Reply ID:
ngti

Monday
April 20, 2020

Dear Shea,

I received you response in the mail this afternoon. First of all, as always, I sincerely appreciate the fact that you took time out of your day to respond, especially right now. Serving time behind bars is always difficult, but serving time behind bars during a crisis like this takes difficulty to a whole new level, but more on that later...

As far as people out there caring enough for people in here to fight for them, it's always nice to hear that someone cares, that we're not forgotten about. Sadly, these are stories that mainstream media rarely reports on, which only leads to a further feeling of isolation in an already isolated environment. What we do see and hear about is usually second or third hand, which means that it's often misinterpreted, or just plain made up by people with nothing better to do. The last I heard, the Prison Law Office filed something in Federal Court, seeking an emergency order to further reduce the already overcrowded prison population, but not only was this motion denied, it actually had the unintended consequence of making things in here much, much worse as, the moment the motion was denied, this prison immediately reopened the gym and then moved inmates out of their cells and into the gym to live. Once the cells were vacated, they began filling them up with suspected cases of Covid-19.

On that note, they're supposed to post a daily order anytime the prison's program is modified or locked down. The order describes the nature of the modification, and why the modification is needed, allowing everyone to better understand what's expected of them, inmates and staff, and why it's expected. The last order I seen was from the 15th of April, meaning that the numbers were already a day old, and it stated that there were 35 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in this facility, although none originating from my yard. I'm told that, on Saturday, that number jumped to 75, and yesterday, the news mentioned (as briefly as possible), that an inmate here had died from Covid-19.

I should probably point out that it's IMPOSSIBLE, AND I can't stress that enough, to practice "social distancing" when you're behind bars. Part of this is because there are simply so many reasons that social distancing is impossible. I mention just a few of these reasons, not only in an attempt to enlighten one of my oldest friends, but also to enlighten a paralegal and anyone else who may happen to read this post. (Speaking of which, congratulations!! ;)

of message does this send? For the last 17+ years, all I've heard is lectures on the importance of empathy, compassion, sensitivity, etc., all of which are important, yet, when it comes time to demonstrate these qualities, people routinely come up with reasons as to why they shouldn't be demonstrated to people in my position. There's a lot of resentment in here from those convicted of violent offenses, or who aren't eligible for any additional time off of their sentence because of their crimes, collectively, included a violent offense in addition to their nonviolent offenses, and the resentment stems from the fact that, for the most part, it's actually the people with the violent convictions who are working the hardest to improve their lives, and it's always the ones with the violent convictions who get the short end of the stick when it comes to things like early releases, additional credits for positive behavior, etc.

On that note, it should be pointed out that there's an unintended consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, at least in the CDCR. In addition to the credits we can earn for working and staying out of trouble, there are also "Milestone" credits, which are credits awarded for successfully completing a rehabilitative program. One of the first things the CDCR did when they moved to "prevent" the introduction of the Coronavirus into the prison system was to put an immediate stop to any and all rehabilitative groups, which in turn means that a lot of people in here are actually seeing an increase in the amount of time they expected to serve, as they can no longer earn their Milestone and RAC credits. Take my neighbor, for example. He's spent months preparing to take his G.E.D. test, and was actually scheduled to take the test a couple of weeks ago, on a Monday. Unfortunately for him, on Monday, everything was canceled until further notice, including his G.E.D. test. This, despite the fact that he'd just taken, and passed, all of the G.E.D. pretests. As a result, he won't receive the 6-month Milestone credit for passing his G.E.D. test, which would have put him out of here a week ago. This is just one of many, many examples in here.

I can certainly understand society's apprehension when it comes to the thought of a massive, early, release of criminals from a prison system. In their minds, we're al just waiting for an opportunity to seek revenge on those who put us behind bars, whether deserved or not, or we're frothing at the idea of committing another crime, but the truth is anything but. With the exception of those who haven't been able to escape their drug addiction, or their ties to gang activity, the overwhelming majority of us desperately want to get out and lead a productive life. We want to get married and start a family, or raise the children we already have. We want to have, not just a job, but a career, together with a place we can call our home. We want to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, but all society can see if the 70% recidivism rate, and not the reason for this excessively high rate. They don't see that, in an overwhelming majority of cases, inmates are released from prison, woefully prepared. They're not permitted an opportunity to have any money and, in most cases, they're forced to return to a criminal environment. The funds given by the system to those departing, a paltry $200, are by no means enough to live off of, particularly when you take into account that you've got to use those funds to cover your clothing to wear out of the prison and bus fare to get home. I don't know of anyone who has enough left over to get a motel room for the night, let alone until they can get their first job, and as far as housing assistance is concerned, you can forget about it. Many convictions automatically disqualify, for life, any assistance from

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