From T-Bone (Letter 17)

Shaun,

Please my brother let the students at the T-Bone Appreciation Society know that I feel the pain of not being there for them and for not keeping my word. They all mean so much to me! I can’t say thank you enough for all of your support. Every day, I think of being there in the UK speaking at schools, God willing.

If it wasn’t for prayer, I would have lost my mind years ago living in these jail conditions. This man Sheriff Joe Arpaio is a real piece of work. The guards do everything they can to break a man’s spirit and mind. There’s no sunshine or fresh air. We never leave the pod unless we go to court or medical. They only give us peanut butter each and every day and oranges (which only fuels the growing problem of addiction with 75% of the guys in here).

Enough of the negative about this place. I thought I’d be out of here by now but the state prosecutor didn’t turn over some files in time, so I have to wait until January 19^th. My lawyer says that he told the prosecutor that we will take a dismissal or time served. This whole situation is crazy as they've just created a case with no evidence against me. But here in Arizona there is a saying that they will even try to prosecute a ham sandwich.  

They know I am innocent, but they care not. They only count their convictions, not the cost of hurting one’s humanity. There were four days of newspaper articles here about the Arizona county attorney’s office and how they play games in court just to get a conviction. That office is now being charged with misconduct. 

Peace, Each One Teach One

Steel Embrace

Strength and honor

T-Bone

Click here to read letter 16 from T-Bone

Click here for the T-Bone Appreciation Society on Facebook 

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I don't always drink Bourbon. But when I do...it is often Wild Turkey.
Especially when it is 40 degrees and windy at the Lehigh v. Lafayette game tailgate.

Kids

I took my son hunting on Friday after Thanksgiving. We set up for geese in the afternoon , ducks Saturday in the morning and geese for the balance of the day.
The kid in the photo above could just as easily be holding a 20 ga. hunting with his dad.
The time in the blinds this weekend gave me lots of opportunity to talk to my boy at length. Time  has been hard to come by recently as he was preparing for the SAT's and has a busy schedule for school and sports.
There were 7  other guys at the duck hunting club on Friday night....and my 16 year old. He held his own in the company of men. As I have said before, I feel it crucial to immerse my son in the rituals of men. Then he cleaned me out at the poker table Friday night. Maybe the little jerk should stick to his school-work.

Welcome Banged Up Abroad Viewers

If you just watched my Banged-Up Abroad episode, you may be interested in the video below in which I describe the jail conditions in much more horrific detail. I also describe the gang violence and murders committed by the guards. The video ends with a gang rape and beheading story.  

Link to my books the Banged-Up episode was based on with free shipping worldwide. 

Shaun Attwood

Black Friday

 The turkey has been consumed and the carcass is simmering for stock.The only "black" relevant to my Friday is the color of the 3 inch 12 Ga.  BB shells I will be loading in my shotgun hoping to down some geese for the table.

 Today I am heading to the duck hunting club to set up for geese this afternoon and ducks tomorrow at zero dark thirty. I saw and heard lots of geese moving all day yesterday. Hopefully the snotty weather North of us has driven down the migratory stragglers who will find our decoy spread inviting.

 This will be my view from the blind this afternoon.

 The Lehigh v. Lafayette tailgating was splendid. Sadly the school from Easton gave our boys a rather severe spanking :50-28.

Nevertheless, it was great hoisting beers on a cold crisp day in the Lehigh Valley. There is continuity and comfort in seeing guys you have known for 30 years and sharing beer, nips of bourbon, and laughs.

Greetings from the Abyss by Jack (Part 15)

Jack is serving life without parole, and has terminal cancer. Throughout my incarceration, Jack was a positive influence. He encouraged me to keep writing, to enter short-story competitions, and we proofread each other’s chapters. Jack is seeking pen pals, so anyone interested please email me at attwood.shaun@hotmail.co.uk for his details.

How are things in your corner of the world?

Another float-building season has come and gone. This one was fraught with strife and animosity. Several of the prisoners either quit or refused to work on the float. There are several reasons behind this but chief among them is the pay issue. DOC decided that WISE Aides (the job we hold) are to be considered as semi-skilled labor. Because of this designation, our pay scale tops out at 45 cents an hour, but then DOC rigged the system so that no one could achieve the maximum pay in their assigned work area, which further reduced our pay to 40 cents an hour. This lower hourly wage coupled with, in some cases, up to 52% of the inmates’ pay being withheld for various things reduced the take-home pay of some inmates to less than $14 every 2 weeks for 80 hours of work.

We are expected to turn out high-quality hand-crafted furniture basically for free. A lot of the items we are building are personal items for the cops. We are getting orders from all over the state, but we are considered semi-skilled.

Then to top it off, quite a bit of the money that is deducted from us is not going where DOC says it is going. As an example, I’m a lucky one as I only lose 6% of my wages to these bogus expenses. One percent is a handling fee for DOC to process the wages they pay me. Five percent is for a non-existent drug rehab program. Even if the program were real, over 98% of the prison population is ineligible to participate. This begs the question of where is the money going? Of the 40,000 inmates in the system, at least 10,000 have jobs. 5,000 make the maximum of semi-skilled or skilled, which puts their 5% at approximately $3.20 a month. Multiply that by 5,000 inmates and you have $16,000 a month or $192,000 a year. Not bad money for a program that no one can attend when it is being run at all. You would think that in today’s tough economic situation someone would question the excess that is the prison budget. 

Click here to read Jack's previous letter.

Click here for descriptions of all of the prisoners I write about at Jon’s Jail Journal ranging from Mafia hit men to giant transsexuals.

Shaun Attwood      

Meat Hunters

 In the early 17th century, one did not go to Whole Foods and select a turkey from a refrigerated bin fill of cryo-sealed fowl. All the birds in the 1600's were "free-range." The religious zealots who came to these shores had to set off into the woods and fields to seek meat for the table. They had unreliable and hard to aim flintlock weapons. Their gunpowder supply was precious and fickle. A missed shot was a lamentable event.

 Deer and turkey were abundant in the fields and forests of New England. But first they had to be located and harvested. It was work. It was also work to drag the game home and clean it. Cooking over wood fires is no game either.

So when we belly up to the table tomorrow, after hauling the store-bought bird from the Viking range, remember what our ancestors had to do in order to plate the Thanksgiving meal. The local Native Americans were not caterers. To the PETA types out there...how is that Tofurkey tasting....yuch.