Dear Editor:

The plight of Danny Provencio and his family is disgraceful to our legislators and the California Dept. of Corrections and the CCPOA.  What is it going to take before California tax payers realize what a sham these organizations are while they dig deeper and deeper in everyone's pocket. 

Situations such as this one gain attention because it's in the public eye, but there are many, many similar situations that never gain media attention because of CDC rulings. 

It is terrible what the CDC and the CCPOA is doing to this family in the name of "public safety".  Their only interest is their own and how to protect their own assets.

Cheryl Knutsen
U.N.I.O.N.

"Who is going to pay the cost of the hospital bills?"  That is a very good question, Todd.  One that the CDC should have been concerned with many years ago before allowing our prisons to be purposely overcrowded driving up the costs and then holding out both hands to collect tax payer money to fund a system that is dysfunctional, poorly managed, leads to recidivism, continued crime, breakdown of families, unnecessary deaths and illnesses, and continued rising costs. 

I won't even bother speaking to you from the heart, because CDC has no heart.  The bottom line here is the dollar amount.  By not implementing policies and programs that work, employing competent people, the tax burden will be heavy, and when a great deal of the money has to be spent on lawsuits, hospital bills, CCPOA raises, etc., you just may not get the raise you were hoping for.  Bottom line, Todd. 

Sincerely, 

Cheryl Knutsen U.N.I.O.N. Supporter

 http://www.thereporter.com/search/ci_2577244

Letter to the Editor, It is so rewarding to finally find justice to the family of this poor man. But now we have to go another step and get another brain dead inmate released to his family. This being Ed Rister. He was beaten by inmates but not found by guards for several days when he was declared brain dead. 

It took this desperate family a year before being told where their son was being kept, and more time before they were allowed permission to see him. Is this not the same cruelty as was placed on Danny's family? Or is it different because Ed's condition was caused by an inmate rather than a guard? 

Why did it take days before guards even looked for him? Why wasn't his family notified of his condition and where he was being kept? Why was he moved to different locations to keep the family from him? So many questions!!! 

This family deserves the same right to have their son released to them as Danny's family. Please help us find justice for Ed and his family too. 

Josie Strode 

UNION FOR NO INJUSTICE, OPPRESSION OR NEGLECT www.1union1.com

Dear Editor: 

Too many men are given a life sentence by prison guards not by the courts.  Ed Rister is yet another who was beaten and now lies a shell of a man with no brain function.  A 12 year sentence turned to life at the hands of prison guards.  It happened at Solano Prison in October 2003. 

We as taxpayers are paying the costs in dollars for his care and will surely pay the rightful lawsuit that is sure to follow.  A sister in Yuba City fights to understand how this could happen.  The answer lies in the prison system unwilling to open the doors and files for public scrutiny. 

We as taxpayers sit idly by allowing this treatment and paying the costs and lawsuits.  Our governor has a new Rehabilitation Plan...but rehabilitation needs to begin with the prison guards who are running amok! 

Shirley Wetherwax, Voting taxpayer

Unlife prison sentence 

If death is the total cessation of brain function, what is it when you have been beaten so badly that the neuropathways have not only been severed, but shifted so there is no hope of ever connecting the brain stem with the rest of the brain? 

What do you call it when a feeding tube keeps a person alive, and the only function is purely anatomical? When there is no recognition behind the eyes that blink merely to moisten? When there is no other movement of the body except involuntary twitches?This is merely the shell of a man who was serving a 12 year sentence - a sentence that became a life sentence. This is the man who was beaten inside Solano Prison in October 2003. This is the story CDC has tried to cover up. And I am the sister who fights to understand.- 

Peggy Rister, Yuba City

Published in The Reporter
 www.thereporter.com

02/23/2005 07:49:22 AM 
Release inmate to his family
Reporter Editor:
 

The recent story of a brain dead California inmate Daniel Provencio is just a prime example of how cold, callous and monetarily wasteful our penal system really is. It's a perverted group of people who revel over the power to control the lives of inmates and their families. It's a system without morals or conscience. 

I believe any inmate who's brain dead or terminally ill automatically should be released to the custody of their family. That's the proper Christian thing to do,   yet this never happens, except on rare occasions when the families have gone to the media and cast a dark shadow upon the penal system. To save face and make themselves look good, the California Department of Corrections released the dying inmate to their family. Inmate Ed Ristor has been in a brain-dead state for about one year now. He still hasn't been released to his family. I'm sure all California taxpayers can fathom the enormity of the costs of his hospital care and the overtime pay   of the guards to watch over this inmate. 

Leonardo Covarrubias, Vacaville The author is a member of United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect, or UNION - Editor. 

Subject: Danny Provencio 

Mr.Gladstone,

I would like to thank you for bringing to light the costly way California's prison system works. Your continous coverage on the story about Danny Provencio has been a "real eye opener" for many of us. It just shows one of the many wasteful ways the taxpayers money has been used.

It's sad to know that Mr.Provencio died, but the brave battle fought by his family and prisoner activist, Cayenne Bird, to get the necessary changes needed in place to help others who are or may be in the same situation deserves to be noted. Even the govenor spoke out against the wasteful spending by the Corrections Department, which was the right thing to do. 

Tammy Rand

Subject: Senator blasts prison policy 
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 13:09:45 -0800 

Dear Writer and Editor,

I agree with Senator Romero that the policy to keep brain dead prisoners guarded while in a comatose state must be abolished.  It's inhumane to not grant the families custody or at least involve them in the decision making process.  Two such cases have been in the papers lately.  How many more are there?

A big part of the problem is the overcrowded prison population, housing and not properly caring for the mentally ill.  It's like a pressure cooker waiting to blow. 
This is a prime example of why the CDC reform needs a "Civilian Commission" to bring clarity and accountability to the issues that plague this system.  Families and reporters have been instrumental in provoking a long needed change, but it's too little too late.  There needs to be a major overhaul.

Cheryl Knutsen

Sent from the Internet (Details) 

Dear Writer and Editor,

The article about Mr. Rigoni is disturbing on many levels.  How could someone in a comatose state for one and a half years receive more care and guarding than the time he spent in prison?   Prisons are overcrowded and not the proper place for the mentally ill. 

As a parent, a tax payer, a citizen, I'm outraged that so little is being done to change the absurdities within the CDC system.  A compassionate release bill should have signed not vetoed when the governor had a chance. 

I hope the CDC reforms will include an unbiased "Civilian Commission"  as previously considered.  The "professionals" have not a decent job in protecting one of the most vulnerable and poor groups of our society.

Thank you for covering stories like these to raise our concerns and make us aware of the critical need for reform now.

Cheryl Knutsen
UNION Supporter

The recent and past year’s events should spell this out to the most naive observer. The case of Danny Provencio is a classic example of the blatant waste of the Department of corrections and it’s union. They have attempted to justify their outrageous behavior in this case. First murdered by an untrained prison guard, then after death, sucking overtime from the taxpayers guarding a dead man. 

Why is this mans life less important? Prison guards gangs and the code of silence. Green Wall and Nazi Low Riders are very real and a part of the prison system. This has been documented in both the men and women's prisons up and down the state. If a guard has tattoos, license plates or logos on their equipment it should be obvious to anyone who these gang members are! There should be no question. Yet these members are still employed? 

These guards are no doubt the source of the vast quantities of drugs that fill our state prisons today. Ask any inmate and they will tell you there are more drugs in prison today than on the streets. Yet drug-sniffing dogs are not employed at our state prisons. Although almost all law enforcement employ this tool? 

Visiting is another poorly handled issue. With recidivism so high and family contact well documented to reduce this visiting should be encouraged. Four days of visiting should be restored immediately. Family visits for lifers should also be restored. This policy was not only cruel to the inmates but the family member wives husbands and children were ignored and forgotten. They will come home someday. Will they have something to come home to? 

Francis Courser, Escondido, Ca.

My brother lies in a hospital bed, unaware of anything around him. He doesn't know he is fed by a tube, nor that his hygiene is seen to by others; neither does he see the guards that watch him day and night. 

In October of 2003, Ed was beaten in his cell at Solano Prison. Three days later, it was discovered. Never known to be hostile, Ed was serving a term that was supposed to last several years for a drug related mistake. That term became a life sentence. The neurologist likened Ed's head injuries/brain damage to those sustained by a helmet-less motor-cyclist in a high speed crash. 

Still mourning the loss of her youngest son to heart failure not ten months prior, my mom was devestated and could not bring herself to elect to discontinue care. She felt she would be finishing the job of murder that someone else had started. I heard that the guards for Ed alone cost over $1,000.00 per day. And what of the hospital? Expensive? You can bet! 

And a full day's drive from family.  They didn't do a good job guarding him in life. Now that he is little more than dead, the job is being done. Where is the sense in this? He should be released. 

Peggy Rister February 2, 2005

Bizarre Indeed

If death is the total cessation of brain function, then what is it when you have been beaten so badly that the neuropathways have not only been severed, but shifted, so there is no hope of ever connecting the brain stem with the rest of the brain? What do you call it when a feeding tube keeps a person alive, and the only function is purely anatomical? When there is no recognition behind the eyes that blink merely to moisten? When there is no other movement of the body except involuntary twitches? 

This is merely the shell of a man who believed he was serving a 12 year sentence--a sentence that became a life sentence. This is the man who was beaten inside Solano Prison in October of 2003. This is the son, brother, father of a family who has never been able to know who attacked their 
loved one. This is the story CDC has tried hard to cover up. And I am the sister who fights hard to understand.

Peggy Rister, February 16, 2005

Death penalty alternative

Re "Death penalty reality, Your views, Feb. 18: 

Contrary to letter writer Richard A. Nelson's claims, California has had a sentence of life without possibility of parole (LWOP) on the books since 1977. The CDC's current count (www.corr.ca.gov) shows 3,168 convicted murderers sentenced to LWOP, which means what it says -- no parole, ever, for first-degree murder. (The two inmates released over the past 28 years were found to be innocent.)Forty-eight other states employ LWOP statutes as a more effective and humane alternative to a death penalty system that is tragically marred with human error, racial prejudice and economic discrimination.- Ellen Eggers, Sacramento

Deputy State Public DefenderThe undeath penalty

Re "Beyond bizarre," Our views, Feb. 3: 

There must be something The Bee is not telling us. No one no matter how many years on the state bureaucrat dole is so stupid as to insist that a medically brain dead inmate serve out his prison sentence. How many school books would the $400,000 spent guarding the dead guy buy? No wonder the state is broke! - Lou Meyer, SacramentoA waste of state money

I agree with the Feb. 3 "Beyond bizarre" editorial. 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says California has an empty purse. No money. This is where it goes - for guards, doctors, hospital, etc. for a dead man. Where has the common sense gone? Let's stop the stupidity. - Yvonne Lewis, Auburn
 

Unlife prison sentence

If death is the total cessation of brain function, what is it when you have been beaten so badly that the neuropathways have not only been severed, but shifted so there is no hope of ever connecting the brain stem with the rest of the brain?What do you call it when a feeding tube keeps a person alive, and the only function is purely anatomical? When there is no recognition behind the eyes that blink merely to moisten? When there is no other movement of the body except involuntary twitches?This is merely the shell of a man who was serving a 12 year sentence - a sentence that became a life sentence. This is the man who was beaten inside Solano Prison in October 2003. This is the story CDC has tried to cover up. And I am the sister who fights to understand.- Peggy Rister, Yuba City

Letter to the Editor, 

In regards to the brain dead inmate Ed Rister, how can a group of people who are supposed to be protecting people become so harden to life that they now cause the extreme mental cruelty to families of inmates? 

This inmate, Mr. Rister has been declared brain dead for about a year, but the CDC and others refuse to release this man to his family who could give him love and care during his last hour or days?  Why??? Could it be because they say that he can breath on his own without the help of a ventilator.? 

Just because he still breathes on his own doesn't make him any the less dead. 

By keeping him form his family no longer injures this inmate, but places extreme abuse to his mother and other family members who only want their loved one to be placed in their care and not left in a cold, uncaring, sterile room where he has no human contact or touch, which makes our passing so much easier. Please take it in your hearts to release this man and his family, for the are truly as much prisoners as their son. 

Malissa Silveria 
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GREAT ONE BY ROBIN 

3/9/05 Dear Editor, Mark Gladstone: 

I have read your story from the, Mercury News, several times trying to make sense out of the senseless things that are happening in prison.  I am referring to your story about Edward Rister a prisoner who is brain dead after being injured by another inmate and left untreated in his cell for almost a week! However, now! Rister is being watched around the clock by prison guards at a staggering cost of more than 1 million dollars! Can a comatose man get up and escape??  A comment in your article stated that George Kostryko "emphasized that sworn officers must be used to guard comatose inmates such as Rister because of the state's labor contract with the influential California Correctional Peace Officers Association. 

" My question to both George Kostryko and the C.C.P.O.A. is what mechanism has been implemented by  C.C.P.O.A in preventing such incidents as opposed to subsidizing them? It seems to me that this horrific nightmare could have been avoided simple if institutional procedures were improved and followed. It is outrageous that Rister has had his sentence changed to a death sentence without a judge or a jury. I think about  Rister's family and their suffering.  I can truly relate to the anguish and pain his family must be experiencing. 

The way I see it is Rister is a not only their loved one but a human being!  Yet, when I think it over, I am not so sure about prisoners being considered as humans in prisons. How else can one explain such inhumanity and callousness of ignoring a dying man! So many questions are unanswered.  How can guards count an unconscious prisoner for days at a time? Every prison has a head count several times a day.  This is effective for alerting guards to any problems such as a dying man.  In most secure housing units prisoners have a system of communication among themselves. 

An alert "Man Down" is usually sounded by inmates when another is injured. Was there such a warning? Was it ignored by guards? Why isn't anyone fixing this broken down prison system? Why are we as tax payers forced to pay millions of dollars for a correction system that needs serious corrections in their policies and in their procedures of treatment of prisoners! Robin Goods

 http://www.californiachronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=222

More Tax Money Wasted!
Patricia St. Peter
 
 

The writer, Patricia St. Peter, is a member of U.N.I.O.N. United for No Injustice Oppression or Neglect www.1union1.com

 By Patricia St. Peter

March 14, 2005

How much longer is the State of California going to pay guards to watch over yet another brain injured inmate? Mr. Edward Rister who was beaten to the point that he no longer responds to the outside world is still in custody and is watched over by guards who earn time and a half for doing their job. Mr. Rister is severely brain damaged. Our tax dollars are being used to pay those guards and I for one am tired of my tax money being wasted like this. Mr. Rister was beaten back in October of 2003. 16 months of paying guards time and a half? No wonder why the correctional system is in a financial mess! If the mentally ill inmates weren't caged like animals for committing crimes that are indicitive of their mental illness and were instead placed in hospitals where they can get the treatment they need they wouldn't be double celled and able to hurt themselves and others!

Prison cells are not designed to aid the mentally ill. Prison guards are not trained medical staff yet the prisons are housing mentally ill inmates and often double cell these inmates which places the mentally ill and other inmates in great danger. Mr. Edward Rister is just one example of what happens in such a case. Not only was he housed with another mentally ill inmate who beat him severely back in October of 2003, his life threatening injuries that left him comatose were not even discovered until his mentally ill cell mate called the attention of a guard days later. Ever since, Mr. Rister has been guarded in community hospitals at a cost so far of about $600,000. His medical bill alone has been estimated at $474,000. Where is the accountability in any of this mess? How much longer is the abuse of the mentally ill going to continue and how much longer are we going to pay the guards who are watching over Mr. Rister? 

Patricia St. Peter

Column has no point Re: Colleen Cason's March 16 column, "Trying to make sense out of senseless death": Cason's column left me trying to make sense of her "Cason point." I do not see the point. Is she lamenting the fact that a convicted drug dealer, who could not keep to the terms of his parole and was sent back to prison, slipped into a coma and died? Daniel Provencio is dead. That is a tragedy for his family, no doubt. But the man was not on the road to rehabilitation. She states, he "never got the chance to turn things around." 

No, he was given every chance. He chose his fate. He chose to sell drugs. He chose to be in a bar instead of at home with his family on Father's Day. He chose to drink, and he chose to drive. This was not a series of unfortunate events. This was sociopathic, self- destructive behavior that ultimately led to his demise. 

Then Cason tries to draw a parallel with Brian Nichols, the alleged murderer in Atlanta who gave himself up after his kidnapped victim gave him her Christian testimony. That was a non sequitur. How many times in Provencio's 28 years did he have a chance to live like the man he should have been? Every day. Every day we all have the chance to stop "the insanity," as Cason puts it, and live as a productive part of society. There are men and women who are very righteous people. Many are Christians. 

Many are not. But they all understand the difference between right and wrong. They all make a choice every single day to do good or to do evil. Cason's column would be better served finding those who overcome the obstacles. In the end, the only senseless thing I could find was Cason's column. -- Tim Robbins, Thousand Oaks 

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Write to 

 letters@venturacountystar.com

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Dear Editor 

This has been a horrific series of catastrophic events for Danny Provencio's family. What should this tragedy alarm us (the public, tax payers) to?  Disregards for policies, corruption, cover-up and an omnipresent code of silence within CDC is an overwhelming amount of evidence that  California penal  flawed system is in desperate need of repair.  This can only happened if an independent body is installed to oversee Calif. prison reform. 

The inspector General oversight has been worthless. Governor Schwarzenegger has been brought out by the CCPOA. In exchange for million of dollars he has reneged on his pre election promises to assured an effective prison reform. In order to stop this slaughter of human lives within the DOC we must push for an independent body, a civilian commission. A group that  will not sell their souls to the devil. 

Robin Goods 

--------------------

Dear Editor, 

Can a person still learn from a punishment when he has no cognitive ability? The upper brain controls all that; the stem rules anatomical stuff like breathing and blinking. If Ed Rister has no upper brain function since the beating he took in Salno Prison, what good does it do to keep him incarcerated? Let his grieving family take care of what is left of the man that used to be. 

J. Griggs

 letters@mercurynews.com ,  dthompson@ap.org
 

Editor, 

When will the human being inmate,named Edward Rister be unshackled ? I don't believe he's going anywhere in his comatose condition !!!! New implementation of death bed policies,needs to be demanded! This inmate is truly incapacitated, he should be paroled, on compassionate release. Why continue to torture his family, they are totally helpless & powerless. 

The families of prisoners have absolutely no place to go for help in these, life & death emergencies. Their requests to the Superiors, fall upon the deaf ears of the Department of Corruptions. When the Media,becomes involved,then politicians become interested. Civilian oversight is highly needed !! Arnold, make your moves,so you don't become, THE REAL LAST ACTION HERO !!! YOU ARE GREATLY NEEDED,TO HELP THESE FAMILIES IN DISTRESS & PAIN. CAN YOU TERMINATE THEIR SUFFERING ????????????????? SO FAR, THE MEDIA ARE THE HEROES!!! 

THANK YOU JOURNALISTS!!!!!! 

Love & Blessing's, Alexis