What's Going On???

A lot going on in the continued saga of retaliation as far as my efforts to bring change here to ShirleyWorld. Believe me this place is a "Murder Factory" = it is creating future murderers out of the low-level offenders through its systematic stripping of self-esteem and injection of hopelessness into your soul. Let me give you a few examples.

One of their latest abuse tactics here are what they call "Property Shakedowns". This is where they come in and check that you don't have any contraband "property". God forbid if you have an extra T-shirt, a radio your pal lent you, or more egregiously some extra pens or markers with which to pass the time drawing. What these shakedowns really are is a way for angry, soulless guards to ruin the lives of men who were sent to prison as punishment, not for punishment. Men who have been in prison for decades, and whose families have died off or moved on, have the headphones someone gave them "confiscated" so that they now have no way to listen to their TV. Imagine you're 75 years old, stuck in a prison with wild 20 somethings, and a bunch of over-paid turnkeys come in and take your only pair of headphones. How does this serve justice? What does this do for public safety? Present at these "shakedowns" are a $100,000.00 per year captain, two $85,000.00 per year Lieutenants, three $65,000.00 per year sergeants, and over a dozen $52,000.00 per year guards. This is YOUR tax dollars at work! Disgusting!!

On many days here it seems that prison is "closed due to lack of interest." What I mean by this is that almost everyday we have either the school or programs building shut down. They claim under-staffing. What a joke. The DOC staffing ratio is 2.2 prisoners for every 1 DOC employee. One of the highest in the nation, with the third highest pay rate. Every day the guards in here are as plentiful as flies on shit (and just as appealing) but they can't pry them away from their naps and poker games to open the school building. They ensure future employment by forcing men back to the blocks to seek drugs, gambling, and engaging in stories that glorify crime.

The issue closest to my heart are the men here who are incapacitated and dying. As I write this my friend Frank Soffen is sitting right next to me, literally inches away, in his wheelchair. His head is bowed as he is not feeling well. He can't even hold an ink pen. He does not complain as he is truly one tough son of a bitch, but if you could see him sitting here you could not help but wonder what is going on with our criminal justice system? Frank has been eligible for parole since 1987 and is now dying. He has done his time, 40 years, and is now fully medically incapacitated, by the evil jailer mentality of the law enforcement industrial complex keeps him behind bars. Men see Frank and see their own future. You can't then wonder why some men choose to kill themselves. This is all so counter-productive.

I have covered the complaint I made about the complicity of mental health and the investigative guards in the suicide of Scott Rose. They recently gave me a formal interview about this staff misconduct. Lt. Keith Nano of the IPS here at MCI Shirley called me over to his office to conduct a taped (audio) interview of me concerning the staff misconduct of Lt. Jan Modzeleski and Dr. Jeri Walker. The funny thing about the interview was that at the inception of the interview Lt. Nano told me that the interview was confidential and that, "I could not talk about it outside of that room." He must not know me too well. I will SHOUT it from the rooftops! I have no confidentiality agreement with the DOC. He is duty bound to keep such interviews confidential, not me. As such, let me tell you about the interview. Nano turned on the tape recorder and stated his name and the time. He then asked me to state my name which I did. He then asked me to describe my complaint. I detailed for him how Modzeleski and Walker abused their professional capacities to conduct a personal interview of me about the letter I sent to the Boston Globe about Scott Rose's suicide. One of the funny things about this is that the interviewer (Lt. Nano) was also mentioned in this letter as it is he, and his IPS cohorts, who conspire with mental health staff to take medications away from prisoners. In Scott's instance it resulted in his death. It angers me to no end that the Nano's, Walker's, and Modzeleski's of this world think that they can kill our btohers and that we will all keep quiet about it. As you know I WILL NOT! After I described the misconduct Lt. Nano asked if I had anything further, I did not, so he ended the interview and I went back to my block. You know no good will come out of the interview, as it is truly the fox investigating the murder in the chicken coop, but it is on record so that the next time these malfeasants are complicit in the death of a prisoner they (the proverbial they) will not be able to say no one warned them.

Now for some good news. (Yes there is good news in prison) Had a nice Court hearing this month in my civil case MUISE V. GARY RODEN. Hopefully a favorable decision is forthcoming. Attorney Paul Holtzman argued some of my first amendment claims for the ACLU of Massachusetts and did a great job. As expected the DOC misrepresented some facts, but I did my best to correct them for the Court. I will keep you posted.

I would like to ask for my friends to pray for the repose of the soul of Raynee Ann Burnham, the mother of my children. She passed away unexpectedly and has left the kids devastated. Please pray for teh children as well, Michaela & Samantha. Thank you.

More to come later. Keep the fires burning!

[Drawing of peace sign and heart]

Peace and Love,
Timothy J. Muise, #W66927
MCI Shirley
P.O. Box 1218
Shirley, MA
01464-1218

[Handwritten: "As always I need your help! Please write me at --->"]

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