August 14, 2005
Hi Friend!
It’s been awhile and things have sure been busy. Hope this letter finds you well in health and with a strong heart.
For almost 10 years, the Virginia Department of Corrections has been without parole. Through the legislation passing of the 1996 Anti-terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act the VA DOC prison population has increased. With the addition of two new prisons adding to the prison industrial complex Virginia's justice system has incarcerated more people than it has let free. With the growth of the prison industry, money is being taken from the educational funding that would keep people from being incarcerated.
U.S. Representative Robert C "Bobby" Scott said himself in [Unequal Justice: African Americans in the Virginia Criminal Justice System]. He was critical of the Virginia General assembly for passing legislation that required convicted felons to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences before release, abolished parole and imposed mandatory life sentences for third-time felons. This so-called truth in sentencing policy, he believes, is swelling prisons with low-income people and diverting resources needed to address difficult social problems.
The issue at hand with abolishment of parole and prisoners doing 85 percent of their sentences need to be addressed for it is cruel and unusual punishment and no man can do thirty, a hundred or two-hundred years and get a second chance to be a productive citizen. Once a prisoner does 10 or 20 years and he/she is rehabilitated all the rest of his/her time is wasted time and he/she has nothing to look forward to but death. If a prisoner has 30-100 years, not parole eligible, and has to do 85 percent of their time it is arbitrary abuse of power. How can the state answer injustice with injustice? When the people lose respect for the government, its officials and the justice system it will only create anarchy.
Many low-income defendants in Virginia are African Americans. They must bear the financial costs of litigation with few available resources and when unable to afford legal counsel, are asked by the court to accept a court-appointed attorney to represent them.
According to Virginia law, the state provides caps on fees paid to court appointed attorneys regardless of time spent by the attorney. The circuit court tries felony charges that may lead to confinement in jail or prison. Court appointed attorney fee caps for such charges are $882 if conviction may be punishable by confinement in prison for more than 20 years. This schedule of fees places Virginia the lowest in rank among the jurisdictions which have caps, although defense attorneys often enter into the cases for reasons of public service. The financial pressure of the states fee caps on their livelihood makes it difficult for them to provide energetic, competent counsel for poor clients, of whom African Americans are the vast majority. According to an informal survey of lawyers conducted by the Virginia College of Criminal Defense Lawyers in 1999, many court appointed attorneys acknowledge that the time and attention they devote to various cases often relate to the amount of payment they expect, leaving indigent clients underserved.
Frederick Carter stated: Not only are current fee caps woefully inadequate for a fully developed defense in court, but indigent African Americans are going to jail at a cost to tax-payers of $22,000 per year who might have been acquitted if they had enough to pay private counsel.
Shaun Brown a community organizer stated: The legal system here reflects the authority, control and interests of those holding Political Power . . . As a result of this, extra legal variables, such as your level of poverty, the color of your skin, your age, your sex, your education, and your ability to find a lawyer that will not be threatened, increases the severity of sentencing directly or indirectly here on the peninsula.
Dennis W. Dohnal, chair of the Ad Hoc committee on court appointed counsel fees of the Virginia State Bar said : The criminal Justice system in the commonwealth of Virginia is designed to fail poor people.
Marc Maver Assistant Director, The Sentencing Project says: Overall what we've seen in the last quarter century is that as a national policy, whether intended or not, we've come to use the criminal justice system as a means of dealing with social problems. That's certainly no the way I would deal with social problems with my children, but when it comes to low-income children that’s what we have been doing.
Throughout our childhood we are conditioned to believe that life’s rewards can be found in toys and tokens.
As we grow older, these notions of pursuing pacifiers are reinforced commercially; only the toys become bigger, more complex and cater to more “adult” appetites. We thus become content with, and conditioned to, a life of class and economic competition for subsistence, and for mass-produced toys and tokens from the industrial flea market.
In “free” society (what I call “minimum custody”) there are simply more toys than in prison (maximum custody); more manufactured objects and imagery to divert those in minimum custody from the reality of their social, economic, and political oppression under plutocratic capitalist slavery i.e. bread and circuses still appease.
As for us in maximum custody, we are marginalized, demonized, and ostracized, and thereby cut off from the masses “out there” in minimum custody. We are stripped of voice and force, socially, economically, and politically; therefore the ruling elite’s state enforcers can shed their pretensions, and control us with more direct force and terror than what might be tolerated by those in minimum custody, where the masses cannot be so easily contained.
Those in minimum custody, who do recognize an unsatisfactory existence, still perceive themselves as better off than us in maximum custody, and greatly advantaged in comparison to the third world. They then accept the terms of their lesser confinement for fear of losing their perceived social “privileges”; much the same incentive by which children are induced to “behave”.
Who indeed can say they have never violated any of the innumerable laws of the authoritarian state? We are all criminals in this regard (whether intentionally or not). Yet we permit ourselves to be alienated against our peers who have suffered the indignity of having been caught.
At the same time we glamorize, idolize, and romanticize “criminal” characters and elements brought to us by the entertainment industry.
I cannot count the times I have heard prison guards repeat to us in maximum custody, “I am no different from you, I just have never been caught”.
“Legal” advertisements solicit us to buy the fastest automobiles, while all routes we travel have reduced “legal” speed limits. They confound us by tempting and tantalizing our desires, and then criminalizing the expression thereof.
The difference between maximum and minimum custody? In maximum we are regimented by overt terror and force (quite like Orwell’s 1984), while in minimum the regimentation is with mentally debilitating pacifiers(quite like Huxley’s Brave New World).
The similarity? We are all DOING TIME!
Back when the commissary changed hands, we met with officials from Kefee and we discussed the monopolizing of the high prices on the food items and the electronics. Kefee said plain and simple: "We are in it for the money, and if you don't like it, don't buy it." They said that they have a contract set up with DOC. We held our cool realizing the forerunner before us; Gandhi who paved the way for Zayard Rustin (sp?) and Ralph Abernathy who paved the way for Martin Luther King concerning the non-violence movement, in Montgomery, Alabama in 1956 at the court house. But we aren't dealing with Civil Rights. We are dealing with Human Rights for all Mankind. I lot of inmate I know that's housed here at WRSP is afraid of the consequences. Why? Because the administration threatens to lock them up, take their jobs, etc; and they’re not many jobs here, most brothers are struggling. So, they fall victim to being a stitch for the administration, and who is for the cause they lock them up. We don't have a voice inside this prison due to the location and racism. They are still functioning in the 60's pushing their Jim Crow laws keeping us in oppresion through their mental war and cunning tactics. Bush has made it much harder for inmates to file petitions due to the Patriot Act. The system is a big joke. Prisons and prisoners are a big time business now. Everyone is racing into the profiting off of prisoners. This is one reason the no parole law came into effect; and those of us that's doing time under the old law are being turned down yearly due to this effect. Not to mention, if they did give us parole they wouldn't have a job to receive their ninety thousand dollars a year.
In the wake of the much needed protest of the exploitation and inhumane treatment we’re subjected to, the effects of capitalist condition are revealing themselves at every turn among the prisoner population. The essence of this conditioning lies in that prisoners don’t value the right to adequate state meals but instead value “showboating” to other prisoners that they have the financial ability to go spend $50 a week at the commissary on overpriced products, which grants them some social distinction even while in prison. Much like out in society where government assistance (the same government people pay taxes to) is a social stigma and being able to “make it on your own” and flaunt some status symbols, thou you might still live in poverty is preferable. Since prisoners or more precisely certain prisoners, have called to indefinitely refrain from spending money at the commissary which necessarily means refraining from consumption of consumables, in other words a sacrifice, many don’t seem willing or able to give up this privilege for the sake of reclaiming our rights. Many prisoners are unaware of how we’ve been conditioned to perceive the commissary as a necessity and the mechanisms or means used to carry out such conditioning. Take the food for instance. We are systematically under fed, low-quality, undercooked food which we as humans naturally find repulsive, distasteful and downright sub-human. But there’s an alternative” the commissary – OOHH! We can get all sorts of mouth-watering sugars and chocolates and barbeque flavored, jalapeno cheese, hot-sauced consumables. This is much more preferred then that of the drab dull routine meals the state serves us. Do you see how one reinforces the other? Our meals that are ours by right are real concrete deterrents to human consumption as they border on being edible and not so edible. Many prisoners complain that they will be extremely hungry by not going to the commissary – that’s the whole point! It is worth mentioning that the state has the operation of prisons down to a science. They have psychologists, counselors, drugs, dogs, police, guns, the hole, the phone, the water, the food – I mean everything is in their control except for the individual will which they constantly try to break with a methodical application of their resources. “The carrot and the stick”, an elaborate system of punishment and rewards centered on their goals of complete domination of the prisoner. “Back up to the door or we’re coming in.” In a word we get fed a bunch of routine bullshit which compels us to seek to the alternative of commissary consumables and this is in itself a reward for being in population and following the rules; the punishment being placed in the hole and not allowed to purchase commissary consumables and thus starved by the state as many prisoners lose weight and energy once in the hole. What is occurring in the process from a psychological standpoint is the drab state issued items which bear no marks of distinction nor convey any expression of quality, care and ultimately bear no resemblance to the items we once commonly used on the street and are devalued and much more emphasis is placed on those brand named items that we associate with being “free” and which contributes to our sense of self worth and human belongingness to the world beyond these walls. These human desires are being manipulated in the interest of private profit and in the final analysis have produced a dependency complex. Meaning we have come to think we cannot live without these items as they have come to define us and bear influence on our consciousness, social relationships and behavior. Our basic needs are being stripped away and superficial wants are being pushed in a as substitutes. Our health needs are being neglected in order to save the state money, our educational programs have been cut back to save the state money. Our food portions have been drastically reduced on the pretext of budge deficits but check it! VA government has a $437 million dollar surplus which they say is being put aside for “a rainy day.” In terms of prisoners humanity, dignity, and productivity it is a rainy day. The exploitation of prisoners is another facet of the assault on the working class, I mean Keefe made almost $60,000 in a span of three months, hell the state doesn’t even pay out that much money to prisoners for job compensation within the same timeframe at ROSP or WRSP where the almost $60,000 was made. Where do prisoners get money to spend at the commissary? Of course, from our working class families. This money is “extras” dished out by our families in addition to taxes already extracted against our families supposedly to provide us with exactly what we are being denied – food, education, healthcare, clean water etc. The oppressor has a vested interest in maintaining this dependency complex and the accompanying oppression; we on the other hand, have a survival interest in struggling against such. We can make no claims to our humanity by being denied our basic human right awhile at the same time being allowed the luxury of feeling human with snack treats and games.
Freedom does not come from money, it comes from the power of an awakened, unified, and revolutionary people. Then and only then can we fully realize the fruits of our labor. Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the awful roar of its water. This struggle may be a moral one, it may be a physical one, it may be both moral and physical, but it MUST be a struggle. We must stand for something or else we will fall for anything. Power concedes nothing without a demand; never did, never will. Find out what any person quietly submit to and you will find out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. The limit of the tyrant is prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world but, they certainly must pay for all they get. If we were to get free from the oppression and wrong heaped upon us, we must pay for this removal. We must do this by labor, suffering and sacrifice, and, if need be, by our own lives and the lives of others.
So my message to you is that in order to bring about change we all have to want change. In order to make that change a reality we've got to have unity. In order for unity to transpire we've got to have "love": love for ourselves, and love for each other as a people. And, in order to accomplish "love, we must first understand what it is. Love is when we see each other as we see ourselves and want for each other what we want for ourselves. We must know that this is our most powerful weapon, for only by love can we conquer all that is evil and stands against us - in love there is no fear. We have to understand that to love each other does not mean that we are less of men, because it is by love that we all exist as a people. Though many minds have been tricked into thinking that love for your fellow brethren is a weakness, we must not adhere to this false deception that has been planted by those who would seek to destroy us as a people and a nation. We must stop being people we are not because we fear rejection. We must learn to love ourselves as God created us, because we cannot love each other if we do not know and love ourselves. At this prison, Red Onion, 80% of the prisoners are living lies, telling lies about who they are because they can't face reality. But these 80% who don't know themselves are a hindrance to the 20% that are trying to get help to bring about a change. We see that in order for there to be a change we all have to stand up, but too many inmates have become content with their false realities and are being manipulated to lay down their lives for the promise of cable TV, cigarettes, and commissary services. They lay down their lives and keep their mouths closed for 6-18 months at a time trying to get progressive housing so that they can get better slave conditions - and if they get one fabricated charge (which almost 90% of the written charges are), then they have to start all over again. Now, the only way we can make it is if we conform to a new state of mind and stand together as one in love and unity... but it all has to start with love. We've got to truly love our freedom and want the abuse to stop. We have to be united in our minds and hearts in the fight for our respect as human beings. We must let go of our differences and let our alter egos go, embracing each other in order that we can conquer this beast which has it's foot on our necks. We don't have to impress each other to gain acceptance, just be true to who we are as individuals.
Analogically speaking, whether coincidentally so there is a very profound connection involving the ghettoized and the institutionalized. Let’s look at the word "prisoner", as defined in the ameriKKKan heritage dictionary third edition. A prisoner is; a person held in custody or captivity esp. In a prison; or one deprived of freedom of action or expression.
Within the Bounds of confinement, pain suffering, stress, anger, rage, confusion, chaos, hatred, victimization, desperation, and inadequate learning institutions to name a few are all symptoms that the former and latter prisoners are subjected and susceptible to. For the ghetto prisoner the sentence of confinement begins at school, where the mind of the young is then sponged of all that was/ is taught at home, and is then shaped and molded (Europeanized) and mis-education is under the guise of education. It is here where the prisoner is taught what to think as opposed to how to think.
In fact the quality of education given to the prisoner is the lowest and poorest sort, and the academic curriculum is structured to inculcate a sense of inferiority instead of instilling morals of self worth. This is a great crime. To deprive the impoverished and disadvantage, who are initially handicapped due to socioeconomic pressure, the opportunity to fully and adequately develop is inhumane.
As a result, or consequence for that matter, the actual thought process of the prisoner does not belong to the prisoner. The prisoner has been groomed and trained to think in a detrimental and self destructive fashion which has been conditionally instituted through external forces, leading to the prisoner being self alienated. Furthermore, the prisoner who does not posses the power of independence though is literally under the control of those who paint the illusions and facades into the prisoner's mind; which in return is subliminally accepted as the prisoner's own visions or thoughts, when in all reality they are not!!!!
Can this be the modern day of making a slave? Making a prisoner? Shouldn't it raise an eyebrow that the vast majority of the prison population in this country are so-called Afrikan Americans (12% of America’s population & nearly 60% of prison population) who are destitute inner city dwellers that wallow in their own misery restricted to two blocks with fifteen twenty story buildings? Is this not a prison within it self? Is this not the cheese leading the rat to its death trap?
I’m sure by now you have heard of Resource Information and Help for the Disadvantaged. (RIHD) but in case you haven’t, they are a private nonprofit membership organization dedicated towards reducing the recidivism rate (return to criminal behavior) through responsible, legislation, increased rehabilitation programs, family/community intervention, for inmates, at risk youth, ex-offenders who seek an "EARNED" Second Chance in society. Fighting & advocating the passing of the SB 805/VaLERA Good Conduct/Mandatory Literacy/Virginia Literacy, Education, Rehabilitation Act Bill, an alternative to the former Parole and non-Parole/85% Sentencing Rule. We know Parole doesn't work, for there are no responsible programs available/nor instituted to assist inmates. We know the 85% Rule is ridiculous and when then Governor George Allen abolished Parole in 1995, he failed to inform the public to read the fine print. "NO REHABILITATION PROGRAMS" ... for Levels 5 & 6 inmates. Huge waiting list for all other levels, resulting in the inmates spending the average of their incarcerated time, doing much of nothing -- nothing constructive. Playing cards, catching charges due to stir-crazy environment, animalistic mentalities displayed by correctional staffers, long distance warehousing of inmates, all geared to "break the souls of inmates who souls are currently lost." RIHD does not condone Bad Behavior or Criminal activities by inmates and for the Crimes they have committed, however, RIHD believe that "We as human beings are more than the mistakes, crimes for which most commit." We believe "all birds of a feather, donot flock together"
RIHD believes given the tools to rehabilitate, passing of SB 805/Earned Second Chance Bill, will institute increased rehabilitation and decrease in criminal behavior. Most incarcerated persons enter DOC under the age 25,
Young enough to be rehabilitated, still young and immature. Yes, they should be held accountable for their mistakes & crimes ... however, do we incarcerated, take away a young man life who entered under the age 25, maybe 18 years old because he was in a gang and played follow the leader and ended up accessory to a foolish crime. Isn't it possible that with the Bill SB 805/VaLERA/Earned Second Chance, program of responsible rehabilitation - physically, mentally, spiritually, academically/vocationally, and religiously, isn't it possible given the chance and after maturity, and fair time served/incarcerated, after proven rehabilitation and no longer a threat to society, should he not be released after serving 10 years opposed to a life sentence, especially if he didn't "kill" or "murder." So many of the inmates housed in Red Onion and Wallens Ridge are NOT "career violent offenders." Most are accessory yet receiving unfair sentences that do not meet the crime. I ask how is it that recently the wife of a state trooper, planned, murder and was found guilty of her crimes in the County of Hanover, Virginia, a first time offender, who killed her newlywed husband in their home, because she was in debt and wanted to cash in the life insurance, yet to receive only 20 Something years.... Yet, time and time again, sitting incarcerated are young men, first time offenders sitting in prison on non-murder crimes yet given Life sentences, multiple life sentences plus 2 and 3 hundred years. The only two differences... The murder wife was a "White Woman" and All the young men we interviewed, researched their cases were found to "Black Youth." What did they have in common, they are all "Gods/Allah" children, they are all "human being," they are all resident of "Virginia"... So why are they not treated equally. To kill a "police officer," a "state trooper" and receive 20 something years and no one person, not even the police officer family fail to call for an "outcry." In fact, both families stated the sentence was "fair." RIHD doesn't wish to incite problems, only to bring them to the forefront for all to see that "change" must occur. That all people, all God/Allah children must be inclusive in justice for all. Equal and fair sentencing practices, EARNED rehabilitation programs.
RIHD can't understand why it is so difficult for "Society" to understand, educate themselves and support SB 805/VaLERA... A LEARNED second chance bill. Not a Get out of Prison for Free Bill... Inmates will have to earn it on a MONTHLY basis. Society wouldn't be giving them anything but a chance to prove themselves prior to being release. Aren't we "Society" of second chances or is the truth "Return to Slavery Part 2"?
Inmates, ex-offenders and families, we at RIHD call upon you all (under old and new sentencing law) to join/unite and support this Bill for it is the Right thing to do. RIHD presented over 10,000 signatures in support of this Bill during the 2005 Virginia General Assembly, (2,000 was the goal mark) yet your families "state legislators" didn't pass the Bill. If you were to ask them, they duck and dodge the issue, yet be not fooled, every state legislator will have to vote on the Bill at some point. We at RIHD and other organizations supporting this Bill, can't do it alone. Those of you who are under the "parole" system, don't be fooled to think that it doesn't affect you, if you are eligible for parole and still incarcerated due to the "nature of the crime." Well, let me inform you, you are illegally being housed under a legal technicality the 85% rule. The nature of the crime will never change and the odds of being granted parole will be when you have done 85%.
We must stop thinking of "self" only and starting doing what is right. What is right is not to bumping heads with those who know no better, like the correctional staff that abuses others? There are some that are professional, then there are those as one Virginia Correctional Officer stated to me personally, "The only different between an inmate and myself, is they got caught and I did not." I respect that Virginia Correctional Officer, because he spoke the truth. So stop wasting your time arguing or insulting ignorance. Instead, file your grievances, continue to request for what you want. If you want rehabilitation programs, write a request, let them tell you "NO" or that their are no programs. Then, and only then can RIHD and others go before the Legislators and ask "WHY?" and Demand Better from the Bosses of the Correctional Facilities. So, put your actions into writing.
Ask over and over again. If you have been on a waiting list for over 6 months or more, let us know. However, we need written proof. Even if the system don’t respond to your request, you have your request. We can and shall follow up. It's not about causing problems or starting trouble, it's about exercising your Rights and doing things in the Right and Professional manner without incident. No more fighting between you and the staff and other inmates. RIHD want you gangs to cease and desist. Stop the madness. You are all in the same boat and must learn to coexist. You mean if RIHD helps a "blood" then we are traitors to the other gangs. We don't discriminate, however, we will make sure that Blacks and all other minorities are inclusive and not excluded from the process. No more gang activities throughout the Virginia DOC. It's time to start Economic Boom.
It's time to Educate yourself. If you need your GED, and VDOC is holding you back, then write RIHD. If you want to go back to College and VDOC is holding you back, then write RIHD. If you want to invest in your future, then contact RIHD, if you have artistic talent and want to display and sell your talent, contact RIHD. If you simply want to receive the cross words, newspaper, word finds, cartoons or just a "hello," RIHD is here for you all.
RIHD mission is for Preventive Programs for at Risk Youth, Rehabilitation Programs for Inmates, Continuous Reentry Programs for Ex-offenders and Legislative Advocacy. This is what we do best. To contact RIHD write RIHD - PO Box 55 Highland Springs, VA 23075 (804) 737-9624 Web Site: www.RIHD.org Email: InmateResource@aol.com
Legislative News: July 1, 2005 - HB 2823 Parole Accountability Bill went into affect. The parole board must make public the "guidelines" for parole eligibility. The parole board must state and make publicly aware why an inmate was denied parole. This is a start towards reduction in Administrative abuses by the parole board.
SB 805/VaLERA Bill: Subcommittee is currently being organized for the upcoming public hearing. RIHD will stay on it and inform you all of the dates and time. RIHD shall atten the public hearings to ensure that the Bill is inclusive for all persons and does not exclude person's who committed a "violent" offense, yet who are not violent and have rehabilitated and seek rehabilitation programs. It would be really nice if we at RIHD could bring to the public hearings all the request forms from inmates who have requested rehabilitation programs, schooling, counseling, and were denied or on waiting list. This would go towards proving that you the inmate are more than the mistakes for which you made. That you have changed and repented from criminal behavior. To all those who feel they are being excluded from the Bill, understand we must crawl before we walk. Remember what I say on Holla to the Hood "Always do a little and a little at a time eventually makes a big difference". We must fight to include those who are incarcerated due to a "violent" mistake first, without it, the bill will pass for "nonviolent" ONLY. Patience and Trust of RIHD to do Right by You the Inmates who wish an EARNED Second Chance through Rehabilitation Programs. For those who wish to continue the path as "career criminal" this Bill is just for you, for you will lose the 85% and receive "Zero" or 5 days. Remember, this Bill is retroactive, therefore what you did yesterday, today and tomorrow will determine your new release date, when it is passed. Lastly regarding this matter, one-day, someday this Bill will get passed, be ready opposed to having to say "I should have, would have, could have."... To contact RIHD write RIHD - PO Box 55 Highland Springs, VA 23075 (804) 737-9624 Web Site: www.RIHD.org Email: InmateResource@aol.com
And just to follow on the whole rehabilitation kick. I’ve been thinking and thinking about this for the past month. So many folks on the inside and outside are complaining about the lack of or poor quality of rehabilitation programs offered by the state. If the State had any concern at all for making “our” communities safer and were serious about the health of all peoples living here, of course education and the eradication of poverty would be a priority over the ever growing police state and glutinous military spending and courses on conflict resolution and how to deal with emotions would be required classes starting in elementary schools. While I believe it is important to push for more programs sanctioned by the state, it is also our own responsibility to educate and rehabilitate ourselves. We can do this by organizing study groups and seeing each other as our own professors and teachers. We all have different skills, knowledge and experience. Not only is it important to learn the people’s history, tangible skills (reading, writing, mechanics, health, building, etc), study political movements, the current state of the world and the increasingly heavy hand of the oppressors it is also instrumental we learn how to communicate with each other, that we learn how to solve problems amongst each other that will not result in bloodshed or burned bridges. It is up to all of us to become teachers and students, for those on the outside to help keep people from going into prison and those on the inside to help them stay out. Of course, due to limited resources and the general restrictions of being in prison makes it hard to even get together and talk. But we gotta work with what we got. There are several programs which donate free books and educational materials to inmates. Simply request by subject and they will send you a pre-approval form for books falling in that subject and if they are approved by your institution write back to the program to let them know. One program is called Book ‘Em p.o. box 71357 Pittsburgh, PA 15213. There is also an International Correspondence School which offers prisoners GED test info on request, you can write to them at 925 Oak St. Scranton, PA 18515. The resource guide Inside Out also provides a national listing of programs for prisoners which you can buy for 60cents in stamps or money. Write p.o. box 19065 Cincinnati, OH 45219
It seems that there is a new avenue for people who are experiencing neglect when it comes to mental health and disability issues. The Virginia office for Protection and Advocacy – Claunita Jackson-Jones
1910 Byrd Avenue Suite #5 Richmond Virginia 23230 –they are a watch dog group to protect people in state run institutions who are disabled mentally or physically. The Department of Public Safety and the head of the Department of Corrections have both received a large portion of the complaints sent by certified mail.
Did you know one of the best news programs in the country airs on WMMT. I’m not sure how often you would listen to that station besides on Monday night, but if you don’t know already… The show is called Democracy Now and it airs Monday 6-7pm Saturday 7-8pm and Sunday 12-1pm.
Much love to you, and as always..keep your chin to the sky,
etta cetera