Missouri Prison Reform received the following message from a resident of a Missouri Prison.
Well I sit here in Algoa Correctional Center and I was on work release back last year and I was written up for a 11.5 a visual because I made a Sgt. mad at me so at 5:15 am. I was taken to the hole for two hours. I took a UA and passed it. I was also released from the hole at 6:30am and allowed to go to work out in the public walking down the hallway putting myself and the community at risk if I was truly high. Why would they let me go to work? Anyway I lost my date and job. I filed an IRR stating my complaint and they said I was beaten. I have no proof showing I was not high. Well my UA proves I was clean, yet I still lost my out date for 90 days. Anyway that being said here is my new problem. If I remember correctly when they took tobacco products from us there is to be no tobacco products on state property. Well here at Algoa Correctional Center, there are a lot of Sgt. that run around with chewing tobacco in their mouths and we can prove this because the captains crew that cleans our yards up and take our trash out they steal the already chewed tobacco and dries it out and smokes it but if caught we get wrote up for it. Well if the guards would follow the law no tobacco products would be available to us but here at Algoa they seem to have their own laws. I tried to get an IRR form to complain about this. My case worker said that the staff are allowed to chew pouches. No they are not. If they are then we should be allowed to purchase them. Also if my people come to see me and bring tobacco products to this place they get prosecuted. So why is it OK for staff to have tobacco products inside this fence??
