Letter Number Ten to Commissioner Owens

July 17, 2013

SUBJECT: Reiteration of Issues Regarding G-Unit’s Administration and /or the Lack Thereof

(A) I am dangerously dehydrated Commissioner Owens. Let me tell you why, Sir. I/we dare not drink the water from the cell-sinks in G-Unit because the water is very often unfit to drink; it may even be dark brown in colour.

For more than three decades, melted ice has been the best way to hydrate here at the GD+CP. Unfortunately, the administrators here have chosen to decrease how often I/we get ice: from three times a day to two times a day. In fact, the ice cooler they use to bring into the G-3 Cell Block is rarely filled to the brim with ice anymore and half full is the most common amount they give us.

I/we have spoken with all of G-Unit administrators about our need for more ice and the need to go back to three times a day instead of twice, to no avail. I feel that Lieutenant Ethridge has made a conscious decision to keep me dehydrated, since this present practice has been going on for about three and a half months. In the past, when the ice machines broke down the administrators went outside of the prison and purchased ice for G-Unit. They used the accumulating monies that came from the money G-Unit prisoners spent each week at the store (the so-called “recreation fund”). My/our need for ice now begs the question what has happened to that fund? Especially when G-Unit prisoners are paying premium prices for everything we purchase from the prison’s store.

Lieutenant Ethridge has made it clear to me that he does not “care”—that is his word in quotation marks, not mine—about solving problems in G-Unit, thereby making himself a large portion of G-Unit’s problems. He will not talk to me—he has refused to talk to me twice.

(B) The prison store, and my timely access to it when I have a purchase problem, does not keep its books in an orderly fashion. I cannot even send my store receipts to the store for price review without the receipts getting lost. For example, in a recent situation I needed the dates and times of the transactions in question to present the specific nature of the problem I cited. I got out my three receipts and initialed all three of them in the lower left hand corner. I then put a green plastic paper clip on them and gave them to Officer Berryman, who in turn gave them to his supervisor Sergeant Biggs. The sergeant took them to the store. I asked him who he gave them to, and he said he gave them to a man whose name is “Bill”. Several days later three receipts are given to me but only one of them is one of the three I had given to Officer Berryman; according to Sergeant Biggs the other two receipts got “lost” and he did not know that I wanted my receipts back. Officer Berryman and others know that I asked for my three receipts for four days running, for a total of eleven days, regarding a problem that would not exist if I had timely access to the store personnel. Now, I have only one receipt that relates to the issue I want to cite. The other two have none of the information I need, so, in essence, I have doctored receipts. Now I cannot prove anything.

Commissioner Owens, do you know of anyone who shops at a store who does not want their proof of purchase receipts? I think some people here have conspired to deprive me of the receipts that would have substantiated my complaint and replaced them with receipts that will substantiate nothing. Let me be clear: Almost all of the staff climbs aboard the “cover-up train” in a systemic effort to conceal the incompetence and unprofessionalism that runs rampant here.

(C) Be advised that several weeks ago I had more than sufficient cause to complain to G-Unit’s sergeants and the Unit Manager Mr Scott about my inability to mail out a piece of privileged mail in accordance with DOC SOP No. IIB04-0001, to wit: “End of week: On the last work day of each week, privileged mail will be picked up at both 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., and will be dispatched from the facility/center that same day to the United States Post Office in time for forwarding.”

The last four words are as clear as they are instructive, yet, only a handful of your officers follow those clear instructions unless they are hounded and reminded by me, repeatedly. For example, when I ask various staff members to please bring the United States Mail Box into the cell block at a time that reflects the DOC SOP instruction, so that I can deposit my time sensitive, life-and-death privileged mail in it so that it will get to the United States Post Office in the City of Jackson, “in time for forwarding … that same day”, it is not taken seriously very often.

Because the problem I cited kept happening, I filed an Informal Grievance Form; and, when Counselor Hughes-Whiters called me out regarding the Grievance’s content she said, “Jones you can continue with this grievance or you can let me try to solve the problem”. I chose to let her solve it.

About eight days or so later she called me out to inform me that she felt that her efforts had been successful. I agreed, because two Fridays showed that the midday count was actually conducted just before midday and the U.S. Mail Box was brought in and I mailed my legal mail both of those Fridays, during those midday counts. Problem solved? Well, not quite—despite Counselor Hughes-Whiters’ best efforts and intentions. The Counselor informed me that if “the mail box does not make it up to Control One [with the mail in it] by twelve, it is not going anywhere”.

The following week, as the clock neared 2:00 p.m., I spoke with Unit Manager Scott while I was picking up my medication at the G-Corridor Gate. It was a Friday and my/our mail still had not been picked up. I was telling Unit Manager Scott what the Counselor had told me about the U.S. Mail Box and Control One. Lieutenant Ethridge walked up and both men felt the need to remind me of the DOC SOP’s 1:00 p.m. instruction. I thought both of them were missing the point, since it was almost 2:00 p.m. and no midday count or mail pick up had taken place.

(D) I should add here that sometimes, even when the U.S. Mail Box has been brought in, and the mail has been picked up, and the midday count has been conducted at 12:00 p.m., that is no guarantee that the mail box will be taken out of the G-Unit area. On July 19, 2013, at 12:02 p.m., Officer Wallace brought the U.S. Mail Box in and picked up the mail during the midday count. However at 1:53 p.m. that day I was at the G-Corridor Gate talking to the nurse. The U.S. Mail Box was still sitting by the desk. Sergeant Biggs was sitting at the desk eating his lunch. I asked him, “When is that mail box going up to Control One?” He got up and looked through the large slot and saw that our mail was still in the box and said, “I’ll take it up [to Control One] myself”. I thanked him and left the Corridor Gate.

Commissioner Owens, not all but certainly most of your subordinates resent doing their jobs when it comes to anything connected to prisoners’ outgoing or incoming mail, especially “privileged mail” and seeing doctors, nurses, etc.

(E) When I needed to see the doctor (prisoners must fill out and turn in a “Health Services Request Form” before getting certain medications) recently, there were no forms to be found in any of the four Cell Blocks of G-Unit, for three days. Nurse Booth got tired of waiting for security officers to get a supply of forms into G-Unit, so she brought me one herself and had me fill it out at the Corridor Gate in her presence. Your subordinates frequently will not keep the necessary forms, toilet paper, soap and other things needed to run G-Unit; and no one in G-Unit’s administration requires them to do their jobs. In fact, I get the feeling that they are encouraged not to do their jobs!

(F) On prisoners’ family and friends’ visiting days there, more often than not, are rarely enough Security Officers to escort prisoners to a visit. Last week I saw a prisoner stand and wait forty-six (46) minutes at the Corridor Gate before someone could be located to escort him to the Visiting Room. G-Unit needs more security staff.

(G) Very often officers who operate G-3 Cell Block’s Control Booth, it seems, choose not to let me out of Cell number 81 to get coffee or tea when my group is let out to eat. This may have started out as an innocent mistake and would have been treated as such had the officer simply admitted her mistake to her supervisor and me. Anybody can make such a mistake. However, it started happening repeatedly. The next time she told the Sergeant Yaughn that she did let me out. Of course, that was not true. No one likes being called a liar, no matter how indirectly: I wrote a Grievance, its number is 147817. On 5-3-13 Warden Carl Humphrey wrote:

There is no evidence to support your allegation of Officer Tooles denying you the right to get tea. All inmates in each group must return to their cell prior to the next group coming out. This Grievance is denied at the institutional level.

The only reason there is no evidence to support my Grievance is because the person or persons who do the reviews of such “allegations” have not looked at the dates and times in question on the cameras in the Cell Block. The cameras will unequivocally substantiate my “allegation” and more. If the cameras would substantiate Officer Tooles’ position they would have been reviewed long ago. This habit of not letting me out only happens with three officers, and all three of them are on Sergeant Yaughn’s shift. It does not happen with others on his shift, or anyone on any other shifts.

For me, seeing Officer Tooles training a new officer to do what she does in G-Unit is testament to G-Unit’s adminstrators’ complete willingness to accept incompetence and unprofessionalism from their subordinates.

(H) On July 8, 2013, at about 5:00 p.m.—about 20 minutes after Sergeant Yaughn had given me what he and I thought was all of my mail—I was given an issue of the New York Times newspaper by the prisoner Mr Pac. The newspaper had been given to him by the prisoner Mr Brannan. My newspaper had been given to him by one of Sergeant Yaughn’s officers. This is an uncommon situation, as described, but it happens often enough with the same officers to indicate that SOME OFFICERS should NOT pass out mail.

Letting such officers pass out mail is akin to putting a person who has severe visual impairments in a prison watch tower. Yet, the administration that runs G-Unit continues to allow such officers to pass out my mail. Please reconsider this practice.

I am sending Counselor Hughes-Whiters a copy of this last letter because she is the only administrator here, at the GD+CP, who has taken a genuine interest in one of the many issues I have raised in this series of ten letters to you. Can you find some time to do likewise? I would be forever grateful, Commissioner Owens.

Respectfully requested,

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones

Read Full Post »

Letter Number Nine to Commissioner Owens

July 4, 2013

SUBJECT: Holiday Observations of Disturbing Aspects of Your Administration

As an African American man who is in prison on this very Special National Holiday, I feel obliged to share with you that my grandson-in-law has been out of work here in Georgia for a very long time. 

I find myself wondering if an administrator such as yourself is comfortable with how your subordinates are spending the State of Georgia’s money on so many Chinese products during America’s present economic crisis?

I hope not.

I am writing you because it occurs to me that because you have so many subordinates maybe you do not know what is going on here at the GD+CP.

For example, I am wearing an elastic knee support that was made in China. There are several distributors’ names and addresses associated with this product: 

1. Medical Device Safety Service, GmbH (MOSS), Schiffgraben 41, 3017 Hannover Germany;

2. DJO, LLC, 1430 Decision Street, Vista, California 92081 USA;

3. Cardinal Health, Dublin, Ohio 43017 USA.

To name a few. The company names and addresses above causes me to wonder why—it seems—that there is no Georgia maker of the product in question? Not even a Georgia distributor. Why not?

Equally worthy of note is that the first knee support that I was given was a size L (large) but it was much too small for me—it was like it had been made for a large child, rather than a 193 pound African American man. I asked the GD+CP’s medics if I could have one that would be more appropriate for my size. The next day another knee support was sent to me. It is a size XL and it had been used. So I washed it immediately and, when it dried the next day, I put it on. It was a much better fit.

It was only then did I notice as I was about to throw away the container that the previous knee support came with the words “This product is intended for use on a single patient”. Now I find myself hoping that the person who used it before me had no contagions.

It is sad that the support item is connected to so many American—and even German—distributors but is not made in America, let alone Georgia.

Commissioner Owens, it has been more than 50 years since I was a member of the United States Army wherein I served briefly as a Medical Corpsman and Medical Specialist, but I can tell you this: none of the knee supports that I gave to my patients had ever been previously used and none were made in China.

Late last year I purchased from the GD+CP’s store a “Clear Tunes AM/FM radio”. On the back page of the “K-G House Inmate Store List” there is nothing that suggested said radio was made in China, however ear the end of the “Store List” a part of it reads, “ALL SALES FINAL—NO RETURNS!”

In March, when I wrote the so-called vendor and complained about the radio’s faulty tuner (Clear Inventions Inc., 2320 E. 49th Street, Vernon CA 90058) I never got an answer to my March 1st or May 3rd letters. Of course, the radio’s Chinese makers have no address on the radio or its operating instructions.

Surely, your GD+CP Store operators could find a way to purchase products that are made in America. I find it hard to imagine that there are no American companies that make and assemble a battery operated AM/FM radio, and/or an elastic knee support IN AMERICA made by every manner of American to sell to us poor American prisoners.

It seems to me that to not buy “made in America” products, the Georgia Department of Corrections becomes one of the main contributors to America’s HIGH RATE OF UNEMPLOYMENT.

That said, I also feel obliged to note the unemployment rate has been in the stratosphere for more than 55 years for African Americans, hence the reason that there are so many of us in America’s (and Georgia’s) prisons. Let me clarify that: when the unemployment rate was as low as 5% for Caucasion Americans it has always been in double digits FOR AFRICAN AMERICANS, and remains so for us.

Commissioner Owens, would you please consider ways that will encourage your subordinates to buy more products that are made in America and fewer products that are made elsewhere? Help put more jobs in the reach of young African American men, women, and teenagers in Georgia. You have a lot of power. Americans need jobs. Badly.

Respectfully requested,

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones

cc: R. K. Little, Atty At Law

Read Full Post »

Letter Number Eight to Commissioner Owens

June 16, 2013

SUBJECT: Extreme Amounts of Negligence and G-Unit’s Administrator’s Incompetence

In early June I ordered two bars of IVORY SOAP from the GD+CP’s store because no soap had been provided for me on the Monday of that week, despite the fact that the DOC makes hand soap and other chemicals. Frequently toilet paper, soap and razors are not passed out when they are supposed to be, despite the fact that the DOC makes hand soap: it is as if G-Unit’s administrators think prisoners’ bowels, hair and perspiration stop for days at a time.

When my store order arrived on June 12th (a Wednesday) Officer Richardson and I immediately noticed that while I had been charged $1.20 for the soap, no soap was in the bag; nor was there any indication that the soap was unavailable.

Officer Richardson properly noted the shortage in writing on the receipt that goes back to the store and added that I “need” and “want” the soap I had been charged for—store shortages are usually sent to G-Unit later that day or the next. No shortages were delivered to me despite my having asked Officer Russell (on Thursday morning) and Sergeant Yaughn for help the next day. I stressed to Sergeant Yaughn that if he could not get the IVORY SOAP maybe he could find me a tiny bar of State soap. No soap of any kind was given to me … from Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday morning.

Commissioner, please do not think that this situation—as described—is an anomaly; it actually happens a lot. I should also note that if you feel obliged to ask why I signed the store receipt knowing that my store order was incomplete, I would have to tell you that if I do not sign the store order receipt, I will not get any store items. I can only speculate, but I suspect that this practice has a lot to do with the store operators’ desire to leave the prison at 1400 hours. The incompetence is rewarded by allowing store operators to leave before they complete their day’s work.

To let me go six full days and nights without soap while the DOC is a soap-maker—not to mention the fact that I also tried to purchase soap from the GD+CP’s store—suggest to most rational minds that your G-Unit managers and administrators (and the people who operate the store) do not “care” according to Lieutenant Ethridge about prisoners’ natural human desire to maintain good personal hygiene. However, G-Unit’s concrete floors—the floors are a huge priority—get all of the soap, chemicals and wax they need. I mean, I can understand how G-Unit’s administrators would not want all of these tour groups to see a dirty unwaxed floor.

Could you please arrange for us G-Unit prisoners to get some of the same soap, “care”, and attention for our personal hygiene, that the floors get from your subordinate administrators?

Respectfully requested,

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones

cc: R. K. Little, Atty At Law

Read Full Post »

Letter Number Seven to Commissioner Owens

May 14, 2013

SUBJECT: The Widespread Absence of Professional and Vocational Integrity in the Majority of the GD+CP’s Staff

On a “Confidential Offender Grievance FORM (facsimile)” on “April 10, 2013 [I wrote] Officer [Tooles] chose to not let me out with the Group 1 Shift I am on. Thereby denying me the right to get tea [and hot water, both of which I wanted and needed.] I did not make a mistake. She did. All she needed to do [was] let me out with my Shift. She chose not to: why?”

I bring this seemingly insignificant complaint to your attention to exemplify what I think is a HUGE PROBLEM within the high and low levels of your subordinates here at the GD+CP—especially among your security staff.

Unfortunately, there is a standard operating consensus among such staff members that label prisoners as “…habitual liars” when in fact the opposite is true. I was given “Attachment 4 SOP II B05-001 [titled] WARDEN’S/SUPERINTENDENT’S GRIEVANCE RESPONSE” for Grievance Number 147817. It appears to have been signed by the warden on “5-3-13”; it declares:

There is no evidence to support your allegation of Officer Tooles denying you the right to get tea. All inmates in each group must return to their cell prior to the next group coming out. This grievance is denied at the institutional level.

Of course, the response is not true. It is a forty-three word ploy crafted to obfuscate rather than solve the problem. That is to say there are cameras in the cell block going twenty-four hours a day that will unequivocally substantiate my complaint. Why not check the cameras?

Commissioner Owens, INCOMPETENCE is rewarded here more often than it is rejected. It is common knowledge among your subordinates (not all but certainly most) that they do not need to do their jobs because not doing their job is not only rewarded it is tacitly approved as often as not. Lying, of course, GOES HAND IN GLOVE WITH INCOMPETENCE.

The cameras in G3-Cell Block, on the date and time in question, will show that Officer Toole did not let me (and some other prisoners on Group 1) out of the cells before the food cart and beverage container had been removed from the cell block completely.

There is more I could say herein, but I will not presume to tell you what should be done about INCOMPETENCE here at the GD+CP. Will you please take a moment to solve this ongoing problem?

Respectfully requested,

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones

cc: Prof. R. K. Little, Atty at Law

cc: Ms Malone, Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment

 

Read Full Post »

Letter Number 6 to Commissioner Owens

April 26, 2013

SUBJECT: The Georgia Department of Corrections’ Systemic Dehumanization of its Medical Prisoners 

On April 22, 2013, at 3:17 a.m., I was stricken with extreme pain in my lower chest and upper stomach area. Each breath that I took amplified the pain. I thought I was having a heart attack. I saw an officer on the catwalk and called out to her, “Please tell your sergeant that I need to see a doctor. It’s an emergency!”

The sergeant got me to the Medical Section immediately. A Physician’s Assistant (P.A.) ran several tests on me and deduced that I had not had a heart attack, however my blood pressure was high and the pains continued. Severely. The P.A. contacted Dr Fowlkes via the phone. I was given a pain reliever after the officers lowered my pants to my hip. Of course, I had on a waist-chain, handcuffs, pad lock, black box and an electronic shocking device covering the entire length of my left forearm. 

After the shot had taken some effect, I, too, was allowed to speak with Dr Fowlkes on the phone. I shared the details of my experiences from several hours earlier with him. 

Because it was a State Holiday (Confederate Memorial Day) I was taken to Spaulding Regional Hospital in Griffin, Georgia. There, other tests were conducted on me. It was at the hospital I was inspired to write this letter. Let me tell you why.

According to the DOC’s security rules and regulations I had the so-called “black box” secured by padlock to the handcuffs and waist-chain. I also had on leg irons while I was lying on my back on a stretcher. I understand the security process, to a point—more on that later.

Two very professional nurses named Amanda and Crystal were interacting with me. After four hours I asked one of them if she could get me “something to eat because I” had not eaten since the day before. She left, and came back with a ham sandwich and orange juice in a cup with a straw. She raised the stretcher’s end so that my back was vertical, which allowed me to bend forward to my waist where I held the sandwich. The black box immobilized the handcuffs and the waist-chain held the cuffs and box tight against my belt buckle. Each bite I took caused the cuffs to cut deeper into my wrists. When the sandwich was gone, I asked Officer Berryman if he would move the adjustable height table close enough and high enough for me to turn my head to the left so I could reach the straw. He did and I drank the juice.

By 12:00 p.m. I was assigned to Room 316, where I was told I would stay for “a day or two”. My escorts, Officers Berryman and Youngberg and Sergeant Jones, stationed themselves at the entrance of the room. Each man was armed with a revolver.

Commissioner Owens, I am seventy years of age. I have no history of violence for a quarter of a century here. My state of health is, at best, mercurial. When I needed to move my bowels, I asked Sergeant Jones if he would remove “only one of my hands from the box, cuff and waist-chain so I [could] use the toilet and clean myself afterwards?”

He declared, “Jones, I can’t do that. I would get fired if I did that.”

I asked him, “How am I to clean myself after I use the toilet?”

He pointed at a young woman who was dressed in a green outfit as he said, “She will do it for you.”

I asked him if he would call his supervisor and explain the situation and seek permission to honor my request. He did that to no avail. I then asked a passing nurse if she would let me speak with her supervisor. She called her supervisor, who said she would come.

Meanwhile, a covered plate of food was rolled into the room on a table: meatloaf, roll, sliced tomato salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, salad dressing, and two large chocolate chip cookies (the nicest meal I have seen in more than three decades). Again, I asked Sergeant Jones to free one hand so that I could feed myself. He said, “No, I cannot do it.”

I motioned to the woman in green and then asked the sergeant, “Can she feed me?”

He replied, “No.”

His answer struck me as odd, in that someone could be allowed to wipe me after I move my bowels, despite the fact that I am able to do it myself, but no one could feed me (according to the state security measures) when clearly the stated security measures did not allow me to be physically able to feed myself. At that moment Officer Berryman interjected, “You can feed yourself here the same way you ate that sandwich!”

For a moment I had a dehumanized vision of myself bending over the plate eating, in much the same way a dog would eat from a bowl on the floor. That did it for me, when I realized that I could be handcuffed, black-boxed, waist-chained, shackled on my legs with a shock-producing device largely cutting off much of my blood flow on my left forearm for forty-eight (48) hours or more.

I asked Sergeant Jones, “What do I have to do to be taken back to the prison asap?”

He replied, “Refuse treatment.”

I did that, and shortly thereafter all of us were back at the GD+CP, where I was required to sign yet another Refused Treatment form for the GD+CP as well.

Equally worthy of note herein, is that more than seven days before the 22nd of April, P. A. Alexander (per my request) had taken me off of the blood pressure medication that I had been taking for two decades via in-cell sam-packs [n.b. a pack for self-administration of medication]. Unfortunately, she failed to have other sam-packs in-cell blood pressure medication sent to me to replace the former medications. I think that has been corrected by P. A. Finderson, as of April 24, 2013.

Commissioner Owens, I bring the rest room, food and stated personal hygiene matters as they relate to the present DOC security procedures regarding medical prisoners to your attention in the sincere hope that your review of these procedures might cause a more humane restructuring of them. In their present state, such procedures rob medical prisoners of our human dignity. There is a better way, Sir.

Please seek it out as soon as is humanly possible.

Respectfully requested,

 

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones

cc: Ms Malone, Deputy Warden of Care and Treatment.

Read Full Post »

Letter Number 5 to Commissioner Owens

April 7, 2013

SUBJECT: The GD+CP Administrators’ Routine Acceptance of Lies from their Subordinates

After writing several letters of inquiry to the United States Post office in the City of Jackson, Georgia—all were addressed to Postmaster Doug Gray—from early June to November, I became concerned when I got not one response month after month.

At some point I asked G-Unit Counselor Ricky Foskey if he would provide me the mailing address of the United States Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe in Washington, D.C. He provided it; and I wrote Postmaster General Donahoe.

Meanwhile, I continued to seek information locally. I wrote then “Designated Mail Room Officer” Goodman (because I had to correct a draft of a Motion that would soon be due in Court). I sent it to my lawyer so he could finalize it and send it to the Court of Appeals before the due date. He had to get a continuance as a consequence of it never having reached him despite it having had sufficient postage on the plain manila envelope. The then Designated Mail Room Officer Goodman was unresponsive to my letter.

After not having heard from me for nearly two (2) months, the lawyer then demonstrated an understandable degree of concern: he left California, and came to visit me. When he left the prison he visited the United States Post Office in the City of Jackson, Georgia. The only person he was able to talk to was a man who said his name is “Sammy”.

To make a long story short, when G-Unit Mail Officer Roland returned the no longer plain manila envelope to me unopened amost two (2) months later after I had sent it to my lawyer it bore a single “PRIORITY MAIL” sticker on it and a “POSTAGE DUE [request] of $5.95”. Please bear in mind that I did not ask to send the Motion via PRIORITY MAIL and that no one asked me if I wanted to send it via PRIORITY MAIL.

After writing the Postmaster in the City of Jackson, and getting no response about why my Motion had a PRIORITY MAIL sticker affixed to the manila envelope, undaunted I wrote a request to Designated G-Unit Mail Officer Roland. The following is a verbatim reprinting of that message:

TO: COII Roland G3-Mail Officer

FROM: Prisoner Brandon Jones G3-81

DATE: Jan. 22 ’13 12:00 p.m.

SUBJECT: Postmaster Please send me the name of the Jackson U.S. Post Office’s Postmaster

The G-Unit Mail Officer did not come into the G3-Cell Block, as he had been doing in most cases, to take part in the midday count. Officers Fincher and Russell conducted the midday count on that day. I folded the message so that only COII Roland’s name could be seen before asking him if he would give the message to COII Roland?

He held out his hand and said, “Yes.”

I gave the folded message to the Officer Fincher and he and Officer Russell left G3-Black.

Three hours later the Officer in G3’s Control Booth let me out of the cell that I occupy and slid the folded message back to me through the crack in the porthole. The following was written on a line below my original message:

Jackson U.S. Post Master Phil McRotch

I did not know that statement was a lie until I received a letter from Nancy Ross, a Manager of Marketing for the United States Postal Service’s Atlanta District. It read, in part, “contact Sherman Carter, the current Postmaster for questions regarding [my] mailing concerns”. Manager Ross also included a “Retail Prices and Fees as of January 27, 2012” chart—it having been one of the comprehensive “price and services” lists that I had asked her for.

Commissioner Owens, why did I need to write to the United States Postmaster General in Washington, D.C. for all those months while Postmaster Doug Gray was still on the job—since he did not actually retire until November 2012—if your Designated Mail Room Officers were physically going to the City of Jackon’s Post Office five (5) days a week—to pick up and deliver the GD+CP’s mail? It seems to me that one or more of them should have known the Jackson Postmaster’s status and told me about it.

I had been asking the GD+CP’s Designated Mail Room Officers Goodman, Johnson and Roland for that and other information for several months before Postmaster Doug Gray retired and /or before Officer Goodman was replaced by Officer Johnson and Officer Johnson was replaced by Officer Roland.

Sir, please allow me to bring your attention once again to the Department of Corrections’ Standard Operating Procedures, items 1 and 2 on page 4:

1. Authorization: Mail rooms will be off limits and out of bounds to all inmates/probationers and unauthorized staff;

2. Mail Room Officer: The Warden or Superintendent will designate a Mail Room Officer to process incoming and outgoing inmate/probationer mail. The Mail Room Officer will manage mail according to basic postal policies and GDC procedures governing inmate/probationer mail and will apply basic postal regulations governing the proper handling of the different classes of mail.

Commissioner Owens, logic—for me—suggests that at the GD+CP all of the designated mail room (and Unit) personnel have been intentionally withholding mailing information from me.

Why? Why are they allowed to keep doing that?

Even the G-Unit Manager B. D. Scott has deprived me of the information that I needed to properly conduct my mailing needs. For example, when I asked him “please check into how and why at least one of [his] Unit’s Security Officers felt that (s)he could get away with lying about the City of Jackson’s Postmaster’s name”, he showed very little genuine interest in how lightly his subordinates are inclined to treat such important subjects as a prisoner’s mail—not to mention the extreme childishness of the less than subtle double entendre of the erroneous name used (here read “Phil McRotch”).

Clearly there has been an unprofessional relationship shared with G-Unit, the GD+CP’s Mail Room Officers, and the now retired United States Postmaster Doug Gray. I suspect that the United States Postmaster General Donahoe is totally unaware of how illicit it has been over these last three (3) years.

Commissioner Owens, the spirit and the letter of the rules and regulations set forth in the GDC’s SOP are being disregarded as relates to mail handling.

Please investigate and see for yourself, Sir.

Respectfully requested,

Brandon Astor Jones

Read Full Post »

Letter Number Four to Commissioner Owens

March 27, 2013

SUBJECT: The GD+CP’s Outgoing Mail Handling, and the lack Thereof, in a Timely Manner

Page number 4 of the GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS’ Standard Operating Procedures, Reference Number IIB04-0001, item number 2, instructs:

Mail Room Officer: The Warden or Superintendent will designate a Mail Room Officer to process incoming and outgoing inmate/probationer mail. The Mailroom Officer will manage mail according to basic postal policies and CDC procedures governing inmate/probationer mail and will apply basic postal regulations governing the proper handling of the different classes of mail.

I felt obliged to cite the SOP because I need to clarify that G-Unit prisoners are under sentences of death (UDS) and for cause also have a designated Mail Officer, COII Roland, who works as a subordinate with the recently re-designated “Mail Room Officer” COII Johnson.

I should note, too, that for twenty years that I know of, the GD+CP had an in-house weigh scale. However, now it seems that it no longer has a scale. It sure needs one.

I bring these matters to your attention because I want to share a recent experience with you. On Wednesday, March 13, 2013, I went to the G-3 Corridor gate, with a 209 page book sealed up in a manila envelope. My full name, UNO number and return address were clearly printed on the package, as was the addressee’s. I put a Post-It sticker on the front top right hand side of the package and I wrote a note on the sticker requesting to be told “exactly how much postage” would be required; and, I asked that when it was weighed “please send it back to me”.

The G-Unit Mail Officer Roland only works Monday through Thursday. I did not see Officer Roland, so I asked Officer Thurmond where he was. Officer Thurmond said, “He’s in G-2’s Control Booth”. I explained my need to Officer Thurmond and I handed the package to him, at which time he immediately took the package over to G-2’s porthole, placed it therein, and called out “Roland!”

To make a long story short, the package was not returned to me until the evening of march 19th despite the fact that I asked for it on three (3) separate days (here read that I asked Officer Roland on two occasions and Corridor Officer Banks once)! Moreover, Officer Roland is required to do so many other things that he has very little time—let alone interest in—doing his designated G-Unit Mail Officer responsibilities. That it took SEVEN DAYS just to get that package weighed speaks volumes about how little Officer Roland and his administrative handlers care about UDS-mail handling in general, and mine in particular. I am forced to use the United States Postal Service to appeal the sentence of death I am under. My correspondence with the Courts and lawyers are frequently time sensitive. A five or six day delay in such communications can be the difference between life and death.

Therefore, I submit this as one of many examples of what is so wrong with the GD+CP’s so-called “…mail handling procedures”.

Commissioner Owens, can you, and/or your representative please bring a conscientious approach to the GD+CP’s outgoing and incoming UDS prisoner’s mail? No one at the GD+CP is doing that—not even a little bit.

Respectfully requested,

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones

cc: Public Information File, No. 2

Read Full Post »

Letter Number Three to Commissioner Owens

March 18, 2013

SUBJECT: The GD+CP Store and Some of Its Practices

I frequently order legal pads from the store. A couple of weeks ago, when I wanted to use one of them, I noticed that it was defective. I realized that it was too late to try and exchange that legal pad. Later that day I discovered I had another defective pad. Nevertheless, I was forced to use them; they had no perforation line to tear pages off.

Week before last, I had to order two more pads. On March 13, 2013, G-Unit Corridor Officer Banks opened my store-order-bags. I explained my pad problem to him, in detail. I then inspected to two pads that he gave to me. Only one was defective. I kept the good one and gave the bad one back to him, to inspect and verify the defect. He did. I explained that I “really need” the pad, but I also requested that he return it and exchange it for a good one. He wrote my request down on the return-to-store receipt. After I read his notation, I signed it. He arranged for the defective pad to be returned.

It is now March 19, 2013, 0759 hours. The store still has not sent me a good legal pad. I should note here that when a pad has no perforated tear-off line, at about half way through the defective pad’s use, the tearing-off process’ downward progression causes part of each page to get smaller and smaller—by the end of the process there is at least one fourth of the page missing. It is clear, to me, that the defect renders such legal pads substandard but I am paying exorbitant prices ($1.07 per pad). To continue selling them at the premium price is nothing less than State Sponsored price gouging especially when first quality legal pads can be purchased all over Atlanta for 79c and even less when on sale. 

The GD+CP also sells defective Chap Sticks made by Lee Pharmaceuticals (a Californian company). Over the course of one year I have been sold one that was sealed but had no trace of lip balm inside; one that had so little in it, it might as well have been empty; and one that was mechanically broken (would not move up or down). I paid $1.40 for each one of those and I have no way to get my money back. The store operators will not talk to me. I even noted on the green sheet store order (Officer Banks read it when he gave me the defective pad on March 13, 2013) to Mr Norris about the defective pads, and the store sent me a defective one anyway! Corridor Officer Banks just told me a man named “Bill” put the money for one pad back on my account. It would seem I am being told to buy the bad pads or go without anything to write on.

As of January, according to the “K-G HOUSE INMATE STORE LIST”, 5c stamps are in the store, but not once have I been able to purchase any despite my having ordered them. NOT ONCE*. Yet, the following eleven words appear at the the end of said list: “PRICES SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL SALES FINAL—NO RETURNS”.

There is nothing on the store list that indicates that the store will sell outdated food, defective writing supplies, or, a particular kind of stamp not being available for a day, a week, a month or more despite the fact that 85% of my life-and-death communication with the courts are time sensitive and MUST be done by United States Postal Service.

I reiterate, I bring these problems to your attention because the G-Unit Manager B. D. Scott, G-Unit Assistant Manager Lieutenant Williams, then Sergeant but now Lieutenant Etheridge, Counselor R Foskey et al have all made it clear that they are not interested in addressing these problems, let alone correcting them. 

Commissioner Owens, can you solve them please?

 

Respectfully requested,

 

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones

*On March 27, 2013, I got 20 5c stamps.

Read Full Post »

Letter Number Two to Commissioner Owens

March 10, 2013

SUBJECT: Mail, Incoming and Outgoing in a Timely Manner

Here at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GD+CP) we have been getting mail only five days a week for more than three decades. Therefore, the recent disclosure by the United States Postal Service that soon it will not be delivering letters on Saturdays, is not news to those of us in Georgia’s State Prisons.

I subscribe to The New York Times (NYT) newspaper and have been privileged to do so for several years. On Monday, February 25, 2013, I was called out of cell number 81, to the G-Unit Corridor. A corrections officer gave me my mail, which consisted of the Feb. 21st (Thursday), Feb. 22nd (Friday), and the Feb. 23rd (Saturday) issues of NYT. The newspaper is distributed locally at a location approximately 70 miles north of this prison.

On Tuesday, the 26th, I was not given any mail. On Wednesday the 27th I was given the Sunday and Monday papers. The Monday paper had not been read or abused—that is to say none of its pages had been separated from the little punch-holes that fasten each page to the one before and after it. The Sunday paper, on the other hand, clearly had been read. It was in total disarray. It was dog-earred, stained on some pages and torn almost in half in three places despite the fact that it arrives at the GD+CP in a sealed, see-through plastic bag which—as of late—has been removed before I get it. I should note, too, that I subscribe to Wooden Boat magazine; it arrives at the prison in a very similar plastic bag, but the bag on the magazine is rarely removed before it is given to me. The reason I bring that point to your attention will become obvious as you read on.

The Sunday paper had an unusual 50-page supplement in it—a women’s shoe catalogue called “hotter” from a company in the United Kingdom. It advertised, “…30% off plus Free Shipping + Free Returns on your first order”. For the sake of accuracy I must note too that pages 48 and 49 offer an ad for three pairs of men’s shoes. There is a toll free phone number followed by “visit http://www.hotterusa.com” instruction as well.

The GD+CP’s mail room has two female workers. I can only speculate, but I suspect that they needed a day or two to browse through all of those pages of shoes. To be honest, I do not care about them (or anyone) reading the papers. However, I do care about the papers being abused and outrageously delayed, which is too often the case.

I am glad that coupons do not come with the International/National version of the NYT I get now. I got tired of complaining about the absence of coupons in the New York City Edition of the paper so I changed my subscription to International/National Editions. That change of editions took place many years ago. It was clear that the coupons were being removed here at the GD+CP. I am hearing from other prisoners that their coupons are being removed, still.

There are a host of suspicious (and occasionally illegal) things happening to my incoming and outgoing mail. Unfortunately, when I bring mail problems to G-Unit administrations (here read G-Unit Manager B. D. Scott, Assistant G-Unit Manager Lieutenant Williams, Sergeant Etheridge, Counseler R Foskey et al), I am ignored, put-off and sometimes lied to. Hence, the reason I am writing to you. 

The administrators of G-Unit do not even follow their own DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS’ Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) set forth in Reference Number: II B04-0001 on page 5, to wit:

End-of-week: On the last work day of each week, privileged mail will be picked up at both 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. and will be dispatched from the facility/center that same day to the United States Post Office in time for forwarding.

It has taken me personally four (4) years just to get the GD+CP administrators to half-heartedly honor that SOP. 

From the highest to the lowest administrators in G-Unit, there seems to be no understanding regarding the importance of time. For example, on March 8, 2013, a Friday, when Officers Thurman and Alford came in to count, pick up the mail, and beat the bars it was 2:33 p.m. not 1:00 p.m. The Friday before that, the officer did not bring in the “U.S. Mail Box” until I complained. My mail to and from the Court is not a priority to G-Unit administrators. No G-Unit administrator is responsible for anything that happens or does not happen in G-Unit. There are staff who work in G-Unit who lie about what their names are! She gave me someone else’s name!

The author H. Bruce Franklin edited a book titled prison writing in 20th century america (Penguin Books) in which a prisoner name Kate Richards O’Hare wrote:

We send our criminals to prison to teach them not to lie and defraud, and the prisoner is forced to live one long lie, and can exist only by becoming party to fraud.

Commissioner Owens, can you fix the Mail problems for us?

Respectfully requested,

 

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones

I.D. # 400574 (G3-81)

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison

Post Office Box 3877

Jackson, Georgia 30233

cc Public info file 2

Read Full Post »

Letter Number One to Commissioner Owens

Commissioner Brian Owens

Georgia Department of Corrections

c/o the Office of Investigations and Compliance

Attention: Inmate Affairs and Ombudsman Unit

Post Office Box 1529

Forsyth, Georgia 31029

 

February 26, 2013

 

SUBJECT: Denial of United States Postal Stamps in a Timely Manner

On February 20, 2013, Officer Butts opened my store-order-bag and gave to me all that I had ordered—except the twenty (20) three cent stamps and a radio—the previous week. On the prison store’s green sheet there is an indication that the prison store did not have any more three cent stamps. I respectfully asked Officer Butts to put on the prison store’s white copy of my receipt that I would accept/pay for twenty (20) five cent stamps. She did that in front of me. I then began my wait for the stamps’ and radio’s arrival. They did not come on Wednesday.

On the next day I asked for the stamps only, because I need them much more than the radio, but no stamps were given to me on Thursday.

On Friday, long after the United States Mail Box was brought into G3-Cell Block in accordance with the DOC SOP II B04-0001 “…the last work day of each week…” instruction, Officer Berryman gave me three (3) five cent stamps. I thought that I would be given the other seventeen (17) stamps later that day. However, about an hour later Officer Berryman called me to the G3-Corridor Gate and instructed me to go back to the cell and get the three stamps that he had given to me. I gave them to him. At some point I learned that those three stamps belonged to another prisoner. Then Officer Berryman said that, “…the lieutenant has yours and will give them to you when he comes back.” The lieutenant never called me out. Later that day I asked G-Unit Corridor Officer Banks if he would ask his supervisor Sergeant Etheridge if he could go and get my “store shortages”. An hour passed when Officer Banks told me the “sergeant said that he didn’t have time to do it”.

On Monday, at 0739 hours Officer Butts served breakfast. I asked her if she would ask the Corridor Officer to help get my stamps. She said she would ask him. At 0850 hours I spoke with G-Unit Corridor Officer Prigeon. He indicated that no one had told him anything at all about the problem. Officer Berryman and Officer Butts were only a few feet away from Officer Prigeon at this time. Officer Berryman in that moment tried to tell Officer Prigeon what had happened over the six (6) day time span. Officer Butts said nothing.

On Monday, at 1412 hours, Sergeant Brown delivered the radio to me. When I asked him about the stamps he indicated that he knew nothing about my stamps. 

It is now Tuesday, February 26, 2013. The time is 0800 hours, and I still have no stamps. Because it is clear that I am being subjected to an administrative run-around here, and because few are trying to solve my problem(s), henceforth I will be sending your office a letter in which details of who, what, and why the problem(s) continues. The frequency of these problems makes it clear that the G-Unit Manager Scott, Lieutenant Williams and Sergeant Etheridge et al are not interested in solving them.

Commissioner Owens, your subordinates at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GD+CP) are, in effect, depriving me of my Constitutional Right to timely access to the Courts. Will you please end the ongoing practice of high and low level incompetence here at the GD+CP as soon as is conveniently possible while I appeal this sentence of death?

Respectfully requested,

 

Prisoner Brandon Astor Jones, ID No. 400574 (G3-81)

Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison 

Post Office Box 3877

Jackson, Georgia 30233

cc: M Farmer, Atty At Law

cc: R K Little, Atty At Law

Read Full Post »