December 3, 2007

6:30 AM

Since the shutdown there has not been any serious violence, just fights without knives. And the administration has finally started to transfer inmates to other prisons so that work can begin on the drainage problems. Before the work can begin, they must empty an entire dorm, 114 inmates. Besides the transfers they plan on adding bunks to the Honor Dorm, which already houses about 170, and using a vacant tier that near the row. Guys are actually excited to move into 5x8 feet cells with another inmate. Not me, it was too small living in that cell all those years alone and to add another stanky man would violate the constitution. Oh, the drainage problems can only be fixed by busting up the concrete floor and once that dorm is completed they must do the same thing to another dorm that’s across from it. Four dorms are “suppose” to be getting improvements (new) to the bathroom areas and I reckon it will all be completed sometime in 2011. State contractors are slow because they have no incentive to be speedy.

Since my last entry Alabama has had two executions stayed, Daniel Siebert and Thomas Author, thanks to a case that’s before the U.S. Supreme Court that will determine the constitutionality of lethal injection. Predicting how the justices will rule is impossible. But what makes me doubt they will rule in our favour is the fact that such a ruling could mean the end of capital punishment in America. Something they aren’t ready to end, killing the barbaric practice could reshape the entire justice and penal systems over the next 20 years. Even after the Supreme Court saved my life it’s still difficult to have faith they will do the right thing.

Blanketing the nation with stays as they have creates hope. A commodity that’s rare for all men, women and children confined within the penal institutions of America. Throughout the nation hope is everywhere thanks to the 2008 Presidential Election. Democrats believe it’s theirs for the taking and that has Republicans on pins and needles because everyone, even their base, knows they’ve f__cked up. Forget the daily, polls, the economic data indicates that Bush and ‘em have put the nation in a worst position than when King George’s reign begin.

I’d support whomever wins the Democratic Nomination, but my favorites are Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards. The others are okay, but I fear corporate moderates and love grassroots liberals!

Thanks to one of my attorneys believing in me she was able to convince her new law firm to accept my case. The new team includes four other lawyers that are currently getting familiar with my case and Alabama’s laws. There are some minor problems to work out but I can’t complain, many would love to have this blessing.