Re : Prison Mail by Michael Gonzales

To Whom It May Concern:

Prisoners in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice have three forms of communication with those outside the walls and fences of their respective: 1) United States Mail; 2) those few who receive calls and 3) Texas prison policy of one to five minutes collect telephone calls every 90 days to one of the 10 individuals on your approved visiting list must be on visiting list to call not to mention it would take years to call each one of them. So it’s easily determined, the only real means of communication is correspondence with your family and loved ones, your lawyer, the courts etc.

I would like to ask you, the reader, to please take a moment and imagine yourself in a Texas Prison and your 90-day telephone call is two months away, you urgently need to contact your family. You’re not expecting a visit, and the only means left is by mail. You write and enclose legal documents, but the letter and documents never arrive in their intended destination. Your mail is intercepted. Angry, frustrated, the feeling of helplessness begins to overwhelm you, as you fill out a USPS form to trace the lost letter and documents, and then you learn it was never processed. Then it happens again repeatedly, you discover other prisoners’ mail has been intercepted too, and tracer forms failed to be processed.

Now you’re desperate, you’re not allowed to telephone postal authorities and report criminal misconduct. You have no choice but to depend solely on TDCJ employees to assist you, because you’re in their custody and care. You submit a formal complaint to the unit’s administration, requesting TDCJ contact the postal authorities in your behalf to report possible criminal misconduct by postal employees, because your mail is being intercepted and tracer forms are not being processed. You anxiously await their assistance and response only to hear: “Once mail is turned over to the United States Postal Service this unit is no longer responsible for it. You will need to contact the United States Postal Service for further information. All mail is being processed in accordance with BP-03.91”.

You realize there is a very serious problem and the only people who can help you have become defensive and act like ostriches, their collective heads stuck in the sand, and hear “It wasn’t me!”

What can you possible do, you ask yourself? I don’t know, I’m not the brightest or I wouldn’t be here in the first place. But I am here and can only hope that maybe a free world reader will contact TDCJ administration and inquire why a prisoner is left without recourse under such circumstances, when he has no means to lodge a complaint with USPS with his mail being intercepted. Apparently all I am able to ascertain is as long as the prisoner is the victim, it’s of no concern nor has any impact.

My complaints are on record, as well as those of other prisoners, whose mail has been intercepted. A viable solution is possible with your help. Thank you for walking in my shoes for a few moments.

Down for mine, Spider

Michael Gonzales #999174

D.R.I.V.E.

DEATH Row INNER-COMMUNALIST VANGUARD ENGAGEMENT