What Happened In Prison – Part X

   When I recently tried to mail a long written “confession”, about my time on parole in Seattle, to a friend in Europe so they could post it on the Fifth Nail blog it was returned to me with a Post.it note attached that cryptically read, “Inappropriate Content/Unauthorized Blog/X Return”.

   I double checked the Bureau of Prisons policies and could find no restriction concerning mailing out things that are consequently posted on the Web, or “blogged”. So the Post-it did not make any sense. When I asked one of the “Unit Team” staff what the note meant he told me he had no idea, but also told me that maybe someone was trying to prevent me from getting in trouble by returning the mail to me.

   Yeah, right. Since when does prison staff concern itself with preventing a prisoner from getting in trouble? Their whole thing is looking for trouble; that’s what they do. Since the letter was returned with an informal Post-it note, and not a formal rejection notice or infraction report, it probably means that someone was trying to get around the rules and reject the mail illegally. Apparently someone found the content of the letter offensive, or as they themselves put it, “inappropriate”, and decided the hell with law and order, a little vigilante rule enforcement was in order.

   Of course this comes as no surprise to me at all. My entire life has been spent under the foot of such “rules”. So I simply re-mailed the letter the next day but, first I made some changes to make sure it contained nothing “offensive” (such as removed the word “f*ck” in one place, and some descriptions of homosexual behavior in another). I also explicitly wrote my friend, in a new cover letter, that I was NOT asking them to post anything on the web for me; but neither was I asking them not to do so (i.e. they could post whatever they wanted; they were, after all, still ostensibly “free”). That way if the letter got returned unmailed again my appeal argument would be somewhat stronger (i.e. I can’t be expected to tell the people I write to not share my letters on the web). Not only would the rejection be against the rules, but it would be against the law as well. (According to the Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook, the courts have consistently ruled that prisons can only restrict outgoing mail for exceptional reasons, and never to intentionally block access to the media, and hence, the Internet.)

   I’m not so naïve as to think for a minute that just because something was unconstitutional that it would stop someone strung out on power and control from invoking their authority. The practice is to do whatever they think is right, and then twist the rules and regulations later to justify what they do, until some court steps in and reminds them of the legal pecking order of power and control. So, it doesn’t surprise me in the least that it has been over three weeks since I re-mailed that letter (in three separately addressed and posted envelopes, so it’s doubtful if all three got “lost” on their way overseas) and it has yet to arrive.

   I expect the letter is now being held for “investigation”, which is a favorite catch-all excuse for doing what they want. I’d be a little surprised if they (the prison officials) didn’t send a copy of the letter to police detectives in Washington State because I wrote about the two Native American girls that I murdered while I was on parole. I was never charged in that case, even though I freely confessed on numerous occasions to the police and FBI that I did it. So now it is officially an “open case” still “under investigation”, which means they can suck up every attempt I make to publically confess without ever letting anyone else see or hear the truth.

   This attempt to keep me from “exposing” the truth (and the lies and insanity that superficially conceal it) motivates me to redouble my efforts to do so. And no, I don’t think I have a “right” to do it. But, I do have the “opportunity” and hence a “responsibility” to the truth. Nor do I harbor some belief that this “responsibility” gives me any other kind of special status. The truth does not NEED me to defend it; it can, and always will, defend itself. All deception eventually ends, but the truth will live forever. I see my “responsibility” (to the truth, or in general) as something that benefits everyone, and only int his way does it benefit me (as an individual).

[J.D. - August 29, 2014]

P.S. For the last several days, ever since my run-in with counselor Edwards the other day, the guards have been refusing to let me use the inmate telephone. I don’t know if this is related in anyway to what I have written about above, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was.

P.P.S. I just learned today (August 31) that the three part “What Happened In Prison – Part VI” exposition was received by my friend last week. It appears that it was held for about a week before it was mailed (mail normally goes out and is posted the day after it is picked up). The fact that it was held for at least a week indicates that it was read, and no longer found to be “inappropriate” or “unauthorized”. I’m still not sure what this means regarding the blog.