Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow (FIT) comes to the Meeting of FFIP in Las Vegas

We received the following email from our colleagues at Family and Friends of Incarcerated Persons. We think this should be a good opportunity to learn a lot about possibilities when your family-member or loved one leaves prison. So please come over and ask questions and learn!
------------

If you or a family member or a person reentering from prison/jail need a job or a career change please join us at this meeting.

Friday April 27th - 7pm, 2000 South Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas

This will be valuable information !

You don't want to miss this meeting!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  

"I’m really looking forward to sharing the information about our program."

Jennifer Casey, LSW

Resource Manager, Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow (FIT)

(702) 367-4348 ext. 236  (702) 362-8513 FAX

JenniferC @ lasvegasfit.org

  

Please R.S.V.P.

F.F.I.P.
www.ffipnv.org
PO Box 27708
Las Vegas, NV 89126
702-870-5577

In Loving Memory: Randal N. Wiideman

We received these sympathetic obituaries from a friend of Randal N. Wiideman, who sadly passed away on October 23rd 2011 in Ely State Prison:

Stranded on Death Row

I first and foremost open with Revolutionary Greetings, all my utmost Bigtime Bulletproof Respect in Solidarity and, A true venomously warrior salute! With all due Respect to the Row and the stretched out: keep your head held high above water and never allow anyone to robb you cut off your peace. Trapped in the shadows of the murderous, through the valley of mischievous darkness and, from my grave to yours, welcome to death row.

On October 19th, 2011, a dear friend Randal N. Wiideman exclaimed to me that he was not feeling very well. The following morning on the 20th he pleaded and requested to be seen, along with the evening pill call to no prevail. Both times the nurse told him to fill out and send in a medical request kite, of which he had already done so previously and, again at that time. A repetitious occurrence of events took place on the 21st, with the same reference to submitting a medical kite, of which by this time he had compelled 3, with no response. In the afternoon of the same day Randal pressed the alert button and asked the officer to call medical and demanded to be seen. When the officer came on the tier several hours later, he told Mr Wiideman that medical did not even respond to him. So Randal once again commenced another medical kite and again advised the nurse at pill call of his diminishing condition, who continuously only insisted on putting in a med. Kite. The following day on the 22nd, it wasn’t till a nurse came through handing out nailclippers that the same officer who called the previous day, told the nurse out of concern of Randal’s deteriorating condition. The nurse took one glance at him and 15 minutes later, they were taking him out of here in a wheelchair to the infirmary. On the 23rd during morning pill call I asked the nurse how he was doing and he said: “He’s doing real good and just resting.” At 11:00 AM count time, the officer counting stopped at my grave and said he passed away an hour ago.

If responded to accordingly, I know his inevitable “[m]urder” could have been prevented. Today is 2-9-12 and , 3-4 weeks ago another inmate passed away in the infirmary… don’t know who or how but, I’m certain we all know who’s behind it. I myself obtain serious medical deficiencies and, due to several lawsuits, I can’t get a nurse to flip me off… let alone acquire any adequate medical care, treatment or education. The list is long of all the human beings who have lost their lives in the hands of the injurious, malignant, ideological, hipocricy that we call Ely State Prison.

During, before and after the Riker case settlement, I have continuously written Amy Fettig who was the head counsel from the A.C.L.U. on that case. Though the plaintiffs received no money, Amy Fettig received a #325,000.00 check from that case. Now all the responses from the ACLU refer to the Riker case and avoid answering the letters addressing serious issues no matter how critical they are. Part of the settlement stipulation was that the appointed monitor give a 3 week notice prior to any visit… to give the NDOC 3 weeks to set the stage for that dog and pony show.
So, who’s on death row? If you are a warrior trapped in Ely State Prison and your eyes read upon these words… you better hope not to get sick on the watch of the bloody hands of E.S.P.!
How many more of us have to die? God bless the dead, as I tip the rose and close how I opened.
For any words or encouragement, support or leads to legal assistance, feel free to hit me up… and I’ll catch you on the rebound.
2-9-12

Stay Lethal!
Triple Six

Amadeo J. Sanchez, #64781
E.S.P.
P.O. Box 1989
Ely, NV 89301

-----------------------

Blessing in Disguise

7-9-49 – 10-23-11

Randal N. Wiideman #22306, Rest in Peace, was the Grandson of the late great Charles “Lucky” Luciano, who was inevitably taken from us on October 23, 2011.

He was, is and has been nothing but an uttermost, divinely blessing to me and, upon many others who have had the honor and opportunity to cross paths and rub shoulders with him. He had a really big heart of gold, a beautiful spirit and was very knowledgeable, with the energy and drive that would make you believe that he was truly half machine. I’ve never met or encountered anyone my whole life who was as surgical and lethal as he was with legal work. Making the impossible a handreach away, giving hope to the hopeless, the world to the havenots, while being detrimental to the N.D.O.C. and court system.

He was colorblind to race and would help anyone without judging them. Some of us “convicts” would look down on one, for some of the people he helped. He looked past the dramacydal ignorance and only saw, helping another human being in need of his help. Breaking through barriers and walls of diversity in a cumulative way as he did, is so very rare, especially in this diminishing multicultural environment where hate is harvested all year around.

I’ve seen him get a handful of life sentences reversed and thrown out, cut time off of other people’s sentences as well as commence tons of lawsuits. He loved, ate, drank and breathed law and, though many of us resist in the physical form to strive to bring change to the struggle of darkness we all endure. He was very much on the same page, except… he was doing it with a pen, a torch to bring light to our path and, with the only language this system understands. Randal: you are very much appreciated and will be missed, loved and in our hearts, thoughts and prayers. From the cradle to the grave you will never be forgotten, Rest In Peace and sleep with the Angels.

“Triple Six”
Public Enemy #1

-----------------------------

In Loving Memory

Of

Randal N. Wiideman

God saw you were getting tired

And a cure was not to be, he put

His arms around you and whispered

“Come with me.” With tearful eyes we

Watched you fade away,

Although we loved you dearly we could not

Make you stay. A golden heart

Stopped beating, hard working hands

At rest, God broke our hearts to

Prove to us He only takes the best.

It’s lonesome here without you

We miss you more each day, Life doesn’t seem

The same since you went away.

When days are sad and lonely and

Everything goes wrong, we seem to

Hear you whisper, “Cheer up and carry on.”

Each time we see your picture

You seem to smile and say “don’t cry

I am in God’s hands, we’ll meet

Again some day!”

Triple Six

Public Enemy #1

Study lays out costs associated with death penalty in Nevada

From: Las Vegas Sun

By Gregan Wingert, Saturday, April 7, 2012

The ACLU of Nevada recently highlighted a study conducted by a UNLV professor who found that defending the death penalty in Clark County costs at least $170,000 more than defending cases where life in prison is sought.

Terance Miethe, of UNLV's department of criminal justice, began the study in January and determined that the 80 pending capital murder cases in Clark County will cost approximately $20 million, according to the report.

Miethe's research estimates that public defense attorneys have spent double the time, about 2,300 hours, on capital murder cases as opposed to non-capital murder cases, the report says.

According to the study, 35 cases resulting in the death sentence between 2009 and 2011 took, on average, more than three years to complete. The study concluded that life with parole and life without parole cases took 2 to 2 1/2 years, respectively.

Read the rest here

See also the press release on the website of ACLU Nevada here.

Protest against the Attorney General of Nevada's Office

Tonja Brown:
We protested against the Attorney General's Office for withholding evidence in cases.
The actual banner is 4' x 130'.

Press release about the action:

I will be joining Ty Robben along with others for a protest at the Attorney General's Office on Tuesday at noon. Due to the investigative reporting by Joe Hart and Geoff Dornan regarding the computer glitch that has caused inmates to have false felony charges placed in their files, the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice has called for an examination into computer glitch.

What the Advisory Commission does not know is how the Attorney General's Office is, in part, responsible for the denials in at least one former inmate, Nolan Klein's Parole and a Pardon, because, their office withheld exculpatory evidence from Mr. Klein and the federal court in the 2005 case of Klein v Helling. These Brady violations by the Attorney General's Office and being compounded by the computer glitch resulted in Mr. Klein's Paroles, a Pardon, his freedom and his fife.

I anxiously await the results from the Examination that was order by Assemblyman Horne on March 7, 2012. On April 17, 2012 I will turn over the exculpatory evidence and show the Commission the irreparable harm this has caused Mr. Klein and his family.

The Brady violations by the Attorney General's Office has placed the intregity of the Attorney General's Office in question. I have asked the Governor to contact the the United States Justice Department to investigation the Atttorney General's Office for civil rights violations.

Tonja Brown

Read it in the Nevada Appeal (subscription is needed)...

See further: New Blog about State employees

Prisoner at Ely State Prison killed

Sad news: on March 22nd 2012 an imprisoned man died, allegedly stabbed to death, at Ely State Prison. May he find rest. It is very sad that violence is continuing inside this prison.

We recently received this short observation:

On March 22, someone was killed on unit 8, a black man named "Brass". Supposedly he was stabbed to death. The prison has been locked down since Tuesday. Maybe tomorrow or Monday it will come off lockdown, but nobody knows for sure. Here is what I've heard: The Unit 8 Senior at the time saw Brass on the tier clutching his chest/heart and thought he was having a heart attack, so he locked the tier down and made everyone go back into their cells, not knowing that the inmate actually got stabbed. So whoever did it was able to get rid of the weapon and clean up all evidence, etc. and basically got away clean. Nobody knows who did it, all they know is that this man Brass is dead.

Here is the AP newsitem in the Las Vegas Sun:

Ely State Prison inmate found dead with stab wound

The Associated Press

Friday, March 23, 2012

Officials are investigating the death of a 31-year-old Ely State Prison inmate who was found dead with apparent stab wounds at the foot of prison stairs.

The news that Ronnie Danelle Brass was found by staff at about 3:15 p.m. Thursday and pronounced dead by a doctor shocked his lawyer, Jonell Thomas, who said he had an appeal pending before the Nevada Supreme Court.

"I'm just stunned," Thomas said. "I was hopeful we were going to get a new trial for him."

Brass and his younger brother, Jermaine Brass, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following the January 2009 shooting death of their brother-in-law, Ernest Mitchell.

Mitchell had accused the brothers of stealing vehicle tires and rims from his house. Mitchell's wife, Katrina Brass, witnessed the shooting and testified against her brothers at trial.

Ronnie Brass was convicted in Clark County on April 28, 2010, of first degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, first degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

Thomas said she had hoped the court would hear oral arguments on her contention that Ronnie Brass had an IQ of just 58, and was an accessory in the slaying, not the killer.

Read the rest here.

ABC Nevada Prison Chapter: Still No Victories

From: Coyote-Calling Blog:

First and foremost, my most sincere greetings of solidarity and respects are extended to the poor, imprisoned and oppressed. My name is Coyote, I’m a serious Anarchist radical, confined and isolated in the infirmary of Nevada’s most notorious maximum security lock-up: Ely State Prison.

In 2007, I started up my own prison chapter of Anarchist Black Cross. Because of my efforts – and another comrade’s efforts – and due to the exposure of the blatant medical neglect here at ESP through the Rikers vs. Gibbons / ACLU lawsuits, a solid support structure for NV prisoners has begun to be erected. This includes the Nevada Prison Watch website that provides oversight of the NDOC; Makethewallstransparent.com, which does the same; the Nevada Prison Newsletter, which I am now the co-editor of; and now the NV-CURE has been re-activated. Whereas before, NV prisoners had no outside resources to connect to, now we have these, so this is just the beginning of many things to come.

I have published zine after zine, all available from the S. Chicago ABC Zine Distro and also the Chicago ABC Zine Distro. Through my zines I have been able to reach many, many prisoners across the country, helping them to make the transformation from gangster to guerrilla, or from criminal to radical, and also showing them how to be active and organized while behind enemy lines. My zine “Starting Your Own ABC Prison Chapter” has been very influential to many prisoner activists who are trying to get themselves started. I have also been in collaboration (on the sly) with many prisoners in different states, helping them get organized where they’re at, showing them how to start up their own prison chapters, how to reach out to activists on the outs, how to reach out to prisoners where they’re at, etc.

Due to my efforts, and my resistance, here at ESP I have been able to flood this prison out with thousands of copies of all kinds of zines, radical literature and empowering reading materials. I have supplied hundreds of prisoners here with their own libraries and their own collections of literature, and they use these materials to not only raise their own consciousness, but also to raise the overall level of consciousness throughout this gulag. It has gotten to the point that there isn’t a tier/unit you can go to in this prison, where there aren’t at least 6 or 7 prisoners on each wing who have a good supply of zines and literature, most of which has come from me.

In January 2010, I started up a book drive for the ESP Library that lasted until May 2011, where people from all over the world had donated thousands of books to our library. When administration caught wind that an Anarchist radical was behind the whole thing, they hurried up and shut it down!!!

I have participated in mostly all of the riots, protests and demonstrations of resistance here at ESP, and have been accused by the pigs of being the main organizer of several of them. I have been placed on High Risk Potential status and labeled a ‘threat to the safety and security of the institution’, moved around from one hole to another every 30 days, which I have indeed used to my advantage to pass out literature, form alliances with other radicals, raise awareness, plant seeds and to organize.
Through my efforts I have been able to bring small numbers of enemy faction together, and unite prisoners across racial lines, to fight the true enemy. I have been a leader, a teacher, a comrade and a mentor to many of these youngsters here, regardless of their race, ethnicity, etc. Now there are many prisoners here at ESP who have become radicalized, and we now even have a handful of serious Anarchists here, all who have been taught and trained to be effective writers, propagandists, activists, leaders, teachers, and organizers, and some who are now in the process of starting their own collectives.

Because of my resistance to the stagnation and oppression of this everyday profane existence in this gulag, waking others up in the process, the warden has removed me from the rest of the prisoners, saying that I have “too much influence” over them, and placed me here in the infirmary to be isolated, until I am released. But even this has not stopped me.

Yes, I can proudly say that I’ve accomplished many things, have resisted all the way through, becoming a thorn in their side, but I claim no victories, because this prison still exists, we’re still locked down and treated like shit, still in the deathly hands of the enemy, and there are still many prisoners here who are unaware, asleep, afraid, or walking around ignorant and blind. There’s still much work to do, many battles still to be fought…

Still Striving for Real Victories
Coyote

To send letters of encouragement and support, please write me at this address:
Coyote Sheff #55671
P.O. Box 1989
Ely, Nevada 89301-1989

Coyote’s beautiful, inspiring writings can be viewed on either of these sites:
1) Coyote Calling
2) nevadaprisonwatch.org
3) Scribd.com/Prisonwatch

Coyote’s zines can be obtained at either of these addresses (free to prisoners):

Chicago ABC
1321 N. Milwaukee Ave.
P.M.B. 460
Chicago, Illinois 60622

S. Chicago ABC Zine Distro
P.O. Box 721
Homewood, Illinois 60430

We all need each other

From the Blog for Nevada prisoner David Casper #65117, who is in the infirmary in Ely State Prison, but not because he is ill...

I have actually been in Solitary Confinement for this last six years (since 2007) but up till October 28^th, 2010, I was in a normal Housing Unit in a cell where I could communicate with other prisoners who were also in Solitary Confinement. Plus I had my radio and T.V. But now, since October 28^th 2010, I have been stuck in an Isolation cell at the end of a hallway in the back of the Infirmary. I have nothing in my cell, I have no window to the outside world. I cannot see anyone or talk to anyone, even the guards have been instructed not to talk to me. I am 100% isolated, all because I tried to escape. This extreme isolation is the roughest experience I have ever had to endure. This last year and five months have been brutal torture.

You can’t fully understand what it’s like until you’ve experienced it. Humans are social creatures. We need interaction. Our brain lives on social interaction just like our body lives on nutrition: if we stop eating, we starve. If we stop socializing, our brain begins to shut down. I’ve experienced this and I’ve come to realize that we are all part of a living entity. We are more part of each other than most of us realize. Each of us profoundly affects the next. Our living existence thrives on the existence of others.

It wasn’t until I was stuck in this cement box with absolutely nothing and no human contact of any kind that I came to realize just how vital we all are to each other. From our deep meaningful relationships to our casual encounters. Each interaction has meaning. Our understanding of life and ourselves, evolve from our interactions. It begins when we are born and it does not ever stop. We are shaped by our experiences. Our brain needs these social observations just like our body needs our heart to keep beating.

I believe social interaction is the most important event in the Human Experience. Who we are, who we become, how we treat ourselves and how we treat others all stems from our ability to interact. This ability has become something we are all dependent upon. So when it is taken away, the mind suffers. At first it starts to become hard to even think, then your memory starts to fade. Even the simplest things become blank. It seems as if you were given a lobotomy except for that you can still feel anguish and despair – then there is the phase where you start to become neurotic and extremely emotional, it’s maddening! Then if you allow yourself to continue to slide down this spiral of despair, you become delusional. Thankfully I was able to catch myself as this started to happen. Since then I have had to really work and focus, every day, to maintain a grip on my sanity. Each day I feel I am getting better at it. I’ve finally become stronger mentally and emotionally. At least I think that’s what is going on. But maybe I’m just delusional J

I believe it is my past experiences and the understanding I gained from these experiences that gave me the ability to stop myself from completely deteriorating.

That gave me the ability to stop myself from completely deteriorating – most of us don’t often realize just how much of a role our interactions with others, play in the future of others. The person I am today is a direct result of the things I’ve learned through my experiences with others. We are all teachers and students, forever teaching and forever learning. Through our interactions we teach what we learn. That is why it is so important to be good teachers. How we treat someone today affects how they will treat someone tomorrow. This is how we become part of the same entity. We are all connected through perpetual interactions that we (humans) are all dependent upon. Our success as individuals is only made possible through our interactive social support. No matter how different and independent we all think we are, we really are very much the same at the heart of us all. We all strive for the same. We all want to be safe, we all want to be happy, we all want to be loved and undoubtedly: We All Need Each Other.