3-22-2013 -
“I just spent $20 to get 131 pages of copies: The 303, “The Prisoners Guide to Prison Discipline” and “The Prisoner’s Guide to the Inmate Complaint Review System (I.C.R.S)”. The last 2 are from L.A.I.P. and it occurs to me that I probably could have just written them directly requesting those two manuals and saved myself about $17-$18. Hmmm, maybe next time. Its shit like that – thinking about stuff after the fact – that drives me batty. (er) :>p Whatever. So I did all that and watched the streetlights on the other side of the wall click on. Weird, eh? It’s Med Time so it must be after 8 pm. I took a banging nap this afternoon (11:30ish – 3:00ish) but I feel myself getting all yawny. But it was a big day – seg-wise, lots of interesting stuff. Visits and recreatings. [He had a visit from me and a conversation with his friend when out in the cage for an hour during “recreation.”] So let me tell you about “el”. His name is W.H., but I call him Willy. He’s a Native, but there’s been some people who whisper gossipy crap questioning his ‘blood.’ I’m not the type to usually question heritage since so much shit can go wrong with a person's…’paperwork’ I guess you’d call it. If I ever do question someone’s claim its because there are other problems with that specific person. I’m not immune to the more paranoid members of this band of Lake Michigan Paranoid Indians who always think that the administration is constantly trying to infiltrate and plant a stoolie in our midst. Generally, though I’m pretty accepting of most people. And every ‘skin whose opinion I trust is fine with El’s pedigree. But that has nothing to do with anything with the story I’m trying to tell.
Apparently several years ago while El was a pass warner he got implicated in some scandal involving a C.O. that was supposedly bringing in porn, tobacco, a cell phone, etc. So he got dragged into that mess – it was about the time I was a tutor. I remember because I went to night rec with him, Sun-dog, Jughead Pat, and Blacktooth Grin. (Don’t we have the best nicknames!?) So all us natives went to rec and it was shortly after that time that all this scandalous shit took place. So he’s been in the grip since then. First he did his time on his ticket and then they stuck him on A.C. [Administrative Confinement] and then they started writing one bogus c/r [conduct report] after another. So I haven’t seen him in some time and it was nice to talk to him and give him some news. He figures he’s got another 5 years up on this hill [in segregation] before he goes back to general population. What really bothers me about this is that what really screwed him isn’t that he was involved but that he wouldn’t name names. I’ve always believed that another man’s business is his business and if it doesn’t involve me then its none of my business. I respect a “stand up convict,” a person who can hold his mud. But there are Powers that Be that tend to get a little bit shitty when you don’t give them the information they think they have some right to. So I give El the respect for doing the right things and doing what needs to be done. But that’s how the game is played. We do dirt – they do dirt. It’s a zero sum game though, but that’s never really factored much into the equation. I’ve always wondered which world I had more respect for and I’m not sure I’m any closer to figuring out the answer than I was 20 years ago. I mean looking at either side you’re not going to find shining exemplars of humanity. Oh well. The bible says that after Cain slew Able Gawd marked Cain so that everyone he met knew Cain’s crime. My guess is that he made him wear green. And how do we know that this Able feller didn’t need killin’? So many questions.
2 days later…
“Another day shot in the butt and sent on its way. I got a new pen, my old one was acting up so I got a new one. See what I do to things that act up? ;) Har de har har. It snowed today – grainy little flakes, winds from the east. Must have snowed for 3-4 hours but no accumulation. Why bother if you’re not going to leave a mark of your passing? I found out from talking to El at rec on Friday that its been taking about 30 days to get a copy of the decision which seems to me to be not only over long but a bit calculated, too. Sort of a big ol’ ‘f-you’ to us people that have to sit in segregation. I have a theory that Waupun is using its segregation as a de facto housing unit rather than solely as a segregation unit. Meaning, that if suddenly a wave of rule abiding swept this place that there wouldn’t be 180 beds in general population. Which of course means that the administration needs to keep this place stocked with people. That would also serve to show how ‘dangerous’ and poorly behaved prisons and prisoners were. I don’t know. To be sure there are people here that have earned their way here being violent. I think that since Wisconsin was settled by a lot of order and discipline loving Germans that some how that need to impose rigidity and punishment seeped into our culture. Whatever.
From time to time I ponder trying to learn the law. I’m amazed by people who know it. Usually people who know it are some what condescending to those who don’t know the law; dispensing their “wisdom” and advice like they were the only ones who had the real insight and keys to freedom. But then I look at these paragons of knowledge and they’re invariably lifers or have been locked up for 20 or 30 years and I think, “like I’m going to take advice from some loser like you whos been locked up since the discovery of fire.” I don’t think so, then again I’m sure that knowing the law has helped a lot of people that really had no hope. I’m just not sure that my brain is made for the law. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. I look at a citations and its gibberish, jargon, jabberwocky: “State ex rel. Anderson El 11 v. Cooke, 2000 WI 40,234 WIS 2d 626, 610 N.W. 2d 821” What the f- does that mean? I ask people that profess to know the law and they act like it either obvious or that they really don’t know. All I know is that it is the key to a lot of arcane powerful knowledge. I’ve got to know what it means.
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