Reply ID: 27bt

Elections day!

Padre,
How are you? I hope well. I received your comments that you posted on my blog. This new mail system is terrible.

What confuses me is it has already been proven that ALL six staff members at SCI Albion lied. Each DOC employee who claimed to have been overdosed by drugs, their toxicology/lab results showed that they had NO drugs in their system. They lied. Most likely they lied for time off. I've seen a lot in my 20 years here. Let's be straight: staff in EVERY PA state prison brings drugs in. They make a lot of money, but the continue to bring drugs in to sell to prisoners. But all PA prisoners suffer for this. The PA legislative black caucus, many organizations in Phily and Pittsburgh are fighting for change.

A friend of mine, his wife sent him 50 photos of their kids from their trip to a Florida beach. You can't even make out the kids' faces and they were taken on an iphone x. Smart Communications said it's not them, it's the PA DOC's inferior quality printers.

My parents are gone, both died from cancer in the last 15 months. I was sent 25 photos of my parents before they died. I can't even make out my mom or dad's faces in most of them. I was denied the chance to attend my parents' funerals. Though I am a model prisoners and I could have raised the money to pay for being able to go, I was told that since I'm a lifer, I cannot say goodbye to my parents.

Philly reporter Samantha Melamed has done an excellent job uncovering the lies that DOC staff have said. This includes Secretary Wetzel. Secretary Wetzel first said he wanted to take away our mail altogether and sell postcards for us to write on, and that's it. But he knows other states have tried that and lost. So now they try to screw everyone over because of less than 1% of PA prisoners? More staff bring drugs in here than prisoners.

You mentioned Ellen. Do you mean Ellen Melchiondo? If so, yes, I know her.

Where is your parish, padre? I am Catholic, not practicing since my mother's death. But I am still a Catholic who has been the president of they Holy Name Society at St. Diamas Parish in Huntingdon, PA. Father Aron Magsondi was my priest.

In order to get mail restored, padre, you can contact Claire Shubik-Richards. She is the executive director of the PA prison society. Go to prisonsociety.org for more info. You can email Secretary Wetzel yourself. His email should be on the DOC Facebook page. And you can call your local state rep or senator. Send me an email, padre, and let me know where you are from, what legislative district, and I can tell you who to contact. You can also contact State Rep. Jordan Harris or State Rep Donna Bullock. Her Chief of Staff, Thomas, is a friend of mine. You tell them I sent you.

Republicans don't care. Any democratic rep or senator will do.

You can contact Sen. Street. You can call his Director of Communications, Desmond McCkinson. Desmond knows me very well (215-227-6161).

The only way to fix this is for society to speak up with us. Email the reporter Samantha Melamed (smelamed@philly.com). She is a good person. Who is your bishop? Ask your bishop of the diocese that you're into speaking up for us all. All of this matters.

These changes happened because the staff lied. It was just like the boots. One troubled young inmate got into a fight with an overly aggressive staff member. They fought and the inmate wouldn't stop. He kicked the staff member who died from his injuries in the hospital. What do they do? Took everyone's boots. I sent mine to Michigan so they could be donated to a homeless shelter. But now we have no boots for going outside in the rain or snow.

They didn't take away the black batons from staff when the guards at SCI Pittsburgh were sexually assaulting mentally retarded inmates with the baton. Sure, they were fired. But they still have them and use them as weapons against inmates. Let me tell you, if guards' lives were on the line like Wetzel lied about, they wouldn't come to work in this prison and spend most of their shift sleeping.

I will assist you in any way I can, padre. Please feel free to email me. I will get it a lot quicker than regular mail. My people in the street will forward it to me within one day. It's robertpezzeca@gmail.com.

Take care, and I look forward to possibly working with you.

Sincerely grateful,
Rob