Hey! What’s going on?

I don’t know if you have paid close attention to my letter I wrote about me being an analyst…it was even posted in this month’s feedback under “Point Blank Period” in association with the inside information about Brother McCain’s death and the severe head injury he experienced. I mentioned how the Durham County Jail’s staff would meet the demands being made but also unequivocally cause conflict in the meeting of these demands to continue an uproar in the jail, because its result would boil down to what’s more important. Take a look back at that letter and read it carefully and see that my predictions from the time they started nightly hot trays to now is accurate…Like in my last letter I informed you they serve hot trays but they slack in portions, and how inmates prepare the food. (Ex.: It could be a person straight off the streets literally an individual with alcoholism and serious drug issues, that lived anywhere they found somewhere to rest their head, with terrible hygiene practices, as long as their bond is $25,000 or lower and they pass a health screening from the nursing staff they end up being the ones cooking our food. They have been approved by the same jail that allows maggots and fruit flies, gnats, whatever it is in our foods. Deontae was one of our (inside) workers in the kitchen….that’s how I also know inmates smoke behind the hemi (dishwasher), covering their smoke with the steam from the machine. And lately they have been serving us sandwiches but they try to pull it off with just a small scoop of hot scalloped potatoes so it be considered a hot tray…oh, really!

Now down to the “nitty gritty” about all this money they keep ripping off of us for these overpriced commissary items everyone keeps talking about. Why is a county jail able to charge more for the same items on a state prison facility (commissary list)? We are only detainees, a good portion of us are still dealing with pending issues and we pay more for food than individuals that’s serving time in prison–like going to prison would be a luxury. They intentionally make the conditions in here terrible (listen to me now)…(this is psychology 101), we all know to the average human when in circumstances even something as small as a hotel room…that doesn’t reach the expected accommodations of a specific person, they either want a new room or they want to leave the hotel altogether…(Now let’s flip this scenario) As detainees there are a lot of us that expect better, but we are realistic about it, but there are several things that stick out like a thorn in the side…(back to my point). Everything associated with this jail is a mind battle…they try their best to wear you down into a conviction or a plea. From terrible staff, terrible food, terrible lighting in the cells, terrible cells, terrible commissary prices, terrible judicial system, terrible D.A.s, terrible attorneys, terrible professionalism and terrible walks…I’m not just saying this, because I have come up in some of the most terrible conditions, from molestation (during my youth), child abuse, neglect, foster care, group homes, and homelessness and all my life up until I had my first child and gained stability by the grace of God. No one can tell me, though I am thankful that God has sustained me through my life, what terrible is or is not. I have several people you could speak to to vouch for this…moving forward…from such terrible conditions you begin to have mental, emotional, psychological, spiritual and physical breakdowns. If you are not strong in those areas, or have any support in those areas and the conditions of this jail is an additional factor. It begins to indirectly pressure you in the areas you are weak in to become submissive and jump on the first plea or conviction get just to get out of this jail to feel the sun again, to breathe the air again. But I am strong in all those areas because I am a firm believer of God and he enables me to do for others what they can’t do for themselves because he continues to do it for me. I remain in the grace of my God as he allows me to. Michael Andrews really needs to get it together for us. One last thing before I go…the main item on commissary that sells is soups tha are 0.82. I can agree that it’s not good to have a mircowave to make these soups because it’s a safety risk (got it), don’t need anyone walking around with a cheese face…but I don’t see it being any better us detainees having to get hot water out of a nasty janitors’ closet. They also forbid us to keep the styro trays we paid for when we order hot trays through commissary to cook our soups in, they forbid us to keep the commissary plastic bags to cook our food in when we order canteen. They refuse to give us plastic trash bags to cook our food in…They sells these soups on commissary but they don’t provide no bowls to cook our food in (IOA)…Something has to give…They feel we deserve to be locked up. Some people do unfortunately, and fortunately, but we also deserve to be able to prepare our food properly. Some inmates keep their styro and bags, but when they do a “shakedown” they take it all…leaving us with no way to prepare our food.

How does that sound?

One big raspberry in the face…

Til next time Steve

(keeping it real, but I hope you got some smiles out of this one, I did.

Sincerely,

Willie Martin