Inmate Letters and the FBI

Today was another half day at the office since I had to take my AP English exam. When I got to the Marshal’s Service office some of the interns were already there, reading inmate letters. The letters were to the USMS from federal inmates in the district. The most noticeable characteristic about the letters were the numerous misspelled words. One prisoner even managed to misspell “rights”.  Most of the letters were from Mansfield Prison; you do not want to end up there. The letters were mostly about rights violations. Sewer overflows into cells. Hot cells without air conditioning. Overcrowding. Rotten eggs for breakfast. Lack of a law library. (The last is actually a right, the Supreme Court decided in Lewis v. Casey that all prisons must have access to an updated law library.)

An Inmate Letter

There was one letter though that was four pages long and particularly disturbing. The letter was from an inmate who had only one working leg after he was shot in the spine with a semi-automatic. In prison he had to use a wheelchair because he couldn’t walk. One day his wheelchair broke so he asked medical for a new one. They ignored him. He made a doctor’s appointment and waited months for it. He asked the doctor for a new wheelchair. The doctor wrote him up and he was sent to the “hole”. (Which I’m guessing means solitary?) They took his broken wheelchair and gave him a plastic chair. He sat in the chair constantly, because he couldn’t walk. He attempted to drag himself in the plastic chair to the toilet, but ended up falling out the chair and hitting his head on the metal toilet seat. Every day since he gets migraines and has blurry vision. He got out of the “hole”, but was given a cane. He falls every day, and still doesn’t have a wheelchair. He wrote the USMS and the US Disabilities Attorney, to call attention to this “cruel and unusual punishment” (a violation of the eighth amendment). I hope the attorney helps him.

Cleveland FBI Building

After reading letters I went to visit the Cleveland FBI office. The office is actually an entire building on the lakefront that the government rents for three hundred thousand dollars a month. Thanks tax payers. There is a lot of security to get into the FBI building; I had to send them my social security number a few days ago so they could perform a background check. The agent giving me a tour was actually a Marshal’s deputy on loan to the FBI. He works on the domestic terrorism task force. His job is mainly tracking down internet threats on politicians, federal judges, and attorneys. He says that most threats are just people agitated at the world, and they’re not dangerous whatsoever. Also apparently the most threats are towards the Secretary of Education. Every threat has to be investigated. He also investigates bomb/shooting threats towards schools. He says since the recent attack in Florida, there have been an overwhelming amount of copycat threats. The best part of his job is that he goes to all the Cleveland sports games he wants free of charge. He gets free seats right next to the Cavs bench. The FBI goes to all “major events” in Cleveland, even though nothing of federal interest ever happens at the events. He also told me some stories about when the Republican National Convention was in town a few years ago. Apparently leftist protesters had left backpacks full of rocks throughout the convention, just in case there was a riot. The FBI found and disposed of all of the rocks.