July/August/Sept. 2010 jeffdicksmedical.com Massachusetts Chapter
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Prisoners in Mass Should Vote this Year
Luis D. Perez
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The 2-1 ruling by a three judge panel of appeal for
the 9th U.S. District Court overturned the 2000 ruling of the District Court in Spokane Washington. At that time the court ruled that the States did not violate the “voting rights act”. The associated press Rachel La Corte, in her article further indicated that “incarcerated felons should be allowed to vote in Washington to ensure that racial minorities are protected under the Voting Rights Act.
I was under the impression that Massachusetts has a case with a legal similar argument, but I don’t have any final report on the subject. The Massachusetts Legislature took away our voting rights and maybe we should have the restoration of that Constitutional right for the November 2010 State Election.
The two Appellate Federal Judges ruled that disparities exist in the State’s Justice System and they cannot be explained in race-neutral ways. The Mass. Supreme Court ruled in (1994), that there were racial bias against minorities in the Court. Washington is not unique with this kind of problem.
The changes from the Federal Court came as a result of a law suit that was filed by prisoners in Walla-Walla State Penitentiary. Muhammad Shabazz Farrakhan had a favorable ruling back on January 16, 2010.
If you cannot cast your votes in the Mass. election this year, write a letter to the City Hall in your hometown addressing legitimated issues of confinement within the prison system. “Conditions of Confinement” are protected by the Constitution of the U.S.
Dictatorial Free Thinking
Dr. Brian Sirois
Many of the programs that the DOC allow to be run in their facilities, such as Spectrum and the Correctional Recovery Academy (CRA) demand that you think what they tell you, else they dismiss you from their program for not complying with their lines of thought. It is the same with many of the more traditional religions and cultural values that are placed on the person’s mind, in order to prevent that person from thinking freely. They are, in effect, similar to laws of a society, structures of a society, and often reflect in the same way that a dictator’s rules affect the people of a society.
In the sense of a person’s consciousness being structured to reflect the programming of one who instills that programming into the mind of the person, they are, to that degree, subject of the master teacher or master programmer.
In such instances, the person can not consider themselves as having freedom of thought. Although many such people would claim that they are free to think as they choose, it’s just that they choose to believe what they have been directed to believe, what they have been programmed to believe and they presume that it is by their own choice, and to a degree, this is so, however small.
It is to the degree that they have actually had a choice, that they may claim a certain amount of free thought. But most people, being programmed from the time they are born, did not have the discerning abilities to actually think about what they were being programmed with before they actually became programmed. Therefore, their thinking and their programming pattern was developed from the outside, rather than from within their own consciousness.
The advantage of parroting back exactly verbatim what they want to hear maybe fine for completing their program, but does little to nothing in the real world. Although Spectrum and the CRA maybe helpful and mean well in their intentions, these programs are delusional in their thinking, and need a drastic overhaul. Especially when it comes time to present your opinion within their classes, when asked for it, and they don’t want to hear it because they don’t agree with it, and dismiss you from the program because you don’t conform to their line of thinking in their small idealistic world.
Many people lament the changes that are occurring in the world at this time, and long for the days of old, when everything was dictated to them by the priests of wisdom, by those who knew the answers for everything, by those who were so sure, so certain that this is this and that is that and they were totally true, and that there is absolutely no need or reason for any person to question their authority.
There are many who still cling to those concepts and the desire that everyone would still worship and adore authority without question. This is particularly true of those who are, or perceive of themselves to be, in authority. Such as those Spectrum and CRA instructors, who are trained to police your thoughts, and charge you for honest opinions and personal insights into the various situations and scenarios that they present in class.
These thought police are beginning to see a breakdown and change, and this change is that which they fear. They see people developing a questioning mind, a mind that looks here and there for answers, and not to them as the sole authority, but looks to various experiences, or perhaps looking at others who have experimented with personal experiences, who are not telling them what they should think.
These dictators or power hungry authoritarians see this as being of a subjective inquiry, rather than objective, logical approach toward the research from authority and from their hierarchy that has been handed down in terms of information and in terms of traditional value systems of society. This is likened unto tunnel vision where they only see their end results that that they are aiming at, but they fail to see the oncoming traffic that is about to blind-side them. They need to take off the blinders, so they can see the bigger picture, and by doing so, they maybe able to better assist people.
Times are changing, and there are many who are quite frustrated and very disturbed at seeing people who simply don’t accept their tried and true science or don’t accept religious beliefs as traditionally presented, because they are no longer working in today’s day and age. They are in search for something that is more conducive for themselves, without asking the so called authorities. It is because they are entrepreneurs in the mental realm. They are more or less free-enterprising in the realm o thought, and the dictatorial authorities don’t like it, for it does not comply with their rules that society has come so comfortable with down through the ages.
Society sees that there are too many “kookie”, or crazies, or those lacking any sensibilities, and therefore, society condemns the very action of a person trying to think on their without their authority giving them permission or directing the thinking of that person. These types of dictatorial authoritarians think deep within the box. Few think outside of the box, but as for me, I don’t even see a box that we must empirically comply with that keeps mankind living in the dark ages. It is time to become illuminated and enlightened, question authority!
This article is not directed at the thousands of compassionate individuals just doing their job. But it is intended for that small percentage of bullies who enforce arbitrary rules and enjoy hurting others while wielding their authority like a club, just because they can.
It used to be that if you followed all the rules and acted responsibly you were treated fairly, or at least left alone. But then the inmate population became too well behaved and compliant and some prison officials, fearing a shrinking budget, felt they needed to turn up the heat a little and create conflict, lest their uselessness become too evident to the outside world. Where else can they make $70,000 to $90,000 for doing absolutely nothing?
Captain Paul A. Gordon has always been a coward and a bully, and everyone, staff and inmates alike know exactly what I’m talking about. But in August 2005 he began a downward spiral to lower lows, even for him.
When I arrived at Old Colony prison in February 2002 I noticed there were no recycling bins and the redeemable soda bottles were being thrown away as trash. So I began a campaign to collect the soda bottles and have the proceeds donated to charity. Finally, after six written proposals submitted to prison officials between May 2002 and July 2005 I was given permission from Superintendent Bernard Brady to begin. He asked that I give him a list of ten charities he could approve. The plan was that 100% of the proceeds go to a different charity each month. Since the Canteen Corp employees assured me that “hundreds of cases” are delivered weekly, that meant that at the very least, $500 could be donated to a different organization every month. It was posted in every cell block that the proceeds from the soda bottles for the first month would be going to the “Make A Wish” foundation. But at the end of that very first month, Captain Paul A. Gordon ordered the 4700 bottles that we collected be loaded onto a truck and driven off the property. The following day he advised me personally that I was not allowed to collect the bottles any longer.
Obviously, only the most despicable and reprehensible person would steal from terminally ill kids. And Paul Gordon is just that sort of person. And sadly, he’s not the only hateful, selfish and mean-spirited prison official at Old Colony.
On June 2, 2005, James “Butch” Ferreira, then Deputy Superintendent of Operations issued a memo to the inmate population introducing a new recycling program in which he “expected the inmate population” to help the DOC reduce their costs by turning over our empty soda bottles. So, in other words, when Gordon stole the 4,700 bottles in August, the connection to Ferreira’s failed attempt to swindle the inmates out of their soda bottles redemption money in June became obvious. I made my observations known to everyone, which included articles that appeared in various publications.
Fast-forward to August 2008 and my return to Old Colony from a two year hiatus at the Souza- Baranowski Retribution Center.
I developed a skill about 26 years ago and since 1984 I’ve been crafting crucifixes, crosses, picture frames and even houses and miniature furniture out of Styrofoam food trays. No guard or official has ever had a problem with the way I spend my time, that is until Thursday, December 18,2008 when Captain Paul A. Gordon entered my cell and took three crucifixes and a Celtic cross that I made for family and friends for Christmas. There was no D-report or contraband notice issued. He just took them. I, made more and he returned two weeks later on January 2, 2009 and took those and gave then to the IPS, and I made more. Exactly two weeks later on Friday, January 16th he came back and took my new crosses, my bible cover, and virtually every religious item in my cell. And still, I got no D-report or contraband notice for the religious items he confiscated.
ON Monday, January 18, 2009, a friend and advocate, Nancy Ahmadifar,Ph.D, wrote to Commissioner Harold W. Clarke and told him what the Captain was doing, and she sent a photo of a crucifix that I made for her, explaining that this is what I’ve been doing foe decades. As a result Mr. Clarke contacted Jeanie Lahousse, the Director of Treatment & Programs and directed her to start an art program. But the staff refused to make Styrofoam available until my sister contacted the Commissioner. Shortly thereafter Superintendent O’Brien received a request from James Bender, the Deputy Commissioner, to purchase foam board so that I could continue my craft. A prison official later revealed to me that, “That went right up their ass sideways…!”
It has now been over a year since the art program was supposed to have been started, but it has been a constant struggle for Jeanie Lahousse and Bruce Pires, the recreation & program directors. While they have tried to provide an area and an outlet for inmates to express their God-given talents, every effort has been blocked by the “great wall of security.” The art program that was open for an average of an hour a week, every other week, has been non-existent for months.
And now, after Commissioner Clarke directed Superintendent O’Brien to purchase and make foam board available for my use, out new Director of Security told Jeanie Lahousse that she was wrong to give me the Styrofoam because he said, “He can make a gun out of it!”
I’ve been in prison for over 30 years since 1975 and do not have a single incident of violence, weapons possession or escape attempts. So, in the interest of fairness to me I believe I should have to at least once exhibit the type of behavior that Brad Cowen suggests before making such an idiotic statement. It just never ceases to amaze me how individuals with absolutely no common sense can ascend to such high positions in this agency.
Yes, if I had a propensity for violence I could use my pen to stab instead of write. I could collect rocks in the yard and create chess pieces, or I can put ‘em in a sock and use it to bludgeon. And yes, I could even make something that resembles a gun. But I don’t need foam board. I could make it out of cardboard, newspaper, writing paper, typing paper, or even toilet paper. Woody Allen made a gun out of soap in the movie, “Take the money and run.” His plan to escape from jail. however, was foiled when it started to rain and his gun turned to bubbles.
The only prison that will ever be 100% safe is one that is made of nerf, and every inmate is locked in his little nerf cell for 24 hours a day. But I suggest Mr. Cowen’s actions have nothing to do with the safety and security of Old Colony. I’m not allowed to have foam board because Gordon took my crosses and I made more. He took those and I made more. Then he took those and I made more.