Category: Uncategorized

Dear Friends,

I think we all knew that our Texas prisons are not focused on rehabilitation. A year ago I thought prisons were about housing people who had commited crimes. Now, we are discovering that our prison system in Texas has become a huge money-maker for major corporations such as Halliburton. Our prisons are overcrowded and the response is to build more prisons. Of course, then the money can keep rolling in to syndicated corporations; money that is ours.
Statistically speaking, the huge number of prisoners in Texas cannot be accurate. There simply are not that many bad people. We are hearing on National Public Radio almost daily about The Innocence Project and the number of prisoners in Texas who are now being found innocent through DNA testing. That is just a small representation.

I just received a questionaire from my representative addressing building prisons in Mexico to house Texans. How about that! Prison camps in Texas are being exposed that have legal immigrants confined without access to legal representation. Including children.

This plague is destroying families just like mine and yours. This plague will continue unless you and I stop it.

Attached is a letter to Senator Whitmore and Representative Madden. Please take just a few minutes to send these letters.

Thank you,

Nancy Nichols

Tyler

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

House Committee on Corrections

Attn: Jerry A. Madden-Chairman

Austin, Texas 73763-2910

Senator John Whitmire
600 Travis, Suite 3400

Houston, Texas 77002

(512) 463-0796

Re: Prison Over-Crowding and Legislature for 2007

Chairman Madden and Senator Whitmire:

As a tax-paying voter and citizen of the State of Texas, I wish to address each of you concerning
the following:

At the present time the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system is hopelessly Over-Crowded and understaffed, while simultaneously operating at or beyond the maximum Legal capacity permissible by Law. The 2007 session of the Texas Legislature has NO choice but to address this issue in the upcoming session.

Be it known that I do not want any new prison units built within the State of Texas. We cannot fully staff nor properly fund the ones already in existence. It is time that Texas adjusts their barbaric “throw away the key” attitude with viable Legislation.

Proposed Solution:

I request that Legislation be passed which would reduce the parole eligibility requirements of all offenders serving under the ½ (50%) law from that of 50% minimum flat time before parole eligibility, to that of Serving ¼ (25%) before parole eligibility.

Legislation should be passed which provides for MANDATORY RELEASE for FIRST TIME OFFENDERS (ONLY) which meet their parole eligibility requirements with satisfactory disciplinary Records (which reflects an effort at rehabilitation).

All offenders, regardless of crime or sentencing Legislature, be given both “GOOD TIME” AND
“WORK TIME” to be calculated concurrent with their flat time served and credited toward both
eligibility status and discharge of sentence. (It is time that Texas come out of the “Dark Ages” and
provide some type of incentives for offenders to work and conduct themselves in a manner which
reflects their active effort at self-rehabilitation, (we punish them when they do bad, we should
REWARD them when they do good):

ALL above Legislation should be applied RETROACTIVELY to ALL qualified Offenders.

We, the voting citizens of the State of Texas, have spoken. We ask that our voices be both heard and applied by those whom we elect and pay their salaries. If we cannot get our wishes carried out by those currently in office, then I can assure you that this will be reflected at the upcoming elections.

Respectively Submitted,

Name: _______________________________

Address: _____________________________

_____________________________

_____________________________

_____________________________

Phone: ______________________________

Back in January when Jay Johnson-Castro scheduled Monday’s vigil at the T. Don Hutto jail, he called it Vigil IV. Then today, in recognition of Friday’s protests, he renumbered it Vigil V.

But we got to thinking. Actually, Monday’s action should be Vigil VI, because surely we have to count the folks who stood out in the cold on the morning of Feb. 3 to welcome the Ibrahim family out of jail.

Vigil IV, therefore, has gone to Vigil VI in about a week. Meanwhile, the Hutto headline has topped the charts of global news.

“If we can’t make peace in our own land,” said Ralph Isenberg over the phone today, “I don’t know how we can make peace in the rest of the world.”

Indeed, this is the profound promise of the Hutto Vigils, that they will help to mark a time in history when Americans were galvanized to the challenge of lifting ourselves up to a new plateau of peace and peacemaking. Today it seems so clear that we need not settle for less.–gm

“A peaceful sense of disbelief,” is how Ralph Isenberg describes his feelings when he took a phone call Sunday afternoon in Dallas and heard the voice of Salaheddin Ibrahim thanking him for helping to release the Ibrahim family from three months of prison at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“The phone call confirmed that the man is free and that his nightmare is over,” said Isenberg. “I asked him if he was okay. He said the family is fine, and they are looking forward to staying in the country.”

Isenberg pledged to continue efforts to secure legal residency for the Ibrahim family.

“I think that our government owes Mr. Ibrahim and his family an apology,” said Isenberg. “And I think the appropriate form of apology would be granting them legal residency.”–gm

Email from Jay Johnson-Castro

Day before yesterday…when the media toured Hutto … I was wrapping up a Border Caravan journey from San Diego , CA to Brownsville , TX . On every stop … before the media and the interested groups and political leaders … I spoke about all the innocent children and their moms in Hutto and the Ibrahim and Suleiman families. Folks rejoiced with me as we heard about the successful release of the entire Ibrahim family. Folks are outraged about the deportation of the Suleiman family. I can assure you the groundswell of opposition to this tyrannical rule by greedy fascism is growing faster than yeast can raise bread dough!
Later on today…I will send you pictures of something far more morbid than Hutto. I beg that you share this as I shared the plight of the Ibrahims and the Suleiman. Mass graves…fresh ones…on American soil … !!! Graves of desperate immigrants who died … one way or the other … on their quest for the American dream. If none of those here are not already on my e-mail list … let me know if you want those pictures.

Attached is a sample. If you use your power of reason and find yourself asking questions … basic questions … about what your mind sees in this picture … I hope you’ll help me crack this case wide open. I want to know about everyone that is supposed buried in this trench. How many men, women, children. Who pays to do this, who gets paid…and how much. Who did the autopsies…and how did these people die. Use your photo program and zoom in on this picture. Let your mind go beyond the superficial. And … why were so many buried at the same time … like the day before we were there. Ours are the first foot prints on this soil!

The truth must and will be told to the American public about these mass graves …. just as we successfully got the truth about Hutto and the Palestinian families out to the media … and we forced ICE to capitulate. We will do it again … and again … and again! Until … we break the back of this tyranny.

Also … PLEASE join us in Taylor tomorrow for Vigil V. There are hundreds of children more that need to be freed … just as the Ibrahim children are now free. We need treat this as a fire in the old days … with a bucket brigade of folks who want to save lives. We cannot simply do nothing. We must do all we can NOW to free the children. One more day of living in a cell … is one day too long.

Tu amigo…

Jay

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The Border Ambassador

Connecting.the.dots…making.a.difference…

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Jay J. Johnson-Castro, Sr.

Del Rio , Texas , USA
Ciudad Acuña, Coahuila , Mexico

Jay renumbers Monday’s upcoming vigil to five, in consideration of those who protested during the Hutto media tour Friday.–gm