Transcript
They Tried To Bury Me, but they Did Not Know I Am a Seed! I am an indigent state prisoner, wrongfully convicted and locked in solitary confinement as revenge for my grievances at LCI the world's largest prison for women. I have published books on this at www.prisonsfoundation.org/Nonfiction_Books.html to express the corruption in the criminal justice system and have emails sent out from jtmax125( )aol.com with personal messages from me and links to my books to educate the public on the waste of mass incarceration. My book Prison Life was cited in The Journal of Law and Social Deviance December 2016. My writing has also been published by Prison Action News, Journalist of the Black Flag, on www.FLUURF.org and American Prison Writing Archive has requested an essay from me to post. I have spent nearly 13 years in Florida jails/prisons being abused by the state workers paid to take care of me who have free reign to break the law to cause me harm with no consequences. I received a paralegal certificate in jail and do activism full time to publicize the rampant human rights violations in the penal system. I have been charged with crimes I was not guilty of, held in jail with no bond and provided with a public pretender to coerce me to enter a pleas each time I have been convicted. Twice I have been battered by the jail personnel who falsified police reports to charge me with a felony. Both times I was handcuffed and locked in a cell by myself with no witnesses, with the staff falsifying reports to cover up their criminal acts. In 2016 I went out to court and received an extra 2 year consecutive sentence for a resisting with violence charge that I was totally innocent of. I called the Governor's office, FDOC IG and FDLE for hours. The FDLE finally picked up my prepaid phone call after I called for hours and once I gave my name and location, stating I intended to report the abuse at facilities in Florida, the phone was shut off and not turned back on until I was transferred. No one followed up on my phone complaint. The FDLE has never acknowledged my written complaints on the criminal acts of the personnel at the facilities in Florida since 2013 when I began to document this problem extensively. Since 2010 I have been issued 109 discipline reports, hauled off to confinement 22 times, lost years of gain time and kept locked in a room (at 2-3X the cost to keep me in GP) about half this period--blatant retaliation the officials pretend is discipline to justify their wrongdoing. Nineteen of these discipline reports were written solely for submitting a grievance labeled disrespect, lying to staff or written "threats" so they could carry out revenge at taxpayer expense under the guise I am being disciplined. Over the years I have submitted thousands of grievances, talked to administrators, met with several useless IGs, called the prison tip line, filed formal complaints with various regulating agencies, published books online, had emails sent out to hundreds, contacted organizations, written heads of state and sought relief in state/federal/appellate courts with no significant changes. I have a $6500+ loan on my account for postage, filing fees and copies as a result of pursuing relief in the courts for the injustices carried out against me by the State of Florida. Several courts have sanctioned me to prevent me from documenting the misconduct of officials. Last year I was deliberately assigned several violent roommates to put me in harm's way. The last one sent me to the ER. My attacker was sent to GP while I was sent to closed management on the pretense I am endangering the inmate population and need behavior modification. I have hurt no one in or out of prison at 41 year old and the roommate who battered me had an extensive history of violence and had sent more than one inmate at FWRC to the hospital. The management have stolen my legal papers that I sent in to the law library to be copied/typed and deny me law library access to sabotage my PDOC cases and post conviction relief. In April 2018, after I filed a complaint in the federal court on the theft of my papers and denial of law library access, I was targeted for more reprisal. I was denied food, harassed in the shower by male staff, hygienes tossed out, ambushed with chemical weapons warfare, placed on property restriction, belongings taken and confiscated and issued 14 disciplinary reports. An officer actually threw my tray on the floor, glared at me--then walked off to report that I had thrown the tray I had never touched. I was not fed twice this month and threatened with pepper spray more than once on camera while denied basic necessities. The criminal act of the state workers paid to take care of me are carried out with video/audio evidence and no one of the employees are worried about an investigation or any repercussions for their actions. I have not seen an IG on Ocala prison issues since October 2015. No one even cares to pretend to investigate the problems I report any more. Many of my grievances are not answered and what responses I get are full of lies. There is no accountability, no real checks or balances and no regulation of these State police, Department of Justice, POTUS (2), U.S. Congress, Attorney Generals, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Governor Rick Scott, Chief IG over Florida, Criminal Justice Committees, Florida Legislature, statewide prosecutor, local police, local state attorney, etc is largely ignored. No agency I have ever contacted has conducted any real investigation into my situation, much less intervened. Last year I was taken to cont[???] 6 times Feb-Oct 2017 at FWRC. Each time reports were falsified, my property stolen, gain time revoked and I was kept held in a room long periods of time to punish me for exercising my right to use the grievance process to report abuse which is provided for that very purpose. I was kept locked in a room more than 1/3 of the year. I received 30 discipline reports, all but 14 overturned and 27 of these were issued while I was locked in a room doing nothing wrong. Basically, I am reporting the abuse to the same mobsters ordering it to be carried out. We are regularly tortured with chemical agents while doing nothing wrong while held in rooms and helpless and reports falsified to justify the cowardly attacks. The sadistic sociopaths who gravitated to these positions delight in provoking the human beings they are paid to take care of so they can have an excuse to spend hours attacking people with pepper spray. The target the mentally ill, especially. All day long I listen to banging, screaming, crying and threats of suicide from the inmates tormented in this dungeon. The isolation and deprivation causes us terrible suffering. I have been DC status for months now and cannot use the phone, have a visit, check out a book from the general library, get a razor to shave, earn my gain time or go to the day room to socialize. I have no normal human contact. I must be handcuffed from behind before I leave my cell and shackled on my legs. I cannot attend chapel, do research in the library and am only allowed three showers a week. To be able to go to recreation I would have to take off all my clothes, bend over, squat and cough to show my anus/vagina--just to walk outside handcuffed and be locked in a cage for two hours by myself. This is done to degrade and humiliate us or discourage us from getting exercise to save the staff work. I have sent out 300 pieces of legal mail this year alone to try to get assistance for the problems ongoing and escalatory. The courts refuse to intervene and the cases drag on for years with no resolution. There have been record numbers of inmate deaths since 2012 with the population decreasing and natural deaths plummeting. In 2016 the FDOC IG was replaced after newspapers reported he lied to cover up the murders of the inmates by the FDOC employees. Florida subjects its citizens to incarceration and correctional control more than nearly any other in the country. The rate of incarceration is 23% above the national average with one out of every 104 people in jail/prison. The harsh sentencing laws are outdated, waste tax payer dollars, and do not increase public safety. The FDOC is the largest state agency with a $2.3 Billion budget--twice what is spent on higher education. The Florida Bar, Judicial Qualification Commission and Commission on Ethics have condoned the misconduct of officials I have reported and now refuse to send me the form to file a complaint. The FDOC refuses to notarize the form to prevent me from making a complaint. The rampant human rights violations in this penal system have been extensively documented on MiamiHerald.com yet go unabated. An ACLU lawyer met with me last year and FWRC, but can offer me no individual assistance. It is as if I do not exist and do not matter to anyone. The Land of the Free has become Incarceration Nation with the highest per capita rate of incarceration in the world. My release date is 2021. I am interested in educational opportunities for prisoners with no phone/internet access, connecting with other activists, promoting my writings, partnering with legal aid groups, receiving newsletters from advocates, prisoner resource guides, corresponding with pen pals, getting on any prayer list out there and ending mass incarceration, along with the mistreatment of the human beings warehoused in the penal systems. I can receive envelopes, stamps, paper, blank greeting cards, books and newspaper/magazine subscriptions through U.S. mail. I am growing old in prison for no logical reason and this is a waste of my life and resources. Add your name to the online petition at www.change.org #cut50 to support the reduction of the prison population by 50% in the next decade. For details on my case, access my book The American Holocaust: United States Injustice System at www.prisonsfoundation.org. In November 2015 I filed an application for commutation of sentence with the Office of Executive Clemency FL#405940. It has yet to be addressed years later. It took hours to have me arrested, days to increase my charges unnecessarily and less than 24 hours to resolve my bond, but years to address my postconviction relief efforts. Please help me to send out my emails to increase public awareness of the waste of over incarceration. To support my request to expedite my application for a commutation of sentence, contact the Board of Executive Clemency on my behalf. I would appreciate any support that can be offered me before I am the next fatality in this corrupt penal system. Governor Rick Scott -- Rick.Scott@eog.myflorida.com Attorney General Pamela Bondi -- pam.bondi@myfloridalegal.com Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam Office of Executive Clemency inmatessupporter@feor.state.fl.us I can be reached at Shannon Copeland [number] 11120 NW Gainesville Road Ocala, Fl 36602 over For the rules on mailing restrictions access www.dc.state.fl.us You have my permission to publish this essay. Shannon Copeland Thank you for sending me the copies. I got both packages and desperately needed the copies since my paper was stolen this year.
