OUR LEGAL SYSTEM: SUCCESSFUL OR FAILURE?

Sept. 25, 2013: 8:05am: Listening to: Pink Floyd's "The Wall"

As I sit here listening to the great album I have ever known, I think of our legal system. Let's remember that the majority of all people in state prisons are poor. I want to speak first about 2 judges here in PA, from Luzerne County. These 2 judges made a deal with a private prison contractor to keep these 2 juvenile prisons filled up. That's the only way the contractor would build them. This is no bull****. The 2 judges were named Michael T. Conahan and Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. These 2 judges locked up, and ruined the lives of thousands of children who didn't deserve to be locked up. They just got in some trouble for the most part. This went on for years and affected over 3,000 kids. They collected over $2 million dollars in bribes for this deal. The judges were given appropriate sentences. And to read that one their own actually got what was called for. Judge Ciavarella got sentenced to 28 years in prison and Judge Conahan cooperated and testified against Ciavarella and was given 17 1/2 years in prison. There was a lawsuit which was won for I believe almost $20 million dollars. You could probably research their names and read more about it.

Now onto the state prison system. Now, this is a joke. This next piece is about the abuse of prisoners in the PA Dept. of Corrections. And let me tell you, these guards were unlucky enough to get caught, but don't be fooled to think it's over. This happens in every prison in the state of Pennsylvania. No one believes prisoners who step forward, we are considered the scum of society and liars & this thinking makes it so we are never safe. In the spring of 2013, 2 prison guards who worked at the state prison SCI Pittsburgh were convicted of 27 counts of abusing prisoners. Harry Nicoletti and Tony D. Kelly were both tried in court and found guilty. They were convicted of: official oppression of a human being: simple assault: criminal solicitation: terroristic threats: and 3 counts of indecent exposure (that's a sex crime). They were acquitted for "sodomy, institutional sexual assault". The trial lasted 11 days. (That was longer than my murder trial). Common Pleas Judge David Cashman could have sentenced the 2 prison guards to prison themselves but instead Nicoletti received 5 years probation and former guard Kelly received 12 years probation. Harry Nicoletti was the ring leader of a team of 6 correctional officers (guards) at SCI Pittsburgh who targeted inmates with sexual assaults, beatings, tainting their food with urine and feces. Inmates testified that they would be held down and have foreign objects shoved into the rectum (sodomy, rape). Assistant District Attorney John Pittman stated at the sentencing hearing that these men were pure evil. These inmates were tortured and raped. I don't care who they were or what they were in prison for, no one deserves that. The jury stated that they did not believe some of the charges against the guards because even though there was medical evidence showing the men were raped and sodomized, the jury stated that prisoners were "liars & untrustworthy". 5 total prison guards were fired over the abuse. 1 officer, Bruce Lowther, was acquitted of all charges. I don't know what these following sites will tell you. But you can read more about this at:

http://publicsource.org
www.corrections.com
www.pittsburghpost-gazette.com

This is how the system works. Judge Cashman said that he did not want to put the guards in prison to experience the same treatment that they dished out to countless other prisoners. The mentally retarded, the weak, the small young white kids, they are all preyed upon in prison. I sadly spent most of my life in jail. I'm ashamed of that fact. I was preyed upon my very first time in jail. I went to staff for help. They told me to "man up". Man up, I was an 11 year old kid. So I started giving my food to a big Puerto Rican from Camden, New Jersey and he made sure no one hurt me. I was only there for less than 2 weeks but I only ate when someone felt sorry for me and gave me some of their food. If it wasn't for that Puerto Rican named Babyface, I would have been raped, I would have been beaten. But I learned how to fight. I was always small, I was beaten up so many times in prison I learned how to fight. And that's a big part of why my life is like it is. I turned violent. It was the only life I knew. Going to prison at such a young age, it ruined me. It made me a harder and colder person. I'm not making excuses, I'm just stating facts. My whole life I only ever loved my mom and Nonna (grandmom). Then I met Justine and my world was changed. But from birth to 19, I only ever knew a rough and violent life. I've seen a young kid, years ago, targeted and they sodomized him with a wooden plunger handle. There's nothing you can do. 8+ men did that to him. You can't stop it. But society doesn't care what happens to us. Now everyone is not grouped in to the term society, but if you ask most people, they will say we get what we deserve and when we say something happened, they call us liars. I would love to end the violent side of my life, but in here, prison thrives on violence. We are treated like crap for the most part. I just wish more people cared. Does anyone care about stopping this cycle? Ending the violence? If more people in power and authority cared, they might not end it but they could really slow it down. People need help. My daughter. I've decided that I want to start up a website and attempt to get donations for her for the day she turns 18. She will be 16 on October 16th. But the day she turns 18, then what. She has nowhere to go, and no one to help her. She is in a juvy group home type place so she can't work and save her money so she will need a headstart, some help. Let's look at her. When Krista turns 18, they kick her out. She is no longer in the custody of the state. Then what? It will be late October and in Ohio, it's already cold out. What if my baby girl doesn't have a coat. Where will she go. Things like this run through my mind every day. How will she eat? So many young girls resort to prostitution to keep off the streets. Or they strip. I don't want that to be my child's future. That's not a future. I am a failure as a father, but if I can help raise money for her to start out her life, just so she has a chance, I want to, I have to, I need to. I will post more about this and if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'm all ears. I can't even buy my daughter a birthday present. That makes me feel pretty crappy inside. At the end I will be including a flyer. (Speaking of flyers, that's my hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers, I love hockey.) If anyone in the Philadelphia area would like to learn more, attend this political education conference. I don't know much about it but I'm sure you can call and ask and it's free. You don't have to stay the whole time. You might meet some good people, learn something you never knew. You might be inspired to help make change. I'll leave you with that for this week. My back is really starting to bother me. Don't be like the jury in Pittsburgh, give people a chance, believe in them until they are proven wrong. Not everyone in prison is evil or liars, or just bad to the core. You would be surprised. Take care and God bless. Ciao.

PS: I've learned that rejection is not failure. I've always believed that if you were rejected by a woman, a job, a person, that meant you were a failure. But rejection does not make you a failure. Rejection is not failure & failure is not rejection. How you handle it is what determines that. You are only a faolure if you give up & I will not give up on myself or my daughter!