Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen,
I pray that this message gets to you and finds you in the best of health
and strength possible. As for myself; bless- doing the best possible under
these uncertain conditions.
I will not waste your time. I am sending you this message in hopes
that it will shed light onto the "real" situation going on with Texas prisons,
staff and prisoners as well.
I am a prisoner housed at the infamous Polunsky Unit and yes; I am
on Death Row. If this message reaches you it is by God's grace that it
did because I am a whistle blower on the conditions and treatment of prisoners
within the entire American Penal Institution.
Recently, the Polunsky Unit was visited by the Commission on Accreditation
for Corrections and the American Correctional Association. These are private,
non-profit organizations directing the accreditation of correctional programs
in the U.S. and other countries. This audit of this prison (Polunsky Unit,
formerly Charles T. Terrell) was conducted during the week of Sept. 9-12
of 2002. For the sake of me I cannot figure out how this prison passed
this audit at all. We received notice from the Warden (Warden Zeller)
that this prison passed the audit and he was pleased with what we had
done, yada, yada, yada. Truth of the matter is; this prison is so faltered
from it's programs all the way down to it's structure that there is no
way possible it would pass any type of inspection or audit unless the
auditor was a blind person!
Allow me to explain some of the conditions.
The mail situation:
The mail is allowed a 48-72 hour review/inspection by the mailroom.
If it found to be a threatening of gang related letter it is either handed
over the the Gang Intelligence or denied. Why is it that regular incoming
mail takes 5-7 days for a prisoner to receive it? This is not counting
the days it has taken to reach the prison. The administration has take
it upon itself to limit us to 60 stamps a month that we can purchase. Quite
frankly, I spend 45-50 stamps in 2 weeks just maintaining my legal proceedings!
Prisoners on Death Row fight every day fore their lives. We have no release
date or parole date; we have an execution number! If you utilize your 60
stamps in one month, you must ask the Warden for permission to purchase
additional stamps. This is comforting! In the past, the mail was picked
up by TDCJ Correctional Officers, but due to the fact that prisoners mail
was coming up missing, and that some were getting strange letters from people
who just happen to work in prisons, this has changed. Our mail is now collected
by Mail Room workers, however the same problems have continued to occur.
I, for one, have had my mail tampered with and must threaten to file
Federal Mail Tampering charges just to receive my mail. One Mailroom employee,
Mrs. LaPaglia, has a history of not giving you your materials. She is in
charge of publications. Her supervisor- Mrs. Long, does nothing to stop
this because she also, has been found doing the same thing! I have had letters,
legal mail, pictures, religious materials and magazines all come up lost
in the mailroom. This now lead us to the Grievance Department.
Let us talk about the staff in itself. I recall one situation in which
this very typewriter I am typing on was handled incorrectly upon having
my cell ransacked by an officer i.e. Officer Jerry Fender. The cover of
my typewriter was broken. Of course the officer denied blame. I then asked
to speak with the supervisor. Sergeant Phillip Griggs came and I explained
the situation. His reply was "I don't have time for this shit, Officer Fender,
write him a case." This took place on 10-30-01.
Let's move onto the inhumane living conditions; I was in a cell for
23 months which was very moldy, (which can and will become toxic),
had extremely bad leaks from the ceiling being completely cracked and broken,
and the wall having a hole in it where I could look directly out and see
the next building.This allowing the elements of nature to come in, and
allowing it to become infested with ants. The plumbing was so deplorable
that when another cell flushes, the feces and/or urine come up into my toilet.
Upon writing the Warden on these issues, he did nothing to rectify the situation.
He was too busy fighting with this own daughter for dating a man
of African descent! The cell has yet to be fixed.
Tax payers have spent their hard earned money to build this prison
under the guise of it being a solid, super max prison. Not even 10 years
later half of this building has fallen apart. The picket on Delta Pod 12
building is molding. The officers don't want to work around that themselves,
but I lived with it for 23 months and I now experience a breathing problem
because of it!
The living conditions get worse. There are still feces and urine caked
up on the top of the bars from the last group of prisoners that were here.
AND, we have been here for over 2 years now! The floors have dirt, syrup,
feces, urine, old food from trays, tobacco that is spit out by officers
(tobacco is illegal in penal institutions in Texas!!), even cow manure
is here!
Raw sewage comes up from the pipe line on Delta Pod. You smell what
your neighbor is doing. Sometimes you see it!
We aren't allowed nail clippers, so the officer brings around a pair
that they CLAIM are sterile. Why is it that there is gunk, filth
and rust all over these nail clippers? Over 400 men use the very same pair
of clippers for their toes and finger nails. The sane goes for the hair
clippers! To avoid contracting Hepatitis C, most would rather just bite
their nails off. We are also forced to shave, which I have no problem with,
however, there are men who cannot shave with an electric razor, therefor
they have stopped allowing us to purchase them. We are forced to attempt
to get a shave pass where we are taken to get shaved with the same clippers
they cut over 2000 prisoners heads with on this unit! You must place the
very same clippers on your face! But, in order to get this shave pass,
first you must destroy your face with the same straight razor that you cannot
shave with. You must shave with the razor and force yourself to break out
in extreme pain and bumps for them to issue you a pass! This was declared
cruel and unusual punishment by the Supreme Court.
I have also personally seen and heard (and experienced) officers verbally
and physically abuse prisoners. I have been called racially motivated
slurs. I have been called religiously motivated slurs. Though I am of
the stronger mind here, some others cannot accept it that way. Cell deprivation
runs rampid.
People, this is only the tip of the iceberg. I am only giving you a
brief description of the problems! It continues to get worse and worse.
I have my own publication in which I describe the things that go on down
here and this has made me one of the people to "watch" down here. You
can gain more information at:
http://www.100megsfree4.com/bingola35/DFrazier/operationlifedeathrowjournal.html
To find more information on a national , broader scale visit:
http://truedemocracy.net
This is extremely informative as well.
And to find out exactly how this place passed this audit, you
may contact:
American Correctional Association
Standards
and Accreditation Dept.
43080 Forbes Boulevard
Lanham, Maryland 20706
(301) 918-1835
If you get this message, please respond to it by emailing me your thoughts
on this situation. As I said, this is only the tip of the iceberg. There
is certainly more to this and I wish to share more of this. Do know that
this message has been sent to several newspaper editors as well, so I do
hope I get a response from you.
Things are not what people may think. True, we don't deserve the Hilton,
but at least get up the Motel 6, they leave the light on for you!
In Solidarity,
Hasaan B. Shakoor
Derrick Frazier #999284
Texas Death Row- Polunsky Unit
Reflections
by Hasaan Baz'l Shakoor
© Copyright 2002 Hasaan Baz'il Shakoor
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