Transcript
Psychopaths in Charge It's September, 2014. I've been in this camp since November of 2008. When I arrived in 2008 the warden ran this prison according to a regular schedule and had a clear understanding of administrative policy and how it evolved from legal precedent. He understood that respect is earned and cannot be stipulated. Chow was served immediately after count, yard opened exactly on time, inmates were allowed yard and rec 3 times a day which allows them to destress and take their aggression out on exercise instead of each other or staff. Legal assistants had their own stations in the library to help inmates with legal work and inmates had access to the library every day. The current warden has now been in charge here for about 3 years and has turned this camp into a joke! A veteran lieutenant that had worked here for over a decade recently quit because of this warden and described this place on a blog as "a powder keg ready to explode!" He is just one of literally more than a hundred employees that have left here because of this warden. They are so desperate for guards here they recently lowered the minimum age from 21 to 19! But having kids straight out of high school has not been the most idiotic hiring decision. For years now they have resorted to hiring tiny, frail female guards that can't even see through the windows on the doors without standing on their tip-toes! What is a 4'6" female guard going to do if a riot kicks off? In my opinion there should not even be any female guards in a mens prison. We also have a few male guards that are over 70 and can barely walk! They are so desperate for guards here they have resorted to paying a recruiter to find new applicants! So, why does N.E.C.C. (Northeast Correctional Center) in Bowling Green, MO have such a hard time keeping employees? Because they are required to be as big an asshole towards inmates as the warden is! And unlike the warden, they understand how dangerous that can potentially be around felons, so they quit when they're pressured by administration. The main difference between this current administration and previous ones is that the current one comes from a security background as opposed to an administrative background. This warden evolved from a C.O. I to C.O. II, to Sergeant, etc. all the way to major and finally to warden. He has no concept of policies and procedures or what is legal or illegal. Previous wardens that had administrative backgrounds were the ones that kept psychopaths like our current warden in check when he was a C.O. Now that he and his fellow psychopath cohorts are in charge here, they are convinced that it's their job to punish us beyond what the court sentenced us to. The Supreme Court already weighed in on that issue and stated that it's not their job to punish us-prison is the punishment! So, how does a psychopath run a prison? Count clears at 6:30 a.m., but the first house isn't called to chow until 6:45 or even 7 a.m. Then they intentionally run chow as slow as possible, so instead of finishing it by 7:30 (like previous administrations) it's often after 8 a.m. before chow is finished. So instead of opening yard at exactly 8 a.m. (like before), yard is opened anywhere from 8:30 to as late as 9:15 a.m.! Same thing after lunch; yard opening as late as 1:15 instead of 11 a.m. and as late as 7 pm after dinner instead of 5:30 p.m. And since they cannot keep a full staff here they decided to restrict yard and rec to 2 houses at a time instead of 4 or 5 houses. But that wasn't good enough so they cut it down to one house at a time. Yeah, you'll probably have the weight room all to yourself, but forget about any team sports! I've seen the gym with 16 guys in it when it could easily accommodate a hundred plus! Yet you still have 3 to 4 rec officers sitting around doing absolutely nothing. Rotating 4 to 5 houses around 3 rec periods per day, and considering you can't go to rec if you are scheduled to work, reduces an inmates rec time here at N.E.C.C. to only one to three times per week instead of 3 per day! Then you have the issue of this current administration intentionally and illegally denying inmates access to legal assistance. Even though official policy is determined in Jefferson City, N.E.C.C. officials routinely formulate their own versions here. The inmates hired in the library to assist others with legal issues are very carefully screened, but not in the way you would logically assume. Here you can be assured that those assisting you have absolutely no legal training or general knowledge about legal issues. And if and when they actually acquire any expertise in assisting inmates, they will be fired! Case workers and officers routinely sanction inmates for possessing legal work of other inmates or even typing for other inmates even though many carry a copy from the director of Missouri DOC that states specifically that it is allowed! And if you go to the hole for any reason staff denies you all access to the legal library or assistance unless you receive correspondence from a court that stipulates a specific deadline. This is completely contrary to actual protocol. By law you are allowed to investigate and initiate a law suit even while in Administrative Segregation or even Disciplinary Segregation. Now the only way staff would be aware of any court deadlines would be because they opened and read your legal mail before giving it to. This is 100% illegal! When an inmate receives legal correspondence from a court or an attorney they are supposed to observe you opening it and fan it to reveal that it does not contain any contraband. They are not allowed under any circumstances to read it! Here at N.E.C.C. the mail room routinely opens and reads (and likely copies) inmates legal work, both outgoing and incoming. An inmate here sealed his legal work and attempted to mail it out, but it apparently lacked enough postage so it came back (3 days later!). This inmate had organized his brief in a specific order as required by the court. When it was returned for more postage to be added, not only had the pages been reorganized, but you could tell where the envelope had been steamed open because just those stamps opposite the seal had lost their ability to stick! Inmates routinely receive legal mail here that has already been opened. It is taped shut with a note attached stating that it was opened accidentally and the contents were not read. The frequency of these "accidents" suggests otherwise! I've spoken with guards that have worked here since this camp opened around 1998 and the intellectual ones have all left because of the current warden. The guards that remain here are not ones you can have an intelligent conversation with. Most of them come across as inbred village idiots who only work here because it's obvious they could not handle a real job. The current warden and his gang of compliant cohorts are of the ilk that derives intense pleasure from behaving like the excretory of the lower alimentory canal. A dysfunctional administration is what you end up with when you have psychopaths in charge.
