Transcript
The Disappearance of our Constitution During a recent lock down due to the new DOC policy that implements a mass punishment to the entire unit of people wherein the incident occurred of the offending individual. A group of our administration made their rounds to make sure no-one had hung themselves from the stress that being lock-down causes. They stopped at my cell, knowing my admiration of law they stated; "I bet your having a field day with this." I replied "of course, don't you realize this is a violation of our rights?" Two of them responded in tandem "you guy's don't have any rights." When they walked away I thought, they're right. how could anyone afford us rights if they don't even know we have any? I did some research and investigation. Beginning with looking up in the library the names of our administration. I found nearly all of them began their employment as a simple Corrections officer. I questioned some officers and sergeants, asking them if they were ever trained in law or required to learn the Constitution. They all said "No". In fact, I learned to move up in ranks had no special requirements. A test with no wrong answer. The Lieutenants and succeeding ranks were all too arrogant to answer my questions. Which shows exactly where the position of someone affects their personality. A review shows that even their ranks also required no legal education. Interestingly; not one person knew what the "Bill of rights" were or what system of government our country was. I looked through some of my denied grievances and noticed the pattern. All the responses from the administration were identical, and made no legal sense. I then became scared. Thinking back though, It all made sense. The DOC just attempted to stop us all from obtaining books and our legal documents from our lawyers and even the court. Our grievances were all denied by the administration. But when amazing protesters hit the streets; The secretary of the DOC, John Wetzel, made the amendment to his new policy and restored a portion of our constitutional rights. Unfortunately some of his friends lost some money because us inmates were all about to be forced to purchase books from them only, if we wanted to read. (if your a Wetzel fan; don't dismay, one of his buddies still received a $3 million contract to process our mail [smartcommunications] that's why you have to send my mail to Florida). Even before that, A mass punishment was implemented on every inmate who owned Timberland boots. Due to a sergeant being killed by an inmate who owned a pair of timberlands after being incessantly tormented by this sergeant. I believe this was the pivotol moment where the DOC realized, they could take anything they wanted. So they began taking a little more. Portions of our food decreased exponentially. Our breakfast went from waffles to toast, almost just bread. I grieved that, even had to send a piece of bread to Harrisburg with the caption "would you eat this?" Tobacco was taken and replaced with some cheap e-cig that cause more health problems then tobacco. Our grievances are always denied without outside help. Even when it comes to assault or robbery from officers. The DOC doesn't know we are entitled to "adequate due process". I was robbed by an officer on video surveillance. When my grievance was given to his boss I was told, it was my fault. It finally made sense though after hearing the administration make that statement. They were never required to learn the constitutional rights of inmates. Our court is unfortunately reluctant to intervene into prison issues because they believe the prison administration knows what they are doing. However, I believe it is finally necessary for judicial intervention. As we de-evolve back to the time of "sing sing", without education our lives are literally on the line. Staff beating's are on the rise as they realize they can. It is clear to anyone who watches television that even the countries administration is slowly transitioning from a "Constitutional Republic" to a "Plutocracy" (government by the wealthy). As long as one has money, they have power. "No one is above the law" said our speaker of the house referring to our president. But what law is there left? Only when it benefits those with the power? President Nixon and Clinton both committed crimes of our country and not only was there no punishment, but they were both permitted to continue employment in politics.(both these presidents pushed for harsher sentences and stricter laws.) And the Constitution disappeared. We should all be scared. -Mark C. Rokita Jr. @sci houtzdale Mark C. Rokita Jr. 1
