Jodie talks about a prison lockdown, the warden getting fired, Marc getting a bad spider bite (or worse?), and more. She shares a wall hanging made by inmates, and a beautiful piece of art from a supporter. Read Marc's prison blog at http://www.cannabisculture.com for his review of improvements made at the prison after he filed complaints. And plan ahead for the Toronto Freedom Festival and Global Marijuana March on Saturday, May 7th! HELP FREE MARC EMERY!

http://www.FreeMarc.ca
http://www.CannabisCulture.com
http://www.TorontoFreedomFestival.com

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I remember Irwin Cotler, Canada’s Justice Minister in the twilight of Paul Martin’s Liberal government, commenting that Canadians had developed a culture of tolerance for marijuana use in the nation. This was on the heels of the Senate Committee urging marijuana legalization, my 2003 Summer of Legalization Tour across all ten provinces of Canada, and our 6-3 Supreme Court loss attempting to find Canada’s marijuana prohibition laws unconstitutional. In mid-2004 Cotler coolly and confidently asserted that his government would have “to change these perceptions.”

Cotler wasn’t concerned that polls even 7 years ago were showing a majority of voters supported legalizing marijuana, and that as a democracy, his government should reflect our will (and the corresponding justice in this new paradigm). He asserted that Canadians were wrong in this new view, and that the government would change the minds of the people who elected them to represent that changed new majority view.

Irwin Cotler was confident because modern governments have total faith in propaganda. Such is their instinctive reaction whenever the public starts to think for itself.

Cotler then carefully calculated on television newscasts that it would take two years to switch the Canuck consciousness back to the dark ages of prohibition. So sure was he of success that his prediction was announced publicly in mainstream media. We’re going to brainwash you. There’s nothing you can do about it.

But has this really happened? While politicians at every level of government in Canada behave as if they have changed public opinion, the polls, YouTube, Facebook, television, radio, movies and contemporary books all show that they have not. In fact, polls show the legalization numbers are rising throughout the United States and Canada. They have been rising since I began my lifetime campaign to legalize marijuana in 1990. The numbers have never reversed direction. Every year the momentum to legalize gets greater, with majorities in every western US state, British Columbia, Quebec, and Ontario. All the other provinces and states have the support of no less than 40% of their voters in support of legalizing marijuana; double the numbers from the year I started my crusade in 1990.

What’s going on? Is this all some sort of political joke?

Many times have I met Michael Ignatieff, the current Liberal leader, and heard him speak. Every appearance I have seen him, he is asked, earnestly, about whether a Liberal government will legalize marijuana. Each and every time Ignatieff laughed off the legalization question, as he did again a few weeks ago, by saying we shouldn’t be talking about it so much. Ignatieff wonders why people are always asking about marijuana. There are so many more important things in life, he says. Like “digging ditches,” as he suggested once in Newfoundland.

Indeed, when it comes to “drug use”, Ignatieff declares, “I just don’t get it.” He adds everyone should be out getting a university education, starting a family and building a community. These are fine things for those so inclined, but to say you can’t do them and be a part of the cannabis culture is a lie. To say you can’t smoke marijuana because it will stop somebody else from pursuing these goal is intellectually insulting.

To say that cannabis and the people who consume it are anti-education, anti-family, and anti-community is really hate propaganda. This is exactly what Ignatieff and his ilk are saying. Can you think of any group the Canadian public ought to hate more than a group that threatens to destroy the Canadian family and the Canadian community? That’s how the government usually labels terrorists – or the cannabis culture – interchangeably.

The fact that Ignatieff and a great many politicians (including President Obama in his 2010 public response to the most requested YouTube question, which was about cannabis legalization) do this in a jocular manner is extra creepy. That’s because joking about maintaining marijuana prohibition in spite of the majority will doesn’t sound like hate. It’s a very interesting technique that seems to be exclusive to marijuana prohibition propaganda. At first, Ignatieff and his audience laugh at the question. “I expected this would come up…” begins a merry Ignatieff, warming up the room. Knowing chuckles come from the audience. A bond has been formed. We’re all hip and cool. We’re all in on the marijuana joke.

If you were talking about a crime that actually warranted the repressive laws of prohibition, it wouldn’t be something you’d be laughing about. Politicians don’t joke about arson, rape, murder, robbery, embezzlement. These are truly serious crimes. If a crime is serious enough to have police regularly smash into homes and hold taxpayers at gunpoint, put them in jail, take their kids, take their homes, well, that would not be a laughing matter. Declaring a culture war at the highest levels of government, empowering police and even ‘safety inspectors’ to invade the homes of Canadians over a plant that is federally recognized as medicine, well, that is not a laughing matter. These are the most serious things a government can do to its citizens in a society. These are things that Ignatieff normally would not be laughing about.

Politicians never mention shooting people, pointing guns at the heads of taxpayers and their children, or shooting dogs dead in their homes. They are never asked about it or any of the other horrific abuses of these bad laws. The people asking the questions, both the voters and the media, never mention the specific abuses and repressive laws within the legalization question.

This schizophrenic combination of laughter and repression is very bizarre. Sending a “culture” to jail while laughing about it is not the sign of a reasonable mind. Name another issue responsible for such barbaric laws that is discussed as a joke by politicians and leaders. There is none.

As to the matter of sending a culture to jail while using that culture’s music to get you elected so you can send them to jail, that is altogether Mephistophelean. Prime Minister Harper singing ‘I Get High (with a little help from my friends)’ and ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash,’ two songs created under the inspiration of huge amounts of marijuana, while Mr. Harper seeks to deliver a final solution (Bill S-10) to the ‘permissive drug culture’ that created such music, is, well, satanic. Mr. Harper co-opted the entirely wrong Rolling Stones song; he should have been singing, “Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and fame…”

Ignatieff is saying marijuana and the people who use it threaten to destroy the social fabric of Canada. Any other opinions are not tolerated because “I just don’t get it.”

That the existing government leader, Mr. Harper, has declared war against my people and our cannabis culture, with the flaccid acquiescence of Mr. Ignatieff, demonstrates how perfidious their musical hypocrisy and perverted sense of humor really is.

Mr. Harper holds my fate in his “hands.” He delivered me unto the fate of D. Ray James Correctional Facility, and he can approve my transfer back to Canada. Failing any inherent political compassion to return me to Canada, I believe Canadian citizens will pressure the government in Ottawa to act in a civilized manner, though this is a rarely realized action from the government of Ottawa. At the least, I hope the Angus Reid polls showing a clear majority of Canadians want me returned holds sway, if compassion itself is unmoving.

Some Canada’s churches have recently come out against mandatory minimum jail sentences for cannabis offences. US evangelist Pat Robertson has said that marijuana should be legalized on his 700 Club television religious program. Given the nature of the Conservative base, this is an important development. Given the fact that marijuana prohibition is essentially a religion and is falsely sold as such, this is an exceptionally important moment in politics. Even conservative guru, University of Calgary professor Tom Flanagan, wants the Conservative government to embrace an end to prohibition.

Canada is now sending heavily armed police smashing into a private home and holding a person at gunpoint, all because a skunk was found living under his porch – true story. It is now standard operating procedure in Canada for police to legally smash into private homes and terrorize taxpayers at gunpoint, all because of the smell of a skunk. No apologies are offered; no thuggery is too extreme.

‘American War Machine’ by Peter Dale Scott, a new and superb analysis of the insidiousness of the global drug war, documents the real reason all this is going on in Canada, the USA, Mexico, Colombia, everywhere on Earth. It is impossible to paint a more damning picture of prohibition and the gangster governments it has created. If you want to fully understand why marijuana prohibition is a globally enforced policy, read this book.

My preferred book examining the truly evil genocidal nature of the worldwide prohibition has always been Richard Lawrence Miller’s book ‘Drug Warriors & Their Prey.’ It’s still one of the all time greatest books ever written. But when it comes to understanding how drug prohibition has created global politics and wars for the past 60 years and counting, ‘American War Machine’ is the book. Think of it as Prohibition Meets Dr. Strangelove.

Author Scott is not hopeful this corruption will end anytime soon. The current political climate, he explains, is restricted to those who have the “domination” mentality. Prohibition funds their wars. As long as we have prohibition, we will have endless war. These two parasites have formed a corrupt partnership that now feeds off the world community.

How does authority rationalize, both for its goon squads and for itself, this abuse and corruption? How does it ignite that internal sadism without calling it sadism? How do you get people so wired up that they will smash into taxpayers’ homes and perform all the other global depravities that are the exclusive demented domain of prohibition?

Here’s how, as recounted by the Grand Inquisitor in ‘Brothers Karamazov.’ Dostoevski’s story opens with Christ returning to Earth during the Spanish Inquisition. Heretics are being burned alive as an “act of faith”. The Grand Inquisitor sees Christ raise a child from the dead and knows He’s the real thing. The Inquisitor has Christ arrested and visits Him in jail.

It is here the Inquisitor lectures Christ on the craft of public relations. In Dostoevski’s story, Christ is not to be taken only as a religious figure. He is used as a literary device to represent truth in any form. The Inquisitor is used to represent the suppression of truth by any self-rationalizing and corrupt authority – think Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, or even my Inquisitor, former DEA Administrator Karen Tandy.

As not-so-grand Inquisitor Karen Tandy stated in writing upon my arrest on July 29, 2005, I was jailed for truth. The more I spoke, the more convinced Canadians and Americans became of the truth. Over those years leading up to my arrest, as I toured, spoke, published, broadcast, and ran for elected office, the more the citizens came to see cannabis prohibition as the evil it is. Tandy did not hide this. Like the Grand Inquisitor, she proudly laid it right on the line. I am in jail, as she put it, because I am a propagandist with my “propagandist magazine Cannabis Culture,” giving away “hundreds of thousands of dollars to legalization lobbyists” (i.e. truth tellers) “active in the United States and Canada.”

I am in jail precisely because I expressed an idea, specifically the idea of freedom of thought, the idea of truth. This is precisely what the Grand Inquisitor tells Jesus Christ: “What are we going to do with truth? Humanity is just too shallow, stupid, and scared to ever be able to handle the burden of the truth, which is the burden of free thought, of being able to think for yourself. Freedom,” claims the Inquisitor, “is simply too heavy a responsibility for people. It is easier and more natural for them to obey.”

“And if it is a mystery, we too have a right to preach a mystery, and to teach them that it’s not the free judgment of their hearts, not love, that matters, but a mystery which they must follow blindly, even against their own conscience. So we have done. We have corrected Thy work and have founded it upon a miracle, mystery and authority. And men rejoiced again that they were led like sheep, and that the terrible gift (freedom) that had brought them such suffering was, at last, lifted from their hearts,” explained the Grand Inquisitor to Christ.

Therefore, pontificates the Inquisitor, people like himself take on that responsibility by deceiving the masses for their own good. We give them a reason to live. We tell them how to live. We give them false hopes and phony beliefs. We make up lies so they don’t have to think for themselves. And Inquisitors can use all and any manner of torture and depravity to accomplish this end.

In the book ‘The Grand Inquisitor’s Manual’ by Jonathan Kirsch, his preface explains the atrocities that were committed by authorities over several centuries with impunity:

“Above all, the Inquisition relied on what it regarded as the extraordinary nature of the CRIME of HERESY to justify every excess and atrocity. These heretics were accused of being ‘thieves and murders of souls,’ and the war on heresy justified the deployment of every weapon in the inquisitional arsenal. To accuse someone of heresy and then allow him or her to go unpunished was simply unacceptable, a threat to the power of the Church. After all, the acquittal of even a single accused heretic would surely bleed away some of the dread and terror that was regarded as crucial in deterring others from false belief.

“Far worse, as the Church saw it, was the spectacle of a true believer of a forbidden faith who was perfectly willing to suffer bravely and die heroically for that faith. This was the real reason that the inquisition sought to avoid making martyrs of the accused heretics by torturing them into abject confession… Torture was not only tolerated but actively encouraged because the Church regarded the war on heresy as an existential struggle with Satan and his minions on Earth; the victims of torture nothing more than ‘traitors to God’ in the eyes of the persecutors. To the horror and sorrow of countless generations to come, the Inquisition demonstrated that the demonization of one’s adversaries makes it legally and morally acceptable to torture and kill them.”

“If only you had given them a miracle at the end,” the Inquisitor tells Christ, “you would have won them over. Easy. All you had to do was come off the cross.”

“But you did not do that,” the Inquisitor criticizes a silent Jesus. “You expected too much of these worthless souls. As a result, we have altered your work. And now they believe us. They will do anything we say. The very people you have tried to save will now destroy you on my command.” To prove this, the Inquisitor says he will order the mob to burn Christ at the stake.

Christ never says a word. His only response is to kiss the Inquisitor. Shaken, the Inquisitor opens the jail door and tells Christ to leave and never come back. (“The kiss glows in his heart, but the old man adheres to his idea.”)

Even the cynical and hardened Inquisitor had some momentary compassion left in him.

I can only hope.

– Marc Emery
February 12th, 2011

Write to Marc in prison!

Rules and guidelines for sending books and mail are at www.FreeMarc.ca

Marc Emery #40252-086 Unit Q Pod 2
PO Box 2000
D. Ray James C.I.
Folkston, GA
31537
USA

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To begin with, on Monday, January 31st, I received a treasure trove of new books, nine of them, including Marc Twain’s Autobiography Vol. 1, ‘Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Writers and Artists Who Made the National Lampoon Insanely Great’, ‘Ain’t Nobody’s Business if You Do: The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in our Free Country’, ‘The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare of the 1950s’, ‘Last Call: The Rise & Fall of Prohibition’, ‘Uncle John’s Giant Bathroom Reader’, two prisoner lawyering books, some Buddhist philosophy books, 10 excellent letters from my serious correspondents, some photos from Jodie, and a few magazines. I’m receiving Surfer and North American Hunter magazines, gift subscriptions that my fellow inmates find interesting. I was denied a musical greeting card, but I’m aware of that because I received the proper paperwork advising me of its rejection by the mailroom.

 

All this unimpeded flow of books, magazines, and letters to me without having to go through the bizarre rigmarole I was required to do up till a few weeks ago had me reflect on progress here at D. Ray James. I got all my ‘cop-outs’ (complaint/request forms in the prison argot), and surprised myself with how many of my cop-outs have been resolved. I am often frustrated by the apparent lack or slowness here of progress at this facility, and I make it clear I think treating Canadians and other foreign nationals in the US federal prison system in a discriminatory manner is unjust. I regard myself an eyewitness, a truth teller, a journalist. So, I got out my file of official complaints/requests to management for a review.

 

This next section would have to be titled:

 

“In Defense of The Management at D. Ray James Correctional Facility”

 

Friday, November 19th, 2010:

To the Case Manager: “I would like to begin the treaty transfer process to return to the Canadian Correction system.”

 

Result: Process completed 7 days ahead of schedule when all my transfer paperwork is FedEx’ed to the US Dept. of Justice in Washington, D.C. on January 16th, 2011. The deadline was January 21st, 2011.

 

December 12th, 2010:

To Business Services: www.accesscorrections.com does not take Canadian credit cards for inmate deposits into their commissary accounts. It is also not possible to send inmates at D. Ray James Correctional Facility money orders to deposit into their accounts, nor are Western Union deposits allowed either. This makes the situation for Canadian inmates extraordinarily problematic. Will we be able to receive money by Western Union ever?

 

Result: On January 31st, 2011, it became possible for families and friends of inmates to deposit money in inmate accounts via Western Union. Canadians or Mexicans or individuals outside the USA must use cash and take the money physically to a Western Union location (in Canada, these are at Money Mart). The cost is $15.00 (which goes to Keefe Commissary Network) plus the fee that Western Union normally charges, anywhere from $5.00 to $39.00, depending on the $5.00 up to $2,000.00 being sent to an inmate’s account. This is a huge convenience for those who can afford these service fees, but it’s noteworthy that in the B.O.P. system for American citizens, a money order for the same amount, costing only $1.50 to $5.00 at most, can be mailed to that US citizen inmate’s account. Because these ‘for profit’ foreigner prisons must exploit every situation for the profit of GEO Group, the money order option is not available to us here.

When sending money to an inmate at D. Ray James (like myself, for example), you take cash to a Western Union, use the BLUE QUICK COLLECT form, with the following information:

Pay to: D. Ray James CF
Code City: DRayJames
State: GA
Acct. #: 40252-086 Emery
Attention: Marc Emery

(For any American depositing into my account, using credit cards at www.accesscorrections.com is a lower service charge.)

– 8(f) Nutritional information cards will be displayed for all prepared menu items listing calories, fat, cholesterol, and sodium content of each item.

– 9(a) A nutritional analysis will be conducted annually by a registered dietician to ensure they meet the Daily Reference Intake (DRI) for nutrients published by the Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academy of the Sciences.

– 9(c) All nutritional analyses will be certified in writing by a Registered Dietician. This certification will cite compliance with the DRI’s.

I have not been able to find a single staff person here at D. Ray James who can confirm that the filter in the water tower holding all the drinking water has been replaced recently or regularly. I believe, since the surrounding area around Folkston is swampland and Jodie and I saw flecks of blue and black debris in the drinking water provided to us in the visitation room (bottled water has hardly been in the vending machines in visitation for 3 weeks), that the filter in the water tower – if in fact there is one – is not sterile or effective, and that the water here is unfit for human consumption. The water here should be tested; Jodie says it smells and tastes strange compared to the tap water at home in Vancouver. I believe a public safety official would order the water tower filters changed regularly. The water in the surrounding area smells of sulphur and other brackish elements; considering the huge area around Folkston is a famous swamp (the Okefenokee Swamp), the water should be plainly suspect here. GEO Group just spent thousands of dollars painting its blue GEO Group logo on two sides of the tower, a 10’ x 30’ job, to cover the “Cornell” logo from the private prison company that was bought out by GEO Group. Here’s hoping they’ll invest that much in clean water.

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Part 2:

Part 3:

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January 24th-31st, 2011: In one of my previous blogs I wrote that the Chaplain was getting 25 guitars for a music program similar to other prisons where inmates have regular and easy access to instruments to play. This was the understanding of Randy, a Canadian here from New Westminster (near Vancouver) whose music business associations back home had his Canadian musician friends offer 25 Spanish guitars to DRJCI for inmate use, since hundreds of inmates here are musicians. The management here turned down this offer to have 25 guitars donated free to D. Ray James, no explanation offered.

Then, Randy’s understanding was that D. Ray James would provide these guitars, as of course they should. GEO Group receives $1,004,000.00 US EACH WEEK on this contract, enough to pay for standard inmate amenities. Yesterday I spoke to glum and dejected Chaplain Higbee who stated that he was unsure if GEO Group would provide for any musical instruments at all for D. Ray James. He was inclined to think they wouldn’t. Saving souls is his stock-in-trade, but I think he’s discovered he’s working for a devil of an employer!

So GEO Group turns down 25 free guitars for inmates, but won’t commit to providing any instruments with its total $2,450,000,000.00 (yes, $2.45 BILLION) received from the US taxpayers in 2010 alone! GEO’s competition, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), provide for inmates at the foreigner-only federal prison up the highway in McRae, Georgia; there they have a collection of guitars, drums, bongos, congas, and even two pianos for inmate use. There is a music practice room. Inmates put on concerts in the gym once a month for any musicians who put themselves on the concert performance list. There is a band practice room. There is a CD player room where inmates can plug in their headphones and listen to a CD currently playing. Most prisons have similar programs, but not this place.

One microwave oven per unit of 64-80 men is providing problematic. I put in a cop-out (request) for a second microwave in every unit and the written response was “no.” Yet the microwaves are in such constant use 18 hours a day they are burning out rapidly. It would probably save money and reduce wear and tear to have 2 microwaves in each unit, as well as easing tensions of long line-ups for use. Microwaves in Q building’s Pod 5 & 8 burned out in the past week, so inmates from those pods were invited into the pod next door (6 & 7) to use their microwave, making even longer line-ups and increased stress on the microwaves.

At McRae, there are seven (7) televisions in each unit or range: four in Spanish and three in English. Here we have just two televisions in each unit: one in Spanish (largely sports), and the other is supposed to be for English. However, because each unit here is 95% Hispanic [native language being Spanish], there is some unsubtle pressure in each unit to make both TVs Spanish-Language, a perspective I understand given the inmate population. But this brewing conflict is abetted by the stinginess of GEO Group management. When I posed this to the B.O.P. monitor on site, they remarked that the third TV for each unit is already here, but “coaxial and electrical issues” are the hold-up.

Nine days ago, ten exercise bicycles were put in the basketball courts for inmate use. As of today, all of them are out of order. I sat on every one of them and tested them myself. Despite a claim to have spent $2,000.00 per bicycle, they seem to be light-duty household models worth no more than $300.00 each. Something doesn’t jibe here. Bradley, another Canadian inmate here, just fixed them!

They installed a kiosk out in the yard area that is to be used to load songs onto the Mp3 players they plan to sell in commissary for $130.00 each. There is a satellite dish atop the rec office to receive the latest songs, which will cost inmates $1.60 per song to download onto their “Secure System” inmate Mp3 player (no iPods for us!). The Mp3 players are not for sale yet, so we’ll see how that goes. A critical matter is whether the $130.00 cost and $1.60 per song cost is to be counted towards the $320.00 monthly maximum limit inmates have on their commissary spending. For example, January has 5 commissary purchase days, which for my unit happens to be Mondays on January 3, 10, 17, 24 and 31st. As of today, January 24th, I’ve reached my limit, so next week, January 31st, I can’t buy anything from commissary, and I just typically order food. So if I order an Mp3 player, it means that month I’ll have to cut back on $130.00 worth of food (packaged meat, fish, condiments, tortillas, hot-sauce, spices, noodles, etc.) Ordering 20 songs in one month is a $32.00 purchase, and that means I’ll have to order $32.00 less of food. Even under regular circumstances like this month, I’m going to have to go a week on austerity rations. You can see someone is making money on these inmates because these songs are available from $0.79 to $1.29 per song from mainstream providers like iTunes and Amazon.

DRJCI now has an inmate photographer taking photos for $1.00 each in the visitation room every Saturday, Sunday and Federal Holiday, which is very good. Inmates will also be able to get a photo taken of themselves in the yard against a wall on every third Sunday for $1.00. The price is OK (although SeaTac FDC offered 2 copies for $1.00), but probably 200 to 300 inmates will be lined up to have a photo taken in the 7 hours (8:30 am – 3:30 pm) one Sunday a month. It means many will have to wait SEVERAL hours just to have their one photo taken. And if it’s raining and you have to wait outside, or on February 20th, raining and cold…? There’s no reason it can’t be done weekly, it just requires one camera and one inmate. After all, it will make money. The cost of a 4” x 6” glossy photo from a digital camera is approximately $0.20.

I’ve been reading numerous jailhouse lawyering and paralegal texts, and familiarizing myself with Lexus/Nexus, the database that contains all federal statutes. I made a disconcerting discovery in the last few days filling out forms, grievances, reviewing appeals, motions, requests for transfer of inmate funds, and all the useful activity I like to think I do on behalf of the inmates. When I started here on November 30th, the other paralegals, Guy and Darren, would fill out this “Half-Time” early deportation status request form on behalf of the largely Hispanic inmates and mail it to and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Atlanta, GA. All done at no charge, of course, as is all our paralegal work. This form was an application for an inmate who had never been deported before to get early deportation at the halfway point in their sentence.

Needless to say, this excited the inmates who “qualified”. Over the next six weeks I assisted a dozen inmates fill this “application.” A little leery, I asked my friend Loretta Nall to call the ICE office in Atlanta, GA to confirm the program existed. Buy by mid-January she had not done this for me. That is a glaring difficulty here, that there is no way for us to email or call any government office, lawyer or reference on the “outside” to corroborate the many legal concerns that come our way. Even though this is supposedly an Immigration & Naturalization Service Federal Prison for deportable “aliens”, there is no one here in any way knowledgeable in immigration matters to advise or assist us.

On Saturday, an inmate brought in a 2-page form (attachment B) called a “Motion for Sentence Relief under the Federal Prison Bureau Non-Violent Offender Act of 2003.” I found this suspicious immediately. It seems to be a motion, or application, for early release of a non-violent offender over the age of 45. It is framed as a motion, but H.R. 3575(a) is a House Resolution, meaning that this may have once been proposed legislation, but actual laws use differing numbering. Federal Prison Bureau doesn’t exist. It is the Federal Bureau of Prisons. When I put “non-violent offender relief act of 2003” into Lexus/Nexus, nothing came up. The so-called application was a fake; a hoax. The so-called law doesn’t exist. I came back to the inmate and said, “This is a fake.”

Attachment B (Page 1)

Attachment B (Page 2)

I then took it to Miguel, a Hispanic paralegal from Peru who has worked in law libraries for 14 years (1991-2004, 2009 to present), and is really knowledgeable around Lexus/Nexus, and he said, “of course it’s a fake. If it was real, I myself would qualify.” I asked him why hoax documents circulate in prisons, he said that so-called jailhouse lawyers charge money (commissary) to file these fake motions they’ve convinced other inmates are real, exploiting the hopes and frustrations of prisoners who are desperate to get out and whose English or knowledge of the law is unsophisticated. These unscrupulous people charge $5.00 or $10.00 or $15.00 or whatever they can to “help” inmates, largely Hispanics, to file bullshit motions, or writs of Habeas Corpus, or even these “half-time” early release applications.

Pondering this, I took a closer look at the so-called “half-time” release application we’ve dutifully assisted 30 to 40 inmates in filling out since I’ve been in the law library. I put the term ‘Stipulated Deportation Order’ and A.R.S. 41-1604.14’ and ‘Class 3’ ‘felony offense’ and ‘A.R.S. 13-1404’ and ’13-1405’ and ’13-1406’, ’13-1410,’ and ’13-604’ and I could not find ANY of these so-called statutes or terms anywhere in the Lexus/Nexus. For example, felonies are classified as “A, B, C, D, & E Class” felonies; there are no class 1-6 felonies. (Attachment A)

Attachment A

There is no term “Stipulated Deportation Order” anywhere in any deportation or immigration statutes or regulations. This “application”, too, is a hoax. I was careless and didn’t verity it early on, and sincerely helped a dozen inmates fill them in and send them off, no doubt giving them false hope of early release. After I “assisted” them, they looked at me and said “how much do I owe you?” and I was always so pleased to say “Nothing. This is my job to help you and I’m happy to do it.”

Now I feel foolish. I feel I should make an announcement in my unit that the half-time application is a hoax and apologize to the four people in my unit who got their “applications” filled out with me. I feel crestfallen giving false hope to those inmates. I even sent one by certified mail with $5.54 worth of my own stamps and I was somewhat curious when the ‘letter received’ signed portion never came back.

When I told Miguel of my discovery, he said, “of course it’s a fake. That is what I told them.” (‘Them’ being the two paralegals.) “What?!” I exclaimed, “You didn’t tell me!” “They didn’t want to believe me,” he said. “This fake notice is even at other prisons like Leavenworth (Kansas) and in Arizona.” The two paralegals are whom I learned from, so that disappointed me. They didn’t do due diligence on the authenticity of this bogus ‘application’. I went to them and said “The Half-Time for is a hoax. None of it checks out. None of it.” One said, “I’ve gotten a response.” Then he showed me his response (attachment C), which is a form-letter brush-off that doesn’t in any way acknowledge the “half-time” application. Basically the form-letter response says, “We don’t know you. There is nothing we are doing for you.” When I said we should tell the inmates it is a hoax, they said, “I don’t want to be the one to do that.”

Attachment C (Page 1)

Attachment C (Page 2)

This is the problem with having no connection to the outside world by email or phone. With only 300 minutes monthly, I can only afford brief 10-minute conversations once a day with Jodie; I have no minutes available to seek legal help from anyone. This discovery has made me a bit sad, but certainly wiser into doing my due diligence on any work, and not taking anything at face value until I’ve confirmed the actual facts of a matter.

Yesterday and today I filed two “Hail Mary” requests that are unlikely to get desired results with Bureau of Prisons. A “Hail Mary” is a very long shot attempt at something. Pablo, an Argentinean inmate in my unit, failed a urine test at McRae C.F. last year, a private prison run by Corrections Corp. of America (CCA) in Georgia, north of here. His dirty u/a (as a failed test is called) showed ‘marijuana metabolites’ in his urine. His punishment was severe and draconian, totally over-the-top, for a failed urine test; he received:

– 90 Days total in solitary confinement (30-days while waiting for the verdict, 60 days for the punishment)
– 67 days loss of good time credit (67 days extra jail time)
– 1 Year loss of Visitation
– 90 Days loss of Telephone
– Disciplinary Transfer to another prison

This is extraordinary for a solitary failed urine test; loss of 67 days’ good time credit, loss of visitation (for a year!), phone, and 90 days solitary confinement! Wow! That’s really piling it on. And then to get moved to another prison – all over maybe one joint! So I’ve filed a request to have some of his good time reinstated, appealing for mercy. To get this request to the B.O.P. Department that can relevantly make a decision, we will have to file the request 5 to 9 times, going to the next level as it gets refused, as it certainly will the first 4 times because DRJ cannot reinstate good time, particularly from a disciplinary action that took place at another (non-GEO Group) facility. Only by the 5th appeal does it get dealt with by Bureau of Prisons (B.O.P.).

Today I met Mr. Peters, the inspector from Washington D.C. for Bureau of Prisons, and had a twenty minute conversation with him. I went over my list of what I feel are necessary improvements that ought to me made here; Corrlinks/email, exercise equipment, additional TVs, additional microwave ovens, shower curtains for privacy, more money spend on current books and subscriptions to the library, a music program with instruments, practices and performance opportunities, legitimate accredited courses, a career room with pamphlets and brochures for correspondence courses, all the amenities and opportunities that are at McRae (again, it’s a facility exclusively for foreigners like this one) or any Federal low security prison for Americans. I added, “What did I do that was so bad you had to send me to THIS place?” Of course, I was emphasizing my point with the last remark. He dryly responded, “The designation center in Grand Prairie, Texas sent you here, it had nothing to do with me.”

He went on, “but I will say that when McRae opened – and I worked there for two years – they had none of those things they currently have now. All that progress was achieved by having a continual dialogue between the Warden and inmates. So keep taking your case to the Warden. I can’t order him to do anything in regards to expenditure of monies. You keep bringing your concerns and requests to the warden and things will come. I’m aware McRae has seven televisions per unit and an excellent music program, but that didn’t happen right away. When McRae opened, there was nothing. It came about over time.”

In fact, at McRae they have dozens of pull-up bars, exercise equipment (treadmills, steppers). After the Chow Hall is closed, it’s turned into a games room. There are special meals on all religious holidays, celebrating even the Santeria holy days for the Haitians. There is a veggie tray for vegetarians and Kosher meals. There is a special meal for all inmates of each nationality’s Independence Day (any inmate with a population of over 100, so the national holidays celebrated are the Mexican, Dominican Republic, Haitian, Cuban, and Colombian Independence Days.)

I pointed out that while it’s true everything takes longer than you think it ought to, one of our washing machines hasn’t worked since October 15th, 2010, over 3 months ago, and has never been repaired. The fire-alarm issues persist after 14 weeks of aggravating aural assaults. As to Western-Union deposits to inmate accounts, we are being told that for Canadians and others outside of the USA, that service should be available within the week. We shall see about that, but I hope so, because Canadians cannot put money into a Canadian inmate’s account here by money order, Western-Union, or Canadian VISA or MasterCards, so it’s impossible to put money into MY commissary account from Canada. How discriminatory is that?!

My friend and fellow paralegal Avedis, or “Mike”, has been a powerful voice for the rights of Jews here at DRJ, in regards to religious services, dietary requirements, and religious observation. The Rastas, Muslims, and other faiths have similar grievances to Mike. (See Attachment “M”).

Attachment M (Page 1)

Attachment M (Page 2)

Attachment M (Page 3)

The water to drink here contains sediment, floating flecks of black and blue. Jodie saw this when she came to visit and the pop and water machines were broken; we were given styrofoam cups for the drinking fountain water, but warily examined bits of debris or paint or metal in the bottom of the cups we had to drink water in. The tap-water here comes from a giant and old water tower on the DRJCI property. I talked to the infrastructure person on staff today and told them in my opinion the water here was unfit for human consumption.

His first response was “I’ve been drinking it for 13 years and I’m OK.” I agreed that was a good sign, but I questioned whether the water tower had any filters and whether those filters had been kept clean. They said that the water was filtered on the way into the tower but were unsure if it was filtered on the way out and how often, if ever, the filters were cleaned. Mike’s family is in the water bottling business and is familiar with potable water and reverse-osmosis filtration. His opinion is that the water here is unfit for human consumption, and that the area surrounding Folkston is swampland. The water would be of very poor quality.

DRJ’s Library made its first acquisition of “new” books today, about 150 remaindered books of little use to the inmates – but it’s a start I guess, albeit pathetic, penny-pinching response at that. The library needs 500 to 1,000 contemporary bestsellers like Stephen King, James Patterson, Dean R. Koontz, contemporary business books, modern text books, and contemporary Spanish authors en Espanola. Notably the inmates were not consulted about the books they would like to read, nor were any of the Library Aides, and especially not me. I’ve only had 35 years of bookselling and library experience, what would I know?

Whatever was cheap and easily available with the least amount of thought was what was acquired, so they can refute my repeated refrain that no money has been spent on the library since DRJ opened in October 2010. However, still no money has been spent on relevant paralegal or prisoner litigation books or newsletters for the law library. I have had to provide all of that. B.O.P. regulations require a certified librarian for a prison of this size, but there is not a certified librarian at DRJCI. The D. Ray James Correctional Institution’s inmate manual states: “D. Ray James provides easy access to a full range of materials for education and leisure purposes.” There is virtually no educational material at DRJ however.

There is still no progress on the Laotian man, Nong, being granted permission (as is his right) to marry his fiancé here at DRJCI, after 10 weeks of complying with all the requirements. No updates on the man requiring replacement dentures after GEO Group lost them 7 months ago.

Recently an inmate came into the law library to tell us the sad news his mother had died. He’s indigent and has no money on his phone account. He went to the Chaplain, explained what happened, and asked if the Chaplain could arrange a free call to his family. The Chaplain told the inmate that rules here required the inmate to “write or call your family and have them fax the death certificate” and THEN he could get the free “family emergency” phone call that DRJCI procedures allow for! The next day the paralegals, including me, brought this up with the Assistant Warden, and he immediately agreed, “That’s the wrong answer. He should get his call.”

My Political Agenda

All of this time in prison is helping crystallize my political agenda to take to the people of Canada upon my release. Canada and America are broken, and I can fix this. But it requires not tinkering, not soothsaying; it requires a rational prioritization of what government can provide and what it cannot. It must not attempt to indulge the futile, the irrational, the impossible.

Currently, The Conservative Party of Canada, propped up by opposition political parties too timid to go to the polls to push them from government, are indulging in a (sterile) orgy of deficit spending, military aggrandizement and aggressive prison building and incarceration. All three of these self-destructive policies drain the blood and treasure of any nation that travels this path to its inevitable destination, a ruinous police state.

The Canadian Military has been unnecessary for 50 years, and today serves no valid purpose, as we are not under threat from any outside force (except from, perhaps, those whom our troops, alongside the American military, terrorize and kill in occupied countries overseas – so any attacks against Canada would be the direct result of our government’s own actions).

The Tory policy of spending $450 billion over 20 years is catastrophic folly. Think what $450 billion could do in the pocketbooks of ordinary Canadians: it could pay for staggering improvements in health care, education, job creation and individual well-being and personal wealth. Prison expansion is emblematic of a failed society. The goal is to abolish prisons. Prisons are schools for criminality, they do not rehabilitate, nor, as our criminal justice system is structured, can this be made possible. Our society is made more unsafe and more violent by the policies that make incarceration inevitable: Prohibition, and prisons themselves, whatever the offense, make criminality more pervasive.

As I speak across Canada when I return, I will explain how Canada can be made perpetually prosperous, demonstrably free and just by:

1) Repealing the prohibition of cannabis and all substances.

2) Abolishing the military and withdrawing from NATO.

3) Ending the ‘security & surveillance’ state apparatus and repudiating the US government ‘security’ state integration.

4) Abolishing the current prison system and replacing it with home detention, restitution, and in the case of violent threats, remote-area detention. We live in a sophisticated electronic ear where it is easily possible to restrain individuals with total monitoring and electronic pain-control to correct behavior. Public safety in this regard is the only legitimate use of the ‘security’ system. Housing criminals together at such huge expense and no benefit must end.

5) Ending all corporate subsidies, loans, and monopolies by the federal or provincial governments.

6) Abolishing the Income Tax and taxes on Canadian-situated investment. Taxation required will be through consumption/consumer taxes (sales taxes).

7) Ending taxpayer financed foreign aid while abolishing the tariffs on products from developing nations, which will truly help the ordinary African or Latin American worker.

8) Ending any preferred status or monopoly privileges for phone, telecommunication, cable carriers. Unlimited Canadian based competition is to be facilitated.

9) The government will continue to finance the nation’s health care and schools. The nation’s health care program will expand to include universal dental care. Taxpayers will choose the recipient of their tax dollars in choosing schools, medical and dental services. Competition among service providers will be robust.

10) Deficit financing, provincially and federally, is outlawed. Prioritization as I have described it is imperative to maintain Canada’s standard of living.

11) The tar-sands oil extraction project is environmental insanity. No government should permit such poisonous defilement of a nation’s natural heritage.

Decisions regarding the governments’ priorities need to be made: I choose schools, hospitals, doctors, dentists, universities, the CBC, a just society, competition, and genuine wealth sharing with our lesser-off fellow workers in the third world. I reject failed or irrelevant institutions of the past: prisons, prohibition, the military, income tax, deficit financing, and all of the crime, crisis and economic malaise that comes with them.

Write me at:
Marc Scott Emery #40252-086 Unit Q Pod 2
D. Ray James Correctional Institution
PO Box 2000
Folkston, GA
31537
USA

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January 21st – 28th 2011: I just finished reading a 450-page adventure novel, "Pirates of Savannah" written by a fellow Libertarian. It’s a fun read about the early settlers of the area along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, taking place in the years 1720-1740. It’s a story of struggle by ordinary (but heroic & brave) folk (all prisoners from English jails released to go to the “New World”) vs. the King of England and villainous lackeys, referred to as “lobsterbacks”, “Red-coats” and other harsher terms.

In the course of this adventure tale the reader learns much of the history of coastal areas apparently known in Georgia and South Carolina as the “Low Counties”. It’s a self-published work in a handsome binding, released on December 10th. Tarrin Lupo, the author, sent me a copy on the day of its release. Last week I cracked it open and was intrigued enough to enthusiastically finish it in four days. Although the author/publisher clearly used a spell-check, I found over 100 words spelled incorrectly, or words missing, or words present that should have been deleted. In total there were 172 corrections or revisions I found that I, as a professional editor in my former life, needed to be done for this book to be considered print-ready. I realized the phenomenon of the self-published book era is upon us. A month ago, I received from Amazon.com a copy of a book called The United States Jailhouse Lawyers Manual by Esteban Garcia. Although it’s the best little book on describing the application of "Writs of Habeas Corpus", within the first fifty pages I found 164 spelling errors, many egregious mistakes beyond the kind I found in "Pirates of Savannah" by Tarrin Lupo.

In Lupo’s book, spellcheck still did not detect over 100 errors, because words that were spelled correctly in the proper context were the wrong words in the context used. I found “idol” instead of “idle”, “where” instead of “were”, “scared” instead of “scarred”, “scrapes” instead of “scraps” and so on.

In Garcia’s book, $20.00 on Amazon.com, its clear no spell-check was used, as errors found include “doctrime”, “disrrict”, “ptrscribed”, “prtition”, “chage”, “Teaxas”, “dome”, “wrot”, “shouls”, “in”; the latter eight examples all come from one page (pg 13) and ought to appear as “prescribed”, “petition”, “charge”, “Texas”, “done”, “writ”, “should” and “on”.

Both are excellent books whose credibility is undermined by absence of an editor. This is to inform all would-be self-publishers I am available and I am cheap, to edit your book BEFORE you publish it. I have offered up my edited copy of both books to their respective authors at no charge, as I hope they will publish new editions with corrections and improvements made.

In addition to my volunteer editing, I finished Keith Richard’s book “Life”. Not a single spelling error found in over 500 pages. (I know what you may be thinking, “If he doesn’t find any errors, he misses the whole landscape…”). Since I grew up hearing my older brother Steve play “(Hey, Hey, He, He) Get Off My Cloud” several hundred times in early 1965, I’ve been a Rolling Stones fan. This book sure comes across in Keith’s ‘voice’, and the man has ingested drugs-o-plenty and is candid and unapologetic about his previous passion for mind-altering substances. ‘Keef’ survived a decade of serious drug-abuse but the problem I find with these rockers who give up on hard drug abuse or self-destructive use, is though they can perform their music well sober, their creative productivity seems to end. I refer to the Stones, whose last great albums were several from “Let It Bleed” to “Some Girls” 8 years later (1967 – 1975), or Aerosmith, who since they have been sober (starting around 1983) have had all of two hits in nearly 30 years vs. about 15 hits from 173 to 1981 when they were admittedly drug-addicted.

Drug abusers seem to create incredible music, though maybe it’s a combination of drug excess and youth. I’d say the same creative characteristic is true of Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and I’m sure you, my dear correspondent, can think of your own examples. I mean, Keith, Mick, Bowie, Tyler, Perry, Henley, and Walsh can sure PLAY their old songs that they wrote & created completely blotto on some dangerous substance really well, but when was the last time they WROTE a great song? Let add Fleetwood Mac to that list. Next up: “Doom Let Loose”, the history of Black Sabbath. Ozzy hasn’t written a great new song since “Crazy Train” thirty years ago, but he still abuses alcohol. After that, a history of Johnny Cash. Yikes, every great musician worth having an autobiography or biography was a notorious drug abuser. I read “Hammer of the Gods” (Led Zeppelin story), and am planning to read “‘Scuze Me While I Kiss the Sky”, the Jimi Hendrix story.

I started my serious study of speaking and writing Spanish. I’m using this wonderful book called Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish. I’m writing every lesson in notes, and saying the words aloud and getting feedback on my pronunciation from the 60 Hispanics in my dorm. Today I worked 5 hours on Spanish and that kind of concerted uninterrupted effort is productive. I’m feeling more comfortable attempting some Spanish phrases, but I’ve only just begun to comprehend the basics. But I’m going to try to study Spanish daily. I’m inspired by the approach this book takes. I received this book from my great friend Dana Larsen, who has sent me dozens of books over my 45 weeks in jail so far. Dana is even so considerate as to send books to other inmates who are in need of them. An acquaintance I made in Sea-Tac, who was the only other inmate from there that ended up here with me, named My, a Vietnamese gentleman, needed and English-Vietnamese dictionary, and asked me if the library could order one. Well, that’s never going to happen, and My is only one of two Vietnamese here, and speaks very little English but has decided its time to become bilingual so he is beginning to study English; at 37 years of age, it’s overdue. My is such an excellent fellow and I put it to Dana that he could really help my friend My out, and lo, My thanked me today for his dictionary that arrived yesterday in the mail here. He was elated and very optimistic about learning English.

There are improvements here at D. Ray James, but it’s fitful progress. There are now 10 stationary exercise bicycles in the basketball court areas. The inmates are using them. But they are cheaper home-use models meant, I think, for an hour or two use a day, not the kind of frequent use they are likely to see here. In the basketball court outside, they can only be used 7 hours a day. If we had then in our units, they could be used 18 hours a day (6:00am rise to Midnight bed). Many more inmates could make use of them. With over 1,400 inmates now, to rise to 2,500+ by summer, each pod needs 2 stationary bicycles of a heavy-duty quality; that is about 40 bicycles of better quality we require. The bicycles were put out Monday and 7 of the 10 are out of order already. [Note by Jodie Emery: Marc later spent time learning how to fix the bikes, finding a fault in the parts that has to be repeatedly attended to.]

The mailroom procedures have been made rational, conforming to Bureau of Prison policy and procedure, so my complaint about the mailroom has abruptly ended, as I am able to receive books and magazines without complications. I only hope that letters sent to me will not be returned to sender, as has been the case for about 25 letters sent to me thus far.

<a href="http://freemarc.ca/group/freemarcca/send-mail-and-money-marc-emery-us-federal-prison">Send Marc Mail!</a>

Dr. Davis, head of Education and Library Services, has been cheerful and helpful, though my official position at the library has yet to be printed up and instituted. I remain very busy with paralegal work and distributing books and magazines to my fellow inmates outside of the library aegis, so it is still fine.

Some things haven’t changed. The aggravating false fire-alarm went off six times yesterday, bringing the number of times it has gone off when I’m in the pod to 36. It has gone off over 85 times in Q pod since D. Ray James Correctional Facility (DRJCF) opened October 7th, 2010. Outside in the yard today I heard the fire alarm go off in R pod, so it’s a very annoying and insidious problem here. (Marc Note: Since written on Jan. 19th, on Thurs. Jan. 20th, it went off 4 more times, on Fri. Jan. 21st, 3 more times.)

While Jodie visited me last weekend for a wonderful three days, they had the halls outside the visitation room painted with pungent oil-based paint, giving some visitors and inmates a headache as the smell at times was overpowering. I would have thought that such noxious smells could have been avoided during visitation, especially since visitors have to travel far to get here and are a bit tired and weak from such a long trip – giving them hours of toxic fumes seems like something that could have been avoided. Oh well, DRJCF won’t be improved overnight. That much is certain! The visitation staff were extremely helpful and polite though, being very courteous. However, at the library on Thursday, January 20th evening, they had just painted the hallway and I developed a pounding headache. We are not allowed out, only on the hour, so by the time I got back to my unit at 9:15pm, I was very ill and threw-up and had the pounding headache for 2 hours – Toxic Fumes!

My friend Guy has typed up his adventures in bureaucracy at the end of this letter. It outlines in painful detail how some aspects of life here can be so exasperating. In Guy’s case, it is about his months’ long struggle to obtain a pair of orthopedic tennis shoes. I asked Guy to tell the tale because he recounts it so calm and deadpan.

My hair was getting longish. I wanted to get a trim, and what I discovered one night two weeks ago is that there is no Mexican/Hispanic phrase for “just a trim”. So I ended up with the shortest haircut I’ve gotten since I was 5 years old and my Dad gave what was in those days called the dreaded “buzz cut”. A whole generation of mine fought for the right to have long rebellious lengths of hair only to see kids and adults since the 1980’s embrace the very same “buzz cut” style I loathed in my youth. I got scalped is what I got, two weeks ago! Less than half an inch of hair was left! Ulp. Looked very strange to me when I looked in the mirror! Plus I have this ganglia on the left side of my neck below the nape of my hairline that looks like a serious tumor, but it isn’t. It’s just a buildup of sebaceous skin, a bump that looks freaky if you haven’t noticed it on my neck before. It’s been there for 25 years or so now, doesn’t hurt and doesn’t impact on my health so I’ve never had it removed. But now its visible and probably 40 or so inmates have said in worried tones, “Marc, there is a big lump on your neck, you should get that looked at.” I look completely different.

While looking on the commissary kiosk in our Q-2 pod, I saw that inmate photo tickets are finally available so I bought three for $1.00 each. That means on the next US holiday, an inmate photographer will be taking photos. I think Presidents’ Day is February 12th, which means that photos in the visitation room will be taken, which is Saturday, and Sunday February 13th is my birthday and Jodie visits me both those days so we’ll get our photo taken together, so that is 23 days away from today so my hair won’t look so starkly short. [Note from Jodie Emery: Photos are now available on every visiting weekend, so we got pictures taken on January 29th and will get them every weekend we visit.]

Last week, my transfer application was FedEx’d to the US Department of Justice. So now it is done and I wait for the verdict from the DOJ: approved or rejected. If approved by the USA, it then goes to the Canadian Minister of Public Safety for his approval or rejection. If approved by Canada, I get moved into the Canadian Corrections system within 3 months of the approval. To send a letter on my behalf to encourage my transfer home, go to www.FreeMarc.ca for the address to write your letter. Mine was the first transfer application done by the staff here at DRJCF, so I am grateful to my Washington, DC lawyer Sylvia Royce, and the supporters who I believe successfully cajoled the process along and raised money to hire Sylvia.

When I return to civilian life in Canada, one thing will be different; I’ve developed a taste for spicy food. To add flavor to the very bland food given to us, I use jalapeno peppers, minced garlic, half a bottle of hot-sauce, generous shakings of Mrs. Dash, mayonnaise, and olive oil. All these are available from the inmate store (commissary). I’ve suggested vegetables to be sold in the commissary, as is done at Taft and Moshannon Valley Prisons – both private prisons, the latter run by GEO Group like D. Ray James here – but there is resistance. I tried to emphasize that selling vegetables is keeping the inmates in good health (less demand on the doctor/medical staff) and would diminish the demand for vegetables on the “Black Market”. Some kitchen workers are known to steal the occasional vegetable and sell them to other inmates. Having these items sold in the Commissary, I put forward to the Warden, would take away the Black Market.

Shockingly, on Friday, January 21st, I enjoyed the best lunch ever served in the dining hall here. The baked beans had fresh tomato and jalapeños, the baked whole breast chicken was excellent, the salad had lots of carrot in it, green beans, a nice fresh bun, even the rice was special! I told the Head of Food Services “Great Job!! Best food here EVER!”

Unfortunately, because fresh fruit and vegetables are otherwise non-existent, I eat meat and fish that I can buy from commissary. I am looking forward to eating vegetarian when I get back to civilian life. Jodie, on her visits here, finds it difficult to get tasty and healthy vegetarian food in this part of the world. They like meat with everything, she finds, so she usually has salads (without the chicken that’s always included), and side orders of vegetables. I’m looking forward to making a spicy lasagna when I get home, with fresh spinach, ricotta cheese, and spicy tomato sauce. Oh, and to have a salad with broccoli, tomatoes, carrots tossed in a proper dressing. What I would give for a mango, a peach! I used to conk open a fresh coconut every week or so when I lived at home. Oh, nostalgia and excitement for the days back with my wife ahead!

My beloved hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks, are having their greatest season ever, and I haven’t seen a complete game this season (I saw three periods of one game at Sea-Tac only to have it go into overtime and then it was Lockdown). The Canucks are first place in the NHL, both conferences, if they can hold that premier position, it will be the first time the Canucks have won the President’s Trophy (first place over-all). Go, Canucks, Go! And save some glory for when I get back to (no longer GM Place) Rogers Arena, a few blocks from my home in downtown Vancouver!

Jumping topics, I wanted to say that Jodie’s visit Sunday, Jan. 16th, was notable because the Warden, Mr. Booker, came in the visitation room and introduced himself to Jodie and sat down with us exclusively, in a kind of gesture of recognition and interest. This is a courtesy on his part because he is well informed of my criticisms and complaints that find their way into the public discourse (internet & newspapers), as well as I rarely hesitate to tell him my complaints and concerns when I see him at chow hall.

One of the good things about the structure of D. Ray James is that most management staff can be found outside of the dining hall for 1 hour between 11:00 am and Noon, or Noon to 1:00 pm. On these occasions, Monday to Friday, any inmate can voice a concern or make an inquiry to the person responsible. Often I and other inmates are cynically inclined to believe nothing changes if you do voice your concerns, but I’m a believer in the adage the “squeaky wheel gets the grease”. A concern I am bringing up frequently is that Canadians cannot easily put money in a Canadian inmate’s commissary account here, not by Western Union or money orders, and not with a Canadian credit card, all of which are available if the Canadian is in the BOP system (like I was at SEA-TAC FDC). Only an American Visa or MasterCard is acceptable, which Canadians can only get by driving the USA and buying a pre-paid Visa or MasterCard at Wal-Mart. Angelo’s wife had to do this, drive from Bolton, Ontario to Niagara Falls, New York to buy $500.00 worth of pre-paid credit cards. The Canadian, Harris, had his wife go to Plattsburg, New York for the same reason.

The person responsible here for inmate money matters insists that by the end of this month, people will be able to send money to Canadians here via Western Union, but I have heard this since I arrived here 65 days ago. Same with the imminent release of Mp3 players; I heard that announced when I arrived here, but still no Mp3 players for sale (songs will cost $1.50 each to download). I also agitate for Corrlinks (inmate email) which all American inmates in the Federal Prison system have unlimited access to. No commitment to Corrlinks either.

One device that I’m hoping to convince the Warden to permit is the Kindle electronic book reading device. This would greatly save space for an inmate, allow us to read in the dark, poses no threat to the security of the prison and would further the education of any inmate. Since electronic devices like Sony portable radios and Secure System Mp3 players are now permitted at D. Ray James, I cannot see why Kindle book readers would not be allowed. I will let you know how that conversation goes. DRJ could even sell Kindles in the Keefe Commissary.

There is tension brewing in the units. Each unit houses up to 64 to 80 men. The 80 are in 40 2-man cells. Part of D. Ray James has 2-man cells now being used, just not the part I’m in. So each unit has only two televisions for all these men. In each range/unit, there are 55-60 Hispanics, and 3-20 English speakers. The Spanish speakers have one TV dedicated to them, and one TV is dedicated to English speakers. What is happening in numerous units is the Hispanics, greatly out-numbering the English speakers, are attempting to wrest control of the English TV. Today it reached violence in R-5 Pod, where an English speaker was intimidated, harassed, then confronted over his resistance to the Hispanics taking control of the TV. The answer is simple, but D. Ray James management resists the obvious: add another TV to each range, or put all the English speakers, number no more than two units (say, 120 – 140) in their own units, which is what all the inmates, including myself, would prefer. I would definitely rather be with all Canadians, Caribbeans, and others who speak English. Then we could converse, have 2 televisions in English, have all our notices on boards in English (instead of wading through Spanish Language notices), and our interaction in English.

Many Hispanics belong to gangs. None of the English speakers belong to gangs. The Hispanics tend to be nosier and less respectful of the idea of “quiet-time”, and if the Hispanics were all together, it would double the number of televisions in Spanish, which they would certainly welcome. I explained this to the Bureau of Prisons monitor here and she agreed it was a good idea, but she said “How would we look if African Americans were segregated from Caucasians, and the Hispanics, etc.” I pointed out that the difference is this is a situation created by D. Ray James, either add more TVs, or put people with their own language groups. The English speakers would be a mix of blacks, whites, and Hispanics whose native language is English. Other prisons have 3 to 4 televisions; it is only D. Ray James that limits a unit to two TVs. In Canada, at North Fraser, each cell has a TV, a cheap flat-screen that costs $150.00 each, paid for by the inmates from the inmates’ trust funds. The inmate trust funds here could easily cover the cost of additional microwaves, televisions, exercise equipment; all things that urgently needed! I should note that I never watch TV, so I pay no attention to what is on, and I have no objection to the TVs both being Spanish, but there is tension being created unnecessarily because of it. These situations that occur here, where the obvious answer seems unlikely to be implemented, is what makes life here unnecessary and miserable.

Still no progress on the fellow I mentioned in Newsletter #1 in getting dentures GEO lost 7 months ago replaced. Still no progress for the Laotian guy who has been trying for months to get married here and has done everything required by D. Ray James’ own procedure statements. (Update by Marc: word is the Laotian man has been given the ‘green light’ to get married at DRJCF! We’ll see if it happens, as rumours abound here.) I am still waiting for my property from Sea-Tac FDC to arrive, which is supposed to follow an inmate within 30 days. 65 days later and it has not arrived. I have written Sea-Tac advising them I am here. My radio, headphones, booklight, books, food (no doubt gone bad after this length of storage), correspondence, my political writings, my autobiography, my 2011 Canadian election guide, are all in this property which I believe is sitting at Taft Correctional in California, where I was designated to until last-minute I was directed to this remote ‘facility’. Most importantly, all my photographs of Jodie (including her sexy photos!) are in my photo albums in my two property boxes. [Note from Jodie: Marc’s property from Sea-Tac was indeed sent to the Taft prison in California, where Marc was supposed to be imprisoned, and has supposedly been shipped out after our lawyer contacted them asking for it to be forwarded to Georgia.]

Jumping topics again; I just received two books I’m about to read. One is called “Jailhouse Lawyers” by Mumia Abu Jamal, a man who has been on death row for decades, and work of fiction called “Cutting For Stone” by Abraham Verghese, a Booker Prize nominee for best work of fiction. Mumia’s book is about the jailhouse lawyers over the past 20 years whose efforts gave prisoners the few rights they actually have inside jail. “Cutting For Stone” is about conjoined twins who are separated and what epiphanies and tragedies befall them and the world around them. These books were sent courtesy of two supporters.

As of January 20th, I’ve put in 312 days on this 1,825 -day (5-year) sentence. With 235 days good time credit (provided I don’t lose all or part of that with disciplinary reprimands), that is 547 days off 1,825 – leaving 1,278 days to go if I serve every day of it in the US Federal Prison system. If I get transferred to Canada, I qualify for parole 6 months after I return to the Canadian Correctional system. The earliest I could be transferred back to Canada is this summer, if all goes well, so January or February 2012 is (optimistically) my hoped-for parole release date. The remainder of my time up to early 2015 would be on parole. If I serve the time in a US Federal prison, my release date (with good time) is July 7th, 2014.

You can write me or send books or magazines to me at:

Marc Scott Emery #40252-086 Unit Q Pod 2
D Ray James Correctional Institution
PO Box 2000
Folkston, GA
31537
USA

If you want to put money on my Commissary account, you can do this using an American credit card, at www.accesscorrections.com – register at the website, look me up at D. Ray James Correctional Facility using my name and prisoner # 40252-086, and that helps me pay for the photocopies for these newsletters that I send out in the mail. It also helps cover the large cost of postage I go through mailing them out.

Thank you for your continued support and activism to help end this drug war. I am only one of countless individuals locked up for being involved with the amazing cannabis plant, and I hope that by bringing attention to what a seed seller from Canada endures will motivate people to do everything possible to stop the continuation of this insane and unjust campaign of persecution. Don’t just wait for change to happen, make it happen yourself!

<i>"It’s possible that one person can undo the evil of several thousand people. You should never underestimate your power." – Marc Emery</i>

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<u>“It’s Just a Damn Pair of Tennis Shoes!”</u>

By Guy Atkins, D. Ray James Correctional

I started this painful story with my unfortunate arrival at D. Ray James on October 13th, 2010. After going through the initial arrival process (ouch) I was finally put in a unit with 62 inmates, ALL but one spoke no English. (As you’ve heard, this concentration camp is designed “mainly for the Devil’s rejects”; that’s how it was put to me by an un-named officer.) Well, after approximately a month of being here, D. Ray James decided that inmates can have their own tennis shoes IF you had them when you got here.

So I excitedly ran (yes, I did run) to R&D to retrieve my tennis shoes. I was met by a horrid woman, who first looked at me weird because I was talking English, not just any English, but the Queen’s English (I am British). She actually asked me to repeat myself more than once – which I did. Anyway, after checking my tame tag… twice… and checking the spelling… also twice (‘Guy Atkins’ what a difficult name…?) she disappeared to the property room and returned with a brown paper bag containing my tennis shoes. My tennis shoes are made by LaCoste. They are all white with exception of a red stripe no bigger than inch by two. She said told me that I cannot have them because they are red. I asked her to repeat herself, and sure enough, this “White Tennis Shoe” was being called “RED”. No shoes or items of clothing here can be any color. Only white, grey and black are allowed. So because it was being called “RED”, it is a gang color, which makes it contraband for me to have it. I tried to reason with her that the entire shoe is white NOT red, but I soon realized that I was talking to myself, so humble as I am, I walked away.

The following day I went to see the doctor. This couldn’t happen, because unless you are dying or dead, GEO Group policy will not allow  you to see at doctor. You have to first put in a request to see the doctor, and a few days later you’re met in the medical department by a nurse “with a smile”. So I told the nurse that due my car accident 6 years ago I usually wear orthopedic shoes. I told her I needed my shoes, as otherwise I will start getting back pains, etc. She said she understood, but still insisted on taking my temperature, blood pressure, and pulse (yes, I still had one). She told me she’d go through my records and get approval from the doctor that I should have my shoes.

As a week went by, I caught up with a staff member in medical by the name of Mr. Friday, who in front of me confirmed with the doctor that I am allowed my tennis shoes. He got on the phone and advised Major Gallindo to take care of my issue as per doctor’s instructions. Mr. Gallindo gave his “word” over the phone that it will be dealt with on that same day.

Another week went by and I approached Mr. Gallindo and asked him “Sir, I’m Atkins, Guy; have you had a chance to take care of my tennis shoe issue yet?”. I thought there was a plane crash behind me as I could swear he was looking right past me. Anyway, he replied “No”, and that he’d get around to it the following day. This told me his “word” is obviously no good to his fellow colleagues, so him telling me, an inmate, I couldn’t really believe it on face value.

The following day I returned to the doctor, this time due to a terrible flu which turned out to be pneumonia. The doctor actually remembered me and asked if I had gotten my shoes. I explained what happened and he made a call to Mr. Friday again, Mr. Friday then told him “he’s on it”, (I’m not quite sure what he was actually “on”). Later that day I saw Mr. Friday in the dinner hall. He asked me if I had gotten my shoes. I just had to smile. “No, Sir. I obviously haven’t.” He again called Major Gallindo and asked “what’s going on?” The message I got back was it will be dealt with today. Yet another week went past and nothing.

Finally I caught up with someone from “security” who told me that because of the slight “red” on my shoe, it’s considered a “gang color”. I tried to reason with this gentleman saying I understand that in certain places the color “red” symbolizes “Bloods” and “blue” for “Crips”, yet all our prison-issued jackets and platform shoes are “blue” so technically aren’t we all “Crips”? Needless to say he had no answer for me. I took it upon myself to return to R&D and ask an officer if I’m allowed to have the same tennis shoe sent in for me in all white. “Yes” he replied, as long as it’s ordered direct from the retailer and is sent directly here. So I ran (yes, I’m still running everywhere, as I’m scared if I walk and take my time the rule may change be the time I reach my destination). Ok, so I call one my girlfriends and ask her to go online and send me some all white tennis shoes, by LaCoste of course. So after a few days go by she confirms that she actually sent me two pairs (she must love me!) and that they should be at the facility in 3 days.

Four days later I turned up at R&D with a big smile on my face ready to collect my shoes which, according to the tracking number, had been delivered. I saw two boxes sitting on the table from LaCoste (Yay!). They were opened up in front of me and first shoe has a little green on the alligator logo. The logo is no more than an inch. “Sorry Atkins. They’re GREEN. You can’t have them.” “GREEN?” I replied. “The whole entire shoe is pure white.” I could tell I wasn’t going to win this argument, so I let it go.

We opened the second box and this was ALL WHITE, no logo of any color, just pure white. “Err, sorry Atkins, you can’t have these either.” I almost died (ok, slight exaggeration) but I was dumbfounded. “You can’t have them because they are over $100.00 as per the receipt here,” showing me the cost (it was $139.00). My smile again was taken away from me, what I have so far learned is that there is no point in arguing with the system. Just be smarter and find another way.

Now I had to go back to the unit, call my girlfriend and tell her what happened. Before I could say anything I further learned that she had just purchased some “all white” Louis Vuittons for me that I’d love. (Err, slow down honey!) I told her the story of what had unfolded. She agreed that it is a dumb silly rule, long(er) story short, she AGAIN purchased some ALL WHITE tennis shoes from LaCoste (of course), and under $100.00. Another 3 days later I went to the mailroom to check if my shoes had arrived yet. (Mailroom gets them first, then they give them to R&D.) “No Atkins they’re not here, and the rule NOW is you need to get a specific form that allows you to order shoes from outside.” It’s actually called a BP331 “Authorization to Receive Property.” I explained that I never required one last week. “That was last week. This is the new rule.”

Okay, so I went running (in case you haven’t noticed I am running a lot) to the unit in search of a BP331. The first 3 officers I asked looked at me like I was an alien asking for their mother’s date of birth. I finally came across Mr. Gray (a nice gentleman) who said he has one in his office. So I got the form, it’s pretty basic, I needed to put the name and address of the actual company shipping the shoes, the amount, and it has to be signed by an “Authorizing Officer,” so I managed to bump into case manager Mr. Maynor (another nice gentleman – very helpful) and he was kind enough to sign it, so I went back to the mailroom but it was closed. I left it there for them to attend to the following morning.

The following day it was confirmed that they received my package, but now it was questioned “who authorized” my paperwork? “Mr. Maynor” I replied. Well now I was being told that it HAS to be the Warden who can authorize it. So I pulled my copy of the signed BP331 and asked where does it say “to be signed by the Warden”. Nowhere exactly. It says “authorizing officer.” I could see where this was going, so I calmly walked out and went to medical yet again. I could not see the doctor until I put in a request, it just so happened that coincidentally I was on a callout the following to day to see the doctor about my “follow up” from my pneumonia. I saw the same doctor, who asked me if I got my shoes yet. “No sir” I replied. I gave him the latest events, he shook his head and signed a request form clearly stating “Give this inmate his Shoes”. That has been forwarded to the relevant parties. Today, January 20th, 2011, I approached a member of staff and asked if I can collect my shoes. I was told that she thinks I need the “other” doctor to sign my authorization too.

With this latest “smash on my face” I had to take a walk and, come on, have a bitchfit with this vintage 1960’s typewriter I’m typing on. I’m going to give this to my good friend Marc, who I’m sure will add it to his excellent newsletters! With me luck people. After all, it is just a pair of damn tennis shoes!

After I had my bitchfit moment and let myself calm down, I went to R&D today at 1pm. Upon my arrival a nice officer, Mr. Luggers, asked me to wait in one of the holding cells as it wasn’t quite 1:00pm yet. They only deal with R&D and mailroom issues between 1:00pm and 2:00pm sharp. Upon it being 1:00pm, I was asked to approach the desk. “Can I help you?” is what the officer said. “Yes sir, I’m here to collect my tennis shoes.”

He asked me to wait and went to the property room, retrieved my box and brought it out and started doing the paperwork to give me the shoes. I couldn’t believe it. I was finally going to get my shoes! Just then, a woman staffer started making comments saying that I shouldn’t be allowed to get them as “they are not orthopedic tennis shoes.” “And how would you know this Maam?” I asked in my broken voice. “Because I went online and looked it up, and they are not orthopedic.” I was speechless. No, really, just speechless. In fact, my mouth was probably left open but I found no words in my voice to push forward. “Maam, are you saying that you took the time to go online especially to check on my ever-so-fly-looking kicks, to check if they are orthopedic or not?” Wow, as she went on she was told (yes, told) by Mr. Luggers that as per the “procedure statement” that he just read and went over, I did actually follow all the procedures and that I should be given my shoes. I could feel the heat steaming from her head. Before it got any further I picked up my kicks, signed my paperwork and headed out. So, yes, I finally got my shoes.

Just so that you know, this stated on approximately November 15th, 2010. Today is January 20th, 2011. Yes, it took awhile, but thank God I finally have my ALL WHITE tennis shoes! Later on this day while I was walking towards the chow hall, I walked past the same lady who told me I “got the wrong doctor to sign my approval.” I will give you one guess where she was looking… and it wasn’t at my cheesy smile… Happy reading. I’ll keep you posted to further events.

– Guy

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