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mjuran

Ooo!  Update!  I finally got a postal letter (Jmail) from my pen pal, exactly one month after the riot!  He is now in general prison population, as opposed to quarantine, but at maximum security the only difference is that they get to not be shackled now when they get taken  for their short time for showers and yard.  They have no access to JPay kiosks, but my JPays get printed out and delivered to him in his cell.  He had not had  my postal mailing address since the move, until I sent it to him again in one of my JPays.  He first was able to write me a letter on October 2, and it took until October 14 for it to reach me by Jmail.

He has no idea when he'll be transferred again.  All his stuff was trashed, including equipment he uses to earn income in prison.  Apparently at one point he and his cellie were taking cover in their cell and other inmates were trying to break in to their cell to do damage, and the cellie (black) was protective of my pen pal (white) from the would-be aggressors (black) rioting over the presumed killing of a black inmate by a white staff officer.  I was surprised, that racial tension and aggression would be directed towards  my pen pal just for being white...he's also elderly, so WTF?  They used a fire extinguisher to break through the glass window in the door of the cell, and blow smoke extinguisher through the opening into the cell, since they weren't able to break in.  In theory, since the staff had abandoned the unit and left it to the rioters, for hours on end, any vulnerable prisoner in there was in danger of being seriously hurt or killed by the other rioting inmates.  Seems like Michigan isn't doing the best job of being a resposible warden of its prison charges.

Seems like that Chippewa facility was really foul, too.  My pen pal said he'd been trying to get a $14 shingles vaccine for years, as his sister suffers from shingles pain and I guess he's at risk too.  He was willing to pay for the shot, but still couldn't get one.  Within a few days of being transferred to this new facility, he got the shot, all paid for, no questions asked.  

Gah.  What a horrible mess the whole thing is.  I wish I had a way to help these guys recover from this thing, that has disrupted every aspect of their lives and still isn't over.  At least give them back some of their stuff that got damaged.  Anyway, I wanted to update everyone here who's been following the story.  Thank you guys for being here to listen and give feedback!  I don't know what I'd do without you all.

 
ST4s

“Unanswerable to anyone outside”, you say? “In flagrant disregard for their own policy rules”, you add? I’d take it inside then, and up to the very top of the ladder.

Re: this warden, I’d write the Governor and MDOC’s Executive Director, quote the relevant passages from MDOC’s Mission, Vision, and Values statement, any relevant policies, and document every failure (typed the guy who has zero tolerance for criminals with badges).

 
mjuran

Oksanaroma, sorry to be late to answer your question re:  did I find out more?  Yes, in fact, I've been getting to hear a lot more, both about the unfolding of that particular riot and about the way that particular facility is administered.  Some of it makes my hair curl.  The best I can summarize it, it appears that prison is run top-down (starting with the warden) like its own little fifedom, unanswerablel to anyone outside, in flagrant disregard for their own policy rules, which directly translates to high frustration and powerlessness for the inmates and high mistrust/animosity between staff and inmates.  Prisoners are given "points" for anything and everything--inmates who have had low points for years arrive from other institutions and immediately start incurring points, driving them up higher security level status.  There has not been a single black person on staff for the 6 years my pp has been there.  The warden is a no-show, takes no interest in the concerns of the prisoners.  Medical and dental needs are ignored.  Etc.  So I have no trouble understanding why a riot could be sparked there very easily, when inmates see another popular black inmate to all appearances being murdered in front of them.  I have to quote something I heard the other day..."a riot is the language of the unheard."

My pen pal and his friend have both been led to believe they will be transferred back to their home unit any day now, but so far it hasn't happened yet.  My pen pals prefers to go back there, bad as it is, I suppose because it resembles a more familiar existence and is a lower security level for him.  Thanks for asking!

 
oksanaroma

@mjuran - I'm so glad you wrote this update, I've been wondering about what happened!! Sorry to hear his transfer has been so awful, what a horrible experince to have to go through. At least now he can get that shingles shot and hopefully some better care in this new facility. Did he tell you anymore about the riot? I know it was on the east but not much else..

 

 
LotusBlossom

Sorry to hear your PP is going through a rough patch, Violet, I hope things are looking up soon.  I worry about the holidays being rough this year, especially for prisoners with the lack of visits.

 
LotusBlossom

Also can I add that a lot of people in society really still look down on prisoners and think they deserve all of that because of mistakes they've made in their past, often these men and women go in as youngsters with no direction and they thought drugs, Easy money, etc. was their only ticket to a better life and then that life involved murder, getting thrown under the bus, poverty and pain, and the system only adds to it by warehousing them.  Some prisoners are lucky and have a loving family to help them some can't even afford socks and rely on the kindness and charity of strangers, or they go without socks.

I think that victims of crime deserve being treated with understanding and respect and yes people need to serve their time for breaking the law but keeping people in for 80 years?  If they're going to hurt people and show no chance of rehabilitation, then okay, I get it.  But other than that, SO many people are locked up and the key is thrown away, and society shakes their head on them forever and refuses to let them get better.  Our system sucks in that way.

 

 
VioletGrey

I'm so glad to hear you finally heard from your PP Mjuran, at least he was getting all of your JPays in one direction. He must have felt awful for not being able to get word to you quicker. I hope hearing from him, be it that his situation is unfamiliar, has given you some relief at last. As for all the stuff that went on, I often think, when my PP tells me something about prison life, that it's so far removed from my logical thought, it's hard to comprehend. In theory, rioting in general sounds like a "bad" idea, but if no one ever challenges any sort of authority, then how do things get changed? Certainly not in their case by polite written petitions and "peaceful protests". What I mean is, I can understand that it seems horrific, but I also can see how and why it escalates to that sort of thing. If you've been writing to inmates for a while, there will be more than a few stories you'll have been told that are sickening, some so undignified and indecent and then others that are just plain heart wrenching. Prison life, at least in all my PPs experience has been traumatic. Throw a bunch of traumatised people with no access to the outside, who are milked for every dollar the system can squeeze out of them, who don't have access to healthy, or even decent food, with basically no real mental health care, or sub-par, take forever medical care - and I can understand why this stuff boils over and ends up burning everyone. I feel for the prisoners affected by all this, who had stuff ruined or destroyed. It's a shame that everything wasn't handled on a much more reasonable level before it spiraled out of control. And I'm glad that your PP managed to get his shingles shot, and again, I'm baffled but not surprised that his previous prison couldn't do that for him. 
*sigh* Sometimes posts like this, be the silver lining be that you've heard from your pen pal, just get to me so much. So little care is put into these human beings who've made mistakes but don't deserve to be treated like this, or worse. I guess also, my own PPs "rough patch" is getting me down as well, being and feeling so helpless, it just isn't a great feeling. Anyway, enough from me and my bleeding heart. I'm glad your PP can write to you and that he's well and making the best of the situation. 

 
LotusBlossom

That's great news Mjuran!  Well, that you heard from him anyway, I'm sorry he's going through everything else.

If you ever need a listening ear, I'm always happy to be there for you, and some of us share success stories or a little bit more about our pen pals (privately of course because it's best not to post too much personal info on the forums) my email is lotusblossomwap [at] gmail.comrel="nofollow"