A Difficult Week at the Barred Retreat.....

This has been an interestingly difficult week at the barred retreat.   Things were going fairly well.  I was working on several orders for Christmas cards.  I am an artist so I use that talent to pass my time as well as help the others send cards to family and friends.  This was progressing along very well until one, mind you, ONE unhappy person starts telling the multitudes untruths about me.  Words are free inside these walls so where these men lack in most all other areas, they make up for it in words.  Twisted tales, lavish lies, sadistic stories, and so on.  Basically they are bored.  There are not programs here to keep them occupied. Many have no family support or extra money.  They are at the mercy of the corporations that run this hut.  Its much like the Insurance Companies and the medical profession  now owned by the corporations also.  We are just the little ants running around carrying the big loads trying not to get stepped on by the big guys. So are the guards as well as the office personnel, sadly they haven't figured that out yet.  And so it goes....  The corporations are paid by the government whenever a prisoner is let off the bus at these doors.  Then the canteen takes over, the medical staff says no to treatments, the building is understaffed and everyone that works here is pretty much angry.  They all have their little cubbies so to speak, they get their corporation pay check and we on the inside suffer.  I am not saying whoa poor me.  I am saying we should have rehab and classes and be treated like more than a sub human treats a dog. 
We were on lockdown again because of one nutjob inmate. 1,600 men have to stay in their cells, no showers, bag lunches, no light, over one guy.  You see that saves them $ again.  
Then I find out my "friend" the doctor (has cancer if you recall past post)and isn't receiving any treatment for his illness.  They wont spend the $ on someone whose going to die in about 5 months anyway.   He probably did something very bad in the world, I don't know.  You see inside these walls, my world, I can only judge by how I am treated and he has been a decent person to me as well as he is able to carry on intelligent conversation which is hard to find in here.
Then the guards put us all outside in the freezing weather while they "Shook Down" each cell.  That means they rip all your property off the shelves, throw it all on the floor like I am nothing more then a piece of dog feces.  We live each day treated like sub-sub-humans.  Guess it could be worse.  We could be in China working in a horrible mine shaft!  So.....even though they broke my false teeth cup I am fine and survived another day of hell in Tucson.
So until next time, Be Happy, Be Well, Be Safe.....    Clutch 

Genetically Modified Soy Products for Prisoners

Genetically modified soy products are the dietary backbone of the U.S. prison system ('cuz they're super cheap to feed the prisoners!)

Now one prisoner is fighting back: He's suing the and claiming that forcing him to eat soy products is "cruel and unusual punishment."

Think about this the next time to eat a veggie burder or protein bar made with soy protein (as 90% of them are) -- you're eating food that even prisoners consider to be punishment!

The canteen does not allow us any fruit because some of the prisoners use it to make alcohol.  We have no fruit......

Read more about this fascinating story:
http://www.naturalnews.com/034139_soy_products_prison_system.html

Have We Not Evolved at all?

These excerpts are taken from a Prison Newsletter regarding and SMU II in Tucson Arizona:

The deputy warden fished around his desk until he produced a small white container filled with a collection of at least 15 handmade darts. The weapons, designed to sail, are constructed with needles, paper clips and staples mounted on Q-Tips, pencil erasers and cigarette butts--strips of cloth and shredded paper are tied to the ends.
In a class-action suit filed in a protective segregation case against DOC officials, two prisoners testified in federal court that they'd been hit with blow darts, which were fired by inmates through rolled up sheets of paper. While line officers wear stab-proof vests and goggles in the units, some prisoners complain they have no protection.

Prisoners inside SMU II are divorced from natural light except for the three hours a week spent alone in a narrow, concrete recreation pen; the light defracts in from the outside through a metal covering. Those who refuse "rec" have no indicator of the seasons. "It's difficult to hear thunder in there," says former inmate Paris Carriger, who only knew it was raining when water ran down the wall near his cell.
A 7-watt bulb burns like a votive candle around the clock, illuminating a cell stripped down to institutional furniture bolted to the floor. Those inmates who cover their light to sleep in darkness are written up and refused their next meal. Officers on 30-minute bed checks peer through holes in the extruded metal into hundreds of the same boxed vignettes: a mattress on a metal frame, a small sink, a recessed light, a stool, a metal desk, a stainless steel mirror and an open toilet at the front of the cell. Discipline may be administered through turning off water or electricity. Conditions sound as if they're designed for Hannibal Lecter.

But Donna Hamm, director of the prisoner-advocacy group Middle Ground, said that one of her clients was sent to SMU II for a rules violation after bringing a medallion that he received in a drug-treatment program to visitation with his wife, whom he hadn't seen in three years. "They saw him showing the medal...He was written up and thrown in the hole."

 One former SMU II inmate submits that in placing a prisoner in what many consider a psychologically inhumane lockup, "you teach him a deadly form of hate. Now that's fine if you're going to kill him...You wouldn't pen a dog up for five years and expect it to be friendly."

Photo by Jenn Ackerman from "Trapped"

Control Does Not Equal Power!!!

Greetings and well wishes once again.
When I was younger I always tried to control the actions of others around me and let me point out to them how they could do things differently or how they did or are doing it wrong! I thought that by directing their actions I could get MY desired outcome thru them.  Of course that was without giving consideration to their personal rights.
Truth of the matter is I was not in control of my own life and emotions, thus I attempted to live thru others by attempting to control how they thought and what they could and couldn't do.  It wasn't until later in life that I realized how unhealthy this was and is.
Everyone has the right to think, feel, say and do as they choose,  You may lend kind advice and suggestions to them, but it is still their choice whether they want to use and utilize this advice / suggestion!  And if they choose not to listen to you it is not a personal attack or disrespect towards you, rather it is them exercising their right to choose for themselves the direction of their own life. (path)  Whether you agree or not.  And if they do choose to do differently than you advised...... you should not put them down, speak ill of them, rather you should move on with your own life's decisions.  Sometimes this is doubly hard if you are in a relationship and this is a boyfriend/girlfriend situation.  That is when you tend to think the other party doesn't love you because they are not doing as you want when in truth maybe you don't love them for who they are. Or they may be reacting to your choices.  Either way, if you are trying to change and control them there is a strong possibility you are not in control of your own life.  Therefore you may feel the need to direct and control the people around you so you can live thru them.
Here in prison I see this daily in the majority of the people I am surrounded by which has caused me to take a good hard look at the situation and learn from it.  If this is happening in your life I can only suggest you analyze the problems and attempt a rational solution without degrading or abusing any one's rights.  Sometimes you just have to let a loved one do as they are going to do without arguing over something that neither of you are going to come out the better from.
Hopefully this has helped .....   be well, be safe and have a nice day
           Till next time.......Clutch

Back Into Communities with Messed up Attitudes...

This is actually an excerpt from the post, "My Way is Not Always the Right Way."

Many of the men in here (Maximum Security Prison) will ask and ask and ask relentlessly like a child until you give in and give them some sauce or something to eat.  It is easier to just give it to them so they go away instead of argue or fight over something that is yours.  Reason why? These guys will try to beat you up and take what you have if you don't give it to them.  Then if your honest and tell them they are acting like a child they get offended and claim you have disrespected them, try to fight you because they didn't get what they wanted. They demand respect but have no clue what respect is or how to give it to someone else. 
There are those in here that know the difference but the majority doesn't, and they aren't learning it which  means they will go back out into the communities with the same messed up attitudes. 
Makes me want to go live way out in the country, back to basics.....eat good non-processed food from the land. 

A Response to One of My Daughters.....

Life is a learning curve,

None of us get it right all the time.

We all can use some guidance from time to time.

Nothing to be embarrassed about.

Asking for help shows you want to grow, through through learning by asking

When you ask for help it doesn't make you look bad,

It actually makes you look strong

For realizing and understanding you need assistance in certain areas.

Hope this helps,

Dad loves you

photo from:  http://www.wedding2be.net/

Your and My Way is not Always the Right Way....

Greetings and welcome once again.  Here is a short story for you to ponder....
Yesterday the prison chow hall was serving toastado's.....prison food is not very tasty, in fact it is very bland...so using items purchased from commissary I made home-made sauce to liven up the food.  Basically its a little of this and a little of that in my sauce.
I 'm standing in line to the salad bar after getting my tray.  An individual standing next to me saw my sauce bottle and all of a sudden nothing else mattered to him.  The conversation went something like this.  "Clutch, what is that?  Homemade sauce? Let me get some?" 
I said, "You wont like it!" 
He said, "Yes I will, come on Clutch, just a little, man, put some on my food."  
So I said, "Okay but if you don't like it, it's on you!" 
"Okay, he says." 
So I squirt some on his food and go about my business.
After chow I am walking down the compound and this guy is standing with some of his buddies.  He yells out, "Hey, Clutch, you f___ked up my food!"  I looked at  him and said, "No, you f___ked up your own food - no one made you put the sauce on there. Besides you were not taking no for an answer. You just had to have some of that sauce-- so take responsibility for your own actions and don't blame me for your not liking the sauce."
He just stood there looking at me blankly.  He did not understand how this was his own fault.  (It is so much easier to blame someone else.)
Come to find out he didn't like mustard and there was mustard in my sauce, yet he didn't ask what the ingredients were, he just wanted something he didn't have.  So he found out his way is not always right.  My point here is:  Contemplate, think, rationalize and ask questions before you act because if you don't your stuck with the consequences that are your own fault, your own responsibility from your own actions.  You'll be much better off doing it that way.
Hope this help you and allows you a better way to be right more often than not.
Till next time, be well, be happy, and take a moment to think!  
Have a nice day....       Clutch