This is an essay for an ADX program
Eric is in a step-down unit of the ADX. It was determined it would be unconstitutional to release someone from ADX-level-deprivation to the streets, so the ADX created a special unit for people within a year of their release. They are supposed to be able to earn privileges to help them adjust to the outside world. They have specialized caseworkers that help them know what kind of programming they’re eligible for, they can get phone calls, they can get snacks, they can earn a lot of things.
Eric has not been OFFERED and programming. Through other prisoners, Eric found out about a program (all by himself) in which he could write essays for treats and submit them to psych.
Eric asked for a “food grab bag” for the reward for this essay
(Eric has just made his third phone call since August when he arrived. And his third phone call since 12-2018 as a part of another program for prisoners that are on sanctions. Being on sanctions at adx is a double whammy you are subject to the almost absolute communication restrictions as well as disciplinary sanctions from whatever incidents land them there. Predominantly these sanctions are removed when they hit the ADX although the lucky thing like Eric get to keep theirs)
Thompson is Everywhere
Recently the bop said it was shutting down the SMU. Liberals lauded this as lovely progressive move.. they saw it as the Bureau recognizing a serious flaw and taking care of it. They brought up an audacious amount of 205 gunning shots (over a thousand in four years 😯) the violence between prisoners and the overall shite living conditions.
While naturally I was happy to see (despite its best intentions perhaps) who on Earth thought locking up the supposedly most violent convicts in a cell with one another for 23 hours a day, all in the same prison, for 9 to 18 months was a good idea? This must be the most harebrained idea.. ever? I assume they created the SMU much like the CMU to trick Congress into allocating more $ to the Bureau… It’s generally accepted among prisoners that the SMU was a project to get prisoners to hurt each other and empower gangs.
Second thought is; what took so long? The SMU isn’t more vile now than in the past, in every iteration it is a blood bath. Oakdale, Tallahassee, Florence and Lewisburg all had the same issues as Thompson, violence in the absence of any other stimulation is Colette stomping her foot down? *Staff* is responsible for a larger amount of that violence… Placing incompatible people as cellmates, not searching people on their way to rec, placing people in opposition rec cages, not observing wreck either in person or on camera, snitch and cho-jacketing people in front of their rivals. This is all basically easily solvable except that officers buy into their surroundings-the gang and convict culture, and the most basic human need to be liked…but it costs people their health and lives.
Lastly, what about the rest? Everything I listed happens at every custody level in the USPs it leads to severe violence, humiliation and death.. in the mediums it’s fights and ostracizing, and at low’s it’s stolen trays, occasional fights and mental stress. Everywhere prisoners are pitted against each other and set up to punish one another and it seems just business as usual. I’ve only been in the bureau since 2016 and it’s happened personally six different times and it’s a powerless terrifying feeling.
-EK
Eric’s release fundraiser
https://www.gofundme.com/f/release-funds-for-political-prisoner-eric-king
Eric King 27090045
USP Florence ADMAX
PO BOX 8500
Florence, CO 81226