, the conservatives and Republicans, who for decades had defended federal law enforcement no matter what they did, were now attacking the Feds as racists and jack-booted storm troopers." And somewhere in the middle of this political shit-storm the truth was lost and, as usual, all the rats-those with badges, those in appointed and political office-came out smelling like roses, while the walking-around, taxpaying, hard-working Americans and their Constitution took it up the ass. The other day I read an interview with Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, who, in payment for turning rat against his lifelong partners in crime, was forgiven for the murders of nineteen liuman beings (that we know about) and an uncountable number of felonies. He was allowed to keep the millions he had earned as a murdering thug, plus a pile of taxpayer dollars for expenses, and received a taxpayer-paid ride in the Federal Witness Protection program for life. Gravano, speaking from what he described as a "nice little apartment complex," said he was enjoying his new life as a bachelor millionaire. "There's a pool, ~cquetball courts, gym, tennis courts and a lot of single women who don't have the slightest idea who I am," he said. "It's nice. I sit down and relax under some trees." God bless America, I thought. The land where the rat is king. [[0 .-----------------------------·---.... ...----. -. I : I I I 1 I I I I 1 1 I I 1 I ,1 1 I The Prison Bookshelf I AU THESE TITLES. ONLY $13.00 EACHI : EJ1 The Life & Philosophy of Malcolm X D2 c3 C4 D5 C6 C7 CS Out of the Darkness (Satanism) High Tr:-eason OFK assa~sination) Forever Dobie (Dobie Gillis) Women of South Africa (Photography) To Hatred Turned (Murder) Michael Jackson: Music & Madness Faithful (Marianne Faithful) D9 Howard Stem Book (Fan\ guide) 010 800 Cocaine: Book of Drug & Alcohol Recovery Cll Blow (Middle class cocaine mogul) Please check box or boxes by the books you want. Fill out the order blank and send entire ad with check or money order made payable to The Prison Bookshelf (with shipping charge of $3.00 per book included) to: cl~ Contrary to Popular "Opinion, Allan Dershowitz 013 When She Was Bad (Crime) C14 Deadly Scholarship tMass murder) C15 Pictorial History of Wrestling 016 Lying Eyes (L.A.P.D.) 017 Hunter (Gonzo iournalist Hunter S. Thompson) c18 Portrait of a Racist (Killing of Medgar Evers) C19 Broken Covenant (Father RiHer, chikl molester) D20The Last Brother (TecfKennedy) 021 Bloody Legacy (Chronicles of murder) c22World of Harley-Davidson (Pictorial) Name ID# Address Cify ------------- 1 II The Prison Bookshelf 346 First Avenue I Allow three weeks for delivery. Send for our catalog list. We will be stocking crossword books, jumble books and a full line of religious books. · I New York, ·NY l0009 ----------~--- ZIP TOTAL AMOUNT OF ORDER: $ State I I 1 I I I I 1 1 I I 1 1 1 1 I 1 I 1 1 L------------------------------------~ PBISOII LIFB 77 PRIME SPACE We offer a complete selection of U.S. and European adult's only girlie magazines. We also h ave com ic books, adult's only paperbacks, and selected other related reading and viewing periodicals. We ship all orders by insured parcel post. For a complete listing of our product line , send a self-ad dressed, stamped envelope to: Paper-Wings P.O.B. 4855 AVAILABLE CALL 212/229-1169 Jg;lJ.E!l~;@.~~~j~~~@[~~~ of the sky, we offer read- ~~: of: P:!:it:W(~fl!il~:azin~-~~the'Clloud Chart. It's 17x23, preto you rolled in a tube. This be;auti:ful .educattiQ:O:al clCJtu d Chart highlights 35 cloud formations. The Cloud Chart was prepared in cooperation with FOR SPACIOUS SKIES, a non-profit found ation dedicated to increasing public awareness of the sky's beauty and wonder. ·::b~um(·.~rlin.att:~d~;!~d-~~aiiled To order, send $8.95 to: Cloud Chart c/ o FSS Dept PL P.O. Box 191 Lexington, MA 02173 This could be one of the most significant, ~~~------------~~~ · ~'~ " ____ "~~___stepsof your ~li= " f~e~!~----~~~~----~ 78 PRISON LIFE 3 1 4 5 6 Send me these books: 0 I. No Beast So Fierce by Edward Buuker $10 0 4 . Smack G oddess by R.idwrd Stratlou $18.95 0 2. Rus h by Kim Wozencmft $1 0 0 5. Prison Liter ature by Bmce Fmnklin $12.95 0 3. Sole dad Brothe r by Georgejacllsou $14.95 0 6. The Bad Guys' Q uote Book by Bob Siuger $2.50 Send check or money orde r plus $2.50 P&H to: 10# ADDRESS CITY ------STATE Zll' Joint Venture Publishers 175 5th Ave., Suite 2205 New York, NY 10010 CLASSIFIEDS - LEGAL PARALEGALGRADED CURRICULUM BY BLACKSTONE SCHOOL OF LAW. Approved home studies legal training since 1890. Affordable and comprehensive. Free catalog : 1-800-826-9228 or write Blackstone School of Law, P.O. Box 701449 Dept. PL, Dallas, TX 75370. FEDERAL INMATES: Assistance in transfers , Administrative Remedies and matters relating to Federal Bureau of Prisons Policies and Procedures. Reasonable rates. H.R. Cox, MS. P.O.Box 1551 , Weatherford , TX 76086 . REACH OUT TO IFC Legal Connections Nationwide. Unique Services, Unlimited help. Free Brochure. Send self-addressed, stamped envelope to : Box 1211 , Bellmore, NY 11710. WE PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES IN THE FOLLOWING AREAS: direct appeals, habeas corpus (2241 & 2254), motion to vacate sentence (2255) , parole hearings, representation at parole hearings, administrative remedies, immigration matters and prisoners eligible for exchange pursuant to treaties. Please direct all inquiries to: The National Legal Foundation, P.A. , George D. Gates, J.D., Deputy Director, 6006 Greenbelt Road, Suite 350, Greenbelt, MD 20770. (301) 794-6992. PRISON LIFE 79 MAIL- ORDER Say Happy Valentine's Day, Happy Mother's/Father's Day, Happy Birthday, I'm Sorry, I Love You; gift certificates, perfume, candy, flowers. Serving prisoners exclusively. Free brochure. MAIL ORDER BLUES, 2767 So. Parker Road, Suite 188, Aurora , CO 80014. Telephone: 303/914-3955. EXPRESS YOUR LOVE TO FAMILY & FRIENDS. Custom designed gift baskets hipped nationwide and to foreign countries.Gift Baskets By Mail, P.O. Box 610924 , San Jose, CA 95161. FR EE COLOR PHOTO & BROCHURE. Call or write today. (408) 254-4134. RADIOS AND OTHER GOODS. Serving the prison population since 1984- We are the Conaid Company, Inc. We offer a variety of radios and other goods specifically for the prison population. Free Catalog. Write to: The Conaid Company, Inc. , 2302 230th Street, Pasadena, MD 21122. FREE OCCULT CATALOG. Magickal Needs-A huge selection of occult and magickal books, music, videos, jewelry, talismans, spellcraft tools, candles, statues, ritual gear and more. Send Request to: Magickal Needs, POB 1138, W. Concord, MA 01742. SPORTea® - the brewed tea used by Mt. Everest climbers , boosts your energy, fights stress. All natural herbal tea contains Siberian ginseng, antioxidant Vitamin C, electrolytes. Naturally decaffeinated, no sugar or sodium . Citrus-flavored SPORTea® tastes great, brewed hot or iced. Send $3.00 for samples (deducted from first order) . PVS for Fitness, 676A Front St., Hempstead, NY 11550. MEDIA___ _ Feder~ l Prisoners involved in Recent Uprisings: We want to tell the real story-your story. Write to : Mad Zone , 86-33 89th St., Woodhaven , NY 11421. so PRISON LIFE JACQUELINE'S GARDEN Catalog and institutional sales. Sale prices. Be remembered with thoughtful flowers or gifts while you're away. Send for catalog: Jacqueline's Garden, P.O. Box 9112, Michigan City, IN 46361 . Tired of doing time you do not deserve? Have you given up on all possibility of any justice si~ce your confinement? Please wnte : Freedom Press , Prisoner Support Division , P.O. Box 4458 , Leesburg , VA 22075. Include a narrative and copies of your sentencing documents . Phone: 703/866-1446. Collect calls are accepted on Saturday and Sunday only. EDUCATED IN PRISON? Comments sought for book about NYS inmates who attended college programs: Why did you take courses? What was best and worst about the experience? How did it change you? Why do you think funding was cancelled? What will you do now? All references will be anonymous. M/ R Dissertation , P.O. Box 891 , Hartsdale, NY 10530-0891. WRITER DOING RESEARCH FOR BOOK. Looking for people convicted of non-violent crimes. Especially interested in fraud, embezzlement, con games, scams, etc. Would like to hear your story; compensation for all stories published. For more information please write to : B. Philbrick, 853 Vanderbilt Beach Rd ., Suite 212, Naples, FL 33963. Former Inmate seeks short stories for possible inclusion in book. Stories do not have to reflect prison experience. Compensation if selected. Send to: T.M.D., Suite 223, 235 Promenade Street, Providence, Rl 02908. Filmmaker and photographer seek love stories: relationships that have started during incarceration (between inmates and partners or spouses on the outside). Write to : Gladsjo/ Adams, P.O. Box 411144, San Francisco, CA 94141. BOOKS & MAGS FREE CATALOG. Absolute lowest prices on subscriptions to 850 magazines. Examples; News week 1 yr $23.95; Esquire 1 yr $7.95; Motor Trend 1yr $9 .95; Penthouse $19.95; FREE LISTMagazine Warehouse, 1243-48th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11219. (800) SAVE-SAVe. IF YOU'VE GOT THE TIME, WE'VE GOT THE BOOK! Breaking the Language Barrier will improve your English and improve your chances in life. Written in unstuffy, user-friendly style. A must for anyone unhappy with his language skills. $14.95 plus $2.50. North Light Press, Box 7163, Deerfield, IL 60015. OTHER STUFF For God So Loved The World That He Gave His Only Begotten Son That Whosoever Believeth In Him Shall Not Perish But Have Everlasting Life. John 3: 16. Jesus Loves You. LONELY? Tired of doing time by you rself? We can provide you with someone to share exquisite conversation with , both in letters and over the phone . TMC Services, Box 700817, Plymouth, Ml 48170. MUSIC!!! You want it? We've got it! Can 't find it? We 'll get it! " CHOICE." New Releases , Rock, Rap , Country, Gospel, Jazz, Underground . . . Catering to Prisoners. For information: CHOICE, 1916 Pike Place, #12337, Seattle, WA 98101. $75 for 35 words. Addi· tionol words are S1 each. Prepayment required. Send to: PRISON UFE Classified Ads, 1436 West Gray, Suite 531 , Houston, TX 77019. 1·800·207·2659 or 1713) 840·7801. CLASSIFIED RATES: lVIailCall (continued from p age 11) to d ea th afte r a nd e ig ht-an d-a-h a lfmo nth tri a l. I had neve r in my li fe seen Eddie Bun ke r fo r more than a few minutes, a nd we had n eve r had a co nve rsa tio n , b ut I fe lt I was fa ili ng him a t a very im portan t momen t. On ce it was es ta bli sh e d I didn ' t know what Eddi e was we arin g and didn ' t recall a nything abou t th e d ay o ther tha n tha t it ha d bee n gray and probabl y colde r th a n norma l, th ere was no a ppa re n t purpose fo r my prese nce . The few succeeding qu estio ns and some inform a tio n after th e fac t le d m e to u nde rsta nd wh at th e publi c d efe nd e r had n ot to ld m e, and I we nt a way be lievin g th a t Eddie's lawye r \vas no t giving him an h o nest de fe nse. T h e FBI agen ts were alleg in g th a t th e Ho lid ay Inn bust was initi a te d b y a n o b se rva tio n of fresh n eedle tracks o n Eddie's a rms, but it was n ot. Ed die h ad been wearing a lo ng sleeved shi rt. I d o n ' t kn ow why th e FBI lie d o r wha t t h e ex p osu r e of th at lie might've meant to his d efe nse, but a t th e time I wa nte d to a pologize to Eddie fo r my not be ing of a ny he lp. I d on ' t feel that way now, so I tho ugh t I'd just te ll him the story. O n an o the r no te, I'd li ke to continue th e discussio n yo u sta rte d abo ut th e business of d o u b le-dea ling known as sni tchi ng. No t lo ng ago, a wo m a n wait in g o ut th e last week of h e r se nte n ce to ld m e a snitc h h ad just re p o rted to th e o ffi cer that sh e h a d b rou g ht foo d fro m th e di ning room . I said yes, tha t 's th e level tha t snitc hing h as gon e to. Sh e said most of the wome n in o ur unit are nothing but sn itches. I learned later th at her time h ad bee n cut afte i- she' d tes tified against he r own siste r. Yo u ta lk a bo ut t h e o ld convic t cod e. Yo u kn ow it is bu t a me m o ry a nd laug hed at by most of tod ay's little two-h ead e d sn akes, a mo r a l rode n ts a nd pred aLOrs. Rats rul e, of cou rse, beca use n o on e checks th e m. It \Vould be a very big a nd continuous j o b. Since th ey play b o th sides, th ey n o t o n ly vio late o u tside laws unde r po lice pro tec tio n bu t fi nger oth ers in side a n d o u t as bo th law brea ke rs a nd snitc h es. I h e a r d 25 yea rs ago th at th e re we re hi ts made o n t h e word of a ra t trying to cover his own shit. I ' m sure th ose d ays we re ba d , but a t least the re were guideli nes fo r b e h av io r b e twee n office rs a nd inma tes, a t leas t th e re we re g u id elines for be havio r b e twee n officer s and inma tes, a t least the re was some o rd e r a nd some h o nor. Guys like Ma x De m bo didn ' t snitc h o r hurt kids because tha t was the law in penite ntia ry socie ty. As it turns out, it was fea r th at ke pt that law in p lace, a li ttle bi t of pride, so me le ftover pr inciple, bu t ma in ly fear. In the last te n years, I' ve heard a bou t o ld , fo rme rly solid g uys wh o, in th e absence of fear and down a t the dregs of respect fo r the ir peers, apparen tly fe lt no reaso n not to snitch. I realize th a t men 's prison s are differe nt th a n wo m e n' s. Tha t 's o n e o f ma n y reason s I so respect Ma nso n: H e h as ke pt his wo rd a nd th e o ld co nvict law for a li fe tim e und e r th e most treach e rous conditio ns. Wh e n I ca m e to pri son in 1975, I tho ugh t that people still he ld to order and hono r, and that guards respected it as we ll. In t he wo m e n 's priso n in West Virginia, the staff was made up a lmost e ntire ly of locals wh o h a d farms, families and no interest in moving up or out. In general they disliked invasions of privacy and had a natural ave rsio n to r a ts. Late r, t h e Bureau began transferring new officers in and o ut to kee p from h aving such a sa tisfied, m ora lly confide nt bunch. Afte r m oving to a n o th e r prison , I saw wha t had always bee n present but not appa rent to me. In California, th e office r on h is way to pro m o ti o n s actively soug ht ou t informa tion with hi ts of rewards for anyone who mig ht have heard what someone might have said o r do ne. The ten sio n this caused was chao tic. I e nded up hi tting someo n e ove r t h e h ead with a h a mme r, geuin g ship ped a nd spendin g twoand-a-half years in d ete ntion for it. Nowad ays in th e wo m e n 's fe d e ra l prisons, the re is a lways so me bod y to te ll evei)'thing-the minor, tl1e infinitesima l, tl1e imaginary- some bold ly, with p rovoca tive a rrogan ce. T h e ir sycoph ancy a nd manipulation crea tes REALITY a nd pu ts th e rest o f us at a d isad va ntage beca use th ere are so m any un p rin c ip led co ps wi lli n g to reward , to even feel rewarded by, this des pi ca bl e du p li city. T h e de clin atio ns be tween us and th e m are set in co ncre te. Any offi ce rs wh o let th ose lines blur a re e ither offi c ia lly scamming o r in for a fall. The socie ty o n th e in side re fl ec ts th e o ne ou tside, a nd a n a lmost to ta l lac k of ch a rac te r va lues is evide n t. But it is o ne thing to know in te llectually th at people's strongest bond is in ma te rial tl1ings, and a nother to experience the sta rk e m ptiness o f having parents, sibli ngs, spo uses o r frie n ds who wou ld sell you and the mselves so c heaply. Lynette Fmrnme DAMN FINE Dear Priso n Life: Cong ratu lations o n last m o nth's damn fi n e issue! Stratto n 's e ditoria l, "Amer ican Owned, " to ld th e tr u t h abou t the growing prison-as-busin ess ind ustry. T he a rticles by convicts Karl j oh n so n and Mic h ae l Chavaux we re stra ig h t-up, too. We d o n ' t n eed to scream or curse or pri nt pro fan ity to let society know th at we're m en . Pt·ison Life contin ues to show th e world that many p rison e rs are a rticulate an d intelligent people with vo ices tha t need to be h eard. Alex Friedmann PRISON LIFE 81 BUBBA ON DRUGS Dear Bubba: I'm an ex-cou, ex-junlli1', ex-alcoholic, ex-armed robbm~ ex-jmrolee holding down a legit job into my 15th straight year in the free world without a bPif J'm mar-ried, gotlhTPe rug rats and r1 dog. I live neaT a major r.ity and I read Priso n Life magazine. l jus/ltajJjmu•d to see a copy on the magazine rack at a booltstore, picked it up, and couldn 'ljmt it down . Now I'm a subscriber. I aLm bought ropiPs of all the bad1 issues. \'l'hnuver I grt a new issue, the first thing I do is opm to )'Our rolwnn. Reading JOU remind mr !tow furked ufJ jn'ison is and how fuelled ujJ most of the dudes lochrd up in those joints are. What a sony bunch of brokrn down suitcases )'Otl got for rraders. How do you heejJ you?" sanity and sensr of humor and deal with all the rrafJ you have to fJulujl with not on!)• from the Man but from other convicts? I feel for )'Otl, Bub. >'ou 've got a pretty good head on your shoulders evm if you haven 'l figured out yet thatjJiison is for losers. 1felt bad for )'Ott wltm I read the kite you sent from the ltolr. What upset me was a commrnt that chick Sylvia made. She said sltr ltojJed llwy kerjJ Bubba locked ttfJ "for his own good. " That tells me a lot about you, road doggie. I wony about you, uwn. l hopr )'On can find the strength to tum your life amund. Doug Reston Dear Dougie Do Good: How do I do it? D111gs! Good weed, that's how I cope. vVhere there's dope, the re's hope. And if there's one thing l hate it's so me self-righteous reformed wino or j un ki e te lling me it's time I cleaned up my act. Do your own time, pal. l'm real happy fo r you and the family, but I et~oy prison as an alternative lifestyle. I just burned a bone of some kick.'\SS ganja and I'm so high right now I don'L know if I'll ever come down. I was at this federal j oim in Califo rn ia one Lime when a hippie guy I knew got in a load of blotter acid. I a te 750 m ics, my cellie ate 1000 mi cs. About h alf an hour later, both ripped to th e tiL~, we wem out to the yard to play tennis. (This was back in the good old days when you could play tennis in prison.) Yo u sho uld have see n me playing te nnis o n acid. T looked like Nu ryev 82 PRISON LIFE dancing Swan Lahe except I was wearing steel-tipped work boots. Guys were in awe. 1o o ne had ever seen anything li ke it: a 260 lb. muscle-bound Bubba hitting backhands with all the grace of Chti ssy Everet. My friend was a wiseguy wh o h ad never clone acid befo re. He me t Cod on th e te nnis court and h as been a practi cing Buddhist ever since. T h e trip lasted clays. They locked us up , pissed us a nd ran a ll sorts of tests, but none that d etected LSD. It's always imcnse ly weird trying to navigate the prison experience fro m in side a n acid head. It's all in t h e mi nd. You can 'tlock up a loony. Sure you can limit his physical freed om but if you ca n ' t make h im suffer the psych o logical pain o f prison , th e n h e's no t getting th e full punishmen t. I figure eveqr fu ckecl up hour I spend in h e re is one m o re h o u r I' m ge uing over on th e Ma n . Here I a m still in th e ho le. Day 45 in seg on th is bullshit c ha rge. I smell so me righ teo us smo ke wafting alo ng the tier. Guy calls, "Hey Bub, wanna bu r n so me herb?" H e's th is wh ite rasta Coptic dude fro m Miam i. Locked up 15 yea rs now for importing weed from j amaica. I've run into him a nd his brother Cop tics in join ts all around th e country. Their defense was th a t th e boatloads of po t t h ey were bring ing in we re for relig ious use so the First Ame ndm e nt pro tected th e m from prosec ution. You can imagine how th at we n t over. As a bro I know who's doing life for po t once said, "I n ever pass u p the d ivi ne opportun ity to smoke a join t. " My rasta pal, Broth e r Luv, is all the way at the o ppo ite e nd of the range. We're all locked down. I can 't figure how he's going to ge t the sh it to me. "Don' t worry about it," he says. "'' llmule it." I h ear hi m saying, "Here, boy. Tha t's a good boy," like he's talking to a dog. I figure he 's lost it, done too much time in t h e ho le-he's been locked up 17 m onths stra ig h t this tim e for dirty urin e . Every 60 days they come in and piss him; he's still co ming up dirty. Nobody can figure o ut h ow he gets the h e rb. G uy h asn ' t h ad a visit in fo ur years. If yo u ask him he says, "Ma nn a fro m heave n.Ja h provides." "Hum," he te lls me. "Do you know Yankee Doodle?" "Sure I know Ya nkee Doodle." "Hum it, bro, so th ey' ll kn ow whi ch cell you ' re in." So I hum. You 've got to humo r these stir crazy old fuckers o r they'll twist off a nd stick a fork in your kidn ey whe n you ' re not looking. "Fo rwa rd , marc h !" I h ear Bro th e r Lu v command. "Left, rig h t. Left, righ t." J esus, I'm thinking, this poor mo th e rfucker has smo ked too much o f tha t shi t. I'm sitt ing o n th e edge of my bunk humming, feeling foolish , but the n I've bee n locked up lo ng enough to know tha t things n ever a re as they seem. I hear this scratching sounda so und a nyo n e who's ever lived in a New York a pa rtme nt knows o nly too we ll. "Kee p humming," Bro th e r Lu v calls . "Don 'tlose the tune." I' m abo ut halfway through the third rend ition of Yankee Doodle when I look down and see three cockroac hes ma rc hing single fi le into my cell. The first o n e was th e scout o r so me thing. H e comes righ t up a nd h alts a t my feet with th e o thers close behind. The second roach looks like a mini packhorse with a j oint strapped to his back. And the one bringing up th e rear loo ks li ke a flatbed u·u ck 1vith a book of ma tches riding o n his carapace. It was a cockroach mule train. Brother Luv had trained the vermin to run drugs. 'They get th e re yet?" Broth e r Luv asked when I stopped humming. "Yeah , man . They' re h e re." "You got to ta ke care of 'em. They don ' t do this shit for nothing." ''What do they get fo r a j ob like this?" "Crumbs!" Bro th e r Luv h oo ts. "Th ey work for fucking crumbs!" It's a mazing wha t you ca n get ove r whe n the situation de ma nds. No one wan ts to be here, no t eve n the goddamn roach es. But we d o wh a t we gotta d o . Sylvia might be rig h t. The re are those of us-too bold , too idealistic to live within th e confin es of a mee k an d conformist socie ty-who n eed to be locked up. The way I see it, you guys are the suckers. Here I a m, high as a n astro na ut o rbiting the p la n et fro m a j ail cell, and d o ing business with a cr ew o f croo ked cockroac h es. Yo u , m ea nwhile, ca n ' t get beyo n d yo u r p e tty pro ble ms a nd a pp recia te life fo r th e moment-to-mo ment j oy of not knowing what the fuck is going to ha ppe n next. Instead of fee li n g so rry fo r me, as k yo urself, H ave I ma n aged to escape my p altry point of vie w and see life through the cosmic third eye? If the answer to that questio n is n o, bro, you 're (]]] in a lot more u·ouble tha n I am. Chef's Special of the Month: Penitentiary Pizza 1 can spaghetti sauce 1 block Yelveeta cheese, sliced 1 can mushrooms, drained 1 pack flour tortillas 1 pepperoni stick, sliced 1 pie tin, with holes Spread spagh etti sauce over to rti llas. To p with mush rooms, pe ppe ro ni a nd cheese . Put tortillas on pie tin, cove r wi th a bowl, p lace ove r bo iling 1vater a nd cook un ti l cheese is melted . Serve. Ma kes eight pizzas. William j oe Casey Sheridan, IL Fruit-Chocolate Crunchies bag rice cakes (or any crunchy bread product) 1 CaClbury plain milk chocolate bar 1 jar of jam (raspberry is best) 1 hair dryer Break o ff two to fo ur squa res of c hocola te fo r each rice cake. Me lt chocola te using h air dJ)'er until it's the consiste ncy of peanut butte r (abou t 45 seconds o n high). Spread with a knife. Squirt a do llup of j am on the chocola te and spread. Eat it ho t and gooey. This r ecip e is good e n o ug h to pay fo r a nd is go od fo r peop le 1vith no access to microwaves o r ho tplates. J essica du Mas WA Cmrections Cenlerfor Women PRISON LIFE 83 by Alex Friedmann, Resource Editor, SCCC, TN The nonpmfit and volunteer-nm agen- • Inside Journal, c/o Prison Fellowship, P.O. Box 16429, Washington, DC 20041 -6429 (703/ 478cies in this list are all worhing to heljJ us, 01 00): A publication of Prison Fellowship. but they can't help us without you1· heljJ. If • Outlook on Justice, AFSC, 2161 Massachusetts you want to contact one or more of these Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02140 (617/661-6130): A of the American Friends Service CommiHee. organizations for information, self-help newsleHer • Prison Life Magaz ine, 200 Yorick Street, Suite materials or for lheh· newsletters, then do 901 New York, NY 10014 (800/207-2659): A the 1ight thing-enclose some loose stamps noti~nol magazine by and lor prisoners or an SASE. Better yet, send them some ($19. 95/year). BOOK AND READING PROJECTS mone)' (that's right, some of your haulearned, hard-time prison money.) Even one • Books lor Prisoners, c/o Left Bonk Bookstore, 92 Pike St., Box A, Seattle, WA 98101: This volunteer dolla1· can help. There are over a million program provides up to three books at o time. p1isoners in the U.S. , and if eve1y one oftLS • Prison Book Program, Redbook Store, 92 Green sent just a buck each month to a worthy Street, Jamaica Plain, MA 02130: No books con be sent to prisoners in KS, NE, lA, Ml, OR or CA. cause like CURE, FAMJ\11 or the AFSC, • Prison Library Project, 976 W. Foothill Blvd #128, then those 01ganizations would be collect- Claremont, CA 9171 1. ing over $ 12 million a year. That 's some- • Prisoner literature Project, c/o Bound Together Books, 1369 Haight Street, Son Francisco, CA thing to think about. lf we expect free-world 94117: Free books lor prisoners. 01ganizations to heljJ us, then we have to • Prison Reading Project, Paz Press, P.O. Box 3146, help them. The bottom line: What goes FoyeHeville, AR 72702: Free books lor women prisoners. PAROLE & PRE-RELEASE INFORMATION around comes around. SOCIAl SUPPORT AGENCIES • American Friends Service CommiHee, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215/ 241-71301: A Quaker organization that works lor peace and equality. Their criminal justice branch con provide literature on a variety of prison issues. There ore six regional AFSC offices in the U.S.: CA, Ml, NJ, MA, OH and NY. • John Howard Association, 67 E. Madison # 1416, Chicago, IL 60603 (312/263-19011: This organization is mos~y involved with prison reform and criminal justice issues in Illinois, but they con provide materials of interest to all prisoners. There is a separate JHA branch in Canada. • Notional Association lor the Advancement of Colored People (NAACPI. Criminal Justice Prison Program, 4805 Mount Hope Drive, Baltimore, MD 21215-3297 {410/358-89001: Offers referrals and advisory services lor prisoners who wont to break the cycle of recidivism-especially among minorities. These projects operate through regional offices and ore not available in every area. Write lor local contact addresses. • Offender Aid and Restoration (OARI. 301 Pork Drive, Severna Pork, MD 21146 {410/647-38061: Provides post-release assistance lor prisoners in lA, MD, NJ, PA and VA, through 12 locol offices. • Woodbourne Long Termers CommiHee, Pouch # 1, Woodbourne, NY 12788: A prisoner support ond advocacy group. Send lor free brochure and newsletter. ADVOCACY ORGANIZATIONS • CURE, P.O. Box 2310, Notional Capitol Station, Washington, DC 20013-2310 (202/789-21261: Organization lor prison reform, with stole chapters and special groups lor veterans, lifers, sex offenders and federal prisons. • Campaign lor on Effective Crime Policy, 918 F St. NW #505, Wa shington, DC 20004 (202/62819031: This agency works lor effective criminal justice reform. Ask your worden to join. • Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMMI, 1001 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, #200, Washington, DC 20004 (202/ 457-57901: Works lor the repeal of federal mandatory minimum sentencing lows. • Justice Watch, 932 Dayton Street, Cincinnati, OH 45214 (513/241·04901: Works to eliminate clossism and racism from prisons. PUBUCATIONS & MAGAZINES • Fortune News, ATIN: Inmate Subscriptions, 39 West 19th Street, New York, NY I 0011 (212/20670701: A publication of Fortune Society. 84 PRISON LIFE • American Correctional Association, Publications Dept, 8025 Laurel Lakes Court, Laurel, MD 207075075 (301/206-5059 or 800/825-26651: Publishes o parole planning guide, •As Free as on Eagle; and sells other sell-help books. • Interstate Publishers, 510 North Vermillion Street, P.O.Box 50, Danville, IL 61 834-0050 (217/ 4460500 or 800/843-4774): Sells o parole planning manual, "From the Inside Out." • OPEN, Inc. (Offender Preparation and Education Networkl. P.O. Box 566025, Dollm, TX 75356·6025 (214/271-1971 ): Sells "99 Days & o Get-up; "Man, I need o Jobl" and other great pre-release guideslor $4.95 each. • Manatee Publishing, 4835 North O'Conner St. #134435, Irving, TX 75062: Sells "Getting Out and Staying Out; o porole-j)lonning manual, for $22.45. • CEGA Services, Offender Referrals, P.O. Box 8 1826, Lincoln, NE 68501-1826 {402/464-0602): CEGA offers pre-release referrals for prisoners for the area they will be paroled to {such as housing, employment ond substance abuse treatment programs. I $15 lee for each city. CEGA a lso sells the "Surviva l Sourcebook" and "The Job Hunter's Workbook." PRISON AIDS RESOURCES • American Civil Liberties Union, 1616 P Street NW, Washington, DC 20036 (202/234-4830): Operates on • AIDS in Prison• information project. • Correctional Association AIDS in Prison Project, 135 E. 15th Street, New York, NY 10003 (212/6740800): OHers resource information concerning AIDS in prison, especially lor inmates in New York. • HIV Prison Project, NYC Commission on Human Rights, 40 Rector St., New York, NY 10006 (212/233-5560). • Notional Prison Hospice Association, P.O. Box 58, Boulder, CO 80306-0058: Helps develop hospice programs lor terminally ill prisoners. • Notional ACLU Prison Project, AIDS Education Project, 1875 Connecticut Avenue NW 410, Washington, DC 20009 (202/234-4830). • "One Day at o Time: c/o Richard H. Rhodes #05353-0 18, U.S.P. Leavenworth, P.O. Box 1000, leavenworth, KS 66048 : An AIDS newsletter lor prisoners. • Prison AIDS Project, Goy Community News, 62 Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 0211 6 (Notional AIDS Goy Task Force: 800/221-7044). • Prison AIDS Resource Center, P.O. Box 2155, Vacaville, CA 95696-2155; or 926 J. Street, #801 , Sacramento, CA 95814. • Prisoners with AIDS/Rights Advocacy Group, P.O. Box 2161, Jonesboro, GA 30237 {404/946-9346): Offers support, educational materials, referrals and political lobbying lor prisoners with AIDS/HIV. MISCELlANEOUS RESOURCES • A Society of Concern (ASOCI. Delaware Correctional Center, Smyrna, DE 19977: Provides legal research, educational programs and workshops lor prisoners at the Delaware Correctional Center.. • Infinity Lifers Group, c/ o Julie Travers, Choorperson, P.O. Box 772, Station B, OHowo, Ontario K2P 5P9: A volunteers priosners rights and political advocacy group. • League lor Lesbian a nd Goy Prisoners, 1202 East Pike St., #1044 , Seattle, WA 98122: A project of Goy Community Social Services. • James Markunas Society, 245 Harriet Street, Son Francisco, CA 94103 (415/ 775-5445 ). A resource lor lesbian, goy and bisexual prisoners. • Mothers Opposed to Maltreatment of Service Members (MOMS I, 8285 Block How Court, Frederick, MD 21701 : Advocates lor prisoners in military prisons and disciplinary borrrocks. Con provide a pre· release booklet enti~ed "New Beginnings." • The Prison Chess Program, P.O. Box 44419, Washington, DC 20026 (301 /530-4841.) • Native American Indian Inmate Support Project, 8 Dallas Dr., Grantville, PA 17028: A Native American group that supports the introduction of Indian religious ceremonies and programs in prisons. • Native American Prisoners' Rehabilitation Research Project, 2848 Paddock Lone, Villa Hills, KY 41017: Offers many services lor Native American prisoners, including legal and spiritual support, tribal and cultural programs and direct contoct with prison administrators. • Packages from Home, P.O. Box 905, Forestville, CA 95436: Sells moil-order food packages lor prisoners, at around $20/pkge. • PEN, Writing Program lor Prisoners, 568 Broodway, New York, NY 10012 (212/334-1660): Offers a great resource booklet lor prison writers. • Prisoners of Conscience Project, 2120 Lincoln St., Evanston, IL 60201 (708/328-15431: A religiousbased agency that works lor the release of prisoners of conscience/ political prisoners in the United Stoles. • Prisoner Visitation and Support, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215/241-7117): Provides institutional visits to prisoners in federal and military prisons nationwide. • Project lor Older Prisoners (POPS). c/o Jonathon Turley, Director, The Notional Low Center, 2000 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20052. • The Soler Society, Shoreham Depot Rood, RR 1, Box 24-B, Orwell, VT 05760-9756 (802/897-7541): Sell·help materials lor sex offenders. • Stop Prisoner Rope, Inc., PO Box 2713, Monhottonville Station, New York, NY 10027 (212/ 6635562); e-mail: sprdon@ix.netcom.com; Web: hHp:// www.igc.opc.org/ spr/. Information and advocacy on sexual abuse and exploitation of prisoners; support and advice lor victims and targets of both sexes including info on psychological and health consequences, legal action ond survivors' options. • The Poetry Wall, Cathedra l of St. John, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10025: Displays poetry wriHen by prisoners. CHILD & FAMILY RESOURCES Thtrt flrt many organizations that htljJ prisOfii'YS wholwlH! childrtn. Thtst agmdes providt litn-aturt, infomwtion, 11dvirt and sujJport 011 how to cojJt with family problems whilt in fJrison. Direr/ assistancr is usually availablr only intht loc11l 11reas thatth-se f>rogmms .m w. • Aid to Imprisoned Mothers (AIM). 599 Mitchell St., SW, Atlanta, GA 30314 (404/221-0092): An advocacy group lor incarcerated mothers. Although social services ore only provided in the Atlanta area, AIM con provide helpful information lor all women in prison who hove children. • Center for the Children of Incarcerated Parents, Pacific Oaks College, 714 W. Californ ia Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91105 (818/397-1300) : Provides fre e educational materia l lor incarcerated parents and their children. • Family and Corrections Network, Jane Adams Center M/ C 309, 1040 West Harrison St. #4010, Chicago, ll 60607-7134 (312/996-32 19): Provides information about programs serving fomilies of prisoners. • Fathers Behind Bars, P.O. Box 86, Niles, Ml 49120 (616/684-5715): A by-prisoners, for-prisoners agency that helps Ia set up institutional parent groups lor incarcerated fathers. Only the serious need apply! • legal Services lor Prisoners with Children, 4 7 4 Valencia St. , #230, Son Francisco, CA 94103 (4 15/ 255-7036): legal services ore provided in California only, but some general information is available. • Notional Institute of Corrections, Information Center, 1860 Industrial Circle, Suite A, longmont, CA 80501 (303/682-0213): Provides the "Directory of Programs Serving Families of Adult Offenders." • Notional Resource Center for Family Support Programs, Family Resource Coalition, 200 S. Michigan Ave., #1520, Chicago, ll60604 (312/34 1-0900): Provides informa tion about family programs, including prison projects. • Parent Resource Association , 213 Fernbrook Avenue, Wyncote, PA 19095 (215/ 576-7961): Support lor child/ parenting programs in prison; oilers referrals and information to incarcerated parents. • Prison Family Foundation , P.O . Box 1150, Auburn, Al 3683 1 (205/821-1150): Works to support family education programs in prison. Sells preand post-release books and other publications; works with prison administrations to form institutional family support groups. LEGAL RESOURCEs-fEDERAl/ NATIONAL n,,.,, arr lllflfl)' ngmrifS that providf legal .<mJices for jl7iJollm; most of tllfJt orgnni:atimu disjxuM iufomwtion or off" rtjfTmrt mntmnl. Note thnttl"s' agt~~ri's do not usually lu11ulle pusonnl legal service; such ns filing npJxn/s, post-ronuirtions or lawsuits-with tile I'XrffJtion of for-pmfit comJmnies (notlistrd hPre) that rhmge ltugefees. Federal • U.S. Deportment of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Special litigation Section, Washington, DC 20 530 (202/51 4-6255): Enforces the "Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act" through lawsuits against stole or local prison officials who deprive prisoners of their constitutional rights or who practice racial discrimination. • U.S. Supreme Court, Public Information Office, Washington, DC 20543-0001 (202/ 479-3211 ): Con provide up to live Supreme Court decisions per term. Supreme Court slip opinions ore available through the Government Printing Office. Contact: The Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402 (202/783-3238). National • ACLU Notional Prison Project, 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW #4 I 0, Washington, DC 20009 (202/2344830): A branch of the notional ACLU that works on prison legal issues. Sells resource directories, criminal justice statistic books and legal aid manuals; also offers a prison newsleHer lor $2 per year and sells the "Rights of Prisoners• handbook lor $5. Doesn' t handle individual cases; they only litigate large-scale state or notional prison reform legal actions. • Americans lor Effective low Enforcement, 55 19 N. Cumberland Ave # 1008, Chicago, ll60656-1498 (312/763-2800): Sells monthly legal update publications, including the "Jail and Prisoner low Bulletin." Although this bulletin is meant lor corrections officials, it includes excellent resource materia l on the latest prison-rela ted court cases nationwide. Annual costs ore $168; perhaps your low library con subscribe. Other bulletins include the "liability Reporter" and "Security Legal Update." • Columbia Human Rights low Review, 435 West I 16th Street, Box B-25, New York, NY 10027 (212/ 663-870 I ): Sells the • Jailhouse lawyer Manual" (JLM) lor $30 a copy ($13 for prisoners). • Georgetown University low Center, Criminal Procedure PRoject, 600 New Jersey Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20001. (202/662-9468): Publishes the Georgetown low Journal, the annual "Criminal Procedure" issue costs $30. • Freedom Press, P.O . Box 4458, leesburg, VA 22075 (703/391-8604) or: (800/370-7052): A prison project run by volunteer paralegals. They offer legal services at reduced rates, sometimes on monthly payment plans; they also offer ministry and counseling services. • Inside/Out Press, P.O. Box 188131 , Sacramento, CA 958 18: Publishes self-help legal guides. Inside/Out is the moil-order business for the Prisoners' Rights Union, which focuses on California prison issues. • lewisburg Prison Project, P.O. Box 128, lewisburg, PA 17837-0128 (717/523-11 04): Sells lowcost literature regarding constitutional rights, due process and other legal issues of interest to prisoners. • Notional lawyers Guild, Prison low Project, 558 Cop Street, Son Francisco, CA 94 II 0: A notional legal agency with on interest in helping jailhouse lawyers. • Oceana Press, 75 Main Street, Dobbs Ferry, NY 10522 (91 4/693-81 00): Sells prison-related legal books, including "The Prisoner's Self- Help litigation Manual" ($20) and "Post-Conviction Remedies" ($20). • Prisoner Legal News, P.O. Box 1684, lake Worth, Fl 33460: A magazine published by prisoners in Washi ngton that covers nationwide prison legal issues. Subscription rates ore around $ 12 per year/ 12 issues. • Southern Illinois University Press, P.O. Box 3697, Carbondale, ll 62902-3697: Con provide "The Rights of Prisoners" brochure ol no cost. • Storlite, P.O. Box 20004, St. Petersburg, Fl 33742 (813/392-2929 or 800/577-2929): Sells the CITEBOOK, which is a collection of positive federal and stole case low, both criminal and civil. The CITEBOOK is updated quarterly and costs $28 (S 112 annually). Although this is fairly expensive, perhaps your low library con subscribe; this company also sells other books regarding business, consumer and legal issues. • West Publishing Company, 610 Opperman Drive, Saint Paul, MN 55123-1340 (800/328-9352): Publishes "Corrections and Prisoners Rights in a Nutshell" a nd "Criminal Procedures in a Nutshell, • a t $ 17 each. PARALEGAL PROGRAMS • Blackstone School al low, P.O. Box 701 449, Dollos, TX 75370 (800/826-9228): Offers a well-known correspondence program. • Southern Career Institute, 164 West Royal Palm Rd, Boca Rolon, Fl 33432 (800/ 669-2555 or 407/368-2522): Offers o complete paralegal course that costs $ 1595to $1977; monthly payment plans available. This school is accredited by the D.E.T.C. • The Paralegal Institute, 3602 West Thomas Road #9 , Drawer II 408, Phoenix, AZ 85061-1408 (602/272-1855): Offers paralegal courses for fees ra nging between S1290 and $2750. Monthly payment plans and on Associate degree program available. Accredited by the D.E.T.C. MINISTRIES & BIBLE STUDIES • Emma us Bible Correspondence School, 2570 Asbury Rd, Dubuque, lA 5200 I (319/ 588-8000): Offers free Bible courses for prisoners. • The Notional Convocation of Jail and Prison Ministry, 1357 East Capi tol St. SE, Washi ngton, DC 20003: A notional agency for prison chaplains. • Good News Mission, I 036 Highland Street, Arlington, VA 22204 (703/979-2200): A Christian organization tha t provides support, witnessing and spiritual counseling to inmates in 11 0 prisons across 14 stoles. • Guideposts, 39 Seminary Hill Road, Carmel, NY I 0512 (914/225-3681 ): A Christian organization that publishes Guidepost magazine. Also sponsors the FIND information network, which provides information referrals: FIND Network, P.O. Box 855, Carmel, NY 105 12. • Hope Aglow Prison Ministries, P.O. Box 3057, lynchburg, VA 24503: A nationwide religious organization that offers Bible study courses. • International Prison Ministry, P.O. Box 63, Dallas, TX 75221. • Liberty Prison Ministries, P.O. Box 8998 , Waukegan, ll 60079: This Christian ministry publishes the Liberator newsletter. • liberty Prison Outreach, 70 I Thomas Rood, lynchburg, VA 24514 (804/239-9281): Provides religious assistance to prisoners, mostly in centra l Virginia; Bible correspondence courses available. • Prison Fellowship, P.O. Box 17500, Washington, DC 20041 (703/ 478-0 I 00): A nationwide ministry that sponsors spiritual activities in prison. • Prison Ministry of Yokefellows International, The Yokefellow Center, P.O . Box 482, Rising Sun, MD 21911 (410/658-266 1): a religious organization that offers information and literature to prisoners. • Set Free Prison Ministries, P.O. Box 5440, Riverside, CA 92517-9961 (909/ 787-9907): Provides on extensive Bible study course. • Southern Prison Ministry, 910 Ponce de lean Ave. NE, Atlanta, GA 30306. • U.S. Mennonite Central Committee, Office of Criminal Justice, P.O. Box 500, Akron, PA 17501-0500 (717/859-3889): Offers many publications concerning crime and religion-most ore free to prisoners. ISLAMIC ORGANIZATIONS • Islamic Prison Foundation , 12 12 New York Avenue NW #400, Washington, DC 20005: Mostly works with Muslims in federal prisons. • The Notional Incarcerated Muslim Network, c/o Maurice Taylor, #476837, Route 3, Box 59, Rosharon, TX 77583: A prison-based organization that networks with incarcerated Muslims for support and educational purposes. JUDAISM ORGANIZATIONS • Aleph Institute, P.O . Box 546564 , Surfside, Fl 33154 (305/864-5553): A lull-service Jewish advocacy agency with regional offices. • International Coalition for Jewish Prisoners Services, 1640 Rhode Island Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20036-3278 (202/857-6582): Offers support, referra ls, guidance, educational and religious programs, and pen pols. BUDDHIST/MEDITATION GROUPS • Human Kindness Foundation, Prison Ashram Project, Route I , Box 20 1-N, Durham, NC 27705: Provides reeding material for spiritual living. • lskcon Prison Ministries, 2936 Esplanade Ave., New Orleans, LA 70119. • Prison Dharma Network, P.O. Box 9 12, Astor Station, Boston, MA 02123-0912: Offers Buddhist meditation literature. DEATH PENALTY RESOURCES • American Civil Liberties Union, Capitol Punishment Project, 122 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002 (202/675-2319): A branch of the ACLU that deals with death penalty issues. • American Friends Service CommiHee, 150 I Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215/241 -7130): o Quaker peace organization that works to bon the deeth penalty a s one of their Criminal Justice projects. • Amnesty International, Project to Abolish the Deeth Penalty, 322 8th Ave., New York, NY 10001 -4808 (212/ 807-8400): Works to abolish the deeth penalty through public letter-writing campaigns. • Capitol Punishment Research Project, P.O. Box 277, Headland, Al 36345 (205/693-5225). • Catholics Against Capitol Punishment, P.O . Box 3125, Arlington, VA 22203 (703/522-501 4): A religious organization against the death penalty. • Death Penalty Information Center, 1606 20th Street NW, Washington , DC 2000 9 (202/3472531). • Death Row Support Project, P.O. Box 600, Liberty Mills, IN 46946 (219/982-7480): Offers pen-pol services to death row inmates. • Endeavor Project, P.O. Box 23511, Houston, TX 77228-35 11: A magazine produced by and for prisoners on death row. • Friends Committee to Abolish the DeothPenolty, c/o Charles Obler, 802 West 3rd Street, Farmville, VA 2390 I : Publishes the Quaker Abolitionist; subscriptions S6/ yr for prisoners. • NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 99 Hudson Street, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10013 (212/ 219-1900): A legal branch of the NAACP tha t supports minority rights; also has on anti-death penalty project. • Notional Coolition to Abolish the Deeth Penalty, 918 F St. NW #601, Washington, DC 20004 (202/347241 I): Works to abolish the death penalty. Also provides a booklet listing anti-death penalty resources in each stole ("The Abolitionisrs Directory; $2). Changes, additions and new information should be sent to: Prison Life Magazine, Resources Department, 200 Varick St, Suite 901 , New York, NY 10014. PRISON LIFE 85 \11lite/ :.lcxican, j ' II ", 1()5#. 37-) r-old California bo)' downe d in Oklahoma. Seeking correspondence with frl·cworld people (fl·mak) hut will an>wcr all. Looks, age or race docs not maner. Some of nl\' i111Crc't~ are: low rider• (cars). oldies music. rock 'n · rnll. outdoor acti\'ities. writing and quiet tinll'S. Pic for pic. :-.lo Polaroids allowed. ;-.;o conrict to con\'iCt allowed either. jan1cs ll:unilt on. # (():J64!l. OK ~tate Pen. P.O. Box 97. ~ l cAbter. OK 7~[>02-0097. I xI = I( llanchome x Romantic= ~ l c). 1-1 = O(~lC - Ft·ccdom = Lonclitwss). I + I = 2 (You + ~lc = Frie nd ship ). ECJu:uion: It mar >CCIII elconcnt:n)•O, but it's 1nathem:11icall)' impossible for genuine friendship and tnt<: happiness 10 prc\'ail unless ro u: a) Wl'ite Ill<: b) Befriend me c) Share rour feelings d)AII of the abn\'e. ANSWER: d)AII of the abo,·c. \\'rite Steve Tetro 1107983 1, Florida State Prison. PO. Box 747. Starke. FL 3209 1-07,17. S\1'~1 . :iO. 6'1", 185#, hrn hair, htl eyes. Allracti,·c. "'ell-built on an. Et~j<>)' hodv building. hikes, reading. c hl·,~. UHlonlight. tra\'cl and learning for othe rs. ln tCrl''' in international bsne>. Value & n"pcct. hone'''' & intiman. ceking assistance from anyone \\'ith background in Engli'h or hl\\'. In need of sonteont· willing to correct Ill)' mistakes in wn1ax 10 impron- Ill)' writing ,kills. It's ,·cry important that I be able 10 communicate well when writing. In struggle. ,\nthonr Lucero. #7()324. P.O. 1\ox 10000. Limon. CO 80826. Green-t:)'t'd Al:t~kan Fi•hennan and writer down in Oregon seeks soulmate. I'm 3:1, educated, and a.s strong as an ox. Into politics. adventure, rock .utrl folk musk. weight lifting and reading. Going overse:ts :tnd leaving Amerika for good in '98. Need a !;OOd, ho ne" , s trong woman lO come with. Write to:.Jantt'> D t\nder>on, #6952487. ~1405 Del·r Park Dr SE. Salem, O R 97:10 I. S\1'~ 1 . !1!!. I'm caged here in T exas. I am sta"·ed for :tmllscml'lll. I want mail. Whatever rou send will be appn:riated. Send me poignant cnnuncntarics on our cn1Ten1 stall' nf political quagmire. Send llll' interesting pol·ms. If nothing else. send me llC\\'\(Mpl'l' clipping>. puLLk•. chess by mail or anrt hing tha t strikes your fancy. I will answer all lellers. Blistering tales of romantic nature "•ill he c'peciallr appreciated from female readl·r,. Stt·,·e Kadis (ili9720. P.O. Box 1170-2E I0 . Lockh:"t. TX 7 6~~30 \'Car old, talloocd. A""" "'nTior. 5' 10";" 155#, bn;wn hair. blne C)l''· Dt>ing a 15 )'Car 'lenience. Expect 10 be rclea'>t'd by the )<'•'r 2000. Looking fnr Aryan (white ) fl· ntalt·s to correspond with. \\'ho kno"·,? ~l:tybt· t·ven a lasting relationship "ill do:vclop. Frank E. ll:unntons. TDC}ID 1160,154212002. F.~ l. 350 So. Living,ton. TX 773.51. ll ombre, Thinysomcthillg, Latino & blanco, collcge-educ:llcd. Pu blished writer. Finishing prisonjoumcy. Seeks female com rades of all nationalities. Unclt·rstand' women prisoners' situations and cares about "sisters of the su·ugglc." A1nor con todo mi cor:tzon, por vida. George dcjesL" Fields N- 52~18~. l'.o. Box 711. ~Ienard. I L o r Georgia cll:jl'l>U>. 1337 \\'. \\'innimac. C hicago. ll. (i0G40. 25 yr old. \I'~ I. ACJuarill'>. 3'7", 170#. Dishwater blonde hair. lliiiStadle 8.- GoT. Native of I lollywood. C.\. Tcrnporaril)' illcarccrated cntrepn:lle ur ill search of all imclligent, highl)·moti\"tcd. caring. lnvinH"· mature. 'l'I1Sitin· woman with a high >clf-estccon lnd for good COITc>pondence. possible serious rdatiollship. 011l)' females bctwecll 18-55. who are real abo111 there own idcntit)'. \\'eight or race irrclc,•mt. Good per>onality and sc n-,c of humor is mandatory! Photo gets mille. will allwer all. Jeffrey ~I. Carlor #3%85. P.O. Box 3 11 . El Doo•1clo. KS 67042-0311. Tit·ed of geui ng h11rt' I ant. "Prison Life" i, full of heartbreak> and headaches. l .eL• change that. 23 rear old black male looking l(n· a relationship with female. No incarccr:ucd ,,·oman, no gay~ or me n please. II. I Io hn es 118911 1S 12, Box 2000. Pine city NY 14871. 86 PRISON LIFE Lont·l). oftl·n mi,unclerswod cartoonist seeks intdkctually sti1n11lat ing correspondence with mature fem:tle. Any or all exotic photos gladly expected. Send kuer' ( & photm) to llenrr I Icrt. P.O. Box liOOO. Nesa- A/ 39 1:~5- 1 98, FlorcnCl'. CO 8 1226. SB~I. ~ceking open minded person to co n·c•pond with who '"" a good \ensc of humor. Relieves in giring >econd c hance>. Appearance not imponam. will respond 10 all. l'n1 6'1", 245#. So pi ck up the pen and paper and get busy. Robe rt L. llcll jr II -20-B 7G4:18. Parch1nan, MS :~87:is. I'm 24 Yrs old, •1'6", half-French , Indian and black. I ha\'c loll !; hair 10 my sh ou lders. very prell)' with light brown C)'C>. Looking for honest)'. trus t. caring and sup port. I like any race. I'm in priMm doing a 30 yr >entencc. I h:"·e one son whom I lo\'c :mel I have nl'vcr IH;cn married. So I'm \'ery >ingk. Writl': Gidget Lewis 652467. 1401 State >ehool Rd. GatesvilleTX 76599. Act! Staring ont of tiH· window. wondering wi ll the\' do rill' like ~lalccun; African-American man of 22 yr•. l'allll:>tl)' striving to transgress all odds in thi' nngodh· '"tcon. Sct•king the prerequisite of my completion, s incere woman who's down lor the c:u"e. 'The struggle continues. together we will win!" Artis wafford #57225, P.O. Box 1568. l··hnchin>OII. KS 6750'1. Blk male. !10 )'~''· (i'·l". 220#. blk hair. brn ercs. just here f(>r a minute. Seeking lt·11ers from all yon lovcl)' ladic' (inside and out). Send photos. \\'ill probably ha\'c to write to a third part)', but that's 110 probktn ; I'll hook you up. Write: Shan Gan~u:rer # O'l:i32-0:IO, 1'.0. 13ox 3007, San Pedro, CA !!0731-0207. Fi·Cl· Spirit. 6'0". 17!>11. Inn!( brown hai r, g reencred ani>t. Would like 10 lwar from an intelligent w0111an with good sense or h11mor. Tom Connoll\' #11386 1!!. 13ox 99, Pontiac, IL Gl764. Down l)ut 1101 out in ~li c hi ga n . Long bro\\'11 hair. bright blue ere,, 6'2". 85#, lots of tauoos. Looking for \\'hite or Spani,h females who arc real and also have a !;OOcl heart and are verr open-minded. For correspondence and maybe onore. I would love It> trade photos and will answer all. ~like Cybuhki~ 202229. Saginaw Correctional Facility, 9625 Piern· Rd. Freeland, ;\II 486~:1. S\\'~1. 27. (i'l". 205#, muscular. brn hair. gr ercs. Seeking hone>~ and >incerl· pc1·son for serious relationship. I enjoy \\'eight lifting, reading, travel ing. outdoor> and 'POrt>. Gelling 0 111 soon! Ke\'in Porth 406!'>Ci. P.O. 13ox 1989, Eh• NV 8930L S\\':\1. 25. 5'7'', 152#, blond hair:hlne eyes. Wanted: One good-hearted woman looking to corl't:spond with :til)' An·an ladies, either locked down or in the free world. Will answer all. Pic for Pic. Tion Plat e, ll(i!i3·17:1, Rt 2, 13ox 4400. Gate>ville. Tx 7(i597. WM. 34, (i'O", 18!ill. big brown bedroo m eyes, muscular build. looking to fill lonely nights writing 10 yon. citht•r erotic advemures or honest to com munication. I do it all! Glen n Reyes #657f>53. Rt 4. 13ox 1500. Bcaumo11t, TX 77705. Down and out. doing time l(lr hcing a tad bit 100 cntcrpri,ing. I'm a :~0 rear old \I'~ I with a heart as big a> Texa>. Looking 10 co rrespond wi th females or am·onc willing to be a friend. I'm 5 'II·. 190#. bn,·n hair. han· I eye• that change colors with my 11100d •. l'\'e hcen told that I h;l\'e good look' and a million dollar "nile, although I >n· my>clf a> jn>t a\'t'l'agl' (not ego ti'iical). I encouragl' only opl'n minded to write. ~o game;! J ame' I f. \\'all,trc, Connally Unit #663496. II.C. (i7.13ox ll!i. Kcnnedv. TX 781 19. This thorn is still set• king his wild 'rose. ~0 yrs. yo11ng, maturt• half-hrccd Cherokee ,,•Ito's still alin: and well. Seeking frel·-,piriwd counterpart. Age/ race not i1npon:u1l. ~ l anifcstation of the he:tn / sonl is. Presently hindered by ilnprisonmenl: though Ill) ' >pirit ~o;u·, free. Patien t!)' a\\1titing you. Ill)' wild llow<."r. P. Si lvcnhorne, # 13739'1, P.O. 13ox 1000, Craigwille, VA 2-14!30-1000. Single ll ispanic :\laic, 24 years young but cxu·eme1)' wise and experienced . Seeking an easy going woman who e njoys the many wonders and pleasures that life has to offer. Age, r.tce, unimpormm. Gire us the opportunity to combine our souls and become one. Ya nc\'cr know. Send info to: Ramon Aviles. #93A8835, P.O. Box 2001 ~lain, LH 2-24, Clinton C. F.. Dann emor<~. 'Y 12929-2001. S\1';\l, 27 r rs old, long brown hair, hazel eyes. Ta11ooed and muscular. Looking for a fr ie nd. Dirk Harris, # 172053, Waupun C .l. , Box 35 1, Wa~tut , WI f>3963 . Sl3~ 1 . light skin, 5'7''. 32 )'I'S o ld. looking for a serio us open-mi nded, open-h earted down w earth woman of any age or race. Herbert Burgess, #93A3237. Au ica C.F .. Box 1-19, Auica, NY 140 11-0149. Aryan Clmstian looking for a fric t1dto write. I'm 30, 6' 1", 190#, browu hair, blue eyes. Been in 10 years, getting om soon. In need of a good Christian female. Not int o ga ngs or drugs o r crime. Into bcllering myself. Want to onect a special woman. Prince lli1nmlcr. #225480, 1153 East Street South, Suflie ld, CT 06078. Down but not out4~-,·ear-<>ld W;\1. I'm an outlaw in chains search ing for a lo\'ing angel to set me free through her leiters and photos. Lenny Kurz, #03809-424, P~ I B 4000, Rochester, ~ I t 55903. sw~r 31, 5'1 1"-;-175#. Into an. rock 'n · roll. tattoos, the outdoors aud cool people. Would like to correspond with open-minded, understanding people. Thomas Weathers, #688192, Coflicld Unit., R'.:..!.,_Box 150, Tennessee C'.olony. TX 75884. SWM, deaf, 38 yrs old, 5 '10", 20011, in good health and rery open-minded. Seeks wh ite female o nly, age 22-40. Will be free in '97. All interest ing people welcome to write. Steven Christman. 11946709, Indiana tate Farm, 1500 West U.S. 40, Greencastle, IN 116 135-9275. S\1'~1. 26 yrs old. hr. hair, blue eres, 6'1", 200#, college-educated weight lift er. Looking fo r pen pal to share thoughts and feel ings with. Females onlr. Age not important. Joseph Ri chards, P .O .I~ox A. Thom:tston, Maine 0486 1. S\\':\1, 28, 6'3", brown hair & eyes. Loo king for some people to pass Lhc rest of this ti me with. If you're real, regardless of age. looks and weight , just write to: J. cou ~lesechcr, #61453, P.O. Box 777. C.S.P.. Canon City, COJ!.1..2 15-0777._ S\\'~1, 28. 5'10". 190#, long dark hair & beard, brown eyes. Looking for a lady 10 write to . Will answer all who respond. Jason K. ~I all h ews, #8 1226. P.O. Box 777, C.S. P.. Canon City, CO 8 1215-0777. S\\":\1. +1, 6' 1", 185#, green eyes, hr0\\11 hair, Danish.Cennan college grad. cxtrc1nclycomputcr literate. serious :.nist. Seeking lencrs & long-term relationship witlt sincere. serio us, intellige nt and fun-loving lady. Will answer all. R:t)'lllOIId S. Larsen, #C,I0475, Pontiac C.C., Box 99, Pontiac, IL 61764. S\NM. 40--;--5' 11", 200~1> 1'11 ha ir, h az eyes. ta ttooed and 1nuscular. 3 )~·s left. Seeking Lat in or white lady to share rest of life with. Into bikes. music. healt h. Age u ni mport ant. Ke n Fenton , #02658- 112. FCI Florence, Unit N/ A. P.O. Box 6000. Florence. CO 8 1226. IIi. this is Ron and I'd like some pen-pals, M or F, but F would be nice, howC\'cr. I'll write back 10 anyone who respond,. I'm a Christian bi-sexual who's in rcco\'cry & enjoys Bible study, music &just plain kickin' it. Write 10: Ron Ryan, #2899 16. P.O. Box 209, Orient. 0 11 4 3 1 ~6. Struck out in Clli. ~ I . 39. 5'9", ISO#, brn hair, brn eyes. honest, respectful 8.- understanding. Looking for tl1m woman out there who'd like 10 correspond. Will answer :tlllellers. Lorenzo Antonio, #J-694 10, -IBIR-15, P.O. Box 3481, Corcor;m, Cr\ 93212. Is toda)' a good clay for you 10 wri te a SBII-1? I'm posit ire-minded. 38 yrs young man. Would like to hear from strong-minded black woman. Lend me your ear and I'll receive what )'Oil have 10 say for friendsh ip or amore. No inmates please. AI York, E-70970, P.O . 13ox 5000, A4- 140, North Ke rn Stale Prison. Delano, CA 932lfr5000. $ 14.95 $14.95 - - - - - - - STAT E ZI P Send check o r money order plus $3.00 P&H to: PLM Shirts, P.O. Box 537, Stone Ridge, NY 12484. NY residents o nly add 8.25% sales ta.x.