I am going crazy, last night they would not give my husband his mail, and when he asked why this lady co told him his mail from me was s--t. Of course he got upset and she got mad at him and told him she would not give him his mail. Can she do that? Then He was told to tell her he was sorry whic he did, but today 7 of them took him to a office and for 30 minutes told him he was a dog, I was a wh--e and lots of nasty things. I know this hurt him, but when he called i told him to please bite his tonge words are only words and, he knows all this was to make him crazy to say something and then they would put him in the hole and give him more time. I told him I can't do more time, this is enough. This lady is crazy and she is giving everyone a bad time, I know there is nothing I can do but, just hope she lets up, out of 400 guys, why is she targeting him? And if I can't do anything, I just listen. But this hurts bad. And I guess I am not dealing well with it. Has anyone else had a problem like this, if so what did you do? :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry:

Well I do not know what the laws are where you live as far as their mail procedure but here they are not allowed to keep their mail from them unless it contains an illegal substance or something in which they could harm themselves or others, That is why however they moniter the mail before it gets to the inmates. I asked my man the same question not to long ago because it was taking a long time for a letter I sent to him to get there and usually how it works is send it on day it gets there the next and he gets it the day after that, but then again he is still in county and his jail is only 13 minutes away.
What he told me was they are not allowed to keep your mail from you because getting mail is a right not a privledge. By law they would be violioating our contitunitional right by not giving the inmates their mail and thats against the law, recieveing mail is not a privledge but a right that they can not take away. I hope this helps.

Hi there I moved this to the CA. forum to see if anyone else has problems with mail at this facility

Only way this situation is going to be taken care of is yall are going to have to make waves. They have no right to keep his mail away from him or speak to him that way about you. Only the mailroom can hold mail not a CO, that rule works for all states, mail is federal and if they are messing with mail then someone needs to know.

Hi Zunigan! This really sucks, my man is in new folsom and we've been going through a similiar deal, Holding his mail to me, and vice versa, it has just started within the last couple of months. I sent him a package awhile ago and they sent it back, when he asked them why, they told him "because they could"!!!! Personally i think they do it to stir up trouble, and because most CO's are on one hell of a power trip. Wish i knew what to do about it, but don't want to call and cause more problems.My own opionion and not worth much lol, but i don't tell Dan to keep his mouth shut, screw that, they have no right doing this and if he cococked them i would understand! He's more mellow about this shit than i am!! lol. Someone calls my man a dog, i hope he knocks them on their stupid asses! Sorry, this crap makes me very angry and frustrated because what can you really do about it? Not much help am I?Take care and i hope things get better for you.Willsgirl, any suggestions on what we can do to make waves, i have no problem making waves!

You may want to start with the unit first, get ahold of whoever is over the CO's that is messing with his mail, if that doesnt work go over their head, talk to the mailroom, the warden whoever you need to if they dont help, them talk to the main people outside of the unit. Just start making phone calls till you get the right person.

Zunigan,
Is your husband on 3 yard perhaps??? If so I can help you out ... I have the people you need to speak to phone numbers, names and can hopefully help you if you like but if they aren't on 3 yard I can't tell you crazy womans name but if he is I can ... Also I can help you with the names for the mail room who is in charge and that stuff ... pm please as I won't post it out here because we never know who is watching ....
I'm sorry it's happening to you though but I have dealt with them for a long while now ...please feel free to pm me ...I'm pretty sure I can help you somehow

Terri

There is more to this story. Why would she target him? What is different from your mail and everyone else's? Why would she withhold mail when all C/Os know how serious it is? Where did they get 7 cops to do ANYTHING? Not that many free cops around. Just too many things in this story that don't make sense. I don't think he is telling you everything.

...I don't think he is telling you everything.

I don't believe you, or I would expect anything less, eh Sarge? ;)

For Mail Problems........Clement vs CDC on internet....this may help.....Some CO's like to play games......

Mail is a serious issue and I haven't heard of anyone messing with mail because an inmate would most definitly do something if he knew his mail were being withheld...602 or other action. Not to mention what could happen to a CO outside work if they did that.

You state she is messing with everyone and then state that out of 400 why only him? If a CO is treating everyone the same then inmates know exactly where they stand. If an inmate is being pulled aside, talked to, whatever it may be he is WITHOUT QUESTION causing his own problems. Any ex-cons on here care to chime in if you agree with that. I see many times where these guys do completely wrong over and over and never see what they are doing as unacceptable. Other inmates will usually steer them the right way but sometimes that doesn't even work.

SGT and Gate Keeper,...
I can tell you that if it is the same CO I am thinking of there are MANY MANY of the guys that will tell you she does do this, they aren't lying, I spoke with another CO that REFUSES to work with her and has transferred yards because of the problems she causes PLUS the CO's I know also have told me she does mess with the mail. But, they won't go against her when it comes to talking with the appropriate 'heads' at the prison. So if it is the one I am thinking of and the many inmates have told me this PLUS the CO's I know that work there at Avenal I BELIEVE them ...
I know it might not happen at your facility but this one it does with this so called woman CO at Avenal.

O.K. even assuming that the C/O has priors and does this often there is still much to the story missing. How long did she keep his mail? What about the other 7 C/Os that were mentioned? Why did she target him?

This isn't the same CO caught having an affair in January is it? Hope not. My son just got to Avenal from NKSP where I sent him letters everyday. It got to the point where I now number each letter, and tell him, so he knows if something is out of order. I also number the pages and write that in as well.
One night, Aug.1, the night shift CO came to his cell and tossed 2 mail packages in his cell. My son asked, "Oh. Mail?" the CO responded "I don't know. All I know is that it doesn't belong at my desk." And left. Turned out to be 2 letters from me from the end of June. Go figure.

SGT, thanks you know how level headed I am on things so I was sure on this account about the mail. But, your right on the other stuff with things left out of the post about how long, and the other 7 CO's but who knows anymore with so much going on and the changes.

Nanoguy, well she might have again in January, but I highly doubt it was the one I am thinking of ... the one I am thinking of is dogbutt ugly and none of the inmates like her OR the CO's ...lol but who knows ... (I know she was caught last year but nothing this year and last year was with a SGT. his wife nearly killed his butt for messing with "that thing" what she said to a friend of mine lol

I am sorry I guess I made it sound like she was only messing with him. Well its not just him but alot of others. And when this started heres what happened. He went to ask for his mail or went to get it or what ever they do. She handed him his mail and said your mail is Sh-t. He got up set and told it was not. She tne told him to go back to his bed and don't talk to her again. The next day he was taken into an office and yelled at by some co's and told alot of upsetting stuff, like I was a Whore, and so was his mom. and he was an animal and a dog, and that if they wanted to they would put something in his locker and he would be staying there for a long time. He then got called a few days later to sing some paper, but when the co on duty looked at it she laughed and said it was stupid and told him she was going to dismis it. Since that time when she is on she gives him looks, tell him she knows what he is in for, and makes it unpleasent when its time to get mail or sign up for phone calls. I know that he is not the only one, lots of guys on in his dorm have had trouble with her. And he also says the co's are tired of her. So why is nothing done?

There is more to this story. Why would she target him? What is different from your mail and everyone else's? Why would she withhold mail when all C/Os know how serious it is? Where did they get 7 cops to do ANYTHING? Not that many free cops around. Just too many things in this story that don't make sense. I don't think he is telling you
everything.

I questioned him again and the story is the same, beleive it or not soke people do tell the truth. And yes he in there so he did something wrong, but he does not lie to me, and he was upset. And why would they yell at him anyway---don't they have sork to do? From what I hear they are all lazy.:angry:

I don't have an opinion on this and really do not know what to think, with one exception. This thread is yet another indicator of how useful/supportive/informative/broad/human PTO is. Hope it gets sorted out to the satisfaction of all.

Yes, we are all lazy but take time to mess with inmates for no reason...

I didn't say he lied to you, I just said there is more to the story. The pieces don't add up.

I'm going to stick my nose where it probably doesn't belong, but I have to comment. Could the C.O./C.O.'s possibly be "BORED" ? Out of sheer boredom to pass the day....or just plain mean...bullys when they were children? Anything is possible you know. I have a friend @CIM who's mail going out to his g/f is being held. Also, mail I have sent to him w/address for ACLU, Sen Romero...etc..well, HE ISN'T GETTING IT! He has sent me three letters "yelling" at me for not sending the info. I don't know what to do, or who to start with. Any suggestions? Obviously his rights are being violated. Perhaps they don't like the fact he 602'd and is going through an appeal process because of Rights violations(more than I stated above) and they are retaliating? I don't want to cause waves and get him killed. They already beat him up.. Sarge....any advice?

Some CO's just get so emotionally cold and, for the lack of a better word, heartless b****es. I agree, they are just messing with the inmates for fun. It's all just a power trip to them. I doubt there is any real reason (ie: content of letters) that they are targeting him. Thank god, not all CO's are like this. But you get one really bad apple, it can rot the whole bushel.

Wish I could give advice as to what to do.

Hello and "Thank You" Redphoenixx for your reply. I wanted to apologize to the group, and SgtAnon I may have come on too strong. I didn't mean any disrespect and I do appreciate all that you must endure daily..and "Thank You" for your input at Prisontalk. I always enjoy reading your posts. Anyway, I am very frustrated, scared, overwhelmed. My friends mother is old and health not good. I am trying to help her with this..and I Thank God I found Prisontalk, and all of you..Kind of nice to know "were not alone"..Be Safe..God Bless....Kim

You're welcome!:)

And I'd like to stress, there are good guards and bad guards. One really rotten apple (attitude towards prisoners) can spoil the whoe barrel of apples. I've met a few guards who were honestly good people, and unfortunately, I've met more who are just complete jerks. They don't really have any repect towards us, after all, it is not like in customer service where you want to do everything you can to make your customer happy. The inmates and the families/visitors aren't their "customers".

In this case, it seems like the many inmates are being unfairly targeted by a group of "bad apples". No one, absolutley no one, should have the right to withhold mail from a prisoner, with the exception of it being hazardous, sneaky, giving them info they shouldn't have (do I have to spell them all out? I'd really rather not! They'll hunt me down and find me!:D )

It is too bad that there is no real way of addressing this issue to the prison warden without fear of some sort of backlash to the prisoner who initiated the complaint. If I'm wrong on this issue and there is a way of complaining (which I would really like to be wrong), please correct me.