SEPTEMBER 6, 1999
On Labor Day, September 3, 1999 at 3:30 p.m. a protest was conducted at the State Capitol by a group called "Family and Friends of Incarcerated Persons and Society". The theme of the protest was "inEducation, Not Incarceration". The protestors wanted to see a cessation of Arkansas' constant building of new prison units to incarcerate ever more persons - most of whom are not imprisoned for violent offenses.
Statistics were presented by the group that demonstrated that prisoners who were given some MEANINGFUL educational opportunities had a recidivism rate less than half of those who were not. The ADC's "defense" to the protestors was that some 10,000 ADC inmates have obtained GEDs in Arkansas. Although that is a substantial fact, the public does not know that the overwhelming majority of these men and women were products of the war on crime in recent years, and a majority of those prisoners had already gone through most of high school outside. Their gaining of a GED therefore, is not a reflection of the level or quality of a basic education provided to ADC inmates, but to the fact that the ADC provided the opportunity for taking a test that most of the graduates would have passed regardless of where they had been tested. Only a very tiny percentage of functionally illiterate students ever rise above their initial academic placement levels. School is also mandatory for all prisoners who cannot prove that they have graduated from high school, obtained a GED, or graduated from college, even if their scores demonstrate college level competence. (Since I was School Clerk for almost 8 years here at Cummins, I will write a detailed article about the School when things of greater priority have been addressed.)
The protest appeared more timely this year, following Governor Huckabee's recent public statements that some viable rehabilitation must be implemented, especially for drug offenders, so that when they are released they will have a fair chance to lead law-abiding and productive lives.
I have a suggestion to make regarding the funding for a real educational and vocational program within the ADC that I will write about at length a little later: STOP wasting the multiples of MILLIONS of dollars of taxpayer money that is spent on inmate hoe squads solely for the purpose of preserving a deep south plantation slave "image" for the sake of showing the world that "Arkansas is tough on crime and criminals". There is NO agricultural or farming purpose for maintaining the hoe squads and to spend many millions of dollars simply to have inmates knock endless fields of grass flat is insane. A tractor could do the same thing for $100 in fuel. However, when all the salaries of the hoe squad personnel in the ADC; the cost and maintenance of horses, guns, and all support equipment; the staggering drain in medical resources and man hours that inmates trying to get out of an insane work detail and practice visit upon the healthcare provider; and when the man hours and materials spent on discipline problems relating to the hoe squads ALONE are tallied up, Arkansas spends an estimated $15 to $20 MILLION a year to keep the hoe squad "image". A fine example of Arkansas' economic brilliance! Shut down the hoe squads, open recreation, and turn those millions of dollars into education, minimal pay, and other worthwhile programs, and in a single year, the face of the entire Arkansas prisons would change. But then, what do I know? I'm just a stupid prisoner.
SEPTEMBER 7, 1999
The third inmate assigned to the prison newspaper with me was suddenly transferred to another unit for no specified reason. Ellis Butler was in the process of sending us his telephone and other records for preparation of a lawsuit against MCI, whose telephone system is the only method available for inmates to call their families and friends. We feel this is an unfair and unconstitutional racketeering enterprise that unfairly and conspiratorially extorts endless millions of dollars from ADC prisoners and their families via an insanely expensive "collect call only" telephone system. The suit was to be initiated only by freeworld persons this time. Hopefully, Ellis' wife will still be able to communicate and join as plaintiff, since communication between Ellis and me is now forbidden.
The LLW office was also shaken down again, but the only objectionable item was a chair that had a quarter inch pad built into it. It was removed.
SEPTEMBER 8, 1999
Late in the evening and the executions of Alan Willet and Mark Gardner are still progressing as scheduled. Garner is to be executed at 8:00; just four hours from now - and Willett as soon after that "as is practicable". Since Arkansas has now scheduled four double executions, and one triple execution, someone asked why this was being done. The official answer was that the ADC and everyone concerned really does not like carrying out executions, so to get two or three executed at a time like this was actually "helpful to the staff." It had nothing to do with assuring better media coverage and wider publicity. The guests sure seem to have enjoyed all the cold cuts and chicken they were provided.
At this late hour it does not look like our effort to provide a legal basis for a requested stay which was sent to various organizations has done any good. The odds were overwhelmingly against such a success from the start, but it was our hope that Governor Huckabee, the Pope, or Gardner's or Willett's attorneys might be able to stop the executions until the legal theory could be tested and resolved one way or the other. We did manage to get a brief to one of the attorneys late today, but it is not likely that he will have had a chance to read it prior to the executions, since he was to remain with his client for as long as possible until the final hour. (We don't know whose attorney he was.) The attorney had wanted to give his client a couple of expensive cigars that he had requested, but the staff told him that he would not be able to do so, that the condemned should have requested this on his list for his last meal.
One of the men requested chicken and trimmings, and the other beef jerkey and BBQ potato chips. We had fried chicken.
Everything is quiet among the prisoners. By observing their behavior, one could not guess that two men are about to be put to death here. Most are watching TV, a few are playing dominoes, and the remainder are doing their routine things. Even the hallways are not on lockdown and there is inmate traffic up and down the halls. A few extra guards showed up, along with a good many guards with ranks of lieutenant and up, from other units. Talk about all chiefs and few Indians! How they gloat with the knowledge that all you citizens out there have to make do with make believe dramas on the tube, while they get to be a part of the real thing. How some of you must envy them.
I wish the public could really see the behaviors of our keepers. I will keep my thoughts to myself.
It's shortly after 10:00 p.m., and the deed was done. Mark Gardner and Alan Willett are dead by lethal injection. The first was dead shortly after 8:00 p.m., and the second about quarter after nine. The news showed prison Spokeswoman, Dina Tyler, waiting by the phone with her hand suspended above to grab it instantly when it rang to give the death pronouncements. Her arm sure must have gotten tired like that, or else she has the greatest woman's intuition in the world to know seconds before the phone rang. She said one of the men spoke some words from the Bible, and the other had nothing to say. I don't blame him.
Gardner and Willett are the 20th and 21st men to be executed since the practice resumed in 1990, and the 188th since capital punishment became an Arkansas pastime in 1913.
In six different locations around Arkansas, including at the Capitol, groups of people opposed to capital punishment held a candlelight vigil. They are members of the Arkansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty. Mostly Catholic. They hope this vigil will be the last one necessary in Arkansas.
I got a letter from Alana saying that she had received an e-mail from Channel 4 saying that one more guard involved in the counterfeiting and forgery ring has resigned. Apparently, there will be no arrest. I guess maybe the Secret Service suffers from the same good ol' boy syndrome as most of the rest of the people around here.
By the way, guards often resign from the ADC because if they do that, rather than get fired, they can still be re-hired a few months later when the heat regarding their misconduct has faded from everyone's short term memory. A couple of guards who had been dismissed for sexual harassment of female guards recently reappeared, albeit with less rank. For the time being, anyway...
SEPTEMBER 9, 1999
It's a new day, and it's been pretty routine. The only "incident" was that a known AIDS infected prisoner was caught having sex with a young kid who had no idea that he was diseased. I'm sure that after the Rule 5 disciplinary report is resolved, the guy with AIDS will get every opportunity to entice the next vulnerable boy. Good thing the plasma program is not still going on.
If our keepers decide that the sexual thing was "consenting" it will only be a "Class C" disciplinary offense that will likely be suspended. In contrast, just sticking one's tongue out at a guard or failing to jump fast enough at some ridiculous order are Class A offenses, usually carrying serious consequences. In the free world, the sexual incident is considered a Class Y felony, which is what capital murder is as well, while most of the ADC's Class A offenses are not even misdemeanors.
Just before noon, Inmate Marcrest Crawford, #109937 was lying on his bed taking a brief rest from his long workday in the Kitchen. Another inmate who sneaked up on him while wielding two homemade ice picks suddenly began stabbing him in the head, neck and chest. The cause of the incident was a disagreement over an extra piece of fried chicken that one inmate wanted and that the other could not give to him. Fortunately, due to the haphazard way the ice picks had been made the otherwise fatal attack merely resulted in serious injury.
SEPTEMBER 11, 1999
I just got a letter from Linda this evening with copies of the request from the Arkansas State Medical Board to provide specific patients' names for investigation of the medical abuses of inmates by the good "doctor" Young who maintains his employment with CMS, the state contracted "health care providers". Linda wrote a pointed letter to the Board demanding that something be done. Word has been sent by the grapevine to prisoners at all ADC units to send their personal accounts of abuse at the hands of "doctor" Young post-haste to the Board. It is our hope that the Board will in fact critically investigate and then rescind young's medical license for good.
SEPTEMBER 16, 1999
After months of letters from inmates complaining of the lack of medical care provided by Dr. Michael Young and being aware of his license problems and suspensions, On August 24, 1999 Linda wrote to the Arkansas State Medical Board to demand that they review and rescind his medical license. On September 2, 1999 she received a letter from them informing her that they would review at their October 7-8 meeting additional information she was requested to provide (they had assumed that she was complaining on behalf of her brother, whom she'd mentioned in her initial letter and they asked for his name so that they could retrieve his medical records).
She contacted me and several other inmates and asked us all to forward our complaints and reports of medical neglect and abuse to the Board before September 24, 1999, the date by which she had been advised they needed to be received in order to be placed on the agenda. Many inmates, including me forwarded letters to them.
All inmates who submitted complaints had them returned along with letters telling them that their complaints were not going to be considered until we have exhausted all Administrative Remedies through the Inmate Grievance Procedure No. 96-18 before the Board may consider our complaints. I received mine today.
Coincidentally, Linda wrote to them today telling him that they misunderstood her intentions with regard to filing a complaint on behalf of her brother; that she was complaining on behalf of those inmates who are still at his mercy. She also told them that they would be receiving many letters from Cummins Inmates and that they should be received with the gravity they were due.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE TRANSCRIPT OF MICHAEL YOUNG'S LICENSE AND THE LETTERS AND DOCUMENTS EXCHANGED 
SEPTEMBER 22, 1999
We got word that the Arkansas State Medical Board had faxed all our letters of complaint to the ADC. Copies were sent to Max Mobley, Director for Health/Correctional Programs John Byus, Administrator for Medical/Dental Services, and Tiffany Compton, Inmate Grievance Coordinator.
Today they also wrote a letter to Linda advising her that since she has not provided them her brother's name, no complaint against Young would be reviewed at the October meeting.
SEPTEMBER 23, 1999
There was a near stabbing today. Inmate Alex McKinney, #95436 is alleged to have tried to stab Conneal Buckhanna with a knife, over a spat they were having. Female Officer A. Ceoppedge intervened and sprayed McKinney with pepper spray, thereby making him drop the knife and allowing Security to gain control.
The following day a shift supervisor requested that an inmate type up a letter of commendation recommending Ms. Coppedge as Employee of the Month for her courage and quick action. He then summoned her and informed her that he was making the commendation even though none of the higher ranking officials would do so. He then told her that she would receive $30 extra in pay for the award and that she was not be forget him when she got paid. Ms. Coppedge first thought that he was joking, but then realized that the supervisor expected to be paid part of the $30. Apparently, he was not commending her for any reason other than to seize the opportunity to make a few extra bucks. Petty, but typical. It explains why most of the officers can be bought for a coke and a bag of chips.
SEPTEMBER 25, 1999
It's been a quite week and one with a few positive things. Today we were visited by the Christian Motorcycle Association. It was the first time such an event was permitted at the Cummins Unit. About 20 motorcycles were put on display in the Recreation Yard, and then some of the 30 CMA cyclists held riding exhibition fun and games. The CMA is generally a group of Christians who have an affinity for riding motorcycles, and although some of them are converts from the infamous "biker gangs" all around the country, most of them are everyday people who believe that the Christian message should be taken to a segment of society that is often feared and stigmatized just because they ride motorcycles.
SEPTEMBER 26, 1999
Representatives of the Friends & Families of Ex-Offenders & Incarcerated Persons Assoc., (FEIPA.) visited the Cummins Jaycees tonight to encourage inmates and their family members to support the group. FEIPA conducted a protest rally at the State Capitol on Labor Day, insisting that officials need to "educate, not incarcerate" inmates - and to stop building so many prisons. Another rally will be conducted at the Capitol on October 21.
Arkansas Journal October 1999
Tell the Governor of Arkansas what you think
http://governor.arkansas.gov/contact/index.php
My Brother was a Blood Cow for the Arkansas Department of Correction
http://www.geocities.com/BloodCows
Read stories of everyday life at the Cummins Unit
http://www.maxpages.com/lifemeanslife
Prison Murder
http://www.geocities.com/PrisonMurder
These are the men and women currently residing on Arkansas' Death Row
http://www.arkansas.gov/doc/deathrow.html
Bloodbath in the Dark and Evil World of the ADC
http://www.geocities.com/prison_bloodbath
Arkansas Inmate.org
http://www.arkansasinmate.org
View text of Miscellaneous Lawsuits and Court Decisions
http://www.maxpages.com/arklaw
ARWAR - Arkansans Working to Achieve Revolution
