Between The Bars
P.O. Box 425103
Cambridge, MA 02142

Peter K. Holmes
c/o 01113292, Neal Unit
9055 Spur 591
Amarillo, Texas Republic [near 79107-9696]

June 17, 2012

re: AMC2012

When I received a card requesting input on prison issues in America, as well as World problems for this Conference, a million thoughts hit me at once as to what I wanted to say. At first I thought... why bother? Nobody really listens anyway.

Well, this thought, as it usually does, made me quite angry to even think about it. So I thought why not speak on the inhumanity of today's Prison INDUSTRIAL Complex in America. I really can't speak of the problems of the failed prison system in America though, since all I know about is the Prison INDUSTRY in Texas.

Then I thought that the free World people would only look upon me as another whining inmate who doesn't like the fact that he got caught... so why bother?

I then thought about putting in some things about how I was falsely incarcerated and had no recourse to prove my innocence... but then I decided that nobody would believe that because the free world, for the most part, has a built-in mentality that if you are in prison then you must be guilty.

Then it dawned on me how I am always preaching to these guys in here that you cannot win arguing with any of these people. You have to remain calm and look at the bigger picture in order to determine if the problem warrants action, or whether you can really justify simply letting it go.

One thing that I can tell you is that here in Texas... the system is seriously corrupt and broken... as well as financially broke. Extremely poor medical care creating even more illness, but less care, abusive guards and so on and so on. But, this is not where the real problem lies. So I decided to take my own advice and to look at the bigger picture so as to really get to the root of the problem.

There are really three parts to this problem, but I'll start with the least of the problems and work backwards to real root of the problem. The bottom of the pile, or the least of the problems with the Prison INDUSTRIAL Complex, is Mis-Management. This Mis-Management runs all the way from the lowest point of the prison Unit level, all the way up to the Executive Office of the Governorship and everywhere in between. This, as far as the State of Texas is concerned, especially involves Parole.

Of course I am speaking of 'financial mis-management'. This involves everything from 'Mass Incarceration' without the proper finances to PROPERLY care for those incarcerated, to mis-management of the 'stocks', in Texas anyway, that are traded on the open market. That's right, we inmates are nothing but a commodity here in Texas. [Slave] labor!
Texas cannot afford to PROPERLY care for its current inmate population of well over 150,000 men and women... and that does not include the thousands waiting in the County Jails to come to prison. And yet they refuse to let many go who should be allowed to do so. Why? Because from a financial perspective they really can't afford to let them go. That's right, they can't afford to keep them and yet they cannot afford to let them go.

Is it really the Prison INDUSTRIAL Complex that is the problem though? Let's take this back another step to get a bit closer to the real root of the problem. The so-called 'Criminal Justice System' is the second stage of the problem within this country. Herein does lie a greater portion of the problem, but as I said; not the biggest problem and certainly not the root problem.
In today's society we have a complex legal system encompassing over 60 million laws, statutes, codes, rules, regulations and the like, and more being added at an ever-alarming rate.
These laws, statutes, codes, rules, regulations and such are increasing and expanding so rapidly that even the most articulate of professionals cannot remain versed in all laws without a supporting mini-infrastructure of analysts, computers and etc. These laws and such are used to place fear into the public in general. The fear of breaking such laws and etc.
But today's governments, from the local one all the way to the federal one, is using this fear in order to 'CONTROL' our lives. So many of them are seriously abusing that authority. They are using their authority to keep us in fear of criminals... fear of breaking THEIR laws... fear of terrorists... fear, fear, fear.
So, with this ocean of statutes, codes, rules, laws, regulations and the like... once a person has been arrested, he is naturally 'GUILTY' until HE can prove HIMSELF innocent. Notice that I said that HE must prove HIS innocence. I say this from personal experience. This is because if you have an Attorney which you have paid then he will work somewhat hard for you as long as the money keeps coming in. Run out of money though, and watch just how fast he will drop you. I'm not saying this is true in all cases, but it is true much more than it should be.
When assigned a 'Court Appointed Attorney' … well, you may as well just go ahead and defend yourself because you would most likely stand a better chance. I speak this from personal experience. In my 'personal OPINION', court appointed Attorneys simply want to get the case over with in order to get on to their paying customers where their real money lies. You are simply holding them back because the State is certainly not paying them very much, at least not near as much as they would make if someone were paying them.

I can only speak for what I've seen within this State, but innocence today in the Texas courts is virtually impossible to prove. Here in Texas I would venture a guess that there is a roughly 85% chance that you are going to be found guilty (even though you really are innocent) and that you are going to prison. No, don't be mad... it's only business. And within this State that is exactly what it is... BUSINESS!

So, why is this happening? Because of the 'fear factor' instilled within us by the media hype of negativity, and by the legal system, we have a great tendency to vote those into office... such as Judges, Prosecutors, etc... who have a high conviction rate. Because of their conviction rate we look at them as being good. But... if you really knew the percentage of inmates who REALLY ARE INNOCENT, you would be absolutely horrified at the Imprisoning of America.

Because of this 'fear' factor we look to 'people' to place into office who are 'good' at getting convictions. It doesn't matter that they have convicted many innocent person and have been proven to have done so. Court appointed Attorneys play right into this mindset. Since they are not really making any money off of you, per se, why should they even care what happens to you? Just get the whole thing over with so that the can 'so-called' save the tax-payers some money, and the Attorney can get on to more important things... like paying customers.

At this point in my rough draft I really wanted to describe my own fraudulent case, but the this is not about me. This is about the problems within this country and the Prison INDUSTRIAL Complex within this country, the Judicial system, and the Body Politic. So here goes... now is when I should probably make a lot of people mad, but then again... I personally think that they should get mad and hopefully they'll open their eyes.

Like it or not... the real problem, the only root of the problem in America today, whether it's the Prison INDUSTRIAL Complex, Medical Care, Financial duress, or whatever, is: "We The People!" And I do include myself as We The People. Yes! We The People have given up so very much of OUR Constitutional Rights. Part of the problem, and a very big part from what I've seen here in prison, is the total ignorance of our voting age youth... and our non-voting age ones... tomorrow's potential leaders. They ARE NOT being properly taught the structure of our Constitutional system, our Courts, nor the Body Politic and exactly how it is structured and WHO puts it together to give it its power and authority within this Great Nation. They are not being taught the 'how's' and 'why's' of this Great Nation's foundings.

We The People have given control of our lives over to the Corporate Government, maybe not totally, but way too much control, to be ruled over by fear. It is We The People who have placed these men and women into office. It doesn't matter if it's the local Mayor or Sheriff, or even the President himself, WE place them there.

We The People are so quick to lay the blame upon President Obama for our on-going problems, or we want to blame terrorism, or maybe even an ALLEGED CRIMINAL. We want to lay the blame on anyone we can... except for ourselves!

Why exactly is it that our youth of today are graduating High School and yet there are so many of them that can only read at a 5th or 6th grade level. Why exactly is that Mr. Obama's fault again? I didn't quite catch your first excuse of why it's his fault. It's NOT his fault.
We The People have become such a society of having the 'I Want, Right Now' that we have ignored our children. Now don't start screaming yet... I don't necessarily mean that we have totally ignored them, but let's face the facts. With most households having both parents working we have a strong tendency to not pay close enough attention to exactly what is going on in our child's education.
I've seen it time and time again, and have even been guilty myself, of having our child come to us with a, let's say math problem, and we are right in the middle of cooking, a good baseball game, or whatever and we tell them to wait until we are done. But do we ever really get done? Think back (you parents) to how many times we've actually ignored our children when they came to us for help. It doesn't matter if it was help gluing together a model, fixing their bicycle, or helping them with homework.

I did a little test shortly after I came to prison. This test covered approximately 8000 prisoners here in Texas and lasted about 5 years. On the different units that I have been on I interviewed these approximately 8000 prisoners. Of those roughly 8000 inmates the average grade level score was 6.3... that is barely above a sixth grade level of competency. The average I.Q. score was at 68.
So, what does this really show? Nothing really! It was not a controlled test, nor was it averaged between the more than 150,000 inmates within this system. What it does show is that the less education, the higher tendency toward crime. I really wonder just what a controlled test of averaging amongst all inmates would produce?

Anytime a Nation, a People, allow a Government, which was created by "We The People", actually a covert section of government, to build a Two Billion Dollar facility ($2,000,000,000.00) in Utah which can monitor every individual in America's personal affairs, and store 1000's of petabytes of information on you as well as foreign nationals... well, isn't that just a bit too much reminiscent of exactly what we accused Communist Russia of doing to control their people before their demise? How soon we forget... or maybe that's how we are manipulated into forgetting.

We The People simply do not want to take responsibility for ourselves or this Great Nation. We seem to think that the problems of the Nation, the World, and even Ourselves belong to the Government at every level. Guest what, people... without us, there would be no Government. It's not Mr. Obama! You really need to take a good hard look at yourselves. Take a good hard look at the members of the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Congress and so on. These are the ones who draft the 'House Resolutions', the 'House Bills', the 'Senate Bills', which WE allow them to pass into law!

There is oh so much more involved here and just one innocent man. It is We The People who have placed these 'Republicans', these 'Democrats', these 'liberals', these 'conservatives' and whomever else into office. Today, in Government, we have 'left wings', 'right wings', and I suppose 'in between wings'... what is this? … is our Government run by a bunch of birds? … bird-brains maybe some of them, but still it is "WE The People" who placed them there. So if you're going to do any finger-pointing, you may want to point that finger right back at yourself.
We The People, for the most part, are only looking at the surface of the problem and looking for someone other than ourselves to blame. Yet the problems run much deeper than we are looking.

Exactly how many of you out there realize that buried slap dab in the mixture of mumbo-jumbo of what is now being declared as "Obama-Care" (what a fallacy), is a section authorizing the implantation of a device known as an RFID, just so that they can know exactly where you are at all times as well as everything about you and what you are doing moment by moment?
So, what it is that you really want to do is to blame Mr. Obama for this... WRONG! Blame yourself for not paying closer attention. This most personal violation of your freedom was gone over thoroughly (or supposed to have been) by your Senators, Congressmen, Representatives, and, oy yes... let's not forget the self-aggrandizing Homeland Security which probably got the ball rolling on this one anyway... so quit blaming Mr. Obama! We The People put these men and women into office without knowing and understanding their true agenda because we did not pay close enough attention.

Instead of being horribly concerned about the UNConstitutional invasion of your privacy and your freedom by sneaking sections into an otherwise generally good health care package... we're much more worried about some religious organizations having to 'MAKE AVAILABLE', not force to use, birth control. Guess what, folks... this was absolutely NOTHING to do with religion or its freedoms.
Listen, I'm not bragging here, simply stating a fact... but I have a Bachelor in Theology and an Honorary Doctor of Divinity (Big Deal is what I say), but the fact is that there is no place within the Bible that states, or even gives any inclination to "thou shalt not prevent pregnancy." Pregnancy prevention is just that, 'prevention... a personal choice'. It has absolutely nothing to do with 'religion' of any kind... it IS SIMPLY a GIVEN RELIGION'S "man-made" doctrine, which, by the way, the Bible clearly speaks against following.
Besides... if their followers were so devoutly loyal to those beliefs, they wouldn't use any form of contraception to begin with. It is NOT mandatory contraception... it's simply available should you "CHOOSE" to use it! Wake up, America... I don't know of any religious beast coming to take over the world... nor of any space aliens... nor anything, but, what I do know is that We The People have given away way too much control and authority to people we have placed in office without knowing their true nature.
I also know that should any form of media quit letting themselves be dictated to and publish this, I feel quite confident that the powers that be will retaliate against me especially since I am already locked up. You know how it is... We The People are not supposed to exercise our 'Freedom of Speech' even if it is one of our basic Constitutional Rights.

I am a Born-Free Flesh-and-Blood Sovereign Human Man sojourning in this Great Nation-Land known as America. The Government has made the choice in which to violate my 'natural state of freedom' and incarcerate me for the sole purpose of Monetary Capital Gain...
.... Are You Going To Be Next ....

Love You America (as you were 'Originally' founded... see the "Original 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the Organic/De Jure United States of America (1787)).

Peter