Warden Zeller

Once again I come to you to try and address some problems. I am writting
to you not Major Lester or captains or Lts. I don’t understand why my
last communication was passed down the lime because your the only one
who can even attempt to solve the problems. This is your playground and
you call the shots.

I am here under an unjust sentence but there is nothing you can do
there. But I want you to know why I act out and THAT is the main reason.
I SHOULDN’T BE HERE!

Recently I took the time to read the Death Row Plan. In it I read that
Level II is for chronic rule violators and Level III is for chronic rule
violators who are assultive.

The leveling system is being abused. Plain and simple. Inmates who are
NOT CHRONIC rule violators are being placed on Level II, Alvin Kelly,
John Penry, Michael Toney, Roy Pippin, Bob Fratta, Windell Brossard, to
name a few. There were several who are no longer on Level II. Then you
have others who are placed on Level III who are chronic rule violators
but who are not or were not assultive, Leon Dorsey, Bobby Hopkins,
myself,  (--------name deleted at request of prisoner) Derrick Jackson.
None of these should have changed Level when they did.
This level system was’t designed for this purpose.
There is already very little incentive to act right. So when things are
abused and we are shown that policy is ignored, we tend to
ignore it also which keeps it going in a circle.

I acted out and done one of the lowest things possible inside prison.
But noone seams to look at the why of it. Everyone seems to think we act
out just to act out. This isn’t true and I think from your own time
served in the trenches with us YOU KNOW it isn’t true.

Personally I don’t feel there is ANY incentive for good behavior. I must
conceed the fact that through our protests the food has improved
somewhat and I for one am very grateful for this. Yet it is only a
start.

When you move all us Level III to these new cells they were filthy.
There is fungus growing in cracks and corners, food on the walls. We
weren’t given and still haven’t recived any cleaning supplies. We were
supposed to get some Thursday 1-12 but weren’t given any.

The boxes still haven’t been cleaned, suet and welding by product are
still inside them. The plexiglass windows on the cells are filthy and
stink. We have all asked to have these things cleaned to no avail. We
keep getting „Ok, we’ll get a crew on it,“ pacify instead of rectify.

Gassings. I’m not really sure of policy concerning decontaminating an
area or cell after chemical agents are used but have been told by
officers and rank alike that areas and cells are supposed to be
decontaminated.

Come and look at the bars of the dayrooms and rec. yards. It’s coated on
them. Brush up against it or breath close to it and suffer the
consequenses.

A decision also entirely up to you Level III inmates buying hygene.
There are no reason why we are denied toothpaste, deoderant and soap. I
can understand not being allowed to buy shampoo, but even that can come
in a tube. There’s no reason just because I violate a rule, I should
have bad breath or body odor, which comes back to the being treated like
an animal. These are very basic needs. Not wants but needs. It’s rare to
get tooth powder from necessities and only 3 or 4 bars of state soap. No
deoderant! You can make a descion to allow a once a months purchase of
at least toothpaste and deoderant.

Ranking supervisor prescense. There is a need to have Lts, Capt, Majors
and even Wardens ear to hear when there is a problem. I have spoke to
several others about this and have come to the conclusion that if we
could voice our complaints with a reasonable expertation of having a
problem solved and not just having smoke blew up our butts.

Alot ot the taking it to the extremes would be avoided. We have a
problem with an officer who knows he/she is in the wrong or whatever and
the officer refuses to call rank or calls a Sgt who tells us there is
nothing he can do.
Then the problem esculates into a major incident. You cannot honestly
believe we enjoy getting gassed or slammed or even wrote up. That would
be crazy but alot of us don’t mind it if it will call attention to the
problem.

On Ellis, yes I know this isn’t Ellis but, on Ellis we were allowed to
attend classification to speak about why or what or who was the cause of
a problem, or put an I60 in for a wardens interview. I can speak
rationally yet most times the feeling of being pacified smoke up the
butt sets me off Heck warden I do much more respect and understand a
respnse of there’s nothing I can do, speak to so and so or no, but
instead I get „Ok, I’ll take care of it“, „I’ll look into it“ or „That’s
on so and so who I spoke to about it“, than we speak to so and so who
has no idea what we’re talking about. Lt. Bolton and Capt. Monroe are
the only ones. I’ve had a problem and they didn’t BS me. Give us an ear
warden with, as I said a reasonable/fair expertation of rectifying our
problems and you’ll see a differance. Let us go to classification with a
chance of a fair decision.

Some guys have no hope, nothing at all to lose. Somewhere sometime one
of them will be pushed over the edge and do something bad and it will be
seen as his fault, which it would be, but could’ve been avoided had it
been handeld fairly and not „The inmate is always in the wrong,“ cause
that’s not the right attitude at all. I agree sometime over attitude’s
are screwed up also but if given a fair shake I’d be willing to bet most
of us would be a bit more rational and laid back.

Death Row is a world of it’s own, we all face, everyday, the probably
possibility of being executed. Sure alot of officers and rank and
administration feel we’re here so we deserve what awaits us. That’s
cool. They can feel that way. But, their feelings should not manifest
themselves in words or actions toward us. To the contrary those feelings
should be set aside while they are here at work. I truly believe that
officers assigned to DR should be older and trained to deal with us in a
more professional manner.

We don’t expect compassion or sympathy, yet a bit of understanding and
respect would go a long long way. The reason why I say older officers is
because they are a bit more relaxed and respectful when a problem
arises. Therefor eliminating an esculation of the problem.

Warden Zeller, you see what I write is an addition to my last
communication but these aren’t crybaby whinning issues. These are
legitimate issues that can be rectified fairly easy with a bit of work
from both sides. It can’t be all take take take. We’ve all got to give a
little bit to accomplish a more laid back and problem free enviorment.

But it can’t be done without first recognizing there are legitimate
problems – then addressing the best way to solve them.

I wrote to you befor in hopes that you would not only be aware but also
to start to try and resolve. The issues are many, the solutions fairly
simple. Please consider what I say. I would have no problem voicing more
to you in person but that’s your call. As I said I can converse
rationally when I know I’m being heard.

Thank you for your time.

Respectfully submitted
Paul Colella # 999045 12ff-74