Hello,
My name is D.D. I am an inmate of the Durham County Jail and have been for 10 months and would like to inform you about the sub-par health care that (Correct Care Solutions) CCS is providing for us here in my pod. Continue reading
Hello,
My name is D.D. I am an inmate of the Durham County Jail and have been for 10 months and would like to inform you about the sub-par health care that (Correct Care Solutions) CCS is providing for us here in my pod. Continue reading
Glad to know you are serious about the cause of our rights inside Durham County Jail. I commend your efforts and wish one day to stand and support the cause with you for the inmates and prisoners all across the state. Hoorah, and cheers to you.
Hope [that talk] is heard by thousands who have loved ones incarcerated. It’s a shame to see what our young black youth think of being locked up and forgotten about. They see it as a badge of honor, when it’s really a badge of shame.
I look around the pod, which is really a “tomb” for the “living dead” and the average age of those “living dead” are in the range from 17 to 22 years of age, that’s over 75 percent in this tomb alone (staggering).
I wonder a lot about our species as a black culture. They say that the best way to kill or destroy a culture is to kill off the young and that way we become extinct.
Today, all you have to do is put a gun in a black man’s (boy rather) hand and sit back and watch the “mayhem” it causes in “our” neighborhood, or as the “killers” (white racists) would say “niggerhood.” No longer do we see whites protest any more, you know why? Cause they just pick up a newspaper and smile to see “4 arrested in drive by, 3 dead, and an innocent child, or elder person, or an entire family killed.” This is the madness we must bring forth and expose their plan in order to stop it.
What ever happened to (the) NAACP, civil rights leaders who stood up for justice and our rights to be heard, where a black man felt he belonged and had rights to be heard. Don’t you think it’s time for people like us to take the banner of freedom and justice and move it up to the next level? The lions of our time are getting too laid back (lazy) in the sun. We need for them (Black Leaders) to teach us what to do, how to organize and assemble marches, speeches, protests, and put the control of our youth back in the hands where it belongs, and that’s the parents and schools and discipline. Take it back from the courts and the police. (I scream for this to be done and not heard).
We have to come to the “rescue” and be “heroes” in the eyes of our youth, and stop waiting for someone or somebody, or someday, or some “plan” to arrive. I say today is that day and yesterday was way too late to begin.
…I’ve spoken my peace and I hope to God or to to your understanding you get the big picture here. We need to stop the bleeding and start the re-healing.
Peace to you,
Floyd Harwell
Fight on.
This letter arrived from an inmate in a pod we hadn’t heard from yet. He likely heard about Amplify Voices Inside from another inmate on his pod who had been told of it from a visitor. Along with this letter, he sent a petition signed by 41 inmates on his pod. Both describe a slew of awful conditions the inmates face.
November 20, 2012
To Amplify Voices Inside,
. . . We are proud to have somebody on the outside fighting for us, I commend you for your and our voices to be heard.
There are also other conditions in here that need addressing such as: Better Health Care, Longer Visiting Time, Hours of LockBack during the day, Proper Heating of Building, Too Cold, Spiders, Flies, Air Filteration, Proper Washing of Clothes (come back dirtier), Proper UV lighting (Sun), Meals, Water Containers for Pods, Microwaves for Aramark Soups and Products, Prices (Too High), Care Packages (Hygiene Products), better toothbrushes, Church (Groups), Relaxation Methods (Stress), DVD Movies to Pods on Good Behavior to each other and staff, Library, better Kitchen Staff, Paint Crews for Pods, High Bonds that don’t fit the Crime.
We here feel as though we’ve been found Guilty and are being punished. What happened to Innocent until proven otherwise? We have already been judged before we are judged.
Thank you
“7420” Floyd K. Harwell
NOTE: We have received permission from the author of the letter below (from late October 2012) to publish his words and his name here. (We will also publish anonymous voices from inside–whatever a person requests.) The letter is published in its entirety. To date, we have heard nothing else about the milk situation.
Dear —–,
They have just cut out our only serving of milk, which was only 30% of the daily calcium requirement as it was. We are trying to bury them with grievances, (it’s incredible they should even think of doing this) but if you’ve got any mojo, I think this would be worth using it for. I’d write the Herald-Sun and the N&O, but I’m out of postage right now.
Yours, Robert Smith
“Nothing ain’t gonna ever change unless you stand up and fight.” — James Taylor