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I hereby make the following available under the latest Creative Common by-attribution derivatives-permitted no-need-to-share-alike commercial-use-permitted license.
I think things here are starting to fray around the edges.
The copy machine has been broken since late February or early March. This is no petty annoyance. Without that copy machine, unit staff will make only one (1) copy of a court filing. This is insufficient for process service and in violation of 28 C.F.R. Sec. 543.11(g). In order to have that one (1) copy made, moreover, I must show an imminent court-ordered deadline, which is rarely possible. Many necessary filings are made without an "imminent" deadline; for example, a complaint to open a case.
Unit Manager Todd Royer announced in March that a new copy machine had been ordered and was scheduled to arrive in April. That month is nearly out.
Since February or so, we are missing a typewriter too. And one of the other typewriters is missing a critical part, without which it is useless. This means that for months we've had one (1) working typewriter instead of three (3).
Federal regulation requires Warden Brian Lammer to fix whatever breaks in the law library, including typewriters and copy machines. 28 C.F.R. Sec. 543.11(b). It seems to fly against the spirit of the regulation to allow the only copy machine and two (2) of the three (3) typewriters here to remain broken for this long---and they were broken weeks before the lockdown began.
Yesterday afternoon, staff distributed two (2) "Clorox Wipes" to me. The label for each of the two (2) packages reads as follows:
Clorox Wipes
(Do Not Use For Personal Use)
If I am not meant to put these to "Personal Use," then I am unaware of their intended official, charitable, or other non-personal use. I was given no guidance on the matter.
The ice machine broke yesterday or the day before. A CMU administrator took prompt action yesterday afternoon, however, so I am at least hopeful that it will be fixed early next week. Locked in a small cell twenty-two-(22) hours per day in a brick and steel building that bakes like an oven in the summer with no air conditioning, this too is no petty issue as we near May 1st. The average July high temperature in Indianapolis, for example, is 85 degrees Fahrenheit.
Yesterday as well, the laundry detergent ran out.
Our commissary days have now been moved to Thursdays for purchases and Fridays for deliveries. The punitive fifty-dollar-($50) limit remains.
The interesting thing is that the administration posted and distributed a new CMU-specific bulletin yesterday claiming that the commissary changes are all "In line with the most recent Agency guidance." What "Agency guidance?" Has the BOP released anything official about a fifty-dollar-($50) limit or delivery days for this CMU? Or are they just trying to pawn this off on the higher-ups? Somehow I doubt that Mr. Carvajal issued a fifty-dollar-($50) commissary policy specific to the FCI Terre Haute CMU.
It's no fun being an ordinary prisoner. Life is worse, however, as a second-class prisoner in a CMU where I'm subjected to additional deprivations that are foreign to true general population in order to punish me because my trial judge has financial and familial ties to the supposed "victims" in my case that he and the DOJ are determined to keep quiet, no matter what The Constitution says about Free Speech and Due Process.
Regards,
/s/ Marty
I sent you this message at approximately 8:47 A.M. on Saturday, April 25th, 2020.
