Timothy J. Muise, #W66927
MCI Shirley
PO Box 1218
Shirley, MA
01464-1218

August 30, 2013

LEGAL MAIL

[redacted]
Prisoners' Legal Services
10 Winthrop Square
3rd Floor
Boston, MA
02110-1264

Re: SURVEY OF PRISONERS - August 2013

Dear Attorney [redacted]:

How dare you/PLS send me a "prisoner" survey? Possibly you should send the survey to Kathleen Dennehy or some other DOC employee who has had a "change of heart". PLS has done nothing but disserve the men whom I represent while fully and totally ignoring the real cries of the prisoner.

You state you want to "improve the quality of the work" you do. Well, you can start by dismantling the entire organization and allowing a group run by ex-offenders, for ex-offenders, take your budget and use it to truly represent that legal needs of prisoners. As far as I am concerned you have embezzled funds which were meant to be used to assist prisoners with their concerns, not the concerns that PLS deems important.

When was the last time YOU visited the HSU here? This is the 'end of life' care unit for the entire prison system yet you have no clue what is going on in there because you ostrich head in the sand our cries. When I ask you to assist a man who cannot assist himself you send me a form letter stating that he must help himself. It angers us who sacrifice for the cause to no end.

Your unethical, conflict of interest, operating procedures are more than enough grounds to have you removed from your position. Kathleen Dennehy is a defendant in Disability Law Centre vs. Massachusetts Department of Correction & Kathleen Dennehy 2010 US Dist. LEXIS 92034, and Edmund Hennessy vs Kathleen Dennehy 2010 US Dist. LEXIS 90692, as well as other matters PLS/MCLS has handled. It is a real and actual conflict, certainly reviewable by the Board of Bar Overseers, that you now gallivant around the 'reform' meetings of Boston with Dennehy. I know that if I was one of the plaintiffs in a 'Dennehy' case with PLS/MCLS involvement and I found out the PLS/MCLS Director was 'sleeping with the enemy' I would be extremely upset. Men are dying in our HSU here (Malcolm Hicks was 'granted' parole, but died in the HSU 8 months later - where were you? Frank Soffen cannot advocate for himself up there - where are you?) and illiterate men in the hole reach out to me for help, I ask PLS/MCLS for help and they tell me to tell the illiterate men to 'write' you themselves. Are you kidding me?

Let me "Survey" you:

When was the last time you sat in solitary for the Cause?
When was the last time a guard kicked you while you were handcuffed?
How many of your friends have committed suicide?
When was the last time you visited the HSU at MCI Shirley?
Do you have any shame?

Thank you for all your support of CURE-ARM. You're the best, Leslie. In a few short years there will be real voices out there to shout the failures at the reform meetings you and Kathy attend. This time they will be the voices of warriors and they will silence the con game that is PLS. As you state your "14 years of experience has taught you a lot", but it is never too late to teach an old dog new tricks: listen to the prisoner, not to your ego.

From The Belly of the Beast,

Timothy J. Muise

We fight with real dangers,
but fear is not in us.
We resist with real consequences,
not like the elite barrister who has forgotten.

TJM 2013

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EXHIBIT "A"
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PRISONERS' LEGAL SERVICES
Survey of Prisoners - August 2013

PLS needs your help with this survey. Your answers to the questions below will help PLS review and improve the quality of the work it does for prisoners. After you answer the questions, you can write any comments you want to add on the back of this page or on separate pages. Please return your completed survey to PLS in the envelope provided by September 6, 2013 if at all possible.

You may not know about all the things that PLS does. PLS serves prisoners by filing lawsuits for individual prisoners and groups of prisoners. Some of these cases are class actions for large groups of prisoners, such as everyone in a particular jail or prison. PLS also helps prisoners by writing to and talking with prison officials and by giving verbal and written advice to prisoners. PLS provides public education through the press and by working with community groups. PLS also works for better and fairer treatment of prisoners in laws passed by the legislature. PLS has four main areas of work: (1) health care, including mental health care, (2) staff assaults, (3) extreme conditions of confinement, and (4) segregation. We also reserve some resources for other important issues, such as prison phone rates.

PLS has a small staff. There are more than 3,000 Massachusetts prisoners for each PLS lawyer. This means that there is only so much we can do. We respond to requests for advice from prisoners and their families about all kinds of prisoner problems, but PLS can't help with non-legal issues and can often given only limited assistance with legal issues. A good example is d-reports. PLS gives out information on how to handle d-reports, but does not represent prisoners in disciplinary hearings.

1. What are the three biggest problems facing Massachusetts prisoners today?

Segregation/Solitary Confinement
Mental Health Care
Medical Care
Substance Abuse Treatment
Staff Assaults and Brutality
Prisoner on Prisoner Violence
Educational and Training Programs
Visitation and Phone Calls
Disciplinary System
Grievance System
Classification
Overcrowding
Unsanitary Living Conditions
Food and Canteen
Parole Release and Supervision
Reentry and Recidivism
Other (please specify): SEE ATTACHED LETTER

2. Please rank PLS' four priority areas in order of importance to you with "1" being the most important and "4" being the least important:

Health Care and Mental Health Care
Extreme Conditions of Confinement
Staff Assaults
Segregation
X Failure of PLS

3. If you were able to add a fifth PLS priority area, what would you add?

Close down - give budget to ex-offenders

4. What are the most important services that PLS provides to prisoners?

Infrequently and inadequately used "rapid response"

5. Is there an important service that PLS should provide to prisoners, but does not? Please explain.

Listen to them!

6. If you had the necessary authority and resources to shape PLS, what would PLS look like five years from now?

Run by a board of prisoners and ex-prisoners ONLY