Mark's Solitary World - Part 2, 9th March 2005

AN ESSAY OF UTMOST IMPORTANCE
21st FEBRUARY 2005, PRESIDENT'S DAY

One quotation of mine that has been widely used is: "There are two things I don't like. You're both of them!" This somewhat humorous verity has a profound underlying principle, especially when it pertains to those that abuse others and the truth. I will now embark upon analyses of many issues pertaining in cascading order, to me, to Idaho, to the U.S. and the world at large. Bear with me and use an open heart and mind as you read this, knowing the mind and immediate circumstances of the author.

Being condemned is a universal condition of all human beings and all animal/plant life. This is the ultimate fate we all must embrace. Being condemned by other so-called "peers", while innocent of the alleged offences, is a horse of a different color! While it may be fascinating to some, considered deserved by others, or simply sickening to even more, it should be a sobering issue to each of us. With the recent exonerations of many convicted people through the use of DNA, a new system of real justice should be paramount to any country wishing to be called "fair".

After literally hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of discussions concerning this precise issue of fairness and the death penalty and also, the general conception of how crime and punishment is approached, I come to the astute conclusion that a major overhaul of our various systems dealing with offenses and offenders is drastically needed. No mere tinkering on the margins will suffice, as huge problems demand huge answers.

We currently suffer with a system of justice (or injustice, as you will), that is simply unfit for intelligent beings. It is the remnants of various systems of punishments dating back thousands of years. One constant cannot be debated, it has never worked well. When so much money and resources are spent in the areas of justice, punishment, correction, rehabilitation, supervision, policing, prosecuting, courts and education of offenders, would it not be prudent and uppermost in the minds of politicians and the populous to do all that is necessary to do everything possible to get it right?

As I write this, the Idaho legislature is considering a bill for funding the Idaho Department of Correction for fiscal 2006 at the tune of $124 million! The IDOC has around 6,000 inmates in the various, mismanaged prisons and this population will only grow, necessitating more and more taxpayer dollars, to the detriment of education, Medicare, health insurance, etcà What does the Idaho citizen get for all this monetary outlay? Is the IDOC ever held accountable for what type of person it kicks back into society after the sentence is served? Hell, no! But the time has come to make these "administrators" accountable.

My personal case is a prime example of a complete waste of a "valuable national resource", as many of my friends have termed me. (yes, they are biased, but you can't argue with the truth!) Idaho has spent millions of dollars trying to murder me for crimes committed and confessed to by my own brother, while trying to cover up the lies and deal-making which occurred at my trial at the same time. Since October 1983, I have been incarcerated by Idaho, in conditions worse than what Saddam Hussein endures, mostly in solitary, while being possibly the smartest man in Idaho! Instead of using me to assist in educating and assisting in the positive mental development of inmates that need such help desperately, these idiots that work for the state sit on their collective asses, drawing paychecks that are 90% too high (for what they accomplish) and moan/groan/cry about all the problems they must address!

To top it all off, they won't likely ever murder me (some believe they tried to do this in July 2004, when I was attacked by coward "Neo-Nazis". Some have called this "attempted execution by Nazi"). How do you get to oversee the IDOC? Start as a flat-foot guard and work 20+ years for a mismanaged state agency and then become administrator of prisons or the director. These people actually think they are executives!! Ha! They get to spend over $100 million per year? It's ludicrous that the public would stand for such stupidity! Don't get me started on the criminal records of some Idaho employees, past and present; it's enough to turn your stomach!

As a final remark about how the Idaho prison system is run, more scrutiny needs to be placed on the correctional officers that actually do the work. I have been associated by necessity, with correctional officers all these years and there are and have been some very decent people doing this thankless job. They deal with stupid, violent, abusive, disrespectful inmates and the same can be said for some of their supervisory personnel. Morale is never high with these folks and they are treated like crap, by almost everyone. They need to be paid better, a lot better. One man told me he has been here 5 years and received one raise in pay, while supporting a family (wife and four children). He says he is quitting and I don't blame him. Not one officer has had a kind word to say about the warden, director or administrator of prisons. You figure it out!

As you can see, I don't subscribe to the "US vs. Them" mentality. I view life as "is it smart; does it work; is it effective; is the end result positive". So, since I've outlined the issues, what needs to be done that would make the system smart, effective and positive?

1. Forget about training attorneys to handle capital cases. Just do away with it, abolish the death penalty. It doesn't work, doesn't deter anyone, it is very costly and can never be 100% without error or corruption. Thereby murdering some innocent people, simply applying percentages. Think about it, for it could be you or someone you love that is state-murdered!

2. Change the entire approach to incarceration. The present paradigm doesn't work and never will. President Bush says all programs that don't work should be axed. On this issue, I fully agree! Hire administrators that have some business experience, not simply those that are products of a system that produces only negatives. If employees don't have a stake in the end result, they don't care, have no pride in a job well done and have no incentive to create something better. Example: An officer recently left IMSI and told me "I have to get out of this pathetic place. I can't help anyone here and the administration doesn't know its ass from a hole in the ground. Most of the inmates are better, more friendly people than those idiots". I actually cleaned some of the language up, but this fellow's sentiments are par for the course!

3. Since I am trained in executive business management, I know what works. Change the focus of the IDOC, to education, work and rehabilitation by immersion. There is no reason a matrix cannot be produced wherein IDOC at least breaks even, monetarily. Those that say this can't be done or the current trendy phrase, "it's not a workable idea" need to be fired on the spot! Believe me, there is a lot of this "deadwood" in the system and until it's jettisoned, a more positive, productive agency cannot exist.

Make sure 90% or more of the inmates at every institution has a job, is in school or both! Remember, 95%+ of inmates are released back into the community, so the letterhead for the IDOC, "Protecting you and your community" is not only a lie, it's an alarming lie! The IDOC should be held accountable for each person that steps out of prison and into your neighborhood. They have not been held accountable all these years and look what the results have been, by simply reading your newspaper or watching the local news!

Oh, the prison-crats will scream like scalded cats about this issue and some cowardly, short-sighted politicians will join the screaming! Their protests will go something like this: We don't have enough money! A lie! We don't have the kind of staff or physical plant to do this sort of thing! More lies! Prison should be punishment and it should be hard on the offenders. This is a cowardly lie because prison is supposed to be corrective and also, the punishment is being separated from society, idiots! Of course, it could be said that being separated from Idaho society is not much of a punishment, since Idaho is like a prison guarded by self-righteous morons! Don't like that remark? Stick it!! And that comes from a former Baptist!!

4. Use inmates to grow vast expanses of crops, to be used for the prisons as food and to help shortfalls in the community. Don't keep catering to the crying and whining of local farmers that want to keep selling their sub-standard products to the prison system. They are actually contributing to the IDOC disfunction. Since they are so greedy and don't care what happens to citizens called inmates, attempt to form partnerships with them, to employ inmates instead of illegal aliens, thereby creating several positive outcomes at once.

To assist the state economy even more, expand the property levels of all inmates instead of restricting it. Make sure that all items sold or at least 90% of said products are produced in Idaho or sold by Idaho companies. Those prison-crats that resistà get rid of them! Allow inmates to buy such tings as video games, larger TVs, computers (no internet) recliners, small college type refrigerators, etcà How is this a positive? Charge a 50% surcharge for each item that goes directly into the prison budget. Who cares what sort of amenities a person has in their tiny cell, unless it's some sadistic, Hitler-wannabe! Also, ferret out all racist officers, Sgts., Lts (they say there is a would-be Hitler Lt. working at this prison and they all know it, but, it's rumor, he's recruiting racist inmates), It's a good place for an outside, independent investigation. Learn to make the IDOC try to at least pay for itself, like other state prisons.

5. Enter into real agreements with Idaho Universities so that degrees can be offered to inmates. Almost all Idaho inmates currently do little or nothing, being idlers simply because of stupidity and mental inertia on the part of prison-crats. Don't listen to all this idiocy about "security" that will be used as an excuse for leaving this dysfunctional system in place. This argument has about as much truth to it as George Bush moaning about the non-existent "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq. All sophistry and lies tailored to evade doing any real work. These types do a disservice to the public. They should be fired!

6. Use the most intelligent inmates as a tangible resource and don't allow jealousy from administrators to derail the idea. There should be an inmate of high intelligence at board of correction meetings, so that those political hacks can get a viewpoint that has underpinnings of reality that can give an unvarnished assessment. New, business-type people need to be appointed to the Idaho Board of Correction instead of old, tired, worn out retired military people and sycophants. Again, make it work. Get 'er done!

7. Being from Texas, I know this can be made better! I accept nothing less for the alternative, which is what we have now, is unacceptable! The IDOC could be, rather easily, an agency that gets positive results, provides meaningful training and education for it's inhabitants, improves the community by kicking out people better equipped to contribute to society and through creative, intelligent thinking, pays for part or all of its operating expenses. You say it can't be done? You're part of the problem! I say it can and must be done!

All of these and any other enlightened ideas should be on the table, as Bush says about his attempt to revamp social security, so that a better use of $100 million+ of taxpayer money could be realized. If this was a business, it would have been bankrupt and closed in the first year! Remember this, as with American society in general, inmates are only getting older in these prisons, utilizing more medical and psychological resources, which equates to even more money that will be needed.

Having said all that it is not easy managing certain segments of the inmate population. Governor Kempthorne once used the word "thugs" to describe such people and he was right on the mark. The racists in Idaho, when arrested for hate crimes or other stupid offenses against citizens or property, come into the IDOC. A lot of these hateful idiots end up here at IMSI. This creates problems for management and other inmates, for these racists are mentally deficient and think they are tough guys. They are usually short, stupid and uneducated, having fallen off a potato truck at a young age and having the back wheel roll over their head. The tread imprint on their noggin, they mistook as a swastika!

Seriously, these "threat groups" as the prison calls them, cause a cascade of problems. My view is that this IDOC is ill equipped to deal with these folks and the proof is in the pudding (see my latest 2004 update). Also, some officers share the racist perspective, as I mentioned before, causing the system more problems by glossing over assaults by the Nazis or facilitating the criminal activities of said racists. This has got to stop and real solutions need to be developed. The "threat group" teams are not adequately trained or supported, usually they're in the dark on what really goes on. They rely too much on lame informers and what they get is lame information. I won't dignify it by calling it "intelligence".

These issues are not unique to Idaho, but that's not an excuse to sit idly by. Staff at IMSI constantly complain to me about how stupid the IMSI administration is and some of the administration complains about the director (Thomas Beauclair), his deputy (Pam Sonnen) and her deputy (Jeff Zmuda) not knowing or caring about how this place should be operated and far too much micromanagement from that office.

An example: I should not be in solitary, as we all know. But, Warden Fisher can't put me back into general population unless it's approved by the director. The director says he needs a recommendation from Fisher, so it's back and forth, with me in the idiotic, bureaucratic catch-22! The warden says all my friends and supporters (external stake holders) need to realize how conservative a state Idaho is and that there are others pushing from the other side. One, Idaho is not a conservative state, for the word conservative doesn't apply. Voting for George Bush and his profligate kinsmen does not make you a "conservative", but a dupe! "Conservative" defined is: disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etcà or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change. Also, cautiously moderate or purposefully low. I could find none of the definitions that would apply to Bush or Idaho. Idaho has high taxes (both a state sales tax and state income tax). Bush runs up the largest deficits in the history of mankind. Bush is not cautious, but a lying warmonger that claims to be a Christian but produces no Christian fruit. Going to church once in a while and mentioning God in a speech or two doesn't cut it!

Idaho is not a bad state; it's just governed poorly. Idaho is at the very bottom of the ratings in ethics and these people want to be respected, their opinions respected, their institutions respected and their bloodlust in trying to murder me (an innocent man) respected as a product of fair, impartial trial in Backwater, Grangeville, (Auschwitz) Idaho?! They deserve NO respect and won't get any!

On 2 February 2005, George W. Bush gave his annual "State of the Union Address". In this speech written by a flunky that can enunciate far better than Georgie boy ever will, some interesting words fell out of Bush's big mouth. He stated that he was appointing a commission* to oversee how competent attorneys could be trained for capital murder cases so that each capital defendant would have good, competent counsel when facing the death penalty. He said "you need good, competent attorneys when you're fighting for your life in court"! Wow, what a concept! So, what next? What about me, an innocent man condemned to death that is a poster boy for incompetent, ineffective counsel? In my case, there is no doubt Claude gunned those officers down, but I'll tell you what few others will. The jury gave him manslaughter because they liked Claude and very few people like game wardens. Claude told me, when he lived in the cell next door to me, that when he got out, if some game wardens or cops bothered him or pulled their guns on him, he'd kill them dead. Good luck, Claude and I pray they don't mess with you! Why am I here having killed no one and Claude out there in Nevada, eating chocolate pie? Go figure, the world has gone nuts!!

Recently, a bombing in Lebanon took the life of the wealthy, well-connected former Prime Minister. Bush and Co. started rattling their joy-saber at Syria, causing Iran and Syria to form an alliance. Much more of this and World War III begins. When I studied Nostradamus in college, and after, he stated that World War III would be with the "Crescent", which is the symbol of Islam. Get ready, people, for I see a bad moon rising. All of the negative aspects of life only seem to get worse. Leadership in government and churches is corrupt, deceitful and engenders no confidence.

We have politicians divorced from reality, lying like throw rugs and not being held accountable as the blood of young people is spilled on the foreign field of death. We have religious leaders bastardizing God's word to line their pockets! Charlatans! They don't emulate Jesus, just the opposite! They support the death penalty, the war and don't speak out against lies, deception and suffering. Cowards!

Instead, they act like spoiled fat kids, crying because some gays and lesbians want to get married or some young girl raped by her Republican father wants an abortion and they say "no"! These issues are unworthy of someone allegedly following the example of Jesus Christ, who stood against the death penalty, against intolerance, against racism and hate, against all forms of self-righteous hypocrisy!

Are gays and lesbians not equal, as the constitution so eloquently states? Yes, which is why hate mongers want to change the constitution! It's so transparent! Antonin Scalia, a Catholic on the U.S. Supreme Court stated that federal judges that don't follow Catholic Church teaching in regard to abortion should resign. What about church teaching on the death penalty? Oh no, for he is pro-death penalty! This pick and choose faith is dead and stinking! Like Baptists, Scalia loves to kill people; just not personally, which makes him a coward.

Is Christianity so weak that we need to have such stupid idiots as Jerry Falwell, Oral Roberts, Pat Robertson, Rick Santorum, Dick Cheney, James Dobson, etcà defend it? These people need to jerk that huge piece of lumber out of their eyes before berating others about the speck in theirs!!

What can we do? A lot! Like I've said, drop a small pebble into the middle of a lake and no matter how small, a ripple will make it to shore! Join me in trying to make a difference, to bring something to smile about to someone, somewhere! Anybody can be kind to their friends, the true test comes in how we treat those we don't like. I pray for you and all the people I've mentioned in this writing, whether they deserve consideration or not. Perhaps, a new, brighter, more positive day will dawn, but we must work to make it happen

"Namasté'

Mark H. Lankford #20489
Address

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* Exact Quote: "Soon I will send to congress a proposal to fund special training for defense counsel in capital cases, because people on trial for their lives must have competent lawyers by their side."

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