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
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