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page a ' The Texas Prison System ! ' I am a prisoner in one of Texas' many Prison units, and have been in this system for (10 years) for a crime that I did not do . I have no family on the out side so its realy hard on people like myself, because with out out side help the only thing that is left to be done is to hustle to survive because we do not get any thing or any help from the prison in the line of commissary, proper items to keep a person clean . The little that they give doesn ' t last a whole week . These items consist of; small bars of soap (7 in all), tooth powder, toilet paper , and bippie to clean the sink and stool, other than that , every thing else has to be hustled . I had a few dollars a while back, so I bought this type/writer to do Legal work for myself, tring to find a way out of this place . Some times a person askes me to do some typing for them and they give me a couple of dollars to show that they appreciate my help, at no time do I charge these people, but when they g ive me a little money for helping them---it is taken and I am written up for 'Rl.mning A Business ' , which isn ' t the truth . I have never charged any body for my help. This place is suppose to help a person to find 'Rehabilitation', but we are treated as slaves and if we try to help ourselves we are charged with a rule infraction . Most of us do not deal with any kind of contraband or anything that is dangerous, all that most of us do doesn ' t hurt any body. About (2) months ago , an Offender wrote a I-60 on me and said that I was selling my medication and some pictures for commissary items, which was not the truth, so a Officer came to my cell and took 314 pictures, 5 soups, a bag of coffee, 6 typewriter ribons, a bag of chocolate, and some i~~ pens, and called it contraband just because I didn ' t buy these i tems out of the store myself . I tryed to explain that people give me things like this to help me because they know that I have no family, but the Officer still took these items and wrote me a case. The Officer left the I-60 that some body wrote, it is signed :'Concerned Person ' . Some body seems to be jealous of me being able to .support myself and this Prison system goes along with this kind of stuff . There should not be any problem with a person taken care of hisself as long as he isn ' t stealing, bullying, gambling, or anything that could cause a problem to another person or myself, but this system doesn ' t see it that way. I know that Guys lie on each other for one reason or another, but I do not get involved in this kind of things, I stay to myself most of--( continues on next page! ) page #2 ---the time . I do a lot of reading of non-fiction books, listen to my radio, check out a little T.V. when there is a good movie on, look at a little bit of sport s, and meditate on getting out of this mad/house. The way that we are treated sometimes---I wouldn ' t treat a dog like this. Some of the Officers bring their personal problems in here with them ano take it out on us, even when we have done nothing wrong to cause this to happen. ~·Jhen things are fair around here, I mean half way good Officers are here, its a place to make plans for when a person gets out so that they want put their self back in a place like this. At times the way we are treated, we thinlc about killing some of these people when we get out, because of the way some of them treat us. Not all of the Officers act with hate or as if we have done them something personal, those are the one ' s that get respect from most of us . I just turned 60 years old January past and should not be in here, because I have shown that I am no threat to anybody, but the system thinks that nobody changes . The ones of us that should get out are left in here, the ones that they know will return are the ones they let out. vlith the way that the Courts in Texas are, they will lie or make some one lie on you to get you back on this revolving wheel . Tax payers are lied to so that the system can go into small Towns and build one of these units to make jobs and to cause a 'Genocide ' process to go on to thin the population down, no caring just who gets hurt in the situation. Just like this; I had caught a case for selling drugs (t wice), both cases were runed together and I had gotten 5 years, to be done together, I did that time and was let out, so that time should not have had any effect on this case, but they used the 5 years to enhance the time I have now, plus they seperated the 5 years into two 5 year sentences and gave me 50 years . At no time did the Judge say that I had 50 years agg., but when I got here I was told that I had 50 agguravated years to do . So, as it stands I have to do 25 years just to come up for parole, which 15 more years, I ' ll be 75 years old. What harm did I do to deserve this kind of treatment? Why doesn't the Courts here in Texas let people of age out and save the Tax Payers money. Also, I have acouple of things wrong with me ; I have asthma, high blood pressure, distroyed rotator/cuff, and hep. c •• • I am hoping for treatment, because something is wrong with my liver. This system has been hesitating because the treatment that I need will cost about $40,000. 00 and there are no guarantees that that will fix the problem or cause more problems . Since I have been in here, I have used my time to better Educate myself, I have gotte papers in Electical, ~·Joodcraft, \velding, and Paint/Body work and I--( continues on next page ! page #3 ---can support myself if allowed a chance to prove that I am not the same person I was when I came in this system, I just need that chance to do so ! This system doesn ' t care about how mush a person changes, there are people like myself, that are and have been doing things constructive and also have been talking to the youngsters that are coming in here about staying out of trouble and going baclc out there and being productive, some of them listed and some do not. I write alot of book places and tell them the kind of books that I would love to have and they send them, I share with people that show they want to learn about the past to better their future. I could go on and on, because there are not enough words that can explain how I feel and whats going on in this system and other systems across the Country. The U. S. has more people behind bars than all other Countrys combind , all with the lie of making 'New Jobs '. How can a Country do this to their own people and call other people 'Terrorist '? The terrorist are in high places and they don ' t care who they hurt . I al so have another problem, being Black or Mexican in this place gets you even more problems. They come up with all types of job titles for these guys that are called Officers ; Gang Intelligence, Safe/Prison, and a number of other tytles so that they can come and take your property and call it ---'Contraband' , later they find one of their pets and give them your property for telling them something on another prisoner, which most of the time is a lie. I could probly go on for days explaning this situation and still not even be done told everything that goes on in here , but I hope that I have did enough danage to have this place exposed for what the truth is. This Is By; Preston D. Hawkins #1048264 Clements Unit 9601 Spur 591 Amarill o, TX. 79107-9606 If more is needed , I ' ll be glad to bring more out into the openning!
