Transcript
January 16, 2018 Dear Public At Large, This letter/essay draws on my first hand experience as a prisoner held captive by the New Jersey system of criminal justice. I am serving a 30 year sentence, day for day, for a wrongful conviction of murder. I have completed 18 years thusfar. As happens every day in in courts across the United States, I failed to familiarize myself with the laws, rules and procedures that I needed to know after being interrogated and charged with the crime of murder. We all have a responsibility to learn the laws, rules, and procedures by which to defend ourselves before we get swept into a system that requires its own special (law) dictionary because of the complex vocabulary unknown to a lay person of average inteligence. Albert Einstein said "A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of truth". People are called to sit on a jury where a person, by virtue of a $20.00 dollar black robe, is thought to have a vast wisdom, experience and knowledge in all matters, chooses what evidence the jury is allowed to know about, should one not see the red flags of deceit. Select information is misinformation! Before a person's life and liberty are put in jeopardy, the jury needs access to all of the evidence in order to be informed to render a true decision and verdict. Because a jury of "our" peers is also responsible for punishment of a "guilty" criminal, the prison system should be transparent, as to allow the public from which the jury of our peers are chosen to know the extent of the punishment that they (the jury) have imposed on a person upon conviction of a crime. When a "criminal" is subjected to the wrath of the state, where checks and balances are nonexistent, a "criminal" too often becomes the victim, and the state becomes the perpetrator of crime. I have been tortured by "corrections" officers. I have been beaten, starved, placed in a dark cold cell with no running water, deprived of basic human needs including showers, soap, toilet paper, a change of clothing, proper bedding, and all human contact, other than when I was hand cuffed and beaten. The New Jersey Department of Corrections claims that solitary confinement doesnt exist in New Jersey prisons. This is a bold faced lie. Ask any present or formerly incarcerated person who has served time at a New Jersey state prison, AKA Trenton State Prison on units 2B, 3B, and 4B on the north compound "specially housed" or "administrative segregation", or "MCU", some for decades who still remain. Most prisoners will one day re-enter society. Will they have respect for the law and law enforcement officers, or contempt and hatred? Its not a matter of a few bad apples because even the so called "cool cops" will cover for their parter/co-worker who just kicked an inmate in the head even after he was already subdued and compliant. Retaliation runs rampant when cops get arrested for assaulting prisoners and outside agencies do nothing to protect a victim-witness when cops are prosecuted as criminals. When "remedial" action is taken, its not to stop the abuses but to make sure that its not exposed again. Is a badge a license to commit crimes with impunity, Ive seen this with my own eyes. To be continued... Brian J Paladino
