It's NOT a Rumor!

http://www.azcentral.com/video/?type=mavenfull&id=videopage&videoID=1077631441

I calculated my husbands release and with a TR he should have been home Feb 2009, without a TR May 2009, since it's possibly going into effect in Sept, then he would be home then. He said that a bunch of guys in his dorm were sent up to have release pictures taken and he was brought up to have his release packet started!! He is supposed to be home May 2010....WOW would that be a great thing to have him home in September!!! I don't want to get my hopes up too high, but watching this video certainly didn't help! I want a copy of that document!! I wonder if the Gov will ask DOC to do a 20% reduction in spending. Even if it's 15% or 10% they are still going to have release guys, there is really no way around that. Not at the rate of imprisonment the courts are reporting. I really like how this article wasn't alerting to the public...WATCH OUT INMATES ARE GETTING RELEASED OH NO!! It was low key, and no big deal. This is the attitude we want the media to portray. Lots of prayers and lots of public awareness I think this is a reality for a lot of us to be hopeful for.

Prison vs K-12

My big issue, as a tax payer and mother of K-12 kids, our state is proposing to cut over 300 million from education and only 38 million from DOC, yet our new govenor wants to increase the DOC budget by 100 million. Does that make sense to anyone else?? What the hell is wrong with this picture. When DOC is #4 in spending the states money!

Now, with that as ammo go tell your neighbors and friends and relatives who don't give a crap about your inmates but who love and adore their children...outrage the community with that!

Send mass e-mails to friends and family and your representatives...

Now is the time to get the word out there and get the government to quit spending so much money on incarceration and more on our kids futures, the foster kids futures, and low income families futures because all these budget cuts are affecting this class of children...who, without this funding, may have a greater chance of ending up in prison creating more of a vicious cycle.

This isn't going to be a 'fix all' resolution but this will relieve some of the budget woes AZDOC is facing.

Bonus: My husband will be home earlier!!

PTO...Give Me a BREAK!!

Prisontalk is supposed to be a support for people who have a loved one in prison...unless your name is briandi. I think the PTO moderators don't like me for some reason. Practically every post I make, every thread I start gets moved, or flat out deleted and I get a nasty...very rude, condescending, sarcastic PM back that I'm dumbfounded by. Like I should know better, but I honestly am just not understanding what the issue they have with how or what I post. I tried to get the prison community attention and post the urgency of this Truth in Sentencing issue and I have to re-post it, re-write it, move it, delete it...3 or 4 times. Finally, FedX the main mod combines it to one thread.....but this is after I am treated like dirt by the other mods. I'm on there to help (and according to a lot of people I DO HELP) not to be a burden....so PTO thanks so much for the support....WHATEVER!! The friends I have met through PTO I am truly grateful for but I think I'm done with posting on PTO.

I guess you can call me a trouble maker! I don't try to create problems, but apparently PTO has a problem with me telling anyone publicly about my blog. Another thing that's "Against PTO Policy". What's funny is that I was told back in October that I could not post my blog address on the public forum, so I didn't. I didn't even post anything on this blog really after that until I got a "WARNING" that I couldn't post my blog...which I hadn't since I was told in Oct that I couldn't. I guess someone asked me how they could be a part of Arizona Prison Wives Club...which really isn't a club it's just a blog where I had posted letters that people could use to sent to the department of corrections. A handy place to put them so they didn't get lost in the myriad of posts on PTO. I wasn't ever trying to pull anyone from PTO just a place to go to grab the letters. Easy enough. So, I had asked PTO for help on a personal issue months ago, and I got no response...then another one of my posts gets deleted. Over what? I'm still unclear at this point. Maybe it's because I said you can't always trust what you say will be taken in trust and to be careful what you say and who you say it to...Oh NO..PTO's reputation might be ruined! Who knows. Anyway, I get reprimanded WARNED for having a blog that I posted it on someones info page. I don't even know it was months ago that I did it but I get warned months later??

I guess I'd let it all rest if it wasn't really just nit picking and not particularly for the reason the rules were imposed. If I were to make a rule like that, it would be for people trying to solicit. I'm not soliciting? Nor was I trying to pull people away from PTO...so since they are so worried about my blogger blog...I'm going to post here A LOT more...and I'm not going to hide anything....this IS AMERICA after all and I have THE FREEDOM OF SPEECH. So what do you bet I get banned from PTO again?? Oh well, not much is going on in the AZ forum anymore anyways.

Here are some examples of the kind of PM's I've received after a post I put in for inmate petitions:

Thread Deleted.

Reason: I suspect you know.....please stop

I Asked:
This is not a duplicate, I took time to re-write this and post this in the correct place. I really don't know what I am doing wrong. Honestly, I'm feeling like you guys are just doing this on purpose. Please help me understand what I can do to post this correctly.

PTO's Response:
Briandi, don't play cute. *Reworded* is not *different*. b You've been around and around this, and no-one is interested in cutting you any more slack about your machinations. That's why.
NimuaySite Mod

Truth In Sentencing Rumor or Not??

After talking with my husband this week and verifing with a few other orangeman's wives, the Tucson Warden has been telling inmates that the department is looking seriously at proposing to the govenor (if not already) to lower the 85% TIS (truth in sentencing). Could be as soon as September that this change might take place, and it would affect those released after 2009. I suppose that it would be dependant on your felony class, and type of crime. I did find one article in the East Valley Tribune that states the following:

The Department of Corrections reported it could save more than $111 million by incarcerating fewer people.
Current law requires inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their sentence. The agency proposes to reduce that to 75 percent for those sentenced to the most serious crimes - and as little as 25 percent for those convicted of minor felonies.
Another plan would allow some people convicted of felonies not related to assault, rape, weapons charges and some other crimes to serve their time in home arrest programs.
And the department figures that it could save money if those people sentenced to one year or less in state prison instead serve their time in county jails. That move, however, will get a big fight from the counties as the savings to the state would end up being borne by them.
This isn't the first time such a proposal has surfaced. Gov. Janet Napolitano tried it last year, only to have it beaten back.
Gubernatorial press aide Paul Senseman said Arizonans should not read too much into the agency submissions. He said these are not what Brewer plans to ask lawmakers to cut.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/136881

I don't want to get my hopes up too much but this was brought to the legislators a few years back and it was shot down. Maybe with the budget crisis this year will be the year things actually go in our favor!

Again, please contact the local reps in your area or for that matter...in all areas!
votesmart.org

Let's try and get the word out there and stop the madness!!

A Poem for My Children

I came accross this poem not too long ago and it really hit home hard for me. I'd thought I'd share for those who also have children who's daddys are in prison. I have a son who is 9 and a daughter who is 7....life is just not fair.

Daddy's Gone

© Alison Henderson
How do you sit down and talk to your son
and tell him that his Daddy has gone
It's easier explaining the meaning of death
and why people die and draw their last breath.

But Daddy, he's gone to no peaceful heaven
Instead he's in prison and serving seven
so how do you sit down and tell your own son
the why's and the reason's his Daddy has gone?

" Listen my son, you'll need to be strong
Daddy has done something terribly wrong
He's gone in to prison for quite a long time
and this is what happens when you commit crime"

" Daddy still loves us, he'll phone and he'll write
ring you to wish you goodnight and sleep tight
we can sit down together and write him a letter
it'll make Daddy smile and make him feel better"

" We can go and see Daddy perhaps once a week
to give him a hug and a kiss on the cheek
you can draw Daddy pictures and paintings at school
to put on his wall which will look really cool "

I tried telling my son with emotional tact
the truth of the matter, you can't hide the fact
his Daddy has gone and has gone for a while
you can't say it with flowers or manage a smile.

So how do you sit down and talk to your son
and answer his question's why Daddy has gone
all you can do is just tell him your way............
and pray to the Lord he'll be home soon one day.

While He Was in the Hole Aug 2008-Jan 2009

Here are only just a few things that he went through while in the HELL HOLE:

He had to sit in a rec cage for over 24 hours (no toilet, no water, nothing covering him from the elements and this was end of Sept...very HOT and he had no water...finally after begging for water for hours a "sympathetic" CO brought my husband a used (by who knows what inmate) empty Pepsi bottle filled with water.

He has scars on his ankles from when they put him in ankle shackles and made him walk all the way over from Stiner to Bachman. that will always be a physical reminder of what he went through. They were bloody and scabbed when he lifted his foot to the glass the first visit.

He had to share a cell with a guy that was a major druggie and they found dope in this guys shoe when the CO's did a search of their cell. He had warned the guy that if the CO's came in and found it that he'd better own up to it....well the guy wouldn't and my husband almost ended up with a major ticket that would have brought him some major problems. Well, the CO's knew better and the other dude was given the ticket.

The second move he was put in a cell with 2 other men...one of which was a homeless looking fella that masturbated and crapped on himself all day long. And an cellie that was in a wheelchair that had been in the hole over 100 days and had sores all over his body, he was also hep c positive.

We both were lied to numerous times by not only CUI, SSU, CO's and all the ADW's, DW's but the Complex warden at Lewis himself. We were led to believe that this would take maybe 60 days at most. LIES!

His next move he was forced to beat the living crap out of any inmate that entered his cell for fear of his own safety and reputation. After basically having my attorney friend mail a certified letter to every one that matters at Central Office he was actually given a cell with a half way decent cellie. All the while living in this freezing cell unable to wear pants.

In the mean time, with each move, items were lost or broken including his fan, pants, shirts, headphones, books and CD's.

He was not given toiletries for weeks when he first went in and then was moved on shower days and missed having a shower for 9 days straight at one point. When he was moved to SMU1 it took them 15 days to get "some" of his property.

We missed out on 1808 hours of visitation, countless hours of phone privleges, 1 food visit...Veterans day visit...during this 5 months I just so happened to get laid off of my job, almost lost my home, my son's birthday, my birthday, his birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years were all spent with him unable to call on any of those special days.

The saddest of it all my children visited twice, and both times my children cried more than they ever had during a visit...as a matter of fact it was the first time my children had cried at a visit and all the way home we all just cried and let it all out. It was awful. Both my kids and my emotions have been wearing thin, and my husband was unbelievably patient and forgiving.

Love is patient, Love is Kind, Love is Long Suffering....we absolutly have Love.

And if you who did this to us is reading this post, and I think that you are...what goes around, comes around. One Day you will get what you have coming to you...that's just how it works....so I have no anger or hate and I forgive you....we forgive you.

Dear Department of Corrections

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

As I lie here tonight in an empty bed, my children tucked away in their rooms asleep I think of all that I am missing right now. As my husband is locked in his cell, I know he is thinking the same thing. Where did this go wrong, I let them down, they deserve so much better. But we're lost without eachother.

As you go home at the end of your shift, home to your wife and your children don't forget that my husband used to get to do that same thing too. Don't forget that he was a loving father, and a sweet husband that needs his family too. Just because he's in prison, doesn't make him any less of a person.

Think about how I as a mother and wife must feel, how I hold it together while he is locked up. How I have to be mommy and daddy. Don't you know that my husband wants to be here for me? Don't you know that he had a momentary lack of judgement...it happens to the best of us. We're not perfect. You're not perfect. Treating my husband like a sub-human is not necessary! Think about me, the one that loves this man, who cares about his treatment, who cares that he gets the necessary contact between him and his family. I need him too, it's not just for his benefit. I for one, am as free as you my friend. I pay taxes just like you, but yet who do you think suffers the most. Go ahead and put it back on my husband YES he committed a crime, YES he is doing his time. Isn't that enough for you?? Is is necessary to use excessive force on a man who's never been a threat during his time? Taking all that I have sent him? And refusing to do anything about it? Time. Time. Time. Time. Oh yes I have all the time in the world to wait to see what happens next!! No I don't!! You've taken enough time from us. When will enough be enough??

Don't forget that as I cry nightly missing my husband, as I work ungodly hours to compensate for the lack of his usual six figure income. As I strive to be a mother that has breakfasts' to cook, dinner to fix, homework assignments to check, laundry to do, a 9 yr old son in football, orchestra, and Cub Scouts, a 7 yr old daughter taking Spanish classes, piano lessons, and dance classes. As I take my weekend Satudays to drive hours to maintain my family relationship and spend an extra $300 per month to do this. Let's not even mention the time I spend for Church functions, and activites and volunteering in the community for prisoner and family rights. Is he worth it....YOU BET! My visits are my time to breathe to feel complete again to feel that my family is fianally together after the busy and stressful week I've had. Think about that! Did you ever think that by making visiting more difficult you are adding to the already HUGE burden we have to deal with?? It's MY TIME TOO!

I wish that for just once DOC would be compassionate to the women that love, that love no matter what. That we had a life prior to this and we will have a life after this too. Our lives do not stop while our men are in prison. Why make it harder on us by all the petty details that don't really matter. Is it not enough that our men are gone?

As I lie here I imagine me back in his arms again...back to our normal routine. Making love at night, History Channel on at 2 am, him eating Entimens Chocolate Doughnuts, kissing him goodnight, kissing me good morning, watching him primp in the mirror before work, his sweet smell on my cheek after kissing me good bye for the day, his dozen or so calls to me throughout the day telling me of his random thoughts....meeting for lunch. Fun time with family on weekends. Alone with him at night wrapped up in a blanket out side by the fire place with a bottle of wine he'd picked up on his way home. We too had a life before all of this.

So Mr COIII, Ms Director, Mrs Deputy Warden...when you call the shots and you make policies and procedures, please don't forget about ME.


Other thoughts in relation to comments I received:
Don't think for a MINUTE that I have not blamed him...cursed him, left him half way at visitation, even with all the good there is the bad. Had my husband not had an addiction issue...I know for a fact he'd NOT be in prison. So, yeah....I won't forget the nights he wouldn't come home because he was ashamed of what he'd done, no I won't forget picking up from Jail seeing him detox worrying about if he'd loose his job this time...for God sakes I even divorced the man when it was just more than I could take. But I have had WAY more good with my husband than I have ever had it bad....so I choose to let the past be just that. THE PAST. I have learned to forgive him, and see that our love can make it through anything. I choose not to continually bring up what he did, I choose not to drudge up the past, I can't change what he did. He's there and there is nothing I can do about that right now but holding on to the anger and hurt what good does that do it's like drinking a poison and trying to kill the other person.....BUT DAMN DOC doesn't need to make it harder on than it ALREADY is!!!

This is my perspective to DOC not to my husband. I'm not blaming DOC for holding him there. I'm upset at how they treat the family support as less than important.

I think the whole point is...is that.....


PRISON SUCKS! & IT SUCKS FOR EVERYONE!!


I don't even blame DOC for him BEING there. He did that. DOC's policies are what's frustrating to me. Some make good sence, while other things I just want to kick, scream and fight about.


When guards make us go to our cars and change.....twice....because they can't seem to be consistant with their visitation dress codes. Or the dog sniffs your butt and you haven't got a thing on you...yet they suspend your visits for 90 days....they loose visitation paperwork....they throw kites away....they don't give your man sound medical treatment and he get's worse.....they assault your man and nothing is done about it....they leave him out in the rec cage for 2 days with no water....they take forever and a year to get the phones turned on.....they jack up the prices of crappy vending machine food....and the store prices are not in proportion to their state pay....they tell you at 2:01 that "Ooopps you got here too late you can't visit" after driving across country 36 hours.....they fail to have toilet paper and paper towles at visitation.....they can't seem to get that far right vending machine to ever NOT be OUT OF ORDER!!...They don't put up shade over the picinic tables in 120 degree weather....they make you wait in the visitation room 30 extra minutes because the CO is too lazy to get up off her ass and tell him he has a visit.....they shake your man's house down because his neighbor is causing problems so he'll retaliate against his neighbor, and they leave all the stuff you took the time to mail on the ground for him to gather up while they walk all over it....they retaliate on your man if you call and bitch about it....they hold property that you've sent in that you know full well is allowed in....OMG I could go on and on about...they hold visitation on the weekdays for some units....the holiday schedule is all screwed up.....the phone calls get cut off if the wind blows the wrong direction....mail get's lost and then all of the sudden you'll get a letter that's like weeks old.....your collarbone is showing, your shirt's too see through, your pants are the wrong color, your ID expired, your bra beeped.....turn around jump around pick a bail of cotton!! What more do can they throw at us....BRING IT ON!!


Serioulsy...how hard is it to fix these minor issues....that cause us extra, unnecessary greif!! CRIPES!


What else have you experienced that brought YOU unnecessary grief?