Subj: Husband rescently passed in custody of Pleasant Valley State Prison
Date: 6/3/2005 1:44:15 PM Pacific Standard Time

To: CayennPepr@aol.com


Dear Ms. Bird

Its urgent that someone please return this inquiry A.S.A.P. My Husband is still @ the San Francisco Medical Examiners Office.I am in the city of Marysville. He was .. a 33 Year old Man
Incarcerated @ Pleasant Valley Prison In perfect Health, Until the last month of his life.


News to Myself & his Family of his sudden illness to cause his body into shocking CARDIAC  ARREST. I am having EXTREMELY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HARD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TIME !!!!!!!!!OBVIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! but also even a worse time with ANY COOPERATION FROM PRISON


NO INFO NO ANSWERS PLEASE PLEASE I PLEAD FOR HELP !!!!!!!!!! YOUR ORGANiZATION IS MY LAST HOPE!!!!!!!!!!!!! thank you        sinscerely.

DEBRA V
                                                           

----------------
I have her full name, her husband's full name and the contact info for journalists

The projection is that two or three more preventable deaths will occur per month at EACH of the 32 prisons until the demands Plata is instituted.

We are the only place that inmates and their family have to go to be heard.  But beyond that we can only organize to picket, notify the press with our letters to editors, find lawyers to file lawsuits and recruit others to help

As I told Judge Henderson, the Inspector General's Office is completely useless and there is no place to go for help

I can feel the pain of this poor wife.  I know that it could be me,  I believe that the 65 projected "preventable" deaths is a grossly underestimated.  CDC can masterfully cover up.

I am trying to figure out how an inmate at Pleasant Valley ends up in the San Francisco Medical Examiner's office unless Henderson's team may already be on this one.

But nobody is communicating with this aching family member except for me.

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Inmate writes Our "favorite" cop (M. Vasquez) was at it again this week. He finally picked the wrong guy! After manhandling him several times, he moved in one more time to grab him. Instead, the inmate suddenly turned and clocked him, reports disagreeing between one and seven times. Of course, the inmate was swarmed and beaten down. The story says that Vasquez had to be pulled off by other cops after pummeling and kicking the inmate unmercifully. We have not seen Vasquez since! Yes, Vasquez has been gone for awhile now. We are experiencing some real tightening of the screws here as a result of the reform and officer retraining. There is a great deal of harrassment on the part of officers out to make a point. "I know it's probably a forlorn hope, but I wonder if it will EVER reach a point in this place when every day is not a study in uncertainty, when some routine has been established, when every moment is not subject to the whims of sadistic staff. Every day is a challenge to maintain equilibrium, to refrain from reacting to almost constant officer provocations, unreasonable demands and unnecessary obstacles to achieving any positive goals. It would be very easy to reach the mental and emotional state of many (most?) of the other inmates: whatever you want to do to me, go ahead and kick me! You know how stubborn I am, but this place and its inhumanity is really getting hard to mitigate. " "I learned from a reliable source about a situation which even you may be unable to believe. You know from previous letters about the fraud perpetrated here by the educational and vocational activities: teachers who are paid despite conducting often no classes during the week. One friend is scheduled for 30 hours of work a week; so far, he has done a total of 20 hours this MONTH. I know people who have had only three or four classes in an entire month. It goes on and on. Anyway, the latest twist is the Sunday barbeque. From now on, Sunday classes will be dismissed at 11:00 a.m., so the teachers and others can hold a weekly barbecue. Classes should last until 3:00 p.m. Today, we could all smell the delicious food all over the yard -- definitely cruel and unusual punishment!" CSATF Inmate We knew that Vasquez was a man on the edge and yet another inmate was harassed to the point that he broke and then severely beaten by this animal. All this rages on out of the eyes of the taxpayer. But wait, you and I are taxpayers and there are 3 million of us attached to inmates. There is a great deal we can do to create a voting block, one person at a time. The alternative is to watch our loved ones suffer and die. What are your priorities? Don’t you need to cut out some garbage in your life and get this recruiting done?
Remember this case?  Another one almost exactly like it is being brought by a CIW inmate.  More on this latest lawsuit later!  CDC needs  to promulgate policy on handling trash can ejaculate since this will be the second guard nailed  on this same scenario.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/corona/stories/PE_News_Local_C_tasabia29.
f22a.html

Inmate sex trial closes with 'she said, he said'

NORCO PRISON: Both sides urge jurors to disbelieve the other's
evidence and statements. 12:26 AM PDT on Friday, April 29, 2005 By
PAIGE AUSTIN / The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE - A Riverside Superior Court jury is set to decide the
fate of a Norco prison official accused of having sex with an inmate
in a case that one prosecutor calls, "the inmates versus the
guards."



Attorneys presented their closing arguments Thursday in the case of
California Rehabilitation Center Officer Timothy Tasabia, 43, who is
accused of repeatedly having sex with a female inmate at the prison
where he worked.



The woman provided a DNA sample from Tasabia and provided inmate
witnesses to back up her claims. However, Tasabia took the stand in
his own defense and argued that the inmate took his semen sample
from a trash can in an attempt to set him up.


Fellow officers testified on his behalf that the woman was out to
get officers for interfering with her mail.


The woman, who is not being identified because of the nature of the
allegations, said Tasabia required her to perform sex acts with him
in fall 2002. According to the woman and Deputy District Attorney
Morgan Gire, Tasabia woke the woman several nights and took her to
an office storage room where they engaged in the acts.
"There is no issue of consent," Gire told the jury Thursday
afternoon. "It's illegal to have sex with an inmate. ... It's a
different world in there. You can't just complain about what an
officer is doing to you because you're scared -- scared of what the
other inmates will do to you -- scared of what the officers will do
to you."


During the eight-day trial the woman, who was sentenced in 1998 for
carjacking with a firearm in Los Angeles County, told jurors she
sent anonymous letters to prison investigators asking them to
install cameras in her dorm to catch Tasabia in the act. She brought
two other inmates to watch her go into the storage room with Tasabia
in the middle of the night, and then saved his semen in a piece of
plastic.


According to Tasabia, a married father of five, the woman collected
the DNA sample after he had masturbated in a prison office bathroom.
Defense Attorney Peter Scalisi called two of Tasabia's co-workers
who said the woman was out to get officers because they wouldn't let
her send mail to her girlfriend, a recent parolee from the prison.
According to Scalisi, she threatened officers, saying, "I'm going to
set up guards. I'm going to set up a male Chicano correctional
officer."



Scalisi urged jurors to be skeptical of the testimony of convicted
felons and reminded them that the woman stands to gain $10 million
from a lawsuit she has filed against Tasabia in civil court.
"I guess it's one of the oldest motives in the book to lie --
money," Scalisi told jurors. "She wants to enlist you. She wants to
corrupt you in her scheme to get $10 million."
Throughout the trial, the defense called upon several character
witnesses, including Tasabia's wife, who also is an officer at the
prison.


"This is a pretty simple case," Scalisi said in conclusion. "Do you
believe (an inmate) or do you believe Correctional Officer Timothy
Tasabia?"



In his closing argument redirect, Gire laughed off the concept of a
setup. The victim would have had to know that Tasabia was alone in
the bathroom, where to collect his semen after his shift was over,
and how to mix it with her own DNA, he said.


"His story flat out doesn't make sense," Gire told jurors. "It's so
ludicrous."



Tasabia resigned from the prison in June during an investigation of
the inmate's allegations, a prison spokesman said.



He had worked at the prison since July 2000. Previously, he worked
three years at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad and four years
at Centinela State Prison in Imperial, the prison spokesman added.
The alleged victim since has been transferred to the California
Institution for Women in Chino.
Reach Paige Austin at (951) 893-2106 or paustin@pe.com

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






------------------ Cayenne: Until recently, apparently, no one cared one whit whether inmates had colon cancer or not. This can be cured if caught early on. But it is the first time in 5 years that my inmate reports an attempt to test inmates for this serious condition. He points out the continuing incompetence and lack of foresight which is so typical in this comical description. "I was amazed and highly entertained when on Saturday, in the middle of a holiday weekend, with very minimum staffing, the clinic demanded that all inmates stop by, pick up a colon testing kit for cancer, apply a stool sample and return it by Monday! NOW they are beginning to react; hopefully, it's too late to forestall federal action." Sandy Dear Sandy: It’s definitely too late to forestall federal action. The physicians repeatedly stated that cancer is not treated. So if they find it, what will happen next? Will it get treated? Cayenne Nora tells us how she got Mark’s medical records One of the key reasons attorneys do not want to take prisoner cases is the withholding of records, and conveniently “losing” important evidence. Cayenne: I got those medical records. No one helped me. I stayed on it day in and day out. I know how to get medical records out of a prison. the total cost of fourteen years of medical records was $160.00 for the prison copying fee. Anyone can get anything they need with these documents. all the prisoner has to do is sign the release for the medical records (a form at the prison and check all the boxes on the form, every box, leave none unchecked, plus (write in all psychiatric and lab records.) and check all the boxes on the page and sign it. Then keep calling and faxing to see if they have the copies ready, then go pick them up, don't wait for them to be mailed, take a money order to pay for the cost of copying. It is that easy. I will be glad to give these documents to anyone because, if Mark goes into some kind of a coma I want these bastards to pay, I will keep him alive till hell freezes over, with the state picking up the tab. I told the attorney to make it as sound proof as possible, that I have all the powers to say when, or when not, when it comes to Mark's health care decisions, once he cannot make his own decisions. Nora -------------------------- Nora: Thanks for sharing this with us. The physicians testified that missing records and no death review by the staff to learn what could have saved the inmate’s life has been taking place. This is how CDC covers up. In Rister’s case, the family is being told that they may not have his records because Rister can’t sign a release form. He’s brain dead. How can he EVER sign a release form. Do you have a suggestion for how the Rister’s can get the records short of having to hire an expensive lawyer? Cayenne Cayenne: My inmate says there is much that is happening that he cannot put into a letter. However, Correctional Officer M. Vasquez is gone. There are problems with a Captain Cuevas. He is of the same mold as M. Vasquez and part of that old abusive Corcoran crowd. From my inmates letter dated May 30: "Unfortunately, as miserable as conditions are here, I actually see a steadily declining living standard, possibly as a result of the reform movement, particularly as it looks more and more as receivership might really happen. It's very much like trying to stop an out of control bully: each time a parent imposes restriction meant to improve the vicious behavior, the stubborn bully raises the stakes, firmly believing if he only resists and hangs on, the parent will finally give up. It seems the more bad press our local thugs receive, the more the stakes raise. They just can't believe someone is serious about stopping them! Some examples: Despite all the vocal complaints by the Chaplain and the promise of corrective action by an Associate Warden, the chapel "lock ins" and searches continue; strangely, it is only enforced on second watch (6:00 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.), under the control of a Captain Cuevas, a man formed from the same mold as our friend, Officer M. Vasquez (who has yet to reappear!). This whole travesty was notched up further this weekend. The current Sunday custom is that Mass runs from 9:00 - 10:30 a.m., then Sr. puts on religious videos in the chapel, By that hour, of course, many need a bathroom break. This week, the cops permitted people out at 10:30 a.m. but refused to readmit them after visiting the bathroom on the yard. They also refused to open the large bathroom facility inside the chapel building; therefore, we either left or wet our pants! We were not permitted another unlock until 11:30 a.m., so I had to lose my Sunday morning rehearsal. To put this in perspective; in the same building are education classes, the arts classes, program offices, library, health office and chowhall. All of these have inmates entering and leaving continually. The chapel now is the ONLY activity for which searches are conducted. Does this send a message?" (In my inmates letter last week he described the sudden Chapel searches for men entering and leaving. Each man entering is patted down as they enter the Chapel and they are patted down again when they leave even though no one else has entered or left during the time they are inside. This is a new procedure and appears to be an exaggerated and seemingly spiteful response initiated by Captain Cuevas as a result of reform and new training for officers. This weeks description of refusal of bathroom breaks is also new.) Message from CSATF Locking people in the chapel? Searching them going in and out? This refusal to grant bathroom breaks is a “control factor” When inmates are transported they are almost always not granted bathroom breaks and have no choice but to wet or defecate in their pants. This is so degrading and something that a large, funded citizen’s group can do something about! Keep recruiting workers, there are thousands of holes in the boat that need workers to get them plugged. Nora told all the legislators during Romero’s hearing that her son is dying and yet not one has done anything to lift a finger to help her. Mark’s weight is down around 100 lbs, his blood sugar up over 800 – neglect that will undoubtedly turn into renal failure or death. We need to take action to get Mark fed and his diabetes treated so that he isn’t suffering his final days so much. I am cooking up a plan here so stand by for it Don’t forget to copy me on your chronology that you sent (are sending) to Judge Henderson and the National Prison Commission. You are running out of time if you want not to be buried in thousands of complaints. Keep copies of this if you have a mentally ill inmate because I also want you to send it to Judge Karlton while the investigation of abuse of mentally ill inmates is still underway at Corcoran. Timing is everything. Cayenne: My inmate sent a newspaper clipping from the Fresno Bee dated May 23. It was a front page article by Andy Furillo of The Sacramento Bee titled "Prison Health Care in State of Crisis." (You may have mentioned that this article appeared in the Fresno paper in one of the newsletters.) It included a color photograph of an inmate receiving care at Corcoran on Oct. 26, 2001. Caption under the photo reads "An inmate is attended to by a nurse, center, while two corrections officers stand guard inside the Acute Care Hospital at Corcoran State Prison in Kings County. Officials at Corcoran were having to deal with an outbreak of hepatitis C among inmates. The health care system in the state's prisons has been called unconstitutionally shoddy." Andy's article is excellent. However, at the close of the article he quotes Chuck Alexander, a vice president of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association as saying "All an inmate has to do is complain loud enough, and they send them to outside doctors." He also said, "An inmate doesn't get told 'no.' " As you can see, such misinformation to the public by CCPOA officials continues the cycle of incompetence. The public accepts statements like this as gospel truth. Why would such a fine, upstanding, officer want to lie? It is the lies that have created the horrendous situation that we have today. Mary Charlotte When we see lies such as this one told by Chuck Alexander, it is our job to write to the editor and tell them “that’s a lie” – otherwise they assume nobody is lying. Our noisemaking is always a critical part of what is going on. Silence is deadly. Keep on making noise to the editors! Here are their email addresses http://www.1union1.com/union_addresses.html Use your fist, doubled around a pen If you exceed the word counts, your letter won’t get used, or if you had one published in the last several months, then it might not get used but have a family member send it in. Inmates can write short letters to editors for their family members to send in. Noise is your responsibility and nobody can do your share for you. Letters are noise but letters are wasted on politicians who never read their mail ------------- ...................................... Thu, Jun. 02, 2005 Measure allowing distribution of condoms to inmates approved by Assembly Associated Press SACRAMENTO - Legislation that would allow health agencies and nonprofit groups to distribute condoms in California prisons was approved by the state Assembly late Wednesday, a step supporters said would help prevent the spread of AIDS. "Our prisons are HIV infection factories and we are paying tens of millions of dollars a year for not making condoms available," said the bill's author, Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood. But Republicans said the bill would encourage inmates to break the law by having sex behind bars. "This is absolute insanity," said Assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy, R-Monrovia. "What you are doing is facilitating lawbreakers." "Can I ask for a moment of silence for the death of common sense here in California?" added Assemblyman Doug La Malfa, R-Chico. But Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, said the inmates have unprotected sex in prison despite the ban and then often transmit HIV to their wives and girlfriends when they get out. "Those of you who talk to us all the time about caring about life, let's worry about the lives of people who get infected because these inmates get out," she said. Koretz said the HIV rate in prison is eight times what it is in the general population and the Department of Corrections spends $14 million a year on HIV medication. Most European countries, Canada, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Vermont, Mississippi and a number of cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, allow condoms to be distributed in their prisons or jails, he said. "This is not an untested policy," he said. "It's been done successfully all over the world.... It saves lives; it saves money." A 41-34 vote sent the measure to the Senate. --- On the Net: Read the bill, AB1677, at www.assembly.ca.gov This has now been approved by both houses but must still be signed by the Governor. Media access is a vital part of holding CDC/CCPOA accountable. It is up to us as consumers to make certain the journalists are responsibly since media outlets are businesses. May. 31, 2005 California Senate approves greater media access to inmates DON THOMPSON Associated Press SACRAMENTO - The Senate on Tuesday approved legislation making it easier for reporters to interview prison inmates after the bill was amended to appease a victims' rights group. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar measure last year, following the lead of his predecessors. Former Gov. Pete Wilson restricted media access because he feared the attention would turn criminals into celebrities. The bill by Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, approved on a 26-12 vote, would override Department of Corrections' limits on news media interviews. Those limits have been in place since 1996, after 20 years in which reporters had special access to inmates. The bill would permit interviews using television cameras and audio recording equipment. It also would let inmates correspond confidentially with reporters unless it presented a security problem. "Civilized societies do not hold prisoners incommunicado," said Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Northridge. Media investigations have unearthed several problems within the state's deeply troubled prison system, McClintock noted. He said the problems might have been uncovered earlier if reporters had better contacts with inmates. The bill, SB239, was amended to address objections from Crime Victims United of California. The group wants victims and victims' family members to be notified in advance when a media interview has been scheduled with a criminal convicted in their case. Victims or their families would first have to request that they want such notification. The California Newspaper Publishers Association and California Broadcasters Association support the measure, along with public defenders and the American Civil Liberties Union. The bill now goes to the Assembly, which is considering a similar measure. ON THE NET Read SB239 and AB698 at www.leginfo.ca.gov Notice how the NUMBER of protesters is the first point mentioned, that’s because the NUMBER of voters who object are the most important element of the story. That’s why CROWDS are necessary when we stand up on any issue. This wasn’t our picket, but I’d like you to know that there are no groups in California with enough funds and active volunteers to really get this work done right. That’s why you are constantly recruiting new people to get the UNION newsletter so that I can teach them how, when, where, why to fight back and become activists for change. http://www.bakersfield.com/local/story/5568795p-5541221c.html Activists protest spending on prisons About 20 people call for using money instead on education, prevention By SARAH RUBY, Californian staff writer e-mail: sruby@bakersfield.com Posted: Wednesday June 1st, 2005, 11:05 PM Last Updated: Thursday June 2nd, 2005, 4:35 PM Roughly 20 people raised their poster boards in Delano Wednesday to challenge the state's investment in prisons instead of schools and hospitals. "Who would have dreamed 30 years ago we would see a prison every 15 minutes in the San Joaquin Valley," said activist icon and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, standing in front of Delano's new maximum security prison. "Lets put some of the money in schools. Let's put some money in prevention." California's 33rd prison -- known informally as "Delano II," officially as Kern Valley State Prison -- will open this month with 500 inmates. Opening a new prison when schools, hospitals and libraries are being shuttered shows what's wrong with state spending, according to protest organizer Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a coalition of prison reform and human rights groups that also held protests in Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Fresno. The state should spend its money on people before they end up prison, protesters said. Kern Valley State Prison will be a model prison, said Margot Bach, spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, with all inmates participating in education, work training or substance abuse programs. It cost $379 million to build and the state will spend $110 million to run it each year. It may be the last entirely new prison the state builds, Bach said. In the future, expansion will be limited to existing prisons, she said. At full capacity, the prison will house roughly 5,000 male inmates, all but 500 of which are maximum security. It will eventually employ 1,500 workers, and the first inmates arrive June 15. "Just because they're closing schools in San Francisco doesn't mean we're getting more money," Bach said. California had 163,074 prison inmates as of May. Roughly 30,000 of them are men in maximum security facilities. And their numbers are increasing, Bach said. Once they're convicted, the Department of Corrections has no choice but to house them. "I don't know what they want us to do with them," said Diane Irwin, public information officer at the new Delano prison. "We don't make the laws here, all we do is enforce them." Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women whohave hearts, whether our baptism be that of water orof fears!Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decidedby irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come tous, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn allthat we have been able to teach them of charity, mercyand patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those ofanother country to allow our sons to be trained toinjure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated eartha voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicatepossession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leaveall that may be left of home for a great and earnestday of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, tobewail and commemorate the dead. Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other asto the means whereby the great human family can livein peace, each bearing after their own time the sacredimpress, not of Caesar, but of God.In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some placedeemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the allianceof the different nationalities, the amicablesettlementof international questions, the great and generalinterests of peace. Julia Ward Howe Boston 1870 http://www.peace.ca/mothersdayproclamation.htm -------------------- So much of this abuse and violence is testosterone-driven but we outnumber those who have this viewpoint. It is only our silence and apathy, not working on organizing enough that allows our loved ones to be endangered by the bullies in charge. The best way to stop a bully is to be a bully. But the inmates cannot do this for themselves, so their family members must do all the fighting for them to keep them safer. The inmates can help by sending their family members to help us do the UNION work, we need at least ten clerical workers for a few hours per week in the Sacramento area, people who can help keep the website updated, letter-writers, picketers, those who have access to vans and buses, people who can make phone calls and especially, people who will attend legislative hearings so that prisoners will have representation there. We could use scores of attorneys and law students The more workers and funds we have, the sooner we can turn this mess around. It takes work, but it always pays off big dividends. Had we not be snoozing, we wouldn't be in this predicament because "tough on crime" hawks would never have been elected. My 93 year old grandmother who reared seven children said to me before she died "Use your fist." When I hold my pen I can see that my hand is indeed doubled into a fist. Use yours. B. Cayenne Bird UNION P.O. Box 340371 Sacramento, Ca. 95833 www.1union1.com