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Billy George Reedy C.T. Terrell Unit 1300 FM 655 Rosharon, TX 77583 May 12, 2020 To Whom It May Concern: We all know that the world has gone crazy at this moment in time. Being incarcerated for over sixteen years on a capital life sentence I have no first-hand knowledge of the "free world" anymore. I rely on accounts relayed by prison guards whom I see on a daily basis, news reported on television, or radio airwaves. Also letters from family or friends. But I can tell you first-hand that the "prison world" is so much different from the "free world". This life is definetly not for everyone. For those of you who have been fortunate enough to not experience this degrading form of life or existence, you can not even (1) begin to comprehend the things that I am about to discuss. Only my fellow ex-convicts or current prisoners can understand what I'm talking about. I would not wish this kind of degrading life upon my worst enemy. I am currently housed at the C.T. Terrell Unit in Rosharon, TX. TDCJ actually has this facility designated as a so-called medical unit. I guess this is Texas' idea of a bad joke. At least it is located close to the Hospital Galveston which is UTMB's main hospital for Texas prisoners. Geographically I am within an hour of Galveston, TX. Yet it takes an average of 20 to 22 hours to make this trip for an appointment to be seen by a cardiologist or doctor for chronic kidney disease. Two heart attacks experienced on Feb. 8, 2013 while housed on Polunsky Unit which required a triple bypass open heart surgery. Clogged arteries due to years of eating [sugar?] food in TDCJ. Chronic kidney disease caused by complications of nine hour surgery and years of drinking water on Connally Unit which contained high (2) levels of arsenic. Ill get back to these issues later but I must first address this very stressful trip to Hospital Galveston. I am required to turn out at 2:00 AM to catch chain bus that departs around 3:00 AM. Given a Johnny sack for breakfast upon departure. Terrell Unit is first stop by bus drivers. Normally we go to the two units down the road from us. Then to other units like Clemens, Wayne Scott/Retrieve or possibly even the Jesters. Bottom line is that my unit is picked up first in the morning and dropped off last at the end of the day anywhere from 10:00 pm to midnight on average. This turns into a very long stressful day of 20 to 22 hr. day to go to a hospital that is only an hour away. Not what my cardiologist would recommend to avoid stress. Also prisoners are fed two sandwiches at 9:00 AM and another two at noon. Nothing to eat upon arrival to unit. So this is just another unhealthy aspect to this doctor's appointment. Most of us are seen before 5:00 pm but we (3) wait hours for buses to pick us up. This trip is intentionally set up to make us miserable. I arrived on Terrell Unit on Feb. 17, 2016. This unit should have been condemmed before then yet it is still operating with numerous violations on an everyday basis. Examples are a roof that floods all over the unit every time it downpours. This applies to numerous individual cubicles that flood, hallways, chow halls, gym, etc... Insulation hangs from holes above cubicles yet nothing is repaired. Even when ACA inspections have taken pictures of these bad places in the ceiling nothing has been repaired in the over four years that I have been here. The same goes for the black mold in dorms, shower area, and chow hall. I am around black mold everyday and contaminated rainwater everytime it rains. I have seen at least five new wardens here and nothing has been done to resolve these major issues. I am not talking about a few drops. I mean it literally floods all over the unit. You stand in puddles in the chow hall. Leaks (4) over the tables that we eat on. All this just adds to black mold problem. Due to COVID-19 we are experiencing unusual conditions. We are currently on lockdown or suspended activity. We are eating Johnny Sacks three times a day. Not even getting 800 to 1000 calories a day. Just enough to keep folks alive. Average meal is two pancakes with one spoon of peanut butter and one sandwich. Sometimes this is meat and cheese only - no bread! This is not ample food for a grown man to survive on. No hot meals for now. Not even for anyone who might be working. We are being treated like this is a disciplinary lockdown when we have done nothing to deserve this. This unit has prisoners quarantined in lockup, gym floors, education building floors, open dorms, etc... No way to contain this virus. Sick folks sleeping on floors. And this is a TDCJ medical facility unit. The medical staff here is not qualified to handle such a serious dilemma. Our lives are in (5) constant danger due to inept medical staff. TDCJ has been hiring mostly Nigerians as of lately. Language barrier between us prisoners and guards are constant problems. They yell at us because we can't understand their broken English but it is my fault for this. Go figure! These "new boot" officers constantly threaten everyone with disciplinary cases for little or nothing. For someone like myself this would be laughable except it is mostly pathetic. I have possessions that I obtained when these new boots were in kiddie-garten. Yet they think it is contraband because it is no longer sold. When they find out from old school guards that I am allowed this stuff it makes them look like... Enough said. I can only blame this on how new hires are trained. Or not trained. Parole is nothing to me since my first review is Nov. 16, 2043. After 40 calendar years. But these bogus threats about cases are playing with my fellow inmates lives. Bullcrap cases keep guys from going home all the time. I have seen (6) it too many times to count. TDCJ sets prisoners up for failure from day one. The unit law libraries do not have computers for everyone to work on appeal. TDCJ is still in the Stone Age compared to the rest of the U.S. We don't get counsel to fight appeal at Federal count level. TDCJ understands that too many would be released on loopholes if counsel was provided at Federal courts. Myself I returned for 21 months on 8 to 1 vote for ineffective assistance of counsel. Texas Court of Appeals didn't rule on my 11.07 writ for six years. Not as long as I had court appointed counsel fighting for me on State level. When he died on Dec. 8, 2011, the courts slam dunked immediately. Before I could be assigned new counsel. Then I was totally "lost" on Federal level because I no longer was provided counsel for advice. Only Texas would be allowed to do this to its prisoners and this not be considered unconstitutional. Texas legislature meets every two years to vote on new laws. Yet this legislature never (7) allows Texas prisoners to consider a re-vote on whether or not to be compensated for work required to be done while incarcerated. Foolishly prisoners voted for no pay because work time was supposed to be applied towards parole. Yeah right! Combined flat time, good time, and work time to go home early. What scam the Parole Board pulled on Texas inmates. No pay is slave labor because work time is not honored by Parole. I/we would choose to be compensated for required work these days. TDCJ does not supply adequate hygiene items so a little pay could help out alot. I guarantee you if someone took a current census that everyone would feel like I do. Every day is more stress on chronic heart patient like myself. Required to work for no pay after I was medically unassigned for four years. My medically unassigned was taken away by PA here not a qualified cardiologist. I experienced chest pains on Polunsky Unit in early 2013. I was scheduled for EKG but I had two heart attacks before this procedure. (8) After triple bypass I was assigned to Connally Unit on March 1, 2013. I was medically unassigned for my entire three years on this unit due to my heart condition. This unit was constantly short of staff. This caused Johnny sacks to be fed on an average of 65% year round during this time. I was also consuming water containing very high levels of arsenic that I wasn't aware of at the time. This became public knowledge in early 2016. Connally Unit has always had water problems. During my stay at Connally I experienced no water for numerous days at a time. No showers and only limited drinking water each day. We were not allowed a water spend from commissary. We literally urinated in sinks in cells and defecated on newspaper and rolled it up in Johnny brown bags and threw this in dayroom or out the window. The entire unit would smell like raw sewage. This is inhumane conditions to live in. You could not use toilet in two man cells. This is cruel and unusual punishment. No one should (9) have to live like this. But I did while on the Connally unit. The city of Kenedy, TX got the use of our water supply whenever city had "issues" and prison did without. This was mostly caused by fracking in area but prisoners had to be the ones to suffer for this. I find out later on Terrell unit, formerly Ramsey III, that I now have chronic kidney disease along with heart problem. Yet my medically unassigned gets taken away after only one year here. I have all these medical issues but now I am supposed to work a job for no pay after being medically unassigned for four years. This restriction was taken away on so-called medical unit without being seen by medical staff. Without being seen by cardiologist. Restriction removed by someone not qualified to make this decision. Typical standard procedure for this unit. I was given a 4 hr. worker restriction along with sedentary work only by unit doctor on April 2, 2017. These were taken away on February 20, 2019 by UTMB FTP - Once again no appointment (10) necessary and no one even signed off on this. Restrictions removed improperly without my knowledge by someone unauthorized to do this. Remember, this is a so-called medical unit whose staff is another TDCJ bad joke. I have been eating jail/prison food since November 16, 2003. No wonder I experienced two heart attacks on February 8, 2013. Drinking contaminated water all those years too. Eating spoiled leftovers - Don't forget that one. But wait, TDCJ claims it doesn't feed leftovers. Yeah, right!!! It is a wonder that I am still alive to submit this review. Last but certainly not least I must address the issue of sleep deprivation. The current assistant Warden has the dayroom lights on in the dorms from 7:00AM until 10:00pm. All day long for no reason except for the fact that he got mad at the cannery workers who live on the other end of our building. So he took this out on everyone. He has retaliated by abusing his authority and having the officers (11) leave these lights on all day long. I am a laundry worker who goes to work at 3:00 AM. These lights are right over my cubicle during my sleep time. After the lights are finally turned off at 10:00pm they are turned right back on at 11:00pm for unit roster count. Even if I was to sleep through all of this I am awakened by officer to make sure that I am alive. Why should I/we be bothered when officers can see me breathing just fine? These lights stay on for another 45 minutes to an hour for this procedure. So, when am I supposed to sleep? Lights are on for 15 hrs. a day for so-called security reasons. This is their excuse to answer step 1 Grievance. Yet these lights were always off before this Assistant Warden did this on his own. Then if I can find a way to go to sleep with lights on and TV blaring I am woke up for this roster count. And I have to get up at 2:15 AM to go to a job at 3:00 am that I don't even get compensated for. Leaving these lights on all day is cause for sleep deprivation and just another form (12) of cruel and unusual punishment abused by TDCJ and clearly in violation of my Eighth Amendment Constitutional Right. Billy George Reedy C.T. Terrell Unit 1300 FM 655 Rosharon, TX 77583 Editor's note: 1) TDCJ stands for Texas Department of Criminal Justice. 2) UTMB is acronym for University of Texas Medical Board. 3) Polunsky Unit is in Livingston, TX 4) Connally Unit is in Kenedy, TX 5) C.T. Terrell Unit - Ramsey III is in Rosharon, TX. (13)
