The writer below hits upon a key point, that has nothing to do with the different faculties (IQ) or interests an earlier writer wrote about here. In his writings, Karl Marx predicted a growing revolt against exploitation, by an ever-increasing class, “disciplined, united, organized by the very mechanism of the process of capitalist production itself.” If the contemporary working class numbers more and more people who find themselves behind bars, can we also expect a rise in rebellions there?

Hello IOA,

My name is D.D.. I am an inmate at the Durham County Detention Facility. I learned about you through another inmate. I read your Feedback pamphlet Volume 1-May 2013. And, yes, it was very true about a lot of the things that are in there. I have been here 10 months and still NO court date, and the walls are gray, the clothing is orange, the phones are broken, the food is garbage, and all of us are living with these circumstances.

There are a few more things I would like to better understand, like shaving once a week on Sunday nights with a single-bladed razor after visitation. Now is there a way to get razors twice a week? Some of us need to shave every day or at least the day before visitation. And as well, there is preferential treatment to certain inmates who happen to be friends with the DO’s who are able to use their (position.)

There are flies everywhere and they haven’t cleaned the showers in over a month, no Clorox or any other cleaning supplies that disinfect, only small cleaners such as Fabuloso.

Now, let’s talk about the pencil situation. We are not allowed to have pencils in our cell. They want us to write our letters to families and our lawyers in front of and with other snitch ass inmates and detention officers over your shoulder watching, reading all your personal business with your loved ones and their addresses. Ex: Let’s say that you are incarcerated for selling drugs and you write your girl and she tells you there has been other letters sent without names trying to find what you might have so they can steal it as well as whatever else one could imagine.

So, they start with your freedom, then your communication, then your dignity and now pencils. What’s next, books? By the way, we only get 1 book a week if we are lucky because they only come and get us when it suits them. My cell mate has not been yet and he has been here 30 days. Well could if possible send him a Stephen King title and me a couple of books like Catching Fire and Mockingjay, the sequels to Hunger Games and possibly 50 Shades of Grey and some other recommended titles by you guys and I’ll be sure to pass these around to other inmates which is what I do with my other books because I know how it is to do time without anything to read to get your mind out of here. Thanks for your support. Keep it up.

D.D.

P.S.  Housed in 4C for the last 10 months. I was here and observed Steve getting beat in cell 6 pod 4C! (referred to in a previous post)

(on another sheet of paper) —
“Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends–life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness–it is the right of the people to alter it or abolish it and institute new government.”
–Thomas Jefferson