I wish to express my appreciation for those of you who take the time to read my story. Anyone wishing to become involved, to get to know me better or help me through this injustice: I'm looking forward to hearing from you via daryl.wheatfall@hotmail.com or Polunsky #999020/Mr.Daryl Wheatfall/3872 FM 350 South/Livingston TX 77351/USA.
12-04-2012
Lockdown (3)
Once again, I'm upset. A lot of negative things are going on around me & I'm not happy. How can I be living inside this madness? On March 29 Polunsky Unit came off lockdown. When the guard came around to check if I was going outside, I told him no. You would think, after being confined inside this cage for so long, I should want to get out of it, but after working on my book the day before, I was tired. This unit went on lockdown on March 12. This time we, prisoners, were confined for 16 days because population prisoners were searched. Four months from now only death row will be on lockdown. Death row is looked upon as the worst, the name alone is enough to tell people we deserve the treatment being forced upon us, prisoners. They caught a guy with a phone a few days after this unit went on lockdown. This is why the shakedown team started at the front of the building this time. I was glad to get it over. I get so tired of coming back into this cage seeing my property everywhere! These guards have little regard for my property & when something is missing I have no idea who was inside my cage! A group of guards entered my section & began pulling prisoners out of their cage placing them into the shower or outside on the rec yards. So while I'm in one of these places, a guard is going through all of my property, I mean going through everything! Most guards don't enjoy doing this, but it's their job, they try to get it done as quickly as possible. But some of them love going through prisoners' property! Now guards are taking prisoners' stuff they shouldn't be taking. The guards took the radio of the guy next to me, claiming it was altered, but he said it wasn't. Anyway, there's no use of me complaining about this. Lockdown is what it is, so I'm looking forward to sharing what took place the next time it happens. Actually, we're facing 2 more lockdowns this year!
As for the lockdown: the guards are growing tired of shaking down as much as we, prisoners are. This may explain why they weren't too destructive. We came off lockdown February 6. This time it wasn't that long because prison population wasn't searched. Death row has to be searched 4 times a year, only twice for population. I don't agree with this. These people are taking everything that can be taken away. What now? Ear plugs! You can't believe it? I would find it hard to believe if I wasn't made to live through this B/S. Unit officials are saying ear plugs are a security risk. How? A few guys were using them to make blow darts, shooting them like missiles at the guard as he is looking into the cage. This hasn't happened often, but this is their excuse for taking away ear plugs! And what is their reason for taking away pillows? They are trying to save money by not making pillow cases. Did you know that no death row prisoner is allowed to have a multi-outlet nor nail-clippers, shaving razors, pencil sharpeners, color paper? Oh yeah. And have I told you I'm only allowed to buy one typewriting ribbon every two weeks?There're a lot of other things that have been taken away for some stupid reason! The only reason why this is being done is to create discomfort, frustration, making life as unbearable & displeasant as possible. This is what a lot of people don't see. It's important for you to see these people & their mentality for who they are & what it is...Some of these officials & guards are just evil & filled with hate!
Lockdown began on January 30. These people have totally lost their focus that they are dealing with human beings by the way we're treated: we're confined inside these cages for 24 hours & tortured with bad food inside brown bags. We shower every other day waiting on a gang of guards to arrive to begin taking away or throwing away my property, while we, prisoners are placed in showers totally unaware of what guard is going through a prisoner's property. Some of my stuff was thrown away but I didn't know until I was searching for it. I am totally turned off with these people going through my property every 4 months.
What's going on at this end? The same old thing. .. The other day the guards pulled me out of this cage to search through my personal property. They didn't mess up my stuff too bad. It's about time for this unit to go on lockdown. This is what I am waiting on. This place has gotten so bad. Many don't leave their cage anymore because they don't want to deal with lazy ass guards who go out of their way to create controversy just to prevent a prisoner from going to the shower or rec. It is so sad that guards are allowed to get away with this. What's truly pathetic is that it's the ranking officials that are telling them to do this. The guards leave prisoners inside the dayroom or on the outside yard 4 or 5 hours, destroying the routine of rec by violating rec policy. It's so sad now prisoners are being showered at 12 in the morning. Otherwise they are left inside the shower for one hour or an hour & half! Who wants to deal with all of this when one is trying to focus on more important matters? I went to commissary the other day but lately they haven't got the items I want. It's bad enough we have to deal with the price changes from week to week, can you believe prisoners have to pay $6 for one T-shirt? Prices here are outrageous. Aterwards I was told I had a visit, something I wasn't expecting. It was my friend Blackie, who I've known since we were kids. He was the one who informed Marjan that my father had passed away. He explained that my brother had called & told him. They agreed to come to me together but my brother didn't show up and we're not sure what he's going through. It was nice to see my friend, I hadnt seen him since February 2011. We talked about the past, then his family. I couldn't believe he has a daughter in college & he has been married for 21 years, which is as long as I have been behind these walls... It's raining right now, prison officials have just locked down the unit. No one is sure why but I believe it's because of the weather. Every time it starts to rain hard & begins to shoot lightning across the sky, unit officials lock the firm down. The last time the rain was very bad, it messed up my radio. I couldn't listen to it for 2 weeks. And my typewriter is also messing up: I can't use my small letters anymore.
I've been informed that my father has passed away. I'm OK, he hasn't been a part of my life in years. His passing away hasn't changed anything in my life - the way he was involved in my life didn't change anything. I didn't feel like I had a family anyway. No one in my family informed me that he was dead. If it hadn't been for Marjan, I wouldn't have found out. Being inside this madhouse I don't feel like my real family exists & this is sad, you see. Right now, it's raining outside & the discharge of lighting is making it difficult to listen to my radio. I don't like this because the show I'm listening to was about sport and my favorite football team. Over the weekend the Houston Texans won their play off game. They are looking at a difficult game next week. If they don't win, it's over for them, but if they win they'll have a chance to go to the next round & if they win they'll go to the Superbowl, which is the Championship of the National Football League. Have you ever taken time to watch American Football?
Things have become worse. Trying to provide you with a clear picture of what's taking place around me, how this affects me, is going to take a lot out of me. I'll give it a good shot. I'm placed outside, it's about 35-40 degrees. A T-shirt & thermal shirt is what I have on. To protect my head from the cold, I wrap my T-shirt around my head. The guard comes out & orders me & another guy to remove our T-shirts from our heads. You can't believe this? Neither could I. They tried to remove me from the yard because I wouldn't follow orders but my time wasn't up & they know their order was B/S, petty & nonsense, the guard was seeking to provoke a negative situation; this would be his excuse on why he wasn't able to do any work. This isn't the only outrageous event I've been made to endure: food is being denied, my sleep is being disrupted, mail delayed & policies violated. This is just some of what's going on. On Dec. 5 I was given a letter written Nov.6. To hide the post mark date, mailroom personnel marked it out with a black marker, just another way to deceive after holding my letter over a month. I wrote to a friend in the US and this Oct.31 letter was posted Nov.10. They gave me his letter in a different enveloipe so I wouldn't know how long they have been holding it. It was 2 weeks old by the date on the letter. This mail problem is going to be a big issue and the problem will only get worse. It was reported the other day that the US post office will be closing many of their buildings letting go many of their workers. They say a lot of people are now using the internet to mail their letters, so instead of mail taking 1 to 2 days to arrive now, it's going to take 3 to 5 days because unit officials will use this to delay mail longer. Not sure when it will start, some time next year, I guess. The other day I had a problem with a guard who deliberately didn't feed me. But first I must say that since these cameras have been up, a lot of guards have been fired, transferred to another unit or just quit, so now a lot of young & inexperienced people are here now. The feeding procedure is as follows: the guards enter the section, saying: "It's meal time, turn your light on if you want to eat." They begin to serve each individual going door to door. If someone doesn't have his light on, they're supposed to ask the person if he wants to eat, giving him an opportunity to accept or refuse the tray. These new guards aren't doing this, some are just walking past the cage without asking/giving a person an opportunity to accept his tray if his light isn't on. Even when the person comes to the door after they have walked past, these guards refuse to give him his tray. On this day, lunch wasn't passed out until 3:30-4 o'clock because a pipe broke flooding out the kitchen in this building. Food had to come from another building, which was why the food was late... These lazy ass guards were the other reason. Laziness is why we, prisoners, can't receive our showers, mail & recs on time and this is the problem in other departments as well. Anyway, the guard who denied me my tray created problems with other prisoners where a sergeant had to be called. I was able to explain my problem and when the sergeant looked at the paperwork to see what time I was fed, it had 19:45, they lied on the paperwork. So the sergeant asked: "Why didn't you feed this prisoner?" "His light was off", Officer Kelly said. "Don't you know that's not our feeding procedure?" Williams asked. Kelly simply stared at the floor. Sgt.Williams instructed me to write Kelly up & use him for a witness. All this was good but I still wasn't fed! Officers are now deliberately creating situations to use as an excuse why they couldn't shower, change out rec or the reason why they had to feed late & nothing can be done aboutit! I'm being awakened at 12:30 at night to get my mail or to be placed in the shower. Once I'm in it, I'm left inside for an hour or longer. If you roll all of this together, I'm beyond frustration... I expect you to understand all these attacks fill me with negative thought & energy, how could you not? I'm battling my emotions each day, fighting to hold on to my sanity, which isn't easy. I'm an orphan, have felt this way all my life. I'm sitting inside this cage, being abused physically & psychologically, waiting to die. My mother was never there for me, I haven't seen nor heard from her in 21 years. I understand now everything I experienced as a child was real, she doesn't care. Inside my head I'm sitting on death row because of a friend using me, not trying to hurt anyone, I'm trying to free myself from death row. All I ask is for help: help me help myself, not someone helping themselves by taking advantage of my situation. I'm getting older & older, sitting on death row, yet the state has not killed me. Why? It's not because of this useless ass attorney over my case, he has done nothing! Where is the Christmas spirit? If you ask a man to deal with the darkness I'm made to live through, this destroys my Christmas spirit. Anyway, I want to wish you the best for Christmas and a joyful time during the new year.
