Category Archives: feedback

‘I’m not a half person’

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10-3-16

Dear —

Thanks for writing to me. It took me a long time to write you back cause of my mental health and medical problems. Right now, as I write to you, it is very much a hard struggle. I don’t want my name in the feedback, only my initial L.

These are the things I want talked about. One, I’m not a half person. I’m like the singer Usher. If I’m gonna tell it, then I’m gonna tell it all!

1.) Bed bugs, or some kind of bugs I’m not sure. Now I don’t know what this meant, but before they did it I kept complaining. These bugs were eating away at us. But n-e-ways, over the weekend in the women’s pod of 5D (maybe the whole jail), Mr. Ham and his supervisor gave “everybody” brand new washcloths, towels, 1 sheet, blanket and laundry bag! Continue reading →

‘How can they get away with this, and press charges on me!’

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To whom it may concern:

My name is Danielle Mace. I am 26 years old. While I’ve been here I was recently charged with felony assault causing physical injury to a detention employee and misdemeanor assault on government official, which (excuse my language) is Bullshit. Continue reading →

‘I can’t believe the health department hasn’t looked at these trays…’

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8-13-16

Hey —

I do hope you are as well as can be! It was good to hear from you. I’m hangin in here and quickly approaching the 1000th day of incarceration in DCJ. It sucks the big one in here, but that’s how it goes for a person that has an extremely high bond and that’s fighting for their freedom. Don’t take a plea for something you didn’t do and sit and rot in jail. They will get their time out of you one way or another. I’m with the others on the hating the food situation. This soy they got coming to us is not enough to make you not even eat your tray. Recently, I’ve been noticing that the trays haven’t been washed thoroughly. So they bring us this slop to eat and you will see remnants of grits from breakfast and brownies from lunch that they didn’t clean good enough. Also, another issue is the trays themselves. Since I have been here (going on 31 months) and actually in 2008 I was here and saw the same type of trays. They haven’t replaced them. The lids in particular are hollow and many of them get full of water and dish soap. So you might get a tray and the lid weighs 5-10 pounds. Then you might get another that’s not full of water. This water drains out on your food. I have held one up and let water and old soap drain out on the floor. Most times if you inspect the food there are little bubbles with soap residue where something hasn’t been washed or that these old plastic trays/lids have leaked stagnant/soapy water out in our food. I can’t believe the health department hasn’t looked at these trays after and in between meals. It’s fucking disgusting to say the least. I mean a dude might blow his nose and put the tissue on these trays and it goes back down to the kitchen to be washed and they half-ass spray it down. We need new trays in the kitchen that our food comes to us on. And we need new dishwashers. These guys are fellows that probably never had a job on the street and couldn’t keep one if they did. They don’t give a damn about their fellow inmates, or their own cleanliness. I bet these guys have homes that are disgusting and have cockroaches running around, pizza boxes stacked up in the corner and endless lines of piss ants marching around everywhere. Savages. I wouldn’t mind throwing them in the sink and scalding them with their sprayer that is plenty powerful enough to clean our trays we eat on and that can easily remove old food. Bastards smh. Ask around on the tray situation. Oh, one more thing. There hasn’t been a toilet brush in this block 5-C in over a year and a half. I got some funk in my toilet that looks like it’s gonna grown arms and climb out of the bowl. I have had to clean it with my hands and a rag. Looks like I’ll have to continue. Drains still clogged in 5-C and overflowing their filth for us to inhale. Sewer gas is supposed to be vented by code (by law), yet it vents in our block and we inhale these toxic vapors. I may as well tell you about the carpet that was removed in 5-C. It was peeled up months ago, but the adhesive remains. People scuff their feet on it and chairs slide on it. Then janitors sweep over top of it. So with that being said, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the particles that are scuffed up (being tiny pieces of adhesive) are becoming airborne. Do they give us dust masks? No. Is that adhesive safe to breathe? One could tell that it’s airborne because when we sweep anywhere in this block, including our rooms, there’s tiny pieces of this yellow adhesive. It wouldn’t take but some remover, scrapers ,and a few swingin dicks to scrape and the jail would have successfully completed a task of removing what they started removing. I’ll stop now. Hopefully these concerns can help clean this place up, if you care to voice them. I have spread the word of your mission and will continue to do so…Thanks.

B.

Living the struggle

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Hello,

Well first let me say sorry it took this long to write you back. I’m doing ok, trying to hang in there. What about yourself? Man, it feels good to hear someone is out there who is trying to support the struggle we go through in here. Yeah, we finally came off lockback, but they took away our 9:00 pm (night) walk. And sometimes we get locked down for no reason and come out late, but they lock us back on time, smh. Yep, we still getting inedible food, d.o.’s still abusing and brutalizing us, and still getting denied medical treatment, and now our family can’t even send us stamps. But hope you’re doing ok, keep the letters and newsletters coming. Hope to hear from you soon.

Living the struggle,

A.N.

“we need more time out of the cells”

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I am __________, I got your letter the other day and was glad.  I know that there are many things that are happening in this jail that you all know about and outside people but it seems that no one is doing anything about it.  This is a horrible place.  The food is better but it is still lacking in so many ways.

I think that we need more time out of the cells.  They have you locked back too much.

I think the guards need more training and people skills, because many do not interact with people well, they lack the skills to speak in the right tone or even what to say in some cases.

I think they hold people in jail too long.

Can we do something on the outside, teaching people about the jail and the way it is run to keep them out?  I believe that may help some people.  Not all but some.

The jail program needs to be reworked from the top to the bottom, because it is not working.  It is no longer about right and wrong it is money, who cares about the lives the courts hurt.

If there was more openness, you would not have all this trying to find out what being said in the Feedback.

Thanks for hearing me out and look forward to hearing from you again.

 

Sincerely,

L.V.

‘I’m a black male–that’s why I’m still here.’

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Hello feedback world,

I have been housed here in the Durham County Jail since April 8, 2016. After checking my house on the night in question, the Durham police left with nothing. But they came back a week later cause the word of a white woman. Yes, I’m a black male, that’s why I’m still here. Thanking God for the change in my life. I’ve been out the system for eight long years. Continue reading →

‘It’s hard to give respect when they treat you like wild mules!’

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Hello, Peace and Love!

I’m TyQuan MacCutcheon, this letter is deep and means a lot to me…I’ve only been in here for a month and would love to give you feed back. I was taught to get respect is to give respect! Well, it’s very hard to give respect to a c.o., when they look and treat you like wild mules! Like we are a stray pitbull or a gorilla that’s gone wild! It’s sad, yes, we are humans that make mistakes, but it doesn’t give c.o.’s the right to treat us wrong! I’m 23 years old with a five million dollar bond! Hold on! Let me repeat that! I’m 23 years old with a 5 million dollar bond! I haven’t killed nobody! Hold on! Let me repeat that! I HAVEN’T KILLED NOBODY! My bond is 5 million dollars as if i’m El Chapo or Bin Laden. It’s sickening…I’m from Hampton, VA. Durham County is a rip off! From Aramark food to the nurses and also the magistrate! Something has got to change! I’ll be proud when I go home and come back to protest against Durham County Jail! Hampton City Jail is way better than this hell hole!! I am a comrade and am willing to whatever it takes to change this place around! Continue reading →

‘How can you beat a capitalist machine bent on mass incarceration?’

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June 2016

Comrade,

How are you, hope all is well? I received your letter in good spirits. What you and the Inside-Outside Alliance are doing is beautiful. I was starting to think nobody cared. These institutions that house the mentally ill and the poverty-stricken need to be stopped. But how can you beat a capitalist machine, which has unlimited resources, and is bent on mass incarceration? Sometimes it scares me to think how evil these people are. We’re dealing with a lot of illiteracy in places like this, all over the country, but in the south it’s the worst. The publications that circulate through places like this are destructive and deal in destructive behavior. There’s no dictionaries, no law books, nothing, how can I fight for my life?

Vanguard

Comrade NoFace

Peace-War

“five years and still no trial”

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Dear G___,

I just want to say thank you for the letter and all you do for the people inside.  I appreciate people like you who genuinely care even though myself and others are locked up.  I do read the Feedback and enjoy what you all have put together.  I enjoy it.  In fact I just got a Feedback paper from another inmate yesterday so I find it ironic that I get my very own personal one today.  Yes, I read it all over again.

As you may know I’ve been locked up 4 years and 3 months and I had a trial date for October but like a month ago my lawyers came and told me its been moved and its not gonna happen this year.  That’s going to make five years and still no trial.  Something has to change because I’m not the 1st and I won’t be the last unless something changes.  So keep doing what you’re doing and inmates will see better days.

Thank you again.

— P.A.

‘If we weren’t down here doing it, they would have to…’

Posted on by

6-8-16

Hey, my name is —, but you can call me Blaze. Well, first off I want to say nice to meet you and yes I will be writing you a lot since I got your letter. I have seen a lot of things, so let me get started. Yes, use the name BLAZE in the letters (newsletter or in the IOA booklet–Thanks!!) Well, I worked in the kitchen here at DCJ and I seen things down there that wouldn’t have known if I did not work, such as: Bugs (gnats) flying all in the kitchen, in the food when it’s on the line to serve for the inmates, in the juice that the inmates drink, and when you tell the d.o.s or the Ararmark people that’s in charge, they say ‘you are in jail,’ and I say ‘what’s that got to do with it–these are still people’s food. Then when the inspection people come in they try to make us scrub and clean heard as hell to cover up the REAL PROBLEMS in the kitchen and if we try to talk/tell the inspector people what’s going on or try to show them anything they will get mad, look at us funny or worse FIRE US. that is crazy, it’s like they don’t care about us (Well, I know they don’t) Then they always pass inspection I don’t know how, has to be some under the table stuff going on or something, because the kitchen here is nasty. Mold on the walls, covered with paint, but you can see it and tell. Then it’s this lady down there named Pam who work for ARARMARK, too, she thinks she can talk to you any type of way, curse at you and think just because  you are an inmate and working in the kitchen she can do that and you just supposed to sit there (SMH). She knows if you say anything back, and she tell the man who hires you to work (Tyler) it’s over and you willl be fired and that’s not fair. That is why people don’t be wanting to come to work like that in the kitchen because she talk to you like you ain’t shit because you in orange/in jail. It is one new lady down there in the kitchen and she so sweet, kind, respectful, never get loud with you or curse at you, we need more people like her. First shift work from 3:30 a.m. or 4:00 till about 10:00 a.m. Working hard as hell, never get no good food for working, thank you or non-thing, just the same food as the inmates and a bye? Second shift work from 9 or 10 a.m til 6 or 8:00 pm, working like slaves while Aramark sit on they AZZ and talk shit to us workers all day. If we weren’t down here doing it, they would have to, you know? If they had more people down there like the New Lady and gave us different food, then the inmates, then more people would want to come to work…That’s it about the kitchen part.

Showers: These showers here are the worst and the water is, too. It’s rust, mildew all in the shower and bugs flying in the shower and in the pod. The water don’t even be hot most of the time (4 real)…How do you take a shower with Dial Antibacterial Deodorant soap and get out the shower still itching and bumps all over your skin, chest, back, stomach? The water got to be dirty, then when you drink the water out your sink it feels like something in your throat/mouth. We need all this stuff I talked about to change. Please help. Thanks I.O.A. Thanks 4 the support/help…We need it.

Blaze, till next time