I received a disciplinary case for not turning out for my slave-labor assignment. However, I, like many others, had lay-ins for the law library. These were early-morning lay-ins, which scheduled us for sessions that conflicted with our work hours. By TDCJ standards we were wrong for exercising our right to have access to the courts. It seems there is a little-known TDCJ policy which states that law library lay-ins do not override work/slave responsibilities.
For the previous 10 months since our lay-in times were shifted to mornings, no one had ever received any disciplinary cases, so the policy was not being enforced. Secondly, no one was aware of the policy and the field officers had never brought up the subject, so we could never attempt to correct the problem.
It also seems that, besides the field officers, the only other person
who knew about the policy was the law library supervisor herself -- and
she was the only who scheduled the conflicting times. By doing so, she
placed us in a catch-22: either go to the law library to satisfy our
access to the courts (a right under law), and by doing so be subject to
disciplinary action, or waive our access to the courts by
working/slaving for free. Most of us are fighting our cases, or working
on lawsuits, or writing the officers up according to policy, and these
people know that, so here is a concerted effort to keep he prison
masses guessing and stressing.
Of course, I am appealing the guilty finding and will pursue the matter
until it's taken off my record. This woman purposely scheduled
prisoners for times which would present a conflict. I did not make my
own lay-ins.
We are required by these people to work in the fields, even if you have
suffered an injury prior to turning out. If you report the injury to
anyone the officers will write you a case for getting hurt! As
ridiculous as this sounds, they are getting away with these bogus cases
because prisoners do nothing to counter TDCJ actions.
A shout out to Texas: Has anyone heard of the Private Sector Prison Industries Oversight Authority? Supposedly they can help. If anyone's got some info on this, get it in print on these pages so we can move on it.
By the way, I would also like to obtain a copy of any petitions that MIM has so that I can mobilize the effort here as well. I ain't much, but it's a start.
Power to the People!
Sincerely in struggle,
--A Texas prisoner
MIM responds: the prisoner is referring to MIM's petition to stop the practice of forcing sick and injured prisoners to work -- or docking their good time if they can't work. Download a copy of the petition here: http://www.prisoncensorship.info/archive/etext/mn/mn253/txpetition.html or write to MIM for a copy and start collecting signatures!
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