Battling Injustice: the BOP and Corrupt Judges

Battling Injustice: the BOP and Corrupt Judges

By Joan Brunwasser

     Judges don’t want to know what happens after they slam the gavel and prison doors.They don’t want any scrutiny of what they do and they don’t want to scrutinize the actions of their fellow judges.In fact, even when federal judges are caught and prosecuted for their corruption,they have no worries, knowing they will face a fellow judge for sentencing, one who will,at best,administer a slap on the wrist, nothing comparable to

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Judy, Gary and Annie at home, 2006 by Judy White collection

Battling Injustice: the BOP and Corrupt Judges

Background: Gary White was a county commissioner in Jefferson County, Alabama. Good friends with Les Siegelman, he introduced Les’s brother, [former] Alabama Governor Don Siegelman to Richard Scrushy, a local Republican businessman. Because of this, White became inextricably intertwined with Siegelman, who was one of the biggest targets of the Rove-directed, heavily politicized Department of Justice [DOJ].

Scrushy and Siegelman were later indicted and convicted on charges stemming from that relationship. According to affidavits provided by Gary [and Judy, who was also in the room] White was asked to perjure himself before a Grand Jury in order to make the case against Siegelman and Scrushy. White refused and the very next day, the DOJ started delivering subpoenas to build a case against him. White is serving ten years and has been moved most recently to Federal Prison in Arkansas. [BOP is Bureau of Prisons.]

Installment #21 – links to entire series at end of article

My guest today is Judy White, fearless fighter for husband Gary’s more humane treatment in federal prison. 

JB: Welcome back to OpEdNews, Judy. We haven’t talked for a while. What’s new?

JW:  Finding time and energy in the midst of government-sanctioned abuse is and has been a challenge.  What is not and will never be in short supply, however, is material and information that the public SHOULD have the opportunity to learn about, that the government and BOP seem anxious to go to extreme lengths to keep hidden and quiet.  It is endless.  And tragic.

JB: What do you mean?

JW: Gary has been in Forrest City [Arkansas] since February 6th.  It is the “same song, third verse”, as the BOPers there have continued the same abuses we have seen and experienced in Millington/Memphis and, before that, in Edgefield, SC.  Among the medical abuses Gary has shared since his arrival in Forrest City have been the deaths of two prisoners, another prisoner who had two massive heart attacks within a two-week period without adequate treatment and care, a prisoner who has repeatedly lost consciousness – he passes out – in the presence of BOPers who have not rendered aid as they are required to do, and yet another prisoner maimed for life through having much of his foot amputated.  

The amputations, in particular, are horribly tragic and just amaze me.  I mean, I go out into the public every day, and I have spent more time at medical facilities than I care to admit, yet I have never seen people walking around with untreated gangrene or sepsis and I never see people having body parts amputated rather than having successful medical treatment that maintains the health and viability of little things such as FEET.  THIS IS AMERICA – not some third-world country!

JB:  I remember the Edgefield prisoner’s amputation story well.  What about Gary?  How is he?

missing her man on her birthday by Judy White collection

JW: As for Gary, his prescription medications have been withheld, all of them some of the time and some of them all of the time, and since his illegal transfer and other endless ongoing abuses, he has not been allowed to see a doctor, not even a prison doctor.  Not once, despite the BOPers’ classification of Gary from the inception of his imprisonment as “chronic care” and their written statements in his medical records going back at least until July of last year that they suspect he has cancer and that he should be “observed” for “suspected malignant neoplasm.”  Even when Gary’s lawyer has spoken directly with two of the prison employees responsible for Gary’s care, informing and inquiring about the withheld prescription medications, they have done nothing.  Under any standard, the BOP falls far short of providing medical care that avoids violation of the Eighth Amendment.

JB: So, why does this happen? How can they behave this way?

JW: The answer, I believe, lies in the incestuous relationship between the BOP and a disinterested and corrupt federal judiciary, with judges directly participating in the “deliberate indifference” toward abuses of prisoners’ civil rights.  Simply put, they just don’t care.  Judges – at least in our experience – seem to enjoy satisfying their and the public’s bloodlust, handing out harsh, excessive, abusive sentences in violation of due process and equal protection requirements under the ignored constitution.  

Judges in general cater to the BOP, handing them an endless supply of prisoners – victims to be abused and experimented on.  That also converts to federal tax dollars flowing to the BOP, and an ever-growing workforce of unionized federal jobs for prison employees.  The BOP’s part of the deal must be to keep the prisoners “out of sight, out of mind” – and, importantly, out of court, serving the interests of both the BOP and the judges, neither of which want the public to know what they do to prisoners.  

The prisoners’ plight must not be known, their voices must not be heard, their silence is required!  Forget the First Amendment.  Forget all of them.  Especially, no due process and no access to the courts for redress of grievances.  Not for prisoners.  And not for their families.  And to be certain they keep the public in the dark, the BOP uses unlimited tax dollars for “public relations” – lying to the public about what they do to prisoners and their families, with the complicit federal judiciary refusing to fulfill their sworn duty to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

I have come to understand that judges – at least, all of the federal judges we have encountered – are corrupt and lazy.  It seems very clear to me:  “Congress shall make no law ” abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people ” TO PETITION THE GOVERNMENT FOR A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES .”  Allowing prisoners and their families to access the courts for redress of grievances as specifically guaranteed by the First Amendment would increase judges’ caseloads, so they have a vested interest in keeping prisoners and their families out of court.  Perhaps they justify this as, after all, it’s only prisoners and their families being violated; it is, in fact, the Constitution being violated as well.  Judges are also responsible for the “land of the free and the home of the brave” imprisoning more of its people than any other country, with over two million Americans currently imprisoned, with effectively no First Amendment rights.

Even those who don’t care about prisoners should care about The Truth.  With recently exposed scandals (Benghazi, IRS-targeted investigations, DOJ seizures of reporters’ email and telephone records)  making it clear we cannot trust our government to tell us the truth, more than ever, we need the protections guaranteed by the First Amendment, to allow and encourage the light of public scrutiny and holding the government accountable, particularly for redress of grievances against our government and making known the conditions of confinement in our federal prisons.

Yet judges don’t want that.  They don’t want to know what happens after they slam the gavel and prison doors.  They don’t want any scrutiny of what they do and they don’t want to scrutinize the actions of their fellow judges.  In fact, even when federal judges are caught and prosecuted for their corruption, they have no worries, knowing they will face a fellow judge for sentencing, one who will, at best, administer a slap on the wrist, nothing comparable to what non-judges experience.  

For one example, see this story [here and here ] about a Georgia federal judge who pled guilty to felony charges after being caught involved with cocaine and prescription drug abuse, firearms violations, and theft, along with a stripper with a felony record; his felony plea was then reduced to a misdemeanor by another federal judge who sentenced him to 30 days in prison.

JB:  Tell us about your experience with judges so far.

JW: The first judge in Gary’s case should have recused himself based upon his long-term litigation with Jefferson County resulting from his refusal to pay the occupational tax charged to “commoners”.  As president of the commission, Gary had authorized suing the judge.  After some of his errors were brought to public attention, that judge set aside Gary’s conviction, recused himself and specified his replacement, known for his harshness to defendants.

The second judge – Scott Coogler – was even worse.  Nominated for the federal judiciary on the recommendation of Senator Richard Shelby, Coogler’s wife Mitzi then made their first federal campaign contribution ever (as long as such records were kept) – along with her co-workers – to Shelby’s campaign.  (See page 17 of this report .)  That should have raised some questions.

But the reason Coogler should not have been involved with Gary’s case had to do with other campaign contributions, being those to Gary, and Mitzi Coogler’s involvement in those.  You see, Mitzi has long been “employed” by a PAC-man.  One of Alabama’s most active PACs was Tusco-PAC, run by Mike Echols, Mitzi Coogler’s employer.  Tusco-PAC was a major contributor to Gary’s campaigns, leading to Gary and I both having an unpleasant interaction with Mitzi.

We had no idea, of course, that she was married to a federal judge – the judge who would ultimately impose an outrageous 10-year sentence on Gary – when she called and said Echols would be billing us a percentage of the PAC’s campaign contributions to Gary.  When she first contacted Gary, he told her no, and referred her to his campaign manager – me.  When she called me, I was, frankly, shocked.  I said, no, I don’t think that’s legal, it sounds like you are asking for kick-backs, we are not going to do that.  And we didn’t.  

Tusco-PAC’s involvement and contributions to Gary’s campaigns were well-known, both through public disclosures and extensive media coverage, mostly negative media coverage directed toward both Tusco-PAC and Gary, so there is no way Coogler was not aware of his wife’s and her employer’s connections.  And he may have enjoyed the opportunity to visit his own idea of “justice” on us after we had dared to question and refused to play the PACman kick-back game, as his wife proposed.

Zelda, model who inspired White pets to dress as prisoners for Halloween by Clickortreat.com

JB:  Wow.  I understand what you mean: you’re 0 for 2.  The last time we talked, you and Gary were being harassed and unduly and unlawfully punished.  Fill us in on that.

JW: As you and I had discussed, the BOPers were seriously unhappy with our [OpEdNews] exposures of their corruption at the prisons where Gary has been held and Gary and I have been violated, so we had to be silenced.  Without either Gary or I violating any rule or law whatsoever, they terminated our communications and visitation for six months.  SIX MONTHS. 

 To silence us and stop us from exposing their corruption.  Never mind that the BOP’s own rules, federal law and courts recognize visitation is a right, and it is a right of such importance that they are not allowed to stop visitation except when there has been a violation related to visitation, such as when a visitor has smuggled in contraband and passed it to the prisoner.  

We committed no violation at all, yet with no due process and no accountability to anyone, the BOP terminated visitation, telephone calls and even e-mail, along with Gary’s commissary, meaning he has not been allowed to purchase needed food or toiletries or over-the-counter medicine since January.  

Gary has lost weight – 15 pounds.  Just think what that is like, being hungry and denied food for six months as punishment without doing anything at all wrong, and at the same time, still without doing anything wrong other than exercising your right to speak out about being abused, all your visits and telephone calls and e-mail with your spouse and family – all communications other than snail mail – is cut off.  The last time Gary and I were allowed to see each other was January 5th.

Because of the abuses of the BOPers, including criminal violations, Gary and I filed suit in March, almost 90 days ago, and we have filed three emergency motions seeking relief from the court, including in the last emergency motion federal case law that imposes a duty on a federal judge to protect even a prisoner who is being abused.  

Yet not only have our pleas fallen on willfully deaf ears and blind eyes, and not only has NO relief been provided even as the wrong-doers have been granted extraordinary time without even having to file an answer, the magistrate judge has attacked ME personally in particular, libeling and defaming me, fabricating and falsely claiming in a written report that I signed Gary’s name!  Never mind that there is NO indication or evidence of such.  Just like BOP “justice”, no violation is necessary for one to be charged, convicted and punished for something we never did, and you can forget due process and bothersome little things such as evidence.

And let’s not bother to look at The Truth – that the lawsuit and motions present strong, credible evidence of criminal acts, including conspiracy and obstruction of justice by federal prison employees, which should require investigation and prosecution.  Of course, that would be the responsibility of the US Attorney and the FBI.  But guess who is DEFENDING those who have committed the criminal acts and civil rights violations?  THE US ATTORNEY!  

The very office I had initially reported the criminal acts to, seeking help, seeking investigation and intervention, the very office that is well aware of the corruption and criminality emanating from Memphis federal prison, having successfully prosecuted prison employees within the recent past for involvement in corruption and smuggling contraband into the prison.  

I had mentioned in our last interview that contraband items including cigarettes were available for purchase even in solitary confinement.  Prison employees are the sole and exclusive source for getting contraband into that area of the prison.  And because BOP employees are classified as “law enforcement” (what a joke), when they violate a prisoner’s civil rights, that constitutes the felony of deprivation of civil rights under color of law.

We sued the BOP employees and others personally as well as in their official capacities.  Despite the weeping and wailing of federal agencies and federal employees and the-sky-is-falling warnings of the disastrous consequences of sequestration, our tax dollars are in plentiful supply to provide publicly-paid attorneys, employees of the US Department of “Justice”, to defend the indefensible, the criminal, the corrupt.  Because prison employees are not like the rest of us.  If you or I get sued, don’t believe the US Attorney would defend us.  Their job – their charge under the law – is to DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION, something they cannot do while defending violations of the constitution.  

Even worse, Gary and I plan to call the US Attorney and at least one FBI agent as witnesses against the BOPers, or they could become defendants, based upon information developed during the discovery process.  Attorneys, even US Attorneys – are prohibited by the rules of professional responsibility – from taking on representation in such cases, as it is so conflicted as to be obvious.

Again, it appears all the federal employees – judges, prosecutors/US Attorneys, BOPers – exempt themselves from both accountability and the rules everyone else has to comply with.

JB: How disturbing. Judy, thank you for talking with OpEdNews once again. Good luck  to you and Gary on your lawsuit.

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Read Judy and Gary’s lawsuit and  emergency motions free at scribd .

A Conservative Case for Prison Reform NYT 6/9/13

Horrendous Abuse in Mississippi Prison s NYT 6/9/13

Cops Plead Guilty to Helping Plant Drugs on Woman Sexually Harassed by Judge , 6/11/13

 

Judy White series, in its entirety:

Judy White Fights For Incarcerated Husband’s Access to His Prescriptions  October 13, 2010     

The Feds and the Prisoner’s Wife – Do Unto Others… as You Please  October 27, 2010

Come and Get It! Prisoners Served Expired Food, “Not for Human Consumption”   November 10, 2010

Judy White’s Giving Thanks for Prison Visit: It’s All Relative  November 29, 2010      

No Heat in the Cooler: More Tales from Edgefield Federal Prison  December 16, 2010

The Devil’s in the Details: More Tales from Edgefield Federal Prison , January 11, 2011

Hello Kitty Mysteriously Disappears from Prisoner’s Mail at Edgefield , January 24, 2011

Edgefield Prison’s Commitment to “Maintaining Family and Community Ties”?   March 6, 2011  

Winter in July? Trying to Stay Warm in Edgefield Prison   July 6, 2011

Neglect at Edgefield Federal Prison Causes Inmate to Lose Toes  September 27, 2011

Bureau of Prisons “Disappears” Federal Prisoner Just In Time for His Birthday December 29, 2011

Magic Behind Bars: The Case of the Disappearing 600 Pound Chicken February 22, 2012

Are Federal Prisons Finding it Hard to Let Go?  April 24, 2012

Happy Father’s Day! and the Justice Department’s War On Families   June 16, 2012

Federal Prison’s “Camp Cupcake” – Putting the Fun[ny] in Dysfunctional  August 14, 2012

Gary White and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week , November 29, 2012

Scrooged! Millington Federal Prison Camp’s Version of Christmas Spirit , December 24, 2012

The Bureau of Prisons, The Flood and Your Tax Dollars At Work , January 27, 2013

Revenge of the BoP: OpEdNews Censored in Two Federal Prisons , February 17, 2013

Warning: Incarceration in US Prison May Prove Hazardous to Your Health , February 23, 2013

Submitters Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Submitters Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning. Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations – authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we’re all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done. Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.

 

from: http://www.opednews.com/articles/Battling-Injustice-the-BO-by-Joan-Brunwasser-130618-854.html