As Governor Charlie Baker’s October 17 vaccine deadline mandate approaches, the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) are preparing for all state prisons to be put into lockdown.

In August, Baker ordered a vaccine mandate for every Executive Branch employee to prove that they are fully vaccinated by October 17.

Prison Guards, who are Executive Branch employees, have until this Sunday to prove that they are fully vaccinated. If they have not been vaccinated by then they will be suspended.

As of this week, only 60 percent of guards are vaccinated. The majority of the hold outs are waiting on a hail Mary pass from the Governor to ease up on his mandate. Hoping that they can talk him into mandatory testing each week instead of vaccinations.

There is a number of guards who are eligible to retire at the moment. The word is that if the mandate is not lifted then most of them will be putting in their retirement papers. Which will lead to a shortage of guards throughout the prison system.

Rumors are running rampart in the prison blocks.  Everything to complete lock downs to modified lock downs. With the cancellation of everything from visitation and recreation to programming and schooling.

The rumors on staffing are even worse. The National Guard working the outside of the prison and taking care of prisoner transportation. Maintenance workers and caseworkers will be working the blocks in place of the retired and suspended guards. With the programming staff and schoolteachers working in the prison’s kitchen.

There is an over/under bet by some of the prisoners on how soon it will be that a video will be released by the DOC that will show some kind of made-up disturbance in a prison to invoke fear into the public and force Baker to lift his mandate.

Prisoners just hope that they’re not treated the same way when the coronavirus first hit our state. The Courts have already told the DOC that the way they reacted to the initial state of emergency last year was wrong and unconstitutional. Will history be repeating itself this Sunday? Time will tell.

     FCI ALICEVILLE is not in compliance with any local Alabama State regulation, Federal guidelines, or CDC recommendations. It has not reduced head count, and the facility is still overcrowded. In addition to overcrowding, it is also short staffed. On many occasions we do not get to come out from our cells because there is no officer; inmates subsequently miss their video visits and phone time, as well as are unable to use the showers. Our officers are currently assigned to two cell blocks, or units, of about 240 inmates. When the officer is on unit, he/she can’t be on the other, leaving inmates entirely unsupervised. In addition, that officer regularly goes in/out from other units, which creates the risk of contamination and entirely defeats the purpose of lockdown. Many prisons are consciously operating below the minimum staffing levels in order to maximize profit margins, so it remains unclear as to whether FCI-Aliceville’s understaffing is therefore intentional. However, with THE CARES ACT and additional funds and grants appropriated by Congress, there is more funding now than ever before to hire additional staff to handle this pandemic, and with the current staggering unemployment rate, there is plenty of labor force to tap into.  

     New arrivals keep being placed with general population after 14 days in quarantine. Recently, because there were staffing issues and no officers in quarantine area, new arrivals were just let out without screening or completing quarantine. My last bunkmate, T.K., was COVID-19 positive, (asymptomatic). I have previously informed the staff, Unit Team, and Warden of my underlying health condition and potential risk of placing someone COVID-19 positive in the same 6×9 cell with poor ventilation, closed door and 22+ hour daily lockdown. Not only have no measures been taken, but also, I was told I would get a “shot” (disciplinary report) for refusing housing. When you refuse housing, they send you to the SHU (segregation housing unit) and there are more sick people there. There is no way to self-isolate or maintain a 6-feet distance from other inmates or staff members at any time. Officers from the SHU, quarantine, and other units are being constantly rotated, thus causing further risk of contamination as well as violating CDC recommendations.  

     We do not have proper cleaning supplies and our commissary is constantly out of hygiene items. We do not have other options- we are in FBOP custody. Additionally, we have no jobs and many of the inmates at FCI-Aliceville are indigent and unable to shop for necessities. Prisons are not exactly a place where somebody will come forward and offer you something, especially this one- we are all in the same boat here. We are locked in and entirely dependent on the FBOP. Our food is substandard and malnutricious.  We have no clean drinking water and insufficient exposure to sun. Even though we have 1 (one) hour REC (recreation) since around September of 2020, our REC time rarely happens because of the shortage of officers, staffing issues, prison events, holidays and weather. When it does happen, our time frequently gets cut in half. All that leads to weakened immune systems, and when combined with already high stress levels, this makes inmates more susceptible to COVID-19. Most inmates have some chronic or pre-existing health condition, and about 79% of inmates have mental health issues that only exacerbate during the lockdown. That can translate into suicides, aggression, and mental health outbreaks. 

     Because of lockdown, we do not have access to the law library, and counselors operate on modified schedule. During the lockdown (because we are completely cut off from all resources) the counselors only have more work instead of less.  However, instead of assigning someone to help with their work, they are being assigned to other duties and constantly get pulled to do other jobs. Staffing issues affect an inmate’s ability to properly litigate their cases in courts, and courts do not automatically extend the deadlines. Many inmates have missed deadlines as a result, and the few lucky ones who knew how to properly file extensions where they had usually granted them. But extensions do not always work in our favor.  We are the ones sitting in prison, on LOCKDOWN. I have seen only one person leave on compassionate release from our unit, when so many are qualified! Our medical records officer, Ms. Hester, is perfectly aware that in times of this crisis, this is a life and death issue for every inmate who requests them. Yet she takes six months to produce the proper medical records that could potentially save lives.  Our medical care is substandard. Health care contractors have suspended non COVID-19 related care and our local hospital shut down due to financial insolvency.  

     A stirring rally to remember New Jersey inmates who died of the corona virus took place in Trenton, Patch.com reported. “More than 450 cars gathered from across the state at the Trenton War Memorial for a “Say Their Names” funeral procession. Bearing photos of diseased loved ones, the vehicles cavalcade served as a grim reminder that social distancing is a near impossible task when you are trapped behind bars”. Who will stand up for or remember inmates in FCI-Aliceville when most are immigrants and have families who can’t travel or enter the United States?  Likewise, if deported to their home country, they will pose no risk of re-entry and no threat to society. For humanitarian reasons it would only make sense to deport those eligible who are non-violent, first time offenders, have already served the majority of their sentence, and pose no risk. Ninety five percent (95%) of these women are mothers; they are daughters, sisters and family to someone who needs them now more than ever before. First Step Act (FSA) mandated early deportation, but NONE are being implemented by FBOP, DOJ, Sentencing Courts, Immigration Courts or ICE, even upon numerous motions and requests by the inmates.  

     Interestingly enough, when inmates are infected and die from COVID-19, courts do not view that as “deliberate indifference” on the part of the detention facility. On June 16, 2020 Miami Metro West Detention Center (MDCRD) reported 592 prisoners, 123 employees tested positive, and one died. In the lawsuit, Swain v. Junior, 961 F. 3d 1276 (11th Cir. 2020), the court stated that if defendants (MDCRD) showed that they “did their best”…”neither the resultant harm of increasing infections nor the impossibility of achieving six-foot social distancing in a jail environment establishes the defendants acted with “subjective recklessness as used in criminal law”, relying on Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825, 834 (1994). In other words, prisons’ non-compliance resulting in death and irreparable harm was justified. Those sort of inhumane conditions of confinement, which are likely to result in death with no consequences, is commensurate to Nazi concentration camps where people were tortured, slaughtered and placed in gas chambers. Locking someone in a 6×9 cell with COVID-19 is no different. 

      In “Corona virus: A Second Wave of Infection”, Michael D. Cohen, M.D. describes long term damage from COVID-19. He says: “Evidence continues to accumulate that many patients who have recovered from acute COVID-19 infection have suffered long term organ damage…heart muscle damage…brain damage that has lasting effects on memory and other higher functions. Loss of smell and/or taste…persistent lung, liver and kidney damage have also occurred. Others have reported fatigue, “brain fog”, irregular body temperatures, rashes, and insomnia persisting after COVID…PTSD, depression and persistent anxiety, including nightmares, fear of being alone, and fear of going to sleep”. PLN, November 2020. People in prisons are exposed to the risk of highly infectious COVID-19 with no action taken on the part of the prisons and the government and no meaningful measures taken to prevent it at the detention level. 

      Is this the United States of America? Is this not an infringement of our Eighth Amendment Constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment? If it was decided that “Infringement of Haze’s First Amendment Rights itself constitutes an INJURY” in Haze v. Harrison, 961 F. 3d 654 (4th Cir. 2020), then infringement of the Eighth Amendment should constitute an INJURY. An INJURY should translate into remedy, relief, and injunctions.  

      Inadequate medical care, inaccessible mental health care, malnutrition, inability to access the law library, and insufficient recreation time are only a few examples of Eighth Amendment violations. In McCray v. Lee, 963 F. 3d 110 (2nd Cir. 2020) it was decided that lack of exercise due to snow in outdoor exercise yard constituted an Eighth Amendment violation. In a suit filed in October 2020 by Raymond Skelton in NJ, deprivation of properly nutritious food is alleged to be an Eighth Amendment violation. In Briggs v. Dunn, 257 F. Supp 3d 1171 (M.D. Ala. June 27, 2017) it was decided that mental health services “simply put…horrendously inadequate” is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, and the same decision was arrived at in Head v. Dunn, Case No. 2:20-cv-00132-SMD, U.S. D.C. (N.D. Ala. 2020). “The cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment imposes a DUTY upon prison officials to ensure the inmates receive adequate medical care” Salahuddin v. Goord, 467 F. 3d 263 (2nd Cir. 2006), same in Bardo v. Wright, Case No. 3-17-cv-1430 (JBA) USDC (D.Conn). Mental health care is especially important because many inmates lost their family members and there is no counseling available, and inmates are unable to properly grieve in overcrowded facility and contact their family while on lockdown.  

      Additionally, in “DOJ Finds Frequent Use of Excessive Force in Alabama Prison” published by David M. Reutter in PLN, November 30th, 2020, it is stated: “The US Department of Justice, DOJ, issued a report that found the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) violates prisoner’s Eighth Amendment rights by frequently using excessive force. The report found overcrowding and understaffing are major contributors to the improper use of force”…”Two examples of guards inappropriately using chemical spray were detailed”. “Guards often fail to report or accurately document the use of force”… “evidence of officers placing inmates to segregation to let injuries heal unobserved and undocumented”. This is all too familiar as on April 7th, 2020 this is exactly what happened in my case. I was pepper sprayed because I asked to open my cell door. Records were falsified and I was thrown into the SHU with injuries for thirty (30) days. Since April of 2020 I was continuously requesting medical records and to this day, they have not been produced by FCI Aliceville. The records of the report as well as DHO records were falsified or conveniently incorrectly recorded. All appeals to the Warden, Regional Director and Central Office were returned untimely, with no due diligence or investigation of any asserted claims and rejected for process without merits determination. This is how FBOP operates- the system is designed for them and is only an illusion of any rights to the inmates. It does not matter who is right because they ALWAYS win. 

      Most inmates in FCI-Aliceville are immigrants and do not speak or write English. This is the only thing I can do being behind bars. FCI Aliceville is not the only Federal Detention facility. Detainees serving unduly harsh and long sentences are similarly situated in other prisons. This is not a humane or fair way to punish people, and this is happening in America, the land of the free. We are a civilized nation and a leader in Human Rights, a Nation for the People and by the People. Not only do the United State Government, lawmakers, Congress, FBOP, DOJ, and other government agencies must take immediate measures to expedite releases and deportations like it was done by many States, but also prison staff and officials must communicate and be transparent about risk of death, inhumane conditions of confinement, and the public safety concerns it creates. Prisons are part of our community: many people work at prisons and live in nearby surrounding areas. The inmates are being released back into these communities and deported. It is absolutely necessary to address COVID-19 in Federal Prisons and find a solution to safely house, deport and release inmates in the most expeditious way.  

 
Time is of essence: Lives are at Stake and All Lives Matter. 

Written by Julia Teryaeva – Reed, an Inmate at FCI Aliceville 

As other states in our country have taken part of the mass movement towards treatment and rehabilitation for their prisoners, Massachusetts Department of Corrections (DOC) has ignored that movement all the while costing the taxpayers of Massachusetts hundreds of millions of dollars on a broken and corrupt prison system.

After last year’s criminal justice reform bill was passed through the State House, tens of millions of dollars were added to the DOC’s budget to implement those reforms throughout the prison system. As progressive minded advocates of prisoners were ecstatic over this history making bill, they forgot to address the most important part that was needed for this reform to take place, the DOC administration.

The biggest hurdle this reform bill faces is the Weld era’s prison staff that are now in charge of the DOC and each individual prison. Former Governor William Weld was famous for punishing prisoners when he was Governor in the 1990’s. He directed his DOC Commissioner to take away most of the programs and schooling the DOC offered at that time. He streamlined a new maximum-security prison to be built (SBCC), even though his DOC staff recommended more minimum-security beds. All the staff the DOC employed were taught and trained with that punishment as their focal point of their jobs, hidden under the guise of “security”.

When Governor Baker signed the reform bill, and with that the increase in the DOC budget, he must have known that a policy and mindset change was needed in the DOC administration for this reform to truly take place. Most, if not all, of the current administration and policy makers were either trained under that Weld “punishment” era or were trained by someone from that era. They were taught not to coddle the prisoners. If you do you are considered a “white hat” and weak. If a staff member wants a promotion, he or she must do it through “security” ideas and not through helping or treating the prisoners. All one must do is look at the current administration at the top of the DOC and at every prison to see this is true. The administration all come from backgrounds as either guards, caseworkers or secretaries for some administration staff member. You do not see anyone in a position of power that truly believes in treatment and programs. When we speak to the administrators about programs we are condescendingly dismissed and brushed away.

When the DOC received the big increase in their budget to deal with the programs and treatment in the reform bill, they spent the money on “security”. The DOC administration immediately spent money on buying cameras for every prison in Massachusetts. They created a new task force to work outside all the prisons, with brand new trucks and gear. They reduced the number of minimum-security beds, which costs less to house prisoners then in medium or maximum security. And in some prisons, they cut programs that were in line with the reform bill.

Massachusetts spends more money per prisoner than any other state in the country. Right around $70,000 per inmate. There are nearly 7,500 hundred prisoners and roughly 4,500 employees in the Massachusetts DOC. That is about 1 staff member for every 1.6 prisoners. It is the highest staff to prisoner ratio in the country. After hearing all those numbers, you would think that the recidivism rate in Massachusetts is one of the best in the country. Well, you are wrong. Massachusetts is not even in the top half when it comes to recidivism rates in the country. It should make you think how other states, that spend less money on their Department of Corrections, have a better recidivism rate then Massachusetts. Could it be that the other states have qualified and reform minded administrators running their prison systems?

As a prisoner in the DOC I’ve been to six different prisons. I’ve seen numerous administrations and numerous administration changes over the years. Each administration thinks they can run a prison better than their predecessors. I’ve been through all the policy and regulation changes. Some administrations micromanage their prisons and some just don’t care what happens in their prisons. What I’ve notice recently though is the Massachusetts DOC has adopted the ‘smoke and mirrors’ approach to running their prisons. They put out reports that certain programs are up and running at a prison. Currently at NCCI-GARDNER they list over 40 programs that are available to the prisoners. They are listed in the inmate orientation manual and the DOC Program Description Booklet. But the problem is about half of the programs listed are no longer available to the prisoners. With the increase in the DOC budget for programming how is it that there are now less programs available then what the DOC promotes to the public? Smoke and mirrors.

It is widely believed that what the DOC did with the increase in the budget was to reward the workers and unions that publicly supported Governor Baker in the last gubernatorial race. After all, that is what Bakers’ mentor, Weld, did in the 1990’s when Baker worked in the Weld administration. Correctional Officers (guards) now make over $100,000 a year with overtime. As long as Baker keeps on putting money in the guard’s pockets, they’ll always vote for him. It’s a quid pro quo situation.

What is needed to fix this corrupt system is a true audit of the prison system. From top to bottom. With the increases in the prison population in the 1990’s came along an increased budget and an increase in the number of staff the DOC needed to run the prisons and administration offices. When the inmate population was over 10,000 the DOC could at least justify to the public that all that staffing was needed to run the DOC. But, with the inmate population cut by 30% over the last decade the DOC administration has not made an equal 30% cut to their staffing. Why does the DOC need staffing for over 10,000 prisoners when they only have 7,500 prisoners currently with expectations there will be fewer people going to prison? Because those staff members will vote for Governor Baker. Wouldn’t the taxpayers of Massachusetts like to see a 30% cut to the over five hundred-million-dollar DOC budget?

At least to me it seems that everyone knows the prison system is broken. But the problem is the people who broke it are the ones who are trying to “fix” it. How is it that the people who are the farthest away from the problem are the ones who are trying to implement the changes? I cannot remember the last time I’ve been asked what would be needed to address the issues regarding reform in the DOC, nor has any other prisoner I know have been asked either. When a true audit of the DOC is done, when everyone’s input is included and heard, that’s when you can start talking about real reform.

His girlfriend on the other end of the line responded, “You better not miss the start,” with a chuckle. “Is your grandfather really that grouchy?” 

“Yes!” Brian responded. “There’s a reason I haven’t seen him since my high school graduation. If it wasn’t for this family history report I have to pass in by tomorrow I would not be seeing him until Christmas.” 

Brian got a beep on his phone; his mother was calling him. “Babe I got to go my Ma’s calling me. I promise I won’t be late.”

“Hi Ma, Happy St. Patrick’s Day.” Brain answers his Ma’s call. 

“Happy St. Patrick’s Day to you too, you meeting with Papa today?”

“Yeeeessss! I’m meeting with him. I’m almost pulling up to his house now. Do you think he consciously means to be mean or is he just naturally a grouch?” 

“Oh be nice to your Papa. He’s just set in his ways. Just remember he loves you.” Ma says with a light hearted laugh.

“Yea, he loves to bust my chops! I’ll give you a call when I’m done interviewing him. I love you Ma.”

“Love you too. Remember to be nice.” Ma said as she hung up the phone.

As Brian pulled up to his Grandfather’s house and turned off the ignition he grabbed his book bag and stepped out of the car. He was dressed in his St. Patrick’s Day’s finest. A bright green Boston Celtics Tee-shirt, with a ‘Kiss me I’m Irish’ button pinned on it. Green skinny jeans, white sneakers with green shamrocks he colored in on them, and his green hair that his girlfriend dyed last night. He couldn’t have been happier with his outfit for the party later. 

He walked up to the front door of his Grandfather’s house and pushed the doorbell. He heard his Grandfather coming to the door and unlocking the lock. As his Grandfather opened the door he let out a surprise laugh and said:

“Is this my Grandson or a green clown?!” 

“Ha Ha, Very funny Papa.” 

“Look at you all grown up. You almost look like a man. Come on in.” 

Brian didn’t know if he should take that as a compliment or not. He just smiled and walked in. 

They sat down at the dining room table and Brian pulled out his notebook from his book bag. Before he could ask his Grandfather any questions his Grandfather asked: 

“What is up with that green hair?”

“Come on Papa its St. Patrick’s day.” Brain answered annoyed.

“What the hell do you know about St. Patrick?” Papa asked looking for an argument.

“He’s the Patron Saint of Ireland.” Brian answered all proud that he knew one of Papa’s questions.

“Oh, is he my boy? Why is he the Patron Saint of Ireland?” Papa asked in a condescending tone.

“I don’t know.” Brian answered annoyed. He did not come here for this.

“Oh, the college boy with the green hair doesn’t know. Well let me enlighten you a little you plastic paddy.

All Brian could do was sit there and listen. Ma said to be nice.

“St. Patrick was of Roman decent. He was kidnapped by a Irish King and brought to Ireland to be a slave in the 5th century. He spent 6 years in Ireland but stayed devoted to his Christian faith and prayers. He escaped one day to France and joined the priesthood. But you know what? He came back to Ireland 20 years later and brought Christianity to the Irish people. You see he learned a lot about the Irish customs and languages when he was a slave and that helped him with converting the Irish people to Christianity.”

“I didn’t know all that.” Brain said.

“Where do you think the shamrock comes from?” Asked Papa.

“Ireland!” Brian answers quickly.

Papa shakes his head “Being Irish is a whole lot more than just shamrocks and leprechauns.” Papa hesitated a moment, “You see, St. Patrick used the shamrock as a way to show the Irish people the union of the holy trinity. Each leaf representing one of the Father, he Son, and the Holy Spirit.”

Brian just nodded, impressed to learn what he just heard. Knowing his Grandfather could talk for hours with his Irish gift of gab he spoke up and said to Papa “I gotta meet up with some friends soon.  I’d like to know the sad and troubling effect the great famine had on the Irish people.” He asked the question as if he was reading it off his class assignment sheet.

Papa said “Yea, the great famine was a sad and troubling time in our history, but it was one of the best things to happen to our people.”

Now, Brian was really confused. He thought to himself, ‘did Papa really just say that?’ He thought Papa has finally lost his mind.

“How could you say that the famine was one of the best things to happen? That’s crazy even for you Papa.”

“The famine did kill over a million Irish. The famine did break up our families. And the famine did drive millions of Irish to immigrate to other countries. But that immigration is what saved the Irish people.” Papa declared.

“How?!” Brian asked confused and interested.

“You see the English hated us Irish. They oppressed us for hundreds of years. When the famine hit Ireland in the 1840’s the English are the ones who let us starve and die. We as a people had no choice but to immigrate.”

“OK, but how is that a good thing Papa?” Asked Brian.

“That immigration gave us freedom to do and learn what we wanted to. The English tried to take away who we were. They outlawed our language, our religion, and our culture. When we came to America we learned so much. We were allowed to work and save our money. We learned how to fight. Did you know that we Irish had our own regiments in the Civil War? We were fighting in the Union Army! Learning how to fight in a war was what got us our nation.”

“How did fighting in the U.S. Civil War get us our nation? Asked Brian.

“A lot of the Irish who fought in the Civil War ended up going back to Ireland after the war was over. They now had the knowledge of warfare and a little bit of money. They had a few uprisings when they went back, but nothing that made a big impact. But, he Irish who came back they started to teach and pass on he information and knowledge they learned while fighting in the States. Young Irish kids who learned from these soldiers are responsible for the 1916 uprising that eventually led to our freedom.” Papa went on to say “you see the worst thing to happen to our people is what led us to our freedom. If the hate he English had for us wasn’t so strong and they just fed us, we wouldn’t have comeback so strong as we did. It’s that Irish stubbornness and pride that wouldn’t let us roll over and die.”

Brian had a wave of emotions his him at once. Pride, sadness, confusion. He wanted to know more.

“Why did the English want us dead? What happened in the 1916 uprising? Who were the leaders then?” Brian asked wanting to know everything.

“Oh, we’ll save that for another time. You gotta go meet up with your friends and drink your green beer.” Papa said with a laugh and then added “I gotta go take a nap. That green hair is giving me a headache. You can let yourself out.”

By Padraig Collins

The Chair! When one sits in the barber’s chair it’s as if your sitting on a cloud. Those cushioned seats and arm rests. The raised footrest and the nice pillow like headrest to lay back into for that special occasion when you want a shave to go along with your haircut. I am not ashamed to admit that I’ve fallen asleep a few times in that chair over the years.

On this particular day at this particular Barbershop on Highland avenue I knew it was going to be an interesting cut. As I walked in the door and heard the bells hanging on the door jingle I noticed that three of the five chairs were already taken. So it left me with two barbers to choose from. One was Pete, who was bald, he was not a choice. As a young kid when my Dad use to bring me to this very same barbershop he told me “when picking a barber never pick a bald barber” he went on “bald barbers don’t respect your hair because they don’t have any hair of their own to respect”. I’ve always remembered that bit of barbershop wisdom. The other barber to choose from was Thomas, who never talked but loved to hum songs while he cut your hair. He was an older gentleman with a perfect head of hair. Thomas was going to be cutting my hair today.

Some barbershops are really quiet, church quiet, where you can hear the clip of every man’s hair being cut by the scissors. Others, are loud and obnoxious with men expressing and defending their opinions like what they had to say would solve the world’s problems or make their hometown team the winner of the next pennant. Today was going to be the latter. And, I could tell with this group of men in the barber chairs it was going to be a vicious assault on my ears.

As I took my seat in that lovely barbershop chair and got covered with the cape I took a glance down to my right at all the other men getting their haircuts. There was this young hippy looking kid that must of been in his early twenties sitting next to me. He was getting his shoulder length hair a trim. He was in a passionate conversation with the two men sitting to his right.

The hippy said nice and loud “Your President is a liar!”

He was responding to the Days News that the President was making statements that he didn’t do anything wrong and that the newest investigation on him and his inner circle was just political. The President was accused of looking into firing his Attorney General and a Special Prosecutor doing the investigation.

The two men that the hippy was conversing with was Robert and Joseph. Two friends that have known each other since their days at the prestigious Ivy League college in town some thirty years now. That’s one thing about a barbershop, it is one of the few places where money, class, age, or political affiliation does not matter. These barbers will cut any man’s hair and the group of men that come to these establishments would end up talking to someone they wouldn’t normally look at never mind speak to. As we have today with Robert, Joseph, and the hippy.

I sensed that Robert was more angered at the hippy’s statement then Joseph. Joseph just laughed when the hippy called the President a liar, but Robert would not have any of that.

“You kids don’t have a clue about politics, you just want everything handed to you. This President is going to do great things for our country.” Robert said.

“Great things?!” The hippy asked. The hippy went on about how the President was going to ruin this country. He mentioned how the rich are getting richer with all the tax breaks, how black people have no rights and are getting killed in the streets, that he was looking for trouble whenever he spoke about the troubles in Asia, and that this President would probably get impeached before his term was up anyways.

Joseph responded by saying “Listen son you have to stop believing everything you hear from the media. If it was not for this President this country would be going down the drain.”

I wanted to chirp in but I learned a long time ago to never discuss politics with someone who is not like minded on the matter, it’s just a waste of time. Most people don’t want to hear they just want to be heard. I personally don’t believe that our county is in danger, but there are a lot of people who are afraid of our future.

The hippy answered Joseph’s words by saying “I don’t believe everything the media says” and added “Black people don’t have any rights, just take a look around you. Asia is going to be trouble for this country for years, the rich are getting all the tax breaks, the upper class doesn’t care about us working people, and I have a kid on the way, I can only imagine what his or her future is going to look like”.

“Our future is going to be great, have faith in our President” said Joseph.

Robert added “It’s better to have this President then the alternative”.

Thomas started to hum real loud while he was cutting my hair. He was trying to quiet our great debaters I believe. The barbershop was getting a little uncomfortable. These men would be here all day and they wouldn’t change each other’s minds. They were really ruining my barbershop experience today.

After a few minutes of awkward silence between the men and Thomas’ humming, the hippy’s barber broke out the sweet Talcum Powder and brushed off the hippy’s shoulders singling the end to the Hippy’s time in the heavenly chair.

As the hippy rose up out of the chair and pulled out his wallet as he walked to the cash register, you could tell that he wanted to say something to Robert and Joseph. After he paid his bill and reached for the door handle he stopped and turned around.

The hippy said, “You’ll see that that lying Nixon will get impeached, you’ll see”.

Then the hippy walked out the door as the door bells jingled and Thomas hummed.

Padraig Collins

Over 150 convictions in Massachusetts have been overturned for prosecutorial misconduct since the 1990’s. These are convictions which were overturned because the prosecutor engaged in fraud or other misconduct that wasn’t discovered until after that prosecutor secured the conviction.

Most of these convictions were overturned because of “Brady Rule” violations. The “Brady” violation came about from a ruling in 1963. In Brady v. Maryland, Air Force veteran John Leo Brady, who was on death row for murder, had his conviction overturned because a prosecutor failed to disclose to Brady’s Lawyers that a co-defendant had confessed to the murder for which Brady was convicted. That decision made it a rule that all prosecutors must disclose to defense counsel any evidence that is “favorable” to the defendant if it is “material either to guilt or to punishment.”

The Brady decision was a major win for defense attorneys throughout the United States. It forced prosecutors to hand over material that was favorable to the defense. But, there was one problem with that ruling; it was left up to the prosecutors to decide what was “material” to guilt or punishment.

In the 1990’s when defense attorneys started to appeal convictions which were based in part on DNA results, they found evidence of other “Brady” violations in the mandatory discovery which was supposed to have been turned over to the defense attorneys prior to trial. There was evidence favorable to a defendant that was not being turned over to their defense attorneys. How are defense attorneys able to claim a “Brady” violation when they don’t know when one exists?

Most Brady violations are only discovered after a defendant has been convicted and sentenced and is serving a sentence. It is when their appellate attorney begins to request files under the Freedom of Information Act, that such abuses are generally discovered. By then, many of these inmates have served years, if not decades, behind bars.

Prosecutors act on an honor system. Defense counsel must trust that they are being provided with everything favorable to the defendant that is material to either guilt or punishment.

The National Registry of Exonerations, however, found that out of the 166 exonerations in 2016, seventy (70) involved misconduct by the prosecuting attorney. The majority of those exonerations were based on the withholding of material evidence.

Instead of prosecutors immediately ceasing this practice of withholding such evidence, they tried to minimize or even excuse it. In 2010, The National District Attorneys’ Association asked the very powerful American Bar Association to pass a resolution to ban the courts from calling “Brady” violations “prosecutorial misconduct” because they were mere excusable errors.

On Monday, June 26, 2007 Judge Richard J. Carey released his 166-page decision involving 7 defendants. He dismissed all their cases on the grounds that two ex-prosecutors intentionally misled the court, withheld critical evidence, in an effort to cover up a huge scandal at a state drug lab in Amherst. His decision focused on former Assistant Attorneys General Kris Foster and Anne Kaczmarek. Judge Carey accused them of committing a “fraud upon the court.”

Judge Carey stated that Foster and Kaczmarek made several “calculated misrepresentations” and concealed both physical evidence and documents. He stated that they ” … violated their oaths as assistant attorneys general and officers of the court.”

The Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers was established by the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court in 1974 as an ” … independent administrative body to investigate complaints against lawyers and to act as an administrative tribunal to consider disciplinary charges brought by the Bar Counsel.” Where was the Board on those 150 cases that were overturned since the 1990’s you may ask? Not one of those prosecutors was ever brought before the Board in any of those cases. Those prosecutors were allowed to avoid any charges of misconduct by the very Board that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court established to investigate such violations as prosecutorial misconduct.

The message the Board of Bar Overseers is sending is very clear. They will not hold prosecutors accountable for their intentional acts which constitute prosecutorial misconduct.
When the “Brady” rule was established, it relied on prosecutors doing what was already required of them, both professionally and ethically. However, if a prosecutor doesn’t have to worry about being punished for his or her misconduct, what good is the “Brady Rule”? Prosecutors can continue to fail to disclose evidence to defense counsel with no absolutely repercussions to their own license to practice law, their careers, or their reputations. If and when the misconduct is discovered, many of these prosecutors have long moved on to other employment or even other careers.

Most prosecutors only worry only about the number of wins (convictions) they rack up in court, not whether justice is being done. They use rules like the Brady Rule as a guideline or a suggestion, not as a legal and ethical requirement. Who can blame them? The governing Board is not punishing prosecutors who break the rules.

The Board of Bar Overseers has a new case now that they can investigate. They have the opportunity to address the intentional fraud perpetrated upon the court in the Amherst cases, and show the public that such conduct will no longer be tolerated in Massachusetts. If they engage in such conduct, they will be punished for it. Let’s hold both the prosecutors and the Board of Bar Oversees accountable.

By: Padraig Collins

By: Eric “Bagel” Reeves

I am searching for answers and the deeper I go the more complex the situation seems to get. Perhaps it was just me being hopeful, but I really thought I might find a simple reason why our prison population has increased by 500% since the 1980s. These aren’t fuzzy numbers, you can check out the sources listed below. It seemed every time I followed up on a lead, it led me down another rabbit hole. Suddenly confronted by a series of contributing factors, I realized that my study was going to take a lot more looking into than I had originally planned. As respect for the readers of this site, I wouldn’t want to put out anything shoddy; so it looks like I’ll be doing some more research.

If you’re wondering, why the effort, well like many contributors and commentators, I have seen the effects of prison on people.  Now stick with me, if you think I’m going to say that someone close to me was imprisoned, well you’re right. But, I also have a step-father and sister who worked in the penal system. All of them are amazing people and saw the good and the bad. But it is my brother that inspired this article. Unfortunately, he is gone now. As I try to understand his lost life, it frequently brings me back to the question of prison and its premise of rehabilitation.

It would be a mistake to say he didn’t deserve going. He definitely had done stupid things and had to pay the price. If we had to ascribe blame, I’d have to say that would be my biological father. He taught my brother that you resolved issues with your fists, usually his on my brother. I won’t bore you with the details; let’s just say we didn’t have a very good role model. I watched as an amazing person slowly lost his spirit as it was replaced with anger, bitterness and loss of hope. Resulting in a severely battered teen who stole a car and went to jail for it. With nothing to feed his mind or spirit, his anger grew, drugs and despair followed. You can imagine the rest.

We can’t go backwards, but we can certainly move forward. I have been lucky to be able to work with youth helping them raise their confidence and find better paths. Every time I help one, I’m very grateful for that opportunity. Yet for each I help, there are so many more that aren’t, and statistically will end up the same way my brother did. Seeing firsthand what happens when the odds are against you, my concern for their future is sincere. While child abuse seems initially to be a separate issue, according to research done by Ark of Hope for children and others indicates that 84% of all inmates were abused as children, and 65% of drug users were abused as well. Having been abused as a child will increase their chances of committing a violent crime by 38%. This is probably not a surprise, 82% of abuse victims not receiving help often become abusers themselves. According to this study, 80% of child abuse victims suffer from psychological disorders.

Although it may seem like I’ve gone off on a tangent, if those statistics were even close, the majority of prisoners were abused as children and just as likely to be suffering from mental health issues. So what does that mean for our prison system and for civilians once they are released? If even half of the prison population had previous mental health issues, are the prisons and the correctional officers prepared and set up to deal with those circumstances? If they are not, why are they warehousing them there?

If the recent incidents of mass shootings in the U.S. are an indication of unaddressed mental health issues, it should be a concern for everyone. What I can’t wrap my head around is why it isn’t a bigger concern? Why is it not foremost in the minds of those running this country? They must be aware of the correlation. I can understand why the average person wouldn’t know, why should they? Unless directly affected from either side of the equation, it would typically not be a topic that comes up in conversation. The only reason why I have started to discover more about it is because of my personal loss and quest to understand.

Naturally, when something is not addressed you have to surmise that the thing is serving some purpose. It can’t be that people don’t really care? Maybe I’m wrong, but as the rate of incarceration, recidivism and senseless mass shootings increase, at some point people will have to start questioning their cause. As the estimates for people going to prison increase, I have to believe it will catch up personally and for the population as a whole.

Mental health could be looked at as a separate issue, but if the majority of inmates suffer from psychological issues, how could it be? They have to go hand in hand and the majority of them are not being treated for it. They are doing time, that is all. It is kinda like keeping your car locked up in the garage because it needs to be repaired. But instead of taking it to the mechanic, you just hope it will get better on its own with time. Sorry for the bad analogy, I don’t mean disrespect to anyone especially those who suffer from mental health issues. However can we really not pay attention to the problem and expect it to go away all by itself? If there wasn’t some truth to it, why would Massachusetts get a failing grade from the Office of Research & Public Affairs? (Source listed below) But please, don’t take my word for it, investigate for yourself.

According to several sources, crime rates have actually decreased in the past two decades. Who knows, maybe that’s because they locked most of them up? However, if that were the case, why has the prison population skyrocketed as government statistics show that they do? Not only do we incarcerate more people than any other country in the world, even more than China though their population is higher. Inmates stay in prison longer as well. In some cases even for crimes that are not arrest-able offenses in some other countries. Statistically we have more people in prison for non-violent crimes and doing more time than ever before in our history, and all of this all since the 1980’s. Doesn’t make sense right? Logically, if we dig a little deeper it seems like we only have to look at what happened in the ‘80s to see what could have caused such a huge chain of events. OK, a quick google search and we get some interesting answers:

• “From less than 300,000 inmates in 1972, the jail population grew to 2 million by the year 2000. In 1990 it was one million. Ten years ago there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are 100, with 62,000 inmates. It is expected that by the coming decade, the number will hit 360,000, according to reports.” – * https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289
• “The passage in 13 states of the “three strikes” laws (life in prison after being convicted of three felonies), made it necessary to build 20 new federal prisons. One of the most disturbing cases resulting from this measure was that of a prisoner who for stealing a car and two bicycles received three 25-year sentences.” – (*Global research, sourced above)
• “The private contracting of prisoners for work fosters incentives to lock people up. Prisons depend on this income. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners’ work lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce. The system feeds itself,” says a study by the Progressive Labor Party, which accuses the prison industry of being “an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps.” (*Global Research)
• “The prison privatization boom began in the 1980s, under the governments of Ronald Reagan and Bush Sr., but reached its height in the 1990s under William Clinton. Clinton’s program for cutting the federal workforce resulted in the Justice Departments contracting of private prison corporations for the incarceration of undocumented workers and high-security inmates.” (*Global Research)
• “After a law signed by Clinton in 1996 – ending court supervision and decisions caused overcrowding ,violent, and unsafe conditions in federal prisons and increasing private prison corporations.” (*Global Research)
• “Two of the largest private companies now running prisons are the Correction Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group.  There were no private prisons before 1984. From then until 2009, these two corporations increased their role to running 264 prisons with more than 100,000 prisoners. (“Prison Labor and Crime in the U.S.”) The CCA’s revenues increased 500 times in the last two decades.” (Mother Jones, Sept. 19, 2013)
• “The federal government is in on this, too. It owns Federal Prison Industries, operating in 83 federal prisons and employing more than 13,000 inmates at from $0.23 to $1.15 an hour. FPI collected more than $900 million in revenue in 2011. It produced more than $100 million in military uniforms in” 2012. (“More Jobs Lost as the Government Decides to Have Military Uniforms Made by Convicts,” Business Insider, Sept. 7, 2012)
• “The stocks of the two biggest private prison operators — CoreCivic (formerly known as Corrections Corp. of America) and Geo Group — have doubled since Election Day. CoreCivic (CXW) is up 140% since Trump won in November; Geo Group (GEO) has risen 98%.” – http://money.cnn.com/2017/02/24/investing/private-prison-stocks-soar-trump/index.html
• “Jeff Sessions, the attorney-general, caused a stir last month when he cancelled an Obama-era directive to phase out federal contracting with private prison companies, which expect bumper earnings under Donald Trump. The share price for CoreCivic, the rebranded name of the Corrections Corporation of America, shot up by 43% in a single day after Mr. Trump was elected, in anticipation of lucrative contracts to run immigration detention centres.” – https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21718897-idaho-prisoners-roast-potatoes-kentucky-they-sell-cattle-prison-labour
• “At the federal level, the Bureau of Prisons operates a programme known as Federal Prison Industries that pays inmates roughly $0.90 an hour to produce everything from mattresses, spectacles, road signs and body armour for other government agencies, earning $500m in sales in fiscal 2016. Similar schemes exist at the state level as well, making the market of 61,000 captive labourers worth well over $1bn. California’s program expects to generate $232m in sales this year, much of it from construction and textiles, though $10m is also expected from meat-cutting. In Idaho, prisoners roast potatoes. In Kentucky, they sell $1m worth of cattle.” – https://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21718897-idaho-prisoners-roast-potatoes-kentucky-they-sell-cattle-prison-labour

I know I’m not solving any of these problems here, but I hope that I am starting a constructive dialogue. Across the board, there are real lives, families, and communities that are affected.  Is it wrong to question who benefits from the way things are going? Is there a conflict of interest when some American Corporations including privately held prisons are part of an organization called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) that lobbies for longer prison sentences and reduced government oversight over how they run their prisons? These organizations are experiencing banner years with profits that are going through the roof.  Using inmate labor is effectively cutting down their labor, insurance and overhead costs. After all, they are not paying to keep the lights on, heat the buildings and pay for medical expenses, we are. Again, this stuff is all out there in black and white if you want to know. Sure, being made in America is a great thing, but on whose back? If inmates are the new labor pool, some being paid as little as $1.50 an hour, whose jobs are they replacing? I doubt you are seeing the benefit of those profit margins but you sure can bet that the stockholders are and the politicians whose campaigns they fund.

So back to my main question, why is this occurring? Is there an incentive for inmates to actually be rehabilitated and released? Statistically, that answer is clearly no.   by DANIEL PIERCE

              Companies implicated in exploiting prison labor      

http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/storage/documents/treat-or-repeat.pdf 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

Sources:

http://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/storage/documents/treat-or-repeat.pdf

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jul/10/cory-booker/how-war-drugs-affected-incarceration-rates/

http://arkofhopeforchildren.org/child-abuse/child-abuse-statistics-info

https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/mhppji.pdf

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-prison-industry-in-the-united-states-big-business-or-a-new-form-of-slavery/8289

https://www.workers.org/2015/05/04/punishment-for-profit-the-economics-of-mass-incarceration/

http://www.salve.edu/sites/default/files/filesfield/documents/Incarceration_and_Recidivism.pdf

CAPITALISM, MASS INCARCERATION, PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX ,By Bob Sloan, www.dailykos.com
May 19th, 2015