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Thursday, 17 April 2014

Week Three, Episode 6 FACTS, RECAP, AND COMMENTARY DOES YOUR MONEY SUPPORT ME?


FACTS, RECAP, AND COMMENTARY
DOES YOUR MONEY SUPPORT ME?

     The taxpayers dole out $36,000 a year, per inmate for the BOP to own me.  My
cost is higher than the average inmate, and there is an additional $5900 minimum
to pay for my medical care.  A hardworking citizen MUST pay federal FICA taxes, or
go to jail.  I am aging in here- I am a grandmother of six, therefore my medical
needs may increase.
    All the heavily processed and preserved foods over the last ten years has given
me high blood pressure.  Since last year, I have been on medication for it.  I have
also been issued cholesterol medication.  I do not take it because the side effects
are ten times greater than the benefit of the medication.  The side effects include:
My eye constantly jumping, so that I cannot read or write in peace; sore bones and
joints that feel like "flu like" symptoms, and restricts any physical activity; problems
with dryness of my eyes; stomach aches; racing heart; itchiness, and much more.
My motto is if the benefits of the meds are less than the benefits of not taking it,
why would I poison my body like that?  Believe it or not, I am in very good health.
I walk five miles a day. I do an extensive weight routine with 3 or 5 pounds to stay
toned.  I do yoga, and a little Pilates when I feel like it.  I ran up and down the steep
hill at the back of the Camp, and then up and down the 67 stairs a few times yesterday
because the weather was nice.  I will be able to chase my grandchildren, and hang
out with them when I get home.
        Who exactly pays for my keep?  Who paid this year?  Was it the single Mom,
like my daughter, who is struggling because she barely makes minimum wage?  Was
it the waitress that is mostly living off tips?  Maybe it was an autoworker, because
they make a little bit more money?
   Lets examine how prison costs adds up quickly to 80 billion a year.  I was convicted
with 9 others.  The loss amount for society is $300,000.  The cost for my incarceration,
along with medical costs total to date is $419,000. 
       The cost to house my co-defendants is $900,000. (K.D, $180,000, Judy-$252,000;
Tony-$216,000; Dunbar-$18,000; Jay-$36,000; Khalid-$108,000; and Taylor-$90,000)
That easily equates to 1.5 million for housing.  If you add attorneys, court room staff,
transport, Supervised Release,  and all other costs, my case easily cost taxpayers roughly
$2.5 million for all ten of us.   This is just the stats for one case, and one single
indictment.   Many are indicted yearly and sent to prison.       
     The facts today is about our United States Constitution.  Many of you do not know
that the Constitution was the document that followed President Abe Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation.  Many citizens that owned plantations were distraught
about losing their slaves.  Slavery was big business, and America as a nation was
built on the backs of African slaves who now are the ancestors of African-Americans,
and definitely the fore thoughts and foundation of how this prison system came to
be. 
      For those of you who do not know your Constitution, how the document continued
slavery to this day is the wording created in Amendment 13.  The Amendments, or
Bill of Rights was supposed to protect individuals from government power in all areas.
The writers pulled a whammy with Article 13.  It states that "anyone convicted of a
crime has no rights".  That means the system can work you like a slave for free, or
choose to pay you twelve cents, and do not have to pay the minimum wage.  It also
means that you have lost all rights to your children and your family.  You are property
of the state/feds, in the most literal sense.  How our forefathers kept slavery alive
was using the Black Codes which is the FBOP codes with a simple name switch in the
document to manage inmates.  The other issue with the Constitution is Article II
and Article III.  With Article II, United States Attorneys have life time appointments
and are considered the most powerful agency in the country, and have the strongest
union.  If a U.S. Attorney targets you, your chances are impossible of keeping your
life in tack.  The next slavery issue inside the constitution is lifetime appointments
for Article III/federal judges.  They have no agency that monitors them, and even
if they are racist, and using their own agendas on the bench, nothing will happen
to them.  Federal Judges have been convicted of riding with prostitutes and buying
crack, using crack, and many other outrageous acts while on the bench.  At most,
they might receive a scale back on cases.  I actually read a letter
that stated the 'the judge's use of crack did not affect his sentencing decision.'
      An associate was trying to get her case reviewed when she found out that her
judge was in the newspaper and under investigation after being caught buying and
smoking crack at the same time that he was on the bench with her case.
      Article II and Article III of the United States Constitution is the slavery trump
card.  Those two articles stacked the deck against African-Americans and other
people of color.  Those two articles represent capitalism, and is not a part of the
democratic process. 
    State judges are a part of the democratic process, and they are placed on a
ballot, and you vote for them.  If they break the law, they are usually removed, if
the public sees fit.  There is no removing a federal judge or a U.S. Attorney/
Assistant attorney.  There is no accountability to the public.  That is a major
problem with this system.  People can complain all day long, and also attempt to
put laws into place by contacting their Senators and having them advocate, but
the problem is that the foundation of the federal prison system is based on concepts
of slavery.  The writers of the Constitution knew this, and also understood that
they had to stack the deck in order to keep America unequal and one-sided as
far as the rights and treatment.  Originally, it was our
boys and men that suffered most.  Today, women are sentenced at an alarming
rate.  There is a steady increase in the number of women coming to prison.
Even more hostile, is the age of the new prison population.  They are "granny
dumping", or sending older women to prison for small petty crimes at an 800%
increase.  Why?  I had to think about it.  As I sat in the dining room this morning
eating an orange, I looked around me, and everyone at the surrounding tables
were over 65 years of age.  The lady sitting across from me had a cane. 
     I read recently where Eric Holder stated that this system "was broken" and
has failed.  It all depends on who you ask.  If you ask people who support
mass-incarceration, and want harsher sentences,
 they would answer that this system is doing great.
 It is costing the taxpayers over 80 billion dollars a year, that is money
in their pockets.  even the blog that I am writing costs 5 cents a minute.
    The prison system is part of Wall street/the stock market.  The pharmaceutical
companies benefit millions also.  Many of the Senators that are fighting against
abolishing mandatory minimums are connected financially to the pharmacy
corporations, or other entities where they directly make money off of prisoner's
blight.  As a nation, we need to check out these politicians, and publish their
beliefs.  This is an election year.  Who is for this peculiar institution, and if
so, why?  That's the question that needs to be asked before a citizen places
a vote.
      I have wrote about a small group of inmates to entertain.  The women of
Arn-2 are not the norm.  Like many countries, if you take away the non-violent
offenders, and the white collar offenders and place them back into the tax
base and on house arrest to pay large fines, you would only have the need for
one major prison in the country.  That prison would house the violent, and
criminally insane.  One single prison is enough, not 1000's.  Prison is big business. 
  We have a few million dollars worth of inmates sitting at Danbury, as I write
this blog. Looking at real numbers, and using an actual case as an example,
gives the reader a true glimpse of how profitable mass incarceration in
America is.
Rhonda Turpin
author, publisher, prisoner
http://felonista.blogspot.in/
fb/rhondaturpin
worldbookspublishing@gmail.com

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