by Rory Andes | Nov 3, 2021 | From the Inside
Everyone knows of him. He’s the guy with the white beard. He’s in his late 50’s and still manages a pony tail that he can braid. Some guys are envious of his hair. He carries a comb in his back pocket like a kid from last century. He talks about his mom like she’s his best friend. She comes and visits almost every week, you know, just ask him. When he tells it, she’s his only friend.
Life has escaped him, forgotten him, but he tells himself it’s ok. He still has his mom’s kind love. But from time to time, he stresses about her health. He knows she won’t live forever. Then what? Who will care, then? His appeal to the court should come through any day now, then he can help take care of Momma. Lord knows she could use the help at her age. Those sharp attorneys just about have his final sentencing argument ready, from his understanding. Then he’s getting some of that time back. It’ll be over with for this separation from Momma. She really needs his help.
He’s been in prison almost 40 years for a vicious rape that happened after a hard night of drinking. He can’t begin to remember who she was or what even happened. All he knows of her young face are the brutal photos the police took. All he knows of how it happened was that they knew a few of the same people at the same party and he came on to her. He has no idea how or why things escalated to such an event. Not really. He was way too trashed that night. His memories don’t exist. All his information of what happened came from police reports he couldn’t read until months later, before his trial.
What he does know is she’s a success. She has been for a long time now. His momma told him that at some point. She graduated college, married a banker and has four kids that make it home for the holidays. He’s glad she turned out ok. He’s glad he didn’t go so far that he ended her life. He just doesn’t know why he hurt her or how he got to where he went with it, so violent and not himself. In the moment, he wasn’t what Momma raised. What he does know is he did something awful to that young lady. He also knows that she hurts somewhere inside today because of him. He still doesn’t know how to reconcile with himself or how to feel about himself over it.
It’s that time of day again. He has to get in line for the phone. He has his notebook ready in case the paralegal has any new information for him. The laws about sentencing change all the time and people get some time back for those court rule changes. It’s his turn, now. He dials the phone and waits. No answer today. Man, he was hoping he could talk to the paralegal today. He knows how busy his lawyer is, too. Momma needs him to have good news, though.
The sad fact is, the paralegal doesn’t answer because the lawyer working on his appeal hasn’t been in practice in over ten years now. All of his appeals had been exhausted decades ago. His 53 year sentence still stands. He stays hopeful for that appeal because he’s broken. He’s certain that he’ll help his mom soon because he’s broken. His life has escaped him because he’s broken. Maybe he crossed that line a long time ago because he was broken then, too.
In reality, Momma has been gone for a few years now, too. It was heartbreaking for us to see him fall apart when the prison chaplain told him. He’s paid quite a price for being this broken. He committed a crime he never could remember, and remembers things that quit happening so long ago. His mind has disengaged from reality years back and now it’s like this for the sake of his own salvation. He might live to see freedom someday, but probably not. No one would care anymore, anyway. All because he’s broken…
by Michael Henderson | Oct 28, 2021 | Daily Life in a Florida Prison, From the Inside
I don’t mind admitting that this is pure commentary and that I’ve done no actual research in the composition of this article save my own experience. The primary question I would like to pose is this,” Why doesn’t the establishment want our society to heal?”
Given where I’m posting I hope it stands to reason that I’m speaking of the Amerikan injustice system. There is much rhetoric about prison reform in some of the media these days but it’s this one question that’s lacking in every radio or print story I’ve come across in recent years. TV won’t address the issue, period. The reason I pose this question because if we wanted to change something, say for instance pulling our troops out of a war torn area because it no longer serves our ‘interests,’ we just do it. Prime example since it’s happening right now and was only recently decided by our last president who was only in office four years. The exploding prison population has been happening for decades.
So why do we keep putting legislators in office that not only allow, but propagate bad laws that do things like weaponize sex. Oh no, now I’ve done it. I’ve spoken like a real pinko Commie fag who wants to nuke the gay whales. Neil Gorsuch, Donald Trump’s first appointment to the ”Supreme Court” was quoted in the case of Gamble v Alabama as recognizing that with over 4500 federal laws on the books, it’s virtually impossible for a person over the age of 18 in Amerika to not commit a crime for which he or she can be imprisoned. That’s astounding! But yet we keep electing these same self-important people cycle after cycle for 25 or 30 years. And are we any safer? We certainly are at an increased risk of the caprice of the politicians, the police, the prosecutors, the judges, and what’s probably the most powerful administrative agencies in every single state, The Department Of Corrections. Or what’s known affectionately as the dept. of corruptions, among incarcerated persons everywhere.
It’s obvious that what we have been doing doesn’t work and never has or we wouldn’t be in this predicament in the first place. Why don’t we make the changes needed within the penal system to stop the madness? Why don’t we want America to heal? We view ourselves as this all time greatest society known to mankind, but maintain the largest prison population in history. Ever! There are many models from which we can draw, Germany, Norway, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Is it arrogance? Is it fear? I don’t think either. Honestly, I think that while the taxpayers coffers are draining like sieves, the private sectors are raking it in. Is that enough incentive to keep the prisons filled with the poor instead of educating our citizenry? Is it incentive enough to fill the prisons with uneducated, unqualified, and underpaid employees who have no idea what they have been drawn into and are incapable of exhibiting even the slightest bit of humanity? That which imprisoned people need most. I don’t know. Who’s doing the math. Those who know the answer to the question, ”Why doesn’t the establishment want our society to heal?”
by Eric Burnham | Oct 27, 2021 | From the Inside
As of August 2021, I have officially completed my PhD program. I have earned a Doctorate of Philosophy in Counseling and Psychology, with an emphasis on the integration of psychology and theology. I have reached the apex of academic achievement, and I have done it while serving a life sentence in prison.
I have worked so hard and overcome so much. I remember the day I was arrested. I didn’t even have a GED, and I was so self-centered and self-absorbed, my worldview so narrow. I am a completely different person today. I have come so far on the journey toward becoming the man I was designed to be. One important thing I have learned along the way is that all my hard work and perseverance has not led me to the end of a journey, but prepared me for a beginning. I am now more equipped to use my life experiences, in conjunction with my education, in service to others, which will define my dash. I have found myself, and I can give of myself from a place of authenticity, meaning, and purpose.
I read a question once that has stuck with me. It was one of those profound questions that cannot be answered completely until after one’s life is over. It asks, “What did you do with your dash?” While some are longer than others, we all get one–after our lives are over, there will be a date when we were born and a date when we died… and a dash in between. Whether a literal dash on a headstone or a figurative one etched in time, we all get one, and all of them impact the world, some for better, some for worse.
The superhero, Colossal, stated that “Over a lifetime, there are only 4 or 5 moments that make you a hero.” Well, I think that there are 4 or 5 decisions that determine your character as well. We tend to think of heroes as having superhuman qualities, able to solve immediate and impossible problems with other worldly force. However, I think real life heroes display extraordinary courage and perseverance in order to open closed minds, to impact their environment positively, and to make change in the lives of others… and to do it on purpose.
During the last 20 years that I have been incarcerated, I have come into contact with some fantastically ignorant people. The most abrasive among them are those who view a long prison term as an accomplishment. Personally, I disagree. I believe a prison term is the result of a wasted opportunity at life, the inevitable destination of the profoundly unaware. Yet, I have learned that prison doesn’t have to define you, but what you do with your prison time will… every time.
Prison time is extremely difficult and painful, but it can be the crucible of pain and struggle that makes a person stronger, whether one wants it to or not–how we respond to our mistakes and to our hurts will almost always determine the quality of our future, and the definition of our dash.
I am in prison, and I am guilty. I deserved to be sent to prison. I wasted my young life. I hurt so many people, and it haunts me. The pain of the young man I used to be and the harm I have caused threatened to overwhelm me during my first few years of prison. I was emotionally isolated and had no psychoactive substances to mask the pain. There were times when I didn’t want to keep going, times when I didn’t think I could, and times when I didn’t think it mattered. I was on autopilot for several years, lost in the consequences of my own sins, knowing I deserved them.
Sometimes in life, you come across people that bump into you, and without your awareness — and perhaps without even theirs — they change your direction like asteroids colliding in space. In the middle of my emptiness, I was given the gift of people who believed in me, even when I wasn’t sure I could believe in myself. It only took a moment for my mother to pay for my education, for the GED instructors to give me a job as a tutor, and for so many along the way to provide love, assistance, and support — and for some to cut me a break when I needed one. Those people are the heroes of my story, and I simply could not have come as far as I have without them.
I am grateful for all the support and care I have been given along the way. For a man like me, coming from where I do, having gone through all that I have, and having hurt so many people… for anyone to give me a chance to choose to be different amounts to giving me a chance to be human, to accept my own imperfections, to love and be loved, and to experience success in the midst of failure. I was one of their four or five moments, but the moments they chose to use on me have literally altered the outcome of my life, and the impact of my dash. Everyday heroes have prepared me for the next step in the journey of my life, allowing me an opportunity to knowingly make the right four or five decisions that have permanently shaped my character going forward, decisions that — were it not for them — would have, in all likelihood, been the wrong ones, and carried me further into the abyss of narcissism.
The biblical definition of ‘angel’ is messenger’ … and many times ancient prophets did not even know they were speaking the Words of the Creator. If God is love (1 John 4:8) and God’s messengers are to love like Him (1 John 4:9-11), then the people who loved me enough to give me a chance are, quite literally, angels in the truest sense, and I am eternally grateful.
I am not yet free to deploy my education, personal development, and past experiences to benefit others on a broad scale. I still have work to do if I want my life to matter. For I have learned that I matter the most to my world when others matter to me. I have never been a hero to anyone, but the impact of those who believed in me helped me to overcome my own failures, which reverberate through me to the lives of others. My dash is not yet written in stone. We all get one, and it only takes four or five moments and four or five decisions to define it. I have never been a hero, but because of my angels, I want to be one.
by Michael Henderson | Oct 26, 2021 | Book Review, From the Inside
I would like to present a book review / follow up to my latest post as my actual follow up was censured by the folks who don’t like the light to shine in their little corner of inhumanity. Again, and as always, my hope is to bring about as many minds as can be attracted to the dire needs of a new consciousness. One in which that light always shines into the deepest recesses of inhumanity.
Having a penchant for seeking out those most would consider a bit on the extreme side, I, to the contrary of the old idiom, do judge a book by its cover. At least by its title.
My latest find is by Peter Edelman, published by The New Press, 2017, entitled Not a Crime To Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America. This is not a book for the idle mind. Chock full of facts that are not willing to hide in the dark. This book unleashes facts about criminalizing debts by exposing one of most corrupt industries in history. The insurance industry under cover as the cash bail system has lobbied our politicians for years as police forces have ramped up to military levels of fire power.
Statistics throughout this book prove beyond any reasonable doubt the school-to-prison pipeline in America is a cultural cancer that is eroding the concept of the American dream. All personal takes aside, mental illness, poor fathers, public assistance benefits, including unemployment insurance swirled in with poverty, race and discipline in schools have created a hotbed of inhumanity leading many to believe that people in prison deserve to be in prison. I used to think the same way until I was thrust into the system under the very conditions this book exposes. You may wonder how an innocent person gets into the prison system. The lobbying groups connive, cajole, and flat out bribe politicians to write laws that nullify the constitution and the limits imposed by it upon the governments. But an even bigger problem exposed in this book leaves no doubt that complacency is the primary culprit to this stupefying revolving door system. The next time you pass judgment on someone who happens to be homeless, know that in many parts of the land of the free that person can be jailed and sent to prison for nothing more than not having what many take for granted every day. A home. Don’t miss out on a chance to have your eyes opened for you. Peter Edelman goes into describing the massively flawed penal systems as well and makes no mistakes in describing the people employed who range from the sadistic to the apathetic but most importantly the fact is that literally millions of men and women erode day after day in despair of never getting a second chance. Headway is being achieved at a snail’s pace but we need everyone to be counted. Mr. Edelman is doing his part by braving this book. What are you willing to brave?
As a closing I would like to let you know that the en mass head and face shaves at Columbia prison have ceased for the time being. But not without receiving my fair share of threats from whom the party was crashed. I’ll keep you all updated.
Truly, Michael
by Eric Burnham | Oct 25, 2021 | From the Inside
Doing time in prison is a universally difficult experience, and the overwhelming majority of those incarcerated came in totally unprepared for life on the inside. As a result, most come out worse than when they went in, but a few defy the odds and overcome the prison environment in order to transcend the mistakes of their past and become better people. I have been incarcerated for 20 years now, and I’ve learned a few things about doing time well. Hopefully you will never need this information, but if you have a loved one going to prison, you might think about letting them read this.
What is of utmost importance is that the time be used productively, which does not happen automatically – nobody is set up for success upon entering the prison system. However, the ultimate deciding factor that shapes everything else about the time spent on the inside is the choice to take responsibility for your actions and not blame others. We put ourselves here – not the broken homes in which we grew up not the police or the district attorney or the judge, and not the correctional officers who run the prison. We did this, and we must not only recognize that fact, but we must also own the pain and turmoil left in our wake before we can move forward with our lives. Unless we do that, we will not have an effective springboard from which to launch, and we will be trapped in a destructive cycle of compensation behaviors that impede growth and stifle the actualization of inner potential.
Once we have taken responsibility for the pain we have caused others by our selfish actions, we regain the power to determine the direction of our lives. We are not victims of circumstance, and when we internalize this reality, we can use our time in prison to learn how to grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We can summon the motivation and determination to stay physically healthy, and we can expand our understanding of what it means to be a good person. Through relentless practice, we can make prison time an advantage in our pursuit of meaning and purpose. Yet, we still must do the time.
There are six primary things to avoid in prison. A failure to circumvent them effectively will, without a doubt, make the prison experience far more difficult. Gangs, drugs, gambling, informing on other inmates (ratting), homosexual activity, and talking about other inmates are all issues that have no good outcome. They should be avoided with vigor.
Gangs can offer acceptance, a degree of companionship, and the protection of numbers, but they come at a price – you are not your own. If you throw in with a group on the inside, you are no longer able to do your own thing. Using drugs in prison will put you in debt fast, and owing people in prison opens the door for violence and financial or sexual exploitation, you never want to put yourself at the mercy of sociopaths. Gambling holds another potential for exploitation, and sharks often swim in the waters that surround poker tables and sports books. Tread with extreme caution. Rats get hurt – never tell on anyone, and keep that which is not your business, not your business. Whether you are gay, bisexual, straight or anything else, homosexual activity in prison is never a good idea. It attracts the wrong crowd, invites predators, and can lead to violence, disease and victimization. Finally, keep other people’s names out of your mouth – if you don’t talk about anyone, then your words can’t be misrepresented.
Avoiding these six things will increase your safety and personal peace exponentially. The overwhelming majority of problems on the inside flow from one of these six issues. Those who come to prison often miss this fact, and whether through ignorance or a lack of self-control, get caught up in a cycle of violence and exploitation.
How you carry yourself is crucial as well. Be respectful both to staff members and other inmates. If you are respectful, you will usually receive a greater degree of respect from others. Don’t be a tough guy or a bully – it’s ugly, and all it does is show everyone how insecure you are. However, you must stand up for yourself, but that doesn’t always mean a physical fight. Communication and authenticity, although frightening and countercultural in a prison setting, will often lead to positive resolutions. Yet, there may be times when you must physically defend yourself, and if you are confronted physically, fight back. Defend yourself, but do it ethically – you do not need to stand tall in here, but you do need to stand up.
Prison is an honor culture where often seemingly insignificant slights can be met with sudden violence, but losing a fight does not always mean a loss of respect. Yet, a failure to defend yourself will lead to exploitation every time. Be mindful, however, and do not set out to hurt anyone – if you knock your opponent down, allow him to get back up or leave him be. Do not follow him to the ground or kick him, and never use a weapon – you don’t want new criminal charges. Violence is inevitable in prison, but you should make sure yours is defensive and never offensive.
It is also important to establish a routine. Get into a groove, set some goals, and work towards accomplishing them. Use smaller goals as milestones on the journey toward reaching the larger ones. Put your head down and put in some work on yourself and your life. Your time will pass quicker, and your self-esteem will improve as you see progress in your life.
Resist institutionalization. That is, depend as little as possible on the system. The encroachment of a certain amount of institutionalization is inevitable after years of incarceration, but an over-reliance upon routine, on others, on processes can lead to helplessness, anxiety, and an avoidance of people. Change your routine up from time to time. Get out of your safe space once in a while – growth begins at the end of your comfort zone.
Stay active and stay social. You may not always like those around you, but you need to stay human. Just be careful with whom you associate – remember, most of the people in prison are untrustworthy, and they will drag you into their drama. Some warning signs are those who have been to prison several times, talk bad about others behind their backs, fight a lot, are highly manipulative or exploitive, racist, overly controlling or overly nice, gang members, bring negative energy, complain a lot, are creepy or make you uncomfortable – if any of these are observable in a person, you should disengage. Be kind and cordial, but keep them at arms length and never do business with them.
I have been here for two decades, and in all that time, I have only met 4 people I consider friends, people I trust. In prison, you’ve got to accept that there will be extended periods of loneliness – savor the moments of genuine laughter and peace. They are often few and far between. Prison time is slow time, empty time. You’ve got to fill it with positive things or the darkness will cling to your personality and control your thoughts and behaviors. Fill your time with education, spirituality, reading, exercise, healthy competition, or anything that relieves stress and makes you better – and do it on purpose. Don’t sleep all day and do your time feeling sorry for yourself. Get up and grow!
Finally, no matter how much time you are doing, whether a lot or a little, remember you get out someday – that day will arrive and in order to be successful when it does, you need to be prepared for it. Seek vocational training if you can, acquire some skills you can use in the pursuit of your future. Increase your social skills, job interviewing techniques, self-control, and anger management. Save money and NEVER screw over the people who have helped you while you were on the inside. The universe aids the honorable, and luck favors the well-prepared. When preparation meets opportunity, potential can be actualized.
Look, it is really up to you. You get to decide what kind of person you are going to be each day. You can be a thug, self-centered and dangerous. You can be addicted to substances or behaviors. You can be a car thief or burglar. You can be a liar and a cheat if you want to be, but you don’t have to be – while it may not feel like it, it is very much a choice. Do you want to be in and out of prison the rest of your life? The department of Corrections will keep a light on and a bunk open for you. Sure, it is easier to come back to prison after you have been here, but it is your life. You can squander it behind these iron bars and razor-wired fences. You can either become someone who overcomes the mistakes of his past, or you can be defined by them and doomed to repeat them. Doing time well means coming out of prison a better person than when you went in to prison. The deck may very well be stacked against you, but enough with the excuses. Don’t follow the crowd. Do the time; don’t let the time do you.
by Michael Henderson | Oct 14, 2021 | From the Inside, Uncategorized
Continuing education in the Daily Life series would be incomplete without a lesson on the so-called health care that’s not provided in the Florida prison system. I know from reading extensively about the health care management companies that this issue is not unique to Florida, but this is where I am and this is what I can personally attest to.
I think it’s important to intermingle this issue with the fact that The New Jim Crow is alive and well in Florida. It’s very Kafkaesque, or maybe they are just expecting the prisoners will develop some form of Stockholm syndrome. Either way prisoners are forced into labor with absolutely zero recognition for their labors. Prisoners receive no pay for work in Florida.
I don’t mind sharing with you, my family, the bodily malfunctions my nearly sixty year-old self is experiencing. It completes the picture. I have, until coming to Columbia correctional, been equipped with dual knee braces and a walking cane. X-rays for the past six years or so have shown the arthritic deterioration of my knees, shoulders, neck, etcetera, etcetera. But lo and behold, a new health care management company and transfer to a different region, hallelujah I’m all cured!
A.R.N.P. Robinson decided that since the new company, Centurion Health Care, has changed their standards, all the previously prescribed apparatuses – canes, braces, wheel chairs and just about anything the Americans With Disabilities Act did absolutely not allow them to take, was recalled.
With the knowledge that the prison system is aging, the trick is to simply disavow that there is even the existence of a problem and you can claim plausible deniability. For instance, my medical file has been thinned three or four times and the previously filed work has been stored somewhere other than where it’s accessible. Sooo, the new A.R.N.P. says she cannot find where I have a hiatal hernia. Hence, she can deny giving me the medication that is needed to keep me from choking on my food and aspirating on my own upchuck. Let’s not even consider the suffering that comes with not being able to consume a meal in the three allotted minutes the officers are giving you to eat in the first place. But even worse is that the officers are trained to view every inmate as being a malingerer. A fake. Now even when someone is vomiting their meal into the grass, they must be faking it to some nefarious ends. This happened to me a couple of days ago when I had to step outside the chow hall to save myself from choking after literally the first bite. Sgt. Morris would not allow me to eat my meal and threatened me with confinement unless I left the chow hall.
This type of treatment is endemic in the prisons in this country. Why, because of Florida Statute 921.002(1)(b) which states The primary purpose of sentencing is to punish the offender. Rehabilitation is a desired goal of the criminal justice system but is subordinate to the goal of punishment. Florida, you are exposed. The question is will you look at yourselves in all your ignominy and start caring about and for your people?
I must again make clear, this culture of not caring for our people is not limited to Florida. It’s a condition that is destroying our people, our culture, and our chances of survival. So the next time you think incarcerated persons are taken taken care of by ”the system,’ ask any inmate if they are a better person because they spent time in the most deplorable conditions imaginable – in a country that is considered a world leader. You shouldn’t be surprised by the answers.
Peace and love to everyone. Namaste.
by Michael Henderson | Oct 12, 2021 | From the Inside
We will be periodically publishing posts for this series from Michael Henderson, a Florida prisoner serving a life sentence.
Michael will be sharing about conditions of confinement, and the stressors imposed by an overwhelmingly failing bureaucratic behemoth.
Like today’s Sunday inspection because of some failed audit probably due to an administrative slight. So instead of focusing on the rampant and deadly drug problems in the system, FDC infracts a prisoner because his books don’t fit into the space (smaller than what it is supposed to be by their own rules). In other words, you can smoke all the poison you want but you can’t read too much. Just some thoughts I would love to be able to convey to the world what their tax dollars are really supporting.
by Rick Fisk | Sep 16, 2021 | From the Inside
We get letters sometimes which break our heart. This one came in through our contact page which we assume must have been posted by a friend. It has been edited for clarity. Besides a cry for help, this is a cautionary tale. Never let the police search your vehicle or your person, even if you have nothing to hide. Being innocent of any wrongdoing is not a defense that makes any difference if a cop plants evidence on you.
My name is Ricky Lee Hefner and here’s my story and I hope someone can help me. I have sent a complaint to the chief of Sylva police. I don’t know why this cop dislikes me as he does, but for nearly 3 years he constantly was stopping me or my mother if he knew I was in her vehicle. He has conducted many searches of our vehicles only to disappointment because he never found anything to arrest me for, and his words to me were, “I’ll get you one day for something and put you away for a long time.”
So here’s my story…… on June 12, 2018 I walked to Walmart, went to go inside and there was officer Heath Jones of the Sylva Police Department. He spoke, I spoke, went on in and used the restroom and then saw someone I knew so i asked if he could give me a ride to McDonald’s, he said yes. Walking out, officer Jones said “See you soon Hefner.” I said, “Not anytime soon you won’t.”
Officer Jones had been after me for some reason and had already told me once before that he was gonna get me for something that would put me away for a long time. And not only that but he’d pull my mother if he knew i was with her and do a complete search of her vehicle. Anyway after getting in the car in the back seat, it wasn’t long and officer Osborne-Evans and of course Officer Jones were on top of us. Evans searched my backpack, Jones searched my backpack. Yes they found evidence of where I had smoked meth. I will admit to anything that I do, they got us all out of the car and the other two guys didn’t get searched or hardly patted down.
They ran me through the ringer then Jones said “Hefner ain’t you an electrician?” I said, “Yes.” Jones wanted to know if there was any black electrical tape in my backpack. I told him you searched it. Next thing I know I’m being put in handcuffs and Jones asks us all, “Was the egg shaped container wrapped tightly in black electrical tape any one of ours?” We all said “No it wasn’t.” Jones says that he’s gonna arrest me because I looked nervous. I was eventually that night charged with possession of heroin.
I don’t and never have messed with that crap and never will. The other two guys, neither one of them, had a driver’s license because it was talked about while they were searching the car.
I was arrested and he let the other two known heroin users go. I wanted a jury trial. I asked attorney after attorney to get the body cams footage, none never could, until February of this year 2021. Upon watching Osborne-Evans about an hour into hers it plainly shows her and Jones talking about the planted evidence and her telling Jones that he blew it.
Now I’ve tried a couple times to file a complaint against Officer Jones and somehow it seemed I gave up until February of 2021 and obtaining the body cam footage Jones was corrupt. Imagine that, but I still have in my immediate possession the discs of the body cam footage….this case has been dismissed in my favor.
I have another situation involving this same Sylva NC police officer Heath Jones. He said I stole a TV from Walmart but I did not. It went to trial bc i requested a jury trial.
I represented myself with Ted Besen as standby council, 4 days of trial, then the jury found me guilty. How I may never know because the Walmart video plainly shows me at the door showing the door greeter a receipt and she allows me to exit the store. I honestly have no idea why officer Jones was after me so bad I’d surely love to know. I received a sentence of 10 yrs in NC prison system. On both occasions my due process, my civil and constitutional rights were violated and stomped on.
I just received this harsh sentence on May 28, 2021. I have an appeal in which i pray to our Lord in Heaven that the court on appeal finds me innocent or whatever they do to overturn this terrible sentence,
I know everybody hears, “I’m innocent,“ alot. Well, I’m here to tell you, that I, Ricky Hefner, swear that I AM TELLING THE TRUTH, I AM INNOCENT OF THIS AND I NEED HELP TO STOP THIS SYLVA NC CITY POLICE OFFICER!!
I have no pending charges. Everything, including the charge of heroin was dismissed and I am ready to sue bc my constitutional and civil rights have been violated. Can you please help me? I’m in Maury Correctional Institution in Hookerton, NC right now my # is 0985586.
I have an appeal going. My appeal lawyer is Sharon Leigh Smith out of Raleigh NC I’m hoping to find a civil rights lawyer that will at least look at my case come talk with me as several attorneys I’ve had on this 3 year old case have told me I definitely have a huge case with possible huge awards so please help me please!!
Please help me!!
Ricky Hefner #0985586
TF 37 Maury Correctional Institution
PO Box 506 Maury, NC, 28554
I need a civil rights lawyer!!!
by Bandi Crawford | Sep 9, 2021 | Guest Blogger
When we think of asylums it brings to mind images of poor medical care, unfair treatment and abuse. Asylums were the very real horror story of the 1800s and beyond. Now, they still exist, and prison is the asylum by another name.
Each year in the United States 2.12 million prisoners are housed, out of these, 1 in 5 have a disability. Not to mention, “32 percent of federal prisoners and 40 percent of jail inmates report at least one disability” according to idaamerica. This is a hugely disproportionate number, and why is that? Because they’re asylums, that’s why.
Reverby finds that the “deinstitutionalization of patients in the state mental hospitals that had begun in the 1950s affected incarceration by the 1970s” and that “the mentally ill were swept out of hospitals, into the streets, and then into jails and prisons” as a type of social cleaning.
Many, like Becky Crow, author of Orange is the New Asylum: Incarceration of Individuals with Disabilities, believe it is a way to remove the disabled from society. Her research goes as far as to demonstrate a “school-to-prison pipeline” shunting these people out of societies way, just as the wardens of the past did. This corroborates Reverby and many others.
Why else could the prison numbers be so high? And things are just the same as they were back in the day. Maybe they don’t force people into boiling baths anymore, but slotting them in a dark hole, limiting contact and electric shock treatment are still very real practices. Humans are suffering, not just any humans but those already at a disadvantage.
When it comes to learning difficulties Gormley, author of The Hidden Harms of Prison Life for People with Learning Disabilities, finds that there are “multi-faceted and nested forms of harm that people with learning disabilities encounter while in prison as a result of direct and indirect discrimination.” This is completely out of order.
Prison is hard enough at the best of times, with the Bureau of Justice Statistics finding that “30% of jail inmates reported symptoms of major depression”, so imagine the strain this puts on those with disabilities. Incarceration is a catalyst for decaying mental and physical health at the best of times, to place the mentally disabled here is dangerous. Perhaps even devastating since suicides are up by 22% according to prisonpolicy.org.
They need specialist care and although legislation states reasonable adjustments will be made, the term is ambiguous and poorly executed – if at all.
The point is that “modernization in the provision of health care had eluded prisons and jails” (Reverby PhD, 2018) which has led to a halt in progression of society, especially for those with disabilities. All “incarcerated people were perceived as prisoners, not patients” and so disability, both physical or mental, is not accounted for. There is a very toxic view that prisoners deserve what they get, but often people forget that their time is their punishment and that these are human beings – just as we did in the bygone eras. It is no wonder that Brecher and Della Penna said prisons were stuck in the “horse-and-buggy” era.
And let us not forget how so many disabled people are coming into the prisons – why? A lack of support in the courts and the problems only get worse in the next stages.
So, if you’re the sort of person who gets a thrill from watching movies about asylums, remember that for the disabled, the asylum exists. Those horrors are more real and closer to home than you thought.
References
by Boundless in the Midwest | Jun 26, 2021 | From the Inside
Whether you are for or against inmates being able to receive stimulus checks like rest of the country, the choice was made by a judge who cited her reasons very logically and with compassion for why she believed it was justified. ”Why should an inmate receive such a windfall, they all going to waste the money!” cry out some who see only the worst in inmates. Let’s face it, most people in prison are there by their own making and the state provides what they need to exist. Yes the state provides the bare minimum of food, shelter, and healthcare, but nothing more.
Sometimes the bare minimum just isn’t enough — or even humane. When you have to make a choice between buying over the counter medication or hygiene on your $18 a month state pay, which do you choose? As there is very little in the realm of recreation provided by the state in general, many inmates often fall back into old and abusive behaviors for their own survival. Positive and entertaining diversions other than the state-sponsored schooling and programming, designed for nothing more than to give the illusion that the state actually cares about rehabilitation, are critical to the well-being of prisoners. Doing time should entail more than eating and sleeping. Having basic needs met and positive things to do to occupy the time reduces fights, theft, and use of illegal substances — which seem to flow as freely as rain from the sky.
In this article, I will attempt to show what the money is being used for behind the chain linked fence of one Ohio prison. Some of this is no surprise — but in my observations of other inmates, I was most pleasantly surprised. I would only ask you, Reader, to try to keep a open mind.
THE UGLY: Unfortunately when the first stimulus checks started to hit random inmates’ commissary accounts, the flood of drugs was as if a mad deluge of every possible type of narcotic found its way onto the compound. This fact in and of itself is rather odd as according to staff and ODRC, all drugs in prison come from relatives and friends who slip drugs to inmates during supervised visitation. The other way drugs supposedly get in is by people running up to the fence and tossing the contraband over. What makes these claims rather odd and unlikely is that when the checks started coming in, we were in the mist of the covid pandemic and visitations had stopped months before and only a small amount of inmates were allowed out on the yard at any given time and they were quarantined to a very small area and heavily supervised. On top of that, there are a number of armed staff members patrolling outside the perimeter in vehicles. Yet, somehow we were having as many as a dozen drug overdoses a day in the block of 140 men that I was in. Before the checks hit, the same block would have one to two overdoses a week.
THE BAD: Many inmates were able to pursue their chosen vices with great vigor. One inmate, we’ll call him Mr. S., was always getting high despite the fact he didn’t have a prison job at all. Having no support from his family on the outside, he would do any odd job, steal anything, and even trade sexual favors just to get high — an attempt to escape his misery and loneliness. Once Mr. S. saw the money on his commissary account, he made sure that the block drug dealers were aware of the money on his account. Suddenly he had unlimited credit and in only one month, racked up a $800 drug debt. Then Mr. S. got himself thrown into the hole and when he got out, he was moved to another block were he once again ran up a huge debt. He was eventually moved out to another camp for his own safety.
THE GOOD: Another inmate, Mr. L., was getting out of prison in just six months when the first of his stimulus checks hit. He paid off his court cost and the money he owed ODRC. Mr. L. was very frugal with the money and only spent part of his normal state pay at commissary. Upon leaving the prison Mr. L. owed no one and went to the halfway house with nearly a thousand dollars in his pocket and a plan for success. He left prison much more confident and without the burden of having to start over in debt and with only gate pay which is about $75. I’m sure he was not the only one to use the money in such a manner.
Mr. H. is one example that truly shows what an inmate with hope can do to make a difference with his money. Mr. H. was estranged from his ex-wife and children like so many of us are in prison. His solitude, like others, comes from the embarrassment that his family felt over his trial and conviction. His wife moved on after divorcing him and his children call another man father.
Mr. H. was able to have his mother to send his children, who were both in college $300 Walmart gift cards each for Christmas and the same for their birthdays with no strings attached. Mr. H., who hadn’t had any contact in over seven years with his children, expected nothing. It was just a kind gesture by a caring parent who had previously been unable to do anything for his children. He then spent some of the remaining money on getting himself a TV, a food box and such.
Six months later and out of the blue, Mr. H. received an emotional email written from his two children. They wish to be part of his life again. They explained about their anger at him over abandoning them at such an early age. They forgave him and gave their father a second chance.
Some people over-indulged in their own vices, while others used the money for a fresh beginning. And a few mended fences and made a small part of the world a better place for those they still cared for.
What did you do with your own stimulus? Did you chase a poison or did you heal a wound?
Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo on Unsplash.
