Come on, someone must know, has Warden McAdory been walked out???? This is the news I've picked up today, not from Menard I might add. I received a letter from him this morning dated 10th May, but that means nothing, that was 5 days ago and, as we all know, anything can happen in that time.

Anyone visiting over the weekend PLEASE try to find out, otherwise I'll have to phone first thing Monday morning. I can't stand not knowing!!!!

Rose

I've heard various rumors, but no confirmation. I heard he was going to retire. I heard he was headed for a job in Springfield. I heard he was going to be warden at one of the new joints. I heard he was in trouble because of the inmate deaths. That was helpful, wasn't it? Maybe Lizzi will find out when she visits.

Oso's Girl is also there today, so I'm hoping one or other has some news. This is no 'rumour' as such and comes straight from staff, but not Menard staff.

Rose

Ill see what I can find out tomorrow.....

Great - the suspense is killing me!!!

Rose

Me too now! Damn I shouldve went today!!!!!
Maybe Oso's Girl will report in!

She may not, it's her birthday and I think she's having a party.

If it's true it's the second prison he's been walked out of!!!!

Rose

Well shit, how did he end up at Menard then? What the heck was he walked out for the last time? Did I miss that conversation or was I not around then?

The story goes that he was assistant warden and he took a gun into the prison and threatened one of the inmates with it. Sorry, not sure which prison it was.

I'll pm you about it.

Rose

Yes Menard Has Lost Its Warden.............................

THANK YOU Now that's the best news I've had in ages. Let's hope we get someone who'll actually know what's happening in his own prison.

Rose

I asked who the likely replacement would be and they didnt know....darnit!

Ahhhh.....the saga begins!

I was given info sometime ago, maybe it was back in November, that they would be "switching" Wardens. But this was because they routinely move them around so they don't get too comfortable. But, I don't have word if this was scheduled or an actualy, "walk out", word today was that it was a "walk out".

Oh, it was definitely a walkout and, at the moment, Alan Uchtman is acting warden. Imagine being walked off the premises by state troopers. Must have done his ego a lot of good!!!!

Rose

oooh...how did you hear he was escorted out?

Let's hope the new person will let us get married!!

Is it SOP to escort a state employee off the grounds who has been fired? Just curious. I heard from reliable sources today that McAdory is being made the scapegoat for the inmate death that IDOC is being sued over. I don't see how he could be considered a scapegoat when the abuses happened on his watch.

I was just wondering myself if this will make a difference with those of you who want to get married.

jims, It's a question of 'the buck stops here,' He was in charge so, ultimately, he was responsible, I quite agree.

I'd already had dreams of now being allowed to marry, but we STILL have the problem of the County Clerk not wanting 'to waste taxpayers money on convicts.'


Rose

I wonder if you all could do the we are taping you conversations like they do with the inmate conversations. Of course making it legal to tell her you are taping this conversation and then asking questions. If she hangs up on you couldn't that be leaked to the press and maybe someone would be great enough to do a follow up on it, you think? I don't know ladies I am just throwing ideas into a ring. I want you all to be able to get married because I know a lot of oyu aren't as lucky as I am with an out date. You deserve to be married to these men you love so much. Whether you have a faith or not or whether you pray or not I am still praying for you all. I think we can use all the help we can get with times like these.

It's a good idea, Jamie and I wouldn't even have to tell her I was recording the conversation as, so far as I know, it's not illegal here and I have all the equipment to do just that. The problem is, she's been warned off already by the press article. She denied a lot of things in that and I'm sure she's not going to admit it ever again. It's already been used against her so many times.

The Chaplain at Menard doesn't even explain to inmates why they can't get married anymore. He just returns their application with the Tribune article about Tony and me attached. He has such a way about him and is so well mannered!!!!!!

Rose

Ah.....the ol' horned goat in Randolph County, she slipped my mind for a sec. Well, maybe something will change to benifit you all. She is an elected offical isnt she?

Mmmm, she's elected. When does that change? She was elected early last year, I think, or was it late 2002!!

Rose

Well, it may be that she's up for re-election this coming November! If she is.............we can help the opponent run!

Yes, but I wonder if she denies things in the press and then says them to you and it is recorded then she will have no recourse but either marry you all and everyone else or look like an a** in the news. See what I mean? Paint her in a corner so to speak and make her do what she says or look like the liar she is.

The problem with that is everyone in Randolph County knows her views so she's not at all worried by it. But there's no way she tells them over the phone to a prospective bride anymore, she's been caught like that already, and she'll certainly not speak to me at all!!! She won't go to the prison to get the forms signed and that's it. And don't forget, we're treated just like inmates by all and sundry, so anything we say is just dismissed as we 'lie', and she could even say that about a recording, if she ever admitted it again, because recordings can be altered.

Oso's girl, if it's only November then we may be alright. Not that I can do much from here, but I'll help in any way I can.

Rose

Count me in also.....Id even be up to calling and asking her again and again!

I have to believe that the people in Randolph County support the old broad. Plus, she has the insurance issue on her side as well -- even if she did initiate it as a way to back her position. Apparently, the county does not cover employees going to the prison any longer. Interestingly, Ms. Larramore was photographed at a recent tour of Menard!! Truthfully, I doubt if anyone running against her act any differently. What surprises me most is that no one has done an in depth interview with her. The Trib article quoted her, but didn't sit down with her one on one and play Devil's advocate. I did think about starting a massive call-in campaign to tie up the phone lines every day until we get some answers. I'm sure she would take the phones off the hook -- but how many days could she do that? And if that didn't work, if we could get enough women, we could all go to her office or even picket. The problem is, we would get little sympathy and could even hurt our cause AND cause problems for our men. So the way I see it, they have us just where they want us. For the heck of it, though, I will supply the address to the Illinois ACLU, and they haven't been helpful at all, but perhaps they've only heard from Rose, me and a few others. Maybe if they receive hundreds of letters, not only from those of us wanting to get married, but from all of you who support us and know how wrong it is what she's doing, maybe they'd do something. I'll get it and post it in a minute.

jims...

Here is the ACLU information. Don't bother with the email. It's useless. They only act on actual letters and/or phone calls:

Executive Director: Colleen K. Connell
180 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 2300
Chicago, IL 60601
Phone: (312) 201-9740
E-mail: acluil@aol.com

Im in.....but jims, Ill need your expert vocabulary assistance! :)

Thanks Liz! I'll write up a sample letter and post it and that anyone can use for reference or just copy and paste and mail.

Is there a inmate advocacy group in Illinois?

If you mean something like John Howard, Jamie, I don't know of one. Before I found out the JH people only pay lip service to helping inmates I asked them for help in the marriage stakes. I needn't have bothered, but then, I was new to the system!!

It would be great if a load of people write to the ACLU. jims and I have done just about all we can, and made names for ourselves and, in my case, I'm not even American so who listens to me!!

An intetresting fact about her visit to Menard. She would have walked right past Tony's cell on her tour but they decided to move him pretty damn quick just before she arrived. When he found out she was in the group of visitors he saw he understood the rush!! They were frightened he'd try to engage her in converation. He didn't know her from Adam so how could he do that???? But that's what they thought!!!


Rose

The only part of Menard I've ever been to is the visiting room up the stairs and that horrible waiting room with the awful speaker box in it that you can't hear the inmates's name on when it is time for you to go up the stairs. I will never forget that sound of thos gates clanking behind me where you get your hand checked and having to close the gate behind me to go up the stairs to the visiting room. I am terrified of confined places and that place is still in my nightmares. Love and friendship will make you do things you never imagined. I cried the first time I visited, I mean the whole two hour visit I cried. I want to go visit my "brother" down there, but I still don't know if I can. Those doors kill me.

Well, my first visit I don't know how I got up those stairs. My legs were like jelly, not just from the steel gates but from the fact the COs had been practicing their shooting (s)kills on the range when I arrived. Coming from a country where guns are illegal and never having been to the US because of guns, I nearly had to change my pants, I really thought I was about to die!! If Tony hadn't been holding me in his strong arms when I finally got there, I'd have ended up in a heap on the floor.

Rose