The Prison Issues Board meeting is on 3-23-10 at 10:00am in the Board of Pardons and Parole building in downtown Deer Lodge, Montana. The agenda is posted on the Department of Corrections website. Click on state prison and then Prison Issues Board. The page will appear with agenda to the left. The agenda is very vague but none the less is posted. Patrick Smith will be taking email comments for the meeting up until Monday. Even if you can not attend you can email and state your comments. If you can attend a wealth of information will be provided to you by DOC heads topics including:
Policy, Grievance and IWF
are going to be discussed. Hopefully we can start to attend these meetings regularly and comment on issues concerning us all.
Also, if you only want to comment that the agenda is too vague for you to participate appropriately that would be great because the goal is to get them to spell out what is going to be discussed. I can only imagine they (DOC administration) have known the full extent of what will be discussed since the last meeting in December. We are at a distinct disadvantage wouldn’t you say?
Please send emails today, or tomorrow to Pat Smith email is: pksmith@[remove if human]mt.gov.
I am writing this email because I am not sure if I can attend the meeting tomorrow. There are many issues concerning the inmates, but the most current thing that has been happening of late is shake downs of the inmates houses. It is understandable that this is necessary and that there is just cause for some of them. For the past 2 weeks D unit has been subject to countless shake downs, sometimes daily. This is occurring throughout the unit – except for a couple of cases who are known rats, their cells don’t get shook down! After this has happened over and over again, my boyfriend, Jesse James Gutierrez asked the Sgt on duty why this was happening almost every day. The Sgt.’s response was that they were overstaffed and they are keeping the CO’s busy. Jesse stated that he was shook down on the evening of 3/20 and then again this morning 3/21, woke him up to shake the room down. The Sgt then stated that it could happen again tomorrow. They tear up and break the inmates personal property, TV’s, CD players etc…and we are to replace them if they are to have them again. More money into the system. Then they take brand new toothbrushes, T-shirts, tennis shoes and again, if our loved ones are to have these things, we have to buy them again! As a taxpayer and a loved one of an inmate, I have had to deal with these things. My hard earned tax money is going to fund this debacle called MSP. Everything is about the money the inmate brings into the system. There is no more rehabilitation. The only thing that they are doing is provoking the inmates into committing a more serious violation because they nit pick at them about things that don’t even matter. Jesse has done 9 1/2 years previously to this incarceration. During that entire time he has not gotten one write up, a couple of warnings which do not even show up on his record. He has been in D unit for about 6 months. During that time he has been subjected to write ups no less than 4 times. Each and every time, it was to his advantage that they did not have just cause for the write up and so he got a warning. We are talking about having too many photos, passing by a cell and mentioning something to another inmate, not standing for any length of time and NOT in the other cell… or standing in your own door way and speaking to another inmate that was standing in his own doorway. What is that doing?!?!?! Jesse, just like MOST of the other inmates just want to do their time and get out of there. Jesse knows the rules and has abided by them continually, but this is even getting to him because it is ridiculous.
I see it all the time, that there appears to be too many on staff that don’t have anything to do. They are standing around the lobby reception area, gauking at the visitors and making them feel uncomfortable. The Governor wants to cut spending, well there seems to be a way to cut some spending out at MSP. I am not for anyone to lose their job. I have been unemployed for a year now and it is not fun. However, I cannot understand why we are paying salaries for employees to be standing around shooting the breeze. They come into the visitation room and hang out and eat popcorn, buy sodas and use the facilities that are meant for the visitors and the inmates. Then when the machines run out of items, we are left to do without. The CO’s have the availability to bring things in with them from the outside. The visitors and inmates do not have this luxury.
Who started the “new rule” about early lockdown? Now, (at least in D unit) the inmates are sent back to their houses 15 minutes earlier than lockdown used to be scheduled. For 15 minutes the guards sit around and look at each other. Then at the normal time lockdown used to be, they begin count. This results in taking another hour away from the inmate…which ultimately results in 365 hours the inmate loses in a year. FOR WHAT???? On Tuesdays this causes other problems, because the phones are off all day due to transfer. The phones get turned back on around 6:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. The inmates line up at whatever phones work, which most of the time is only one. With almost 200 inmates in this unit, there is not enough time for most of them to make their phone calls because lock down is now at 8:15 p.m. It may seem like a small thing, but it is not. It is very important to hear from our loved ones as much as they want to be in touch with us. Being on the lowside is supposed to be because the inmates have earned a spot to be there with good behavior. They are being subjected to enforcement that is the same for the high side…very strict rules that take away basic rights to do their time to the best of their ability and get out. It is like anyone who tries to do good is being penalized by the actions of the CO’s and IPS. Everyone seems to be on a power trip at the expense of the inmates.
Hopefully, some of these issues will be brought to light, and to get some sort of answers about why they are doing some of the things they are doing. I don’t get it!
Sincerely.
Diane Merritt
Girlfriend of an MSP Inmate