Missouri Prison Reform received the following message from a resident of a Missouri prison. Some edits were made for clarity. Names were redacted by Missouri Prison Reform.
When I first started my time in MODOC it was very very hard mainly because I was worried about my family and ex significant other betraying my trust, that made time very hard and stress full so I was like a time bomb all the time. When it came to people, I was always angry almost gnashing my teeth like an animal. Being bounced around camps is also stressful because I work to develop a business- style relationship with the staff at a camp so they know I’m a good worker and I am trying I work hard long if I have to. But there are co’s and classification staff who just say the most disrespectful things you can say to a person, much less a man. Property ” loses” a lot of our stuff and tells us we’re beat cause we have no proof of loss and we can’t buy more items cause the ” lost” items are taking up space. And the killing and drug use and preying on the weak is ridiculous. There was a kid I knew in Moberly Correctional Center he hung himself from his window in the hole and the co didn’t find him from 4:00 in the morning to 11:00 at lunch and he died but they told his family he died of ” natural causes”. What’s natural about hanging from a window with a broken neck? These guys are stabbing each other for pennies because they are bored. I’ve seen riots kick off for $5 debts. The people incarcerated allow workers to work that much is obvious there are not enough staff in the entire prison system if one single camp were to get dangerous and I honestly believe it is getting to that point once more staff are disrespectful but demand respect and they use crude words. When a person incarcerated run out of the weak to prey on it will be a free for all because the weak supply the money. Guys are paying to stay on the yard, crash another person incarcerated off the yard (rival), check in to PC, or get beat up or killed. They have so much drugs flowing in all the time that they can put something in someone’s drink and overdose them and kill them with zero trace. Most of my specific violations are because I was weak and agreed to do things that the gangs saw fit in order to stay on the yard. AND PC has their own gangs in there so nowhere is a safe place. Its always a warzone everywhere. The smartest thing and most beneficial was the tablet phones. Nobody is hurting another person over the phone anymore. Physical mail being cut that was laughable as far as the reason goes to stop the drugs. From what I’ve seen so far that made it worse drugs are flooding the prison system and the only take what people incarcerated allow this particular operation is ever- expanding ever-growing. As some people incarcerated say “As you get better, we get better,” the network is larger and resources are thicker. If they want to slow things down, things have to change for people incarcerated and families. They spend a lot of money on these things and drug addicts are popping up like crazy people who’ve never even touched drugs but they do it out of boredom in prison and become an addict. Taking tobacco out was the worst thing prison could have done to adults. They are getting all kinds of drugs in and tobacco ain’t stopped either (heroine, meth, marijuana, k2, suboxins,) anything you can think of cause there’s nothing to do. I have experienced an overdose once already because I stay bored and someone said here hit this, “boom” 4 narcans later I wake up in the medical ER practically coming back to life covered in puke and blood. People are getting killed and killing themselves all the time. It’s a normal thing to see someone be carried out of the wing on a stretcher. In my opinion, there isn’t a lot of good here except for our tablets, music, tv, small amount of canteen which is why I wish someone high up would look into walkenhorst and changing the game and entertainment rules. Leisure time is important. I’ve seen drug dealers and addicts play tablet games till they beat it. Which was like a couple days or more depending on the game and that’s what is giving me this idea, operations won’t be halted because if they are told to go somewhere. They now have some kind of privilege they can lose instead of things like our tablets and tvs we feel obligated to. And without legitimate reason they aren’t going anywhere. I have also watched my grandma, aunt, and brother die while I’ve been locked up all died from covid. And sadly, my mom is pushing it too. Prison is never going to be and never has been, nor should it ever be but with courts handing out longterm sentences and people lacking the money to fight cause they cant afford a good lawyer as much as I wish the quality of lawyer you can afford decides your life was true, it is, its reality. But a lot of new people incarcerated are kids my age and younger. I’m 26, I’ve been in for 4 years. I came down at 17, what kid can afford thousands of dollars for a ” good quality” lawyer? “Nothing is free someone pays for it somewhere”. I heard that on TV and it was the most realistic thing I’ve ever heard. Prison needs to change like the world outside, move with it. Missouri is having share time flowing forward we’re in slow-motion. Hopefully things will pick back up soon.
