2:16am
The heat has returned with a vengeance and I'm unable to sleep. Things were getting better for about a week, but the last two days have been unbearable. The middle and high 90's have been the norm this summer; it's so bad that "heat advisories" have been issued for most of this region and a large of the United States. It was to the point that Chaplain Bowder, a minister who visits Holman about twice a year and has cookouts with religious services, donated Gatorade to the prison for us. Gatorade and donuts can go a long way toward showing us that we're not forgotten and loved, especially when we live in hell.
Since my last update Alabama has murdered one of my friends, Darell Grayson, on July 26th. Darrell was the Chairman of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty and helped me grow over the last few years on the row, losing him was a hard pill to swallow.
Since my last update Alabama has murdered one of my friends, Darell Grayson, on July 26th. Darrell was the Chairman of Project Hope to Abolish the Death Penalty and helped me grow over the last few years on the row, losing him was a hard pill to swallow.
To make matters worst they plan on killing another friend, Luther Williams, on the 23rd. More executions are either scheduled or expected to be scheduled in the coming months and I know everyone of these men very well.
There is an old saying that states, "If it's not one thing it's another", that's exactly how I feel about what's been happening this summer. Since my last update we've experienced some of everything.
On July 30th there was another stabbing, but this one came with a few twist. Two inmates got into a fight and one was putting a good ass whipping on the other when two of the loser's friends attempted to break it up, the loser upped his knife or box cutter and cut the winner in the chest, face and throat while he was being help back. In rush the police and one of them was cut on the arms while breaking it up. The two inmates that were fighting went to jail along with one of the guys that tried to stop the fight.
The guy who was winning and got cut is one of the few inmates I actually like in "general population", so this pissed me off because it could have all been avoided or at least he shouldn't have gotten cut. Men in prison are very strong and full of frustration so when they willingly collide it's with tremendous force. In other words, you can't break up a fight with only two individuals unless you're so damn strong that you can toss the participants far apart. Those who attempted to stop the fight are responsible for the stabbing, because if they had stayed out of it the loser would not have had a chance to pull a knife - especially not with the whipping he was receiving. This was Holman's sixth stabbing this summer.
This resulted in population being locked down and the first few days went rather well. Things began to change very slowly on the 3rd of August because of the warden's antagonizing remarks. When asked when he'd lift the lock down he gave the following replies; when I'm ready, in a month and never. Those aren't his exact words but they are damn close. Then on the 5th everyone saw the officer that had been cut and he had a bandage on each arm, clearly not life threatening and the warden is talking about punishing the innocent for a month.
Since our warden arrived at Holman as the deputy warden he's wanted to implement "controlled movement" and this was another opportunity to enforce his will upon us. Controlled Movement is any measure that assist the staff in restricting who moves, how they move and where they move. The warden has already restricted death row to levels that I've never experienced in my stay there. On the row they added more wire mesh, steel plates and doors that prevent the inmates from passing things from tier to tier. Now in population the measures include cameras in most blind spots, a police on the exercise yard whenever it's open, an electric fence (cameras and movement sensors) so several towers could be closed for the those officers to be placed on the halls. With this lock down we were allowed outside one dorm at a time a few times a week, less time than we would've gotten in seg. or on death row.
We saw the injured officer at our last meal and by 7:00pm that night the masses united in a protest. Since I don't huddle up and gossip with everyone I was not informed about anything. The first thing I noticed was that guys were setting the TV's, microwaves and irons out of the dorms, this created a bit of excitement and the general feeling of "it's about time we did something". As the hours progressed we had agreed to not work and as a sign of of our unity to have a 48h hunger strike. All five dormitories were down with this and we passed messages back and forth through notes by the hall runner and shouting. In my dorm I was one of the main guys writing our demands to be passed to the other dorms, not a role I desired but somebody had to do it.
The plan was for nobody to negotiate with the warden. We wanted to see the Prison Commissioner who is the warden's boss. The complaints included our poor living conditions, the food, expensive rates when we call our families, everyone being punished for the actions of one or two individuals, lack of hot water and "Controlled Movement". The best laid plans usually go awry and this protest was clearly a spur of the movement thing.
On the 6th the Deputy Commissioner came and met with our representatives, not much was accomplished from that meeting because he simply passed the buck around. Hindsight tells me that he was filling us out and buying time while their thinkers came up with something. The representatives got called out again that evening and wound up in a meeting with the warden. Instead of walking out on him they talked and reported back to us, this was a major mistake because mankind is naturally weak in unity and discipline, give the weak a way out and they'll take it or at least introduce dissension amongst our ranks.
Mission Accomplished! Our warden is a master at psychology, I think he even has a PhD in psychology, if he’d been thinking before he antagonized us with those remarks the shutdown would’ve never happened. By the evening of the 6th guys were at each other’s throats – literally. The main point of disagreement was the hunger strike, guys wanted to eat and begun accusing others of not sharing the little food they had. This was untrue from what I seen because when someone opened a pack of cookies that only has 16 cookies at least five men ate from that pack of cookies. Other men fixed meals for the sickly and elderly soldiers among us and there were others passing out snacks until they had nothing for themselves. Men I viewed as being selfish showed me another side of themselves; unity can be such a beautiful experience.
There is an old saying that states, "If it's not one thing it's another", that's exactly how I feel about what's been happening this summer. Since my last update we've experienced some of everything.
On July 30th there was another stabbing, but this one came with a few twist. Two inmates got into a fight and one was putting a good ass whipping on the other when two of the loser's friends attempted to break it up, the loser upped his knife or box cutter and cut the winner in the chest, face and throat while he was being help back. In rush the police and one of them was cut on the arms while breaking it up. The two inmates that were fighting went to jail along with one of the guys that tried to stop the fight.
The guy who was winning and got cut is one of the few inmates I actually like in "general population", so this pissed me off because it could have all been avoided or at least he shouldn't have gotten cut. Men in prison are very strong and full of frustration so when they willingly collide it's with tremendous force. In other words, you can't break up a fight with only two individuals unless you're so damn strong that you can toss the participants far apart. Those who attempted to stop the fight are responsible for the stabbing, because if they had stayed out of it the loser would not have had a chance to pull a knife - especially not with the whipping he was receiving. This was Holman's sixth stabbing this summer.
This resulted in population being locked down and the first few days went rather well. Things began to change very slowly on the 3rd of August because of the warden's antagonizing remarks. When asked when he'd lift the lock down he gave the following replies; when I'm ready, in a month and never. Those aren't his exact words but they are damn close. Then on the 5th everyone saw the officer that had been cut and he had a bandage on each arm, clearly not life threatening and the warden is talking about punishing the innocent for a month.
Since our warden arrived at Holman as the deputy warden he's wanted to implement "controlled movement" and this was another opportunity to enforce his will upon us. Controlled Movement is any measure that assist the staff in restricting who moves, how they move and where they move. The warden has already restricted death row to levels that I've never experienced in my stay there. On the row they added more wire mesh, steel plates and doors that prevent the inmates from passing things from tier to tier. Now in population the measures include cameras in most blind spots, a police on the exercise yard whenever it's open, an electric fence (cameras and movement sensors) so several towers could be closed for the those officers to be placed on the halls. With this lock down we were allowed outside one dorm at a time a few times a week, less time than we would've gotten in seg. or on death row.
We saw the injured officer at our last meal and by 7:00pm that night the masses united in a protest. Since I don't huddle up and gossip with everyone I was not informed about anything. The first thing I noticed was that guys were setting the TV's, microwaves and irons out of the dorms, this created a bit of excitement and the general feeling of "it's about time we did something". As the hours progressed we had agreed to not work and as a sign of of our unity to have a 48h hunger strike. All five dormitories were down with this and we passed messages back and forth through notes by the hall runner and shouting. In my dorm I was one of the main guys writing our demands to be passed to the other dorms, not a role I desired but somebody had to do it.
The plan was for nobody to negotiate with the warden. We wanted to see the Prison Commissioner who is the warden's boss. The complaints included our poor living conditions, the food, expensive rates when we call our families, everyone being punished for the actions of one or two individuals, lack of hot water and "Controlled Movement". The best laid plans usually go awry and this protest was clearly a spur of the movement thing.
On the 6th the Deputy Commissioner came and met with our representatives, not much was accomplished from that meeting because he simply passed the buck around. Hindsight tells me that he was filling us out and buying time while their thinkers came up with something. The representatives got called out again that evening and wound up in a meeting with the warden. Instead of walking out on him they talked and reported back to us, this was a major mistake because mankind is naturally weak in unity and discipline, give the weak a way out and they'll take it or at least introduce dissension amongst our ranks.
Mission Accomplished! Our warden is a master at psychology, I think he even has a PhD in psychology, if he’d been thinking before he antagonized us with those remarks the shutdown would’ve never happened. By the evening of the 6th guys were at each other’s throats – literally. The main point of disagreement was the hunger strike, guys wanted to eat and begun accusing others of not sharing the little food they had. This was untrue from what I seen because when someone opened a pack of cookies that only has 16 cookies at least five men ate from that pack of cookies. Other men fixed meals for the sickly and elderly soldiers among us and there were others passing out snacks until they had nothing for themselves. Men I viewed as being selfish showed me another side of themselves; unity can be such a beautiful experience.
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