December 6th , 2008 -Evening hours
Welcome to my nightmare. It’s has been several days since I have been able to get the flow of the Pen in perfect order…things are just out of hand and I have had no energy nor the will to write lately…Could it be the Holidays, or perhaps it is just everything combined- The past few months have been a bit stressful & chaotic…”whew” ….what a nightmare…god blesses us all!
Well we had an officer blow his brains out in the parking lot a few nights ago. So that should show you that the stress is wide spread. This officer -”Mr. Woods” had been a marine -and very much fit the stereotype of a man most would call”G.I. Joe”-hat and all. He was a strictly by the book type of a guard-you knew that head of time-but he treated you with respect and like a man- a human being. He has been here the whole time I have been here and has even raided my cell a few times years ago. But he did it the “correct way”. If he searched your cell, you can bet he did it thoroughly -an he also respected your belongings -put them all back as he had found them. Then he would explain why he was confiscating said items….by the book!
well he worked our Pad back here in the F Pod and he was here the night he “ate the bullet ” in his own vehicle. He was his normal self , but he no longer was hard on us. He was also tired of the way the administration was treating him …and he voiced his views. Rumor has it “Billy Hirsch” fired him …this is what we all heard.
You could tell the change in him. “Mr. Woods”, he was a likable person and he was one of the few who was treating us as we were human…amazing enough-some of us are!. It’s still a shock to us all. He was laughing and talking to us all minutes before he killed himself . He was Jewish and even made a Jewish joke and had us all laughing. He is no longer with the living ! Why?
The night of this incident he defused a problem-someone on another section “jacked” the Pan hole- the slot in the door that is opened by the guard to feed you or to pass out any items you may require. Well I am not sure what went wrong – but he was called to see the ranking officer on the shift.. What was said it’s uncertain. but “Mr. Woods” went on a break and said he wouldn’t be coming back! May God rest his Soul!
What prompts a man to eat a bullet? This mas is working on the row- men are being executed in an alarming rate ..dying to live…living to die . And he who has his freedom takes his own life right before the Christmas Holidays…I guess the tension has become unbearable.
The goon Squad brought in another man this morning. Right at the start of the shift-5 riot team and they had already strapped him to a gurney and brought him to the “hole”. What a way to start the day?! A storm is brewing?! As human beings we are being oppressed and scandalously treated in an intolerable fashion.
Till the next time
True American Till Death!
Mark Anthony Stroman, 2008
Dead Man talking
