Missouri Prison Reform received the following message from a resident of a Missouri Prison.
I would like to give you an update and some more information on my stolen property that valued at over $700 dollar’s. I recently wrote and waited for an appropriate time to the Deputy Warden about the issue of prison residents’ property not being secured and how my property was stolen almost in its entirety. As always is the case I got no response or investigation into my theft of property. You would think that the sales laws that convicted men like me to prison would apply in prison but they do not unless they pick and choose at their discretion who and what they may convict. As it is mostly seen by us (prison residents) if it concerns an officer they will convict but if it concerns crime on prison residents to prison residents they do not convict. This is a clear view of a double standard of oppression and punishment that the system believes they must do to prison residents as a form of more punishment for the crimes we are already being punished for doing our time and being stripped of our freedoms. We also can not forget that at MDOC disposal they have confiscated property from prison residents that are found with property that is not theirs and possible as in my case they were caught with my stolen property which is the most likely case and this confiscated property is to be used at no cost to MDOC to replace property like mine. So even if I file an IRR it may never be answered and I’d say the burden is on me to show proof that it was stolen and they will not investigate or provide the video of the theft being done by prison residents. But what we are gonna be simply told is I don’t have proof so all is denied to the most top levels of the IRR process and by staff of every kind. Even in my case it was very clear that all my property was gone but there was never a care. When I was also taken down to the segregation unit I had personal New Balance Shoes on, sunglasses, khaki shorts, and personal gray shirt and this property is taken by staff because only state clothing is allowed in the segregation unit. This property was taken and placed in a bag to be placed in my property. It also disappeared as does almost every prison resident’s property that is taken the same way. The problem is when we go to the segregation unit our property is to be immediately secured by staff and packed by staff and everything be completely itemized and when property is taken off an prison resident in the same manner is to be immediately itemized and a confiscation or property inventory sheet be placed with that property to not only identify who property it is but what is there in its entirety. Instead of this happening the officers are lazy and don’t care to abide by the rules, regulations,policies, that are their job to do the where hired to do and can’t not at any time go against and not too, for they sign a contract that has a zero tolerance to all of this but again they don’t care and believe they are above it all. So in a nutshell when a prison resident comes to prison we are taught that the same things that brought us to prison and convicted us we are then not held accountable to once we are in MDOC’s custody. We do not get charged with theft, burglary, armed robbery, assault, drugs, or weapons, unless they so choose to do so but 99% of the time we are not charged and it is not investigated or we get their rules applied that are now above the laws of the United States. This teaches the prison residents not to be rehabilitated but that they can do the same crimes in prison with little or no consequences. Take my case, I am in prison for I committed a 1st degree armed robbery and was given 45 years for a 60 second robbery where no one was hurt physically but mentally only. But in prison I can beat a prison resident up or brandish a weapon and rob him of his property and it’s either not investigated or he is only placed in the segregation unit. There is so much wrong with all of this and most of it has to do with a broken system designed not to rehabilitate or teach new skills but to oppress or punish the prison resident more and to give the officers not a well maintained professional work ethic but one of laziness and poor moral standards. As another example we had an prison resident in the PC unit having problems with his mental health and told staff he was suicidal and then immediately placed in a suicide cell in the segregation unit with only a smock as clothes, no bedding, no mattress, and a concrete floor to sleep on for the next 72 hours and feed only cheese sandwiches and peanut butter sandwiches. His cellmate told to pack his property and then it was just placed in the common day room for 10 hours. So not only did the officers not do there job on many levels again but it will be certain that this prison residents property is now missing things, for one his cell mate could have taken what he wanted and any one in the unit could take what they wanted while it was in they day room unsecured for 10. Remember MDOC will not investigate that any property is missing upon there inventory and they will not go back to review cameras to see if anyone got into the unsecured property while in the common day room. The inventory is to be done to also check to see if all the prison residents’ electronics are there but when they are not it will not be looked into then or any time in the future. They will always claim it is not their fault or their job to help but they do not do their job professionally and that is why this happens time and again. Now once prison residents property is to be packed by officers immediately, inventoried by item, it is then to be secured in the property room at the facility. This prison residents property was then taken unsecured to the sally port for another 5 hours and then taken to the back officer for 2 days and then moved back into the PC unit and placed in the cell that is now used as a nurses station cell 2- 118 -D.. This is unacceptable and is the same reason why my property and others always go missing and can be clearly stolen by other prison residents…
Thank you,
David Rasco
