On December 10th, 2021, Health Care Unit Administrator Meaker told me she had sent Dr. Osmondson’s Medical Order to allow me to shop me once a week, to sustain my weight and health, to Warden Clark to approve or deny.
Category: Larry’s Story
Every Prison Should Be Like This
My new prison home, Centralia, should be used as an example to run the other prisons by.
Staff are respectable toward the prisoners. If you ask a question they help you, and tell you the truth—something I have not experienced in a lot of years now. This place runs on the principle the prisoner receives what he has coming by law. Only an idiot would violate the rules and get his programs and privileges revoked.
Continue reading “Every Prison Should Be Like This”Dangerous Situation at East Moline Correctional Center
We have a very dangerous situation here at East Moline Correctional Center. As I have reported on my Facebook Page, an African American gang has been stealing from the inmates here. As the prison authorities will not allow us to lock our cells (as is required), we are easy targets. A few weeks ago, they stole about two-thousand-dollars worth of possessions from me, including food. Of course, I filed a grievance; however, the grievance was not passed along to Internal Affairs as it should have been. Moreover, the perpetrators have not been adequately punished—just a slap on the hands—and have continued their stealing activities. In fact, many of the inmates here are fearful of their lives, as it seems that the gang activity will continue unchecked.
Continue reading “Dangerous Situation at East Moline Correctional Center”Something Wrong Here?
In Illinois the Public Safety Act guarantees that the Department of Corrections and the Illinois State Police get their budgets, no matter what, in order to protect the public. For we cannot have our prisoners escaping out into the public. So the excuse that “the state Is broke” does not float here. It simply will not hold water.
But the Shawnee Prison is in serious disrepair. Money was appropriated to replace the windows for the cellhouses here. But only the windows in Three and Four House was replaced—the rest of the money disappeared, with no investigation into the millions missing. Continue reading “Something Wrong Here?”
A Day in the Life of a Jailhouse Lawyer
My celly Justin, “Captain Crunchy,” as we called him, was released from the Illinois Department of Corrections on December 8 at 1 a.m. He caught an Amtrak train to Chicago. From there he jumped on the bus for his final leg of his journey. As I draft this blog, I hope my old celly has arrived to see his little girl. For she is the reason I helped him get home on time. Continue reading “A Day in the Life of a Jailhouse Lawyer”
The Right To Be Free From Illegal Punishment
In the prison system you have the cellhouse, a building where four wings intersect at a hub in the center. This hub is a circular control booth with windows facing toward the four wings. The front of each wing, whether it is A, B, C, or D, is full glass from the floor to the ceiling, so that the staff has a complete view of each wing. Continue reading “The Right To Be Free From Illegal Punishment”
The Law Does Not Apply to Prison Staff
People are sent to prison for breaking the law. But prisons have laws also, and the prison staff is obligated to follow those laws. For example, the law has clearly established that prisoners are to get a minimum of five hours of out-of-cell exercise per week, in order to keep their bodies healthy. Exercise is one of the rights given under the Eighth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. This is to prevent cruel and unusual punishment where the conditions of confinement cause the body to deteriorate. Continue reading “The Law Does Not Apply to Prison Staff”
The High Cost of the Soy Diet
In my last blog, I described the change in diet at the Illinois prisons, from mostly meat to mostly soy. According to the Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC):
- There is no proof that soy diet makes men sick.
- I am a “Chronic Complainer” and have no real case against the diet.
Let me set the record straight on both of these assertions. Continue reading “The High Cost of the Soy Diet”
The Change in Diet
In a maximum security prison, you are a caged man. You spend most days in your cell on “lockdown status.” This happens when someone causes an incident that challenges the security of the prison. Or so the staff will say.
Then all you get is “three hots and a cot.” You get a ten-minute shower once a week. Your meals are brought to you in a cell. No other movement is allowed. My only reprieve from this boredom was to read the law. Jimmy Soto’s words were always there: Continue reading “The Change in Diet”
The Man Takes Control
I was set up pretty good at Stateville. The most notorious prison in the Illinois Department of corrections nourished all the vices. I had found my niche making moonshine. I was learning the law. Jimmy Soto, whom I met on day one, had set my head straight. “Nobody cares about you being locked up but you. If you want to change things, learn the law. Then you must beat the man at his own game.”