Inside the Federal Prison System
Matthew Burney
Dear Son,
I miss you so much. Having your voice on the phone isn’t enough. I think about all the fun we’ve had together. I don’t know where to begin. The first thing I want to say is that I love you very much. I’ve always had a strong bond with you. I raised you from a baby — you were two months old when your mother ran out on us. I was proud to have a son. I love you with all my heart and soul. I want you to have a great life and everything it has to offer.
Matthew Burney
Peaceful, a sense of freedom. This is the best time of the day, or should I say, the end of the day. I’m in bed, dreaming. It takes me far away from this hell I’m living in. Sometimes I relive the past, the good times, and I feel very nostalgic. Then I hear the officer’s belt chain and his key going into the locks. I’m staring at the bottom of the bunk bed, then look to the brick walls. I’m in a cold, stale smelling cell. This is my miserable life for now. It’s time to eat stale cornflakes and fruit that’s two days from spoiling.
Graham Long. Postmarked April 12, 2012.
I heard about this blog from a friend and decided to contribute. I would like to make all who are reading this aware of the shameful state of our criminal justice system. In the constitution it says that a person should not be convicted without hard evidence or on hearsay. And yet with the conspiracy law (that the feds absolutely love to use) that is exactly what is happening. People are being arrested, tried and convicted on nothing more than the word of another charged or convicted of the same crime — when you need no actual evidence, just the testimony of a person who already showed a willingness to break the law, when it benefits them why not add perjury to the list.
Hey, Nicole. I could not finish the last letter to you because they were calling my name. Well, i had written two really long letters to you, and was only able to send you half of one. The reason why they were calling my name was to transfer me. The reason you haven’t heard from me in two days is because I was in transit. They made me throw out all my papers, so essentially, the two letters i wrote to you are in the trash. It’s so disheartening for that to happen. They were two really long pages to. I had also written another page to another friend of mine, which also got thrown out. I feel so discouraged to write now because at any moment it can all get thrown out.
Hey Nicole, everything going well?
I’m happy to hear that you’re getting interviews with important people. That’s awesome. I met and spoke to some people too. I met Sal Dimasi. He’s the guy who wrote the Obama health care bill that Mitt Romney endorsed in Massachusetts. He’s supposedly in here for corruption. They said he was giving all the government jobs to his friends. He maintains his innocence, saying that all humans would do that, it’s only natural. Friends will always have an advantage in a job interview. According to him, it’s all some kind of whacked out conspiracy.
Hey Nicole,
I haven’t heard from you since my last entry, but you must be busy. I know I have nothing but time here, but I understand people have things to do.
So anyway, my time is actually pretty fun here. I played basketball today. I haven’t played in about 8 years. I was a bit rusty at first but my game quickly came back after some warm up. It felt good that after all these years, I can still hold my own even against prisoners, playing prison ball. It feels great to know I have people that care about me and support me on the outside.
Hey Nicole,
I trust your discretion on posting any information you receive from me. As long as it’s not anything personal.
A lot of people like to not care, think or worry about the prison system. They figure everyone in here deserves it anyway. But they do not realize that those people that are awaiting trial are also thrown into the same system. In our justice system, everyone is innocent until proven guilty by a jury of their peers. However, I have met quite a few pre-trial people like myself and we are all imprisoned alongside (and treated identically to) people that have already been found guilty and have been sentenced. So in a sense, we are all technically guilty until proven innocent. If we go to trial and are proven not guilty, we just get let go. We don’t get our time back.