Sunday, February 26, 2012

Good news...sort of anyways...

Lorne called me on Friday, not his usual day to call but he actually was in a pretty good mood.  It turns out that his most recent grievance was overturned.  The warden decided that the notice of charges had no merit and overturned it.  Lorne's record has been expunged of this charge and his visiting privileges have been restored.  Needless to say he was VERY happy about that.  Certainly he feels vindicated in the treatment he receives at the hands of the correctional officers there. 

On the down side to all this, Lorne's latest blog article, which he just sent and I have yet to receive, apparently paints a decidedly darker picture of his mindset.  Of course he starts out with, "now I don't want to alarm anyone" and of course my response to him was "when you say stuff like that, of course we are going to be alarmed"  So of course, now I am worried about his mental state.  Unfortunately the state correctional centers are not geared towards people with high IQ's like Lorne.  If he were a high school dropout, fine...they could work with that. 

I will keep you posted and expect another Lorne blog update soon.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

What goes around ALWAYS comes around

Today I received an email from an organization that I am involved with.  It had to do with a letter that the organization's president wrote to the NV state AG regarding the recent assault of a Nevada correctional officer by an inmate. 

Don't get me wrong, I abhor violence...in any form; nor do I condone or approve of the actions of the inmate who assaulted a staff member.  And here it is...BUT, there can be little doubt that this particular officer did nothing to endear himself to the inmates at this facility.  I was not surprised when I saw the name of the officer since it was the one who dropped the bomb on Lorne last June regarding the confiscation of his financial information, 2 subsequent cell searches, loss of religious materials (destroyed by the state after this officer confiscated them) gave Lorne his first disciplinary actions in 6 years!!!

It has long been said that when you treat people like animals, they will respond as one.  And in this instance, I truly believe that to be the case.  Based upon past interactions with Lorne, this officer was given all that he had given out to the inmates. I think that is sad...so very sad.  I think it is sad that people who are in positions of power and authority must rule with an iron fist using fear, intimidation and mental and physical abuse in trying to gain compliance from someone.  It doesn't work...it never has and it never will. 

I hope that as a result of his stabbing, that officer Sean Lagier (who has been characterized as the worst of the worst) will learn that his tactics to gain compliance have not worked, indeed, his very actions have placed his life in jeopardy.  It goes to show you that respect for humanity, tolerance and compassion go a long way towards gaining an inmates compliance and obedience to the rules.  Abuse of any kind will get you nothing but a shank.

Get well officer Lagier...you will soon have alot of explaining to do and you should be in top form to do so.