CITIZEN-PRISONER NETWORK
LETTER FROM A PRISONER
The government, in typical fashion, attempted to gut the habeas
cor-pus rules governing the appeals process. No, not attempt--the bastards
may have succeeded! The Supreme Court will ultimately decide. Public Law
104-132 sets a limit of one year for the filing of appeals in the federal
courts following final state action in death penalty cases. It also sets
a one-year limit for the filing of 2255 motions in federal cases following
final denial in the federal court system. And the law is retroactive.
Throughout the federal prison system convicts are ignorant of the law. It
has not been publicized, obviously to prevent a flood of 2255 motions from
inundating courts. On April 23, 1997, the law will have been in effect for
one year. All federal prisoners whose final adjudication occurred prior
to 4/24/97 will have forever lost their right to appeal.
The best example of how hopeless relief is following 2255 denial is Leonard
Peltier. His current lawyers have proved he was framed by the FBI, yet his
sentence stands. Members of congress and a group of Hollywood celebrities
have tried to reverse his highly publicized miscarriage of justice.
The laws have been horribly skewed over the past few years to favor the
state or federal governments in criminal prosecutions. A sadder truth still
is the gullibility of the public in believing the political rhetoric/propaganda,
convinced the defendants have every advantage. By the time anyone learns
the truth of the matter, he no longer has any credibility--he is either
an accused offender or a close relative of one. The land of the free more
and more resembles Nazi Germany--with a far superior Gestapo.
-Name withheld by request
THEY GET TOUGH--LET'S GET TOUGH TOGETHER!
One of the cruelest problems of the imprisoned is self-destruction. We must
stop fighting, shanking and killing each other, especially for minor and
no good reasons. How can we expect outsiders to help free us from cruel
rulers when we're just as cruel to each other and sometimes even worse?
We do each other, the authorities do us for doing each other, then we appeal
for justice. It must end-the ethnic disputes, the gang disputes, and indiscriminate
disputes.
At a time such as this we need each other more than ever. The government,
the prisoncrats, and authorities are the ones attacking, oppressing, and
dissing us. They disconnect us from our families, they disfigure our bodies
and faces with brutality, they discredit our honesty, disrespect humanity,
disappoint expectations of justice, dismantle our unity, and wish that we
discontinue our struggles We must disprove their dissings.
They're not only taking things from us that pacify, but also the things
that keep us half sane and help us keep wearing the makeshift smiles that
we bear in pain. God knows that incarceration alone is enough punishment,
torture, and pain on the brain. It hurts not being able to walk two miles
in the sun, it hurts going hungry at times, it hurts being without privacy,
it hurts being somebody's paycheck, it hurts being restricted from the opposite
sex, and it hurts simply living in a cage.
We know that they enroll more than they parole; we know that they debilitate
and not rehabilitate, deform and not reform, impair and not repair. We know
that the department of corrections is full of corruption. And our position
should be to unite, console the gloom of our days, and fight for justice,
humanity and freedom.
Some of us are political prisoners, some are economic prisoners. However
we're all prisoners and all prisoners of war--the war on crime, the war
on certain people, the war on the poor, and the war on the imprisoned. And
we must flee self-destruction as fleeing for our lives, so that the authorities
will not feel justified in beating on our backs for beating on each other's
backs, and so that our struggles are more effective struggles.
-Vincent Johnson, 1024105, ISP, P.O. Box 316, Ft. Madison, IA 52627
LETTER FROM A PRISONER
Your article about Lily Schmidt was very accurate. What's more unjust is
that the psychotropic drugs have decapacitated her basic human needs. She
cannot dress or undress herself, bathe herself, etc. The nurses get around
to her every 3 days or so, which is a crime in itself.
The same happened to me. I was her roommate and was force-drugged by the
same drug injection--25mm of Prolixan decante for an unheard probation violation
of "no show." This country has already wasted over $2 million
to force-drug me at Carswell and convict me on a thrice-dismissed charge
by state and federal. It is your tax money they are using to kill people
like Lily and me--senseless and premeditated murder, Nazi tactics. They
cannot tell me why I'm labeled incompetent-like kicking a child out of a
classroom because you dislike her and putting her in "special ed"
class for the rest of her life.
I filed a temporary injunction but need it to be served/processed from the
Northern District Dallas Division, Case #3:97-CV00048T to FMC Carswell to
cease drugging. I'm requesting the assistance of an attorney or others that
have experienced this dilemma. This facility needs a federal injunction
not to force drug inmates like Lily and me and show why so much money is
wasted to drug instead of to treat--a form of drug-carteling for the government.
Direct your letters to Warden Bogan, 3000 J. St., Ft. Worth, Texas. 76127
and Northern District of Eastern MI, 1000 Washington St., Bay City, MI 48708.
--Sylvia Ocampo, #25367-013, P.O. Box 27137, Ft. Worth, Texas 76127, and/or
P.O. Box 200712, Denver, CO 80220.
FROM THE FREE WORLD
From the free world I reach back into prison with an aching heart. I've
been out nearly 2 years and it has been hard to stay clean, stay away from
the homies still in the game making ten times more than I do, and I work
10-hour days, 6 days a week. While in SHU and out here too, I stay focused.
I fought for my freedom, my sanity, my spirituality.
I hear how so many of my friends have got on the psych meds, I guess to
aid in sleeping while the unit roars 'til dawn, to numb their hearts, and
to wash away their fears. But, my friends, do you realize how you've changed,
how the medication controls your emotions, feeds your anger, freezes you
in winter, makes you faint in summer, makes you depressed, paranoid, wears
you out, slows down you reactions, makes you numb, makes you mutilate yourself?
Don't let the Department of Corrections control you with their cocktail
of drugs! Feed your mind with formative reading, build your body through
exercise, and grab hold of your spirituality. Stay strong-minded, clear
your head, be sharp and aware and keep that hope for the future.
-In solidarity, Aracely, aka, "Joker"
June-July 97 -
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