After several minutes, another prison employee came into the conference room and asked what the problem was. I stated that I had requested a witness to my abuse by Barnes and Bradshaw. Barnes told him, as she had also told the previous prison employee, that I had a lawsuit pending, and she and Bradshaw again falsely stated I had refused to be searched. After I told him that federal law and BOP policy allowed me to request a witness, he said, "Will I do?" Notwithstanding the fact the witness is supposed to be the same gender as the victim being harassed/searched, I said yes.
So Bradshaw and the operations lieutenant, Reed, watched smugly as Barnes directed me to stand with my arms straight out from my side, legs apart, and then from behind me, Barnes "pat searched" me. Following that abuse, as Bradshaw and Reed watched, she "wanded" me with the hand-held metal detector, despite my having already gone through the metal detector.
I am convinced that all these tactics, along with the constant interruptions and harassment the day before, were both punitive and intended to delay and minimize my time with Gary, indicating the BOP is very concerned with what we will publicly expose. I am also convinced that they will do anything to cause me to not be able to visit Gary. It was about 9:30 and I had been abused for over an hour by the time I was allowed to see my husband. For most of the time I was visiting, Barnes remained in the visiting room, inside the visiting room, wearing sunglasses.
On Sunday, we were not assigned to sit in the RESERVED FOR SPECIAL HOUSING UNIT seats; we were told to sit in seats near the photography backdrops. Who knew that Hello, Kitty, Barbie, Smurfette and Papa Smurf, Dora the Explorer, Winnie the Pooh and his friends, Belle and The Beast, the Little Mermaid, the Disney Princesses and others -- all were right there in prison. I wondered if copyright infringement had ever been considered, considering that a fee is charged for being photographed in front of the backdrops. But of all the crimes I have experienced prison employees committing, that would be by far the least of my concerns.
Gary and I sat across from each other and talked. It was Sunday morning, and, rather than engaging in religious services or practices, we were together in the prison visiting room. At other locations, we had previously had the opportunity to ask to use the prison visiting room Bible, and we had read together almost every visit. Gary asked Crawford, but there was no Bible present.
Crawford later arranged for a Bible to be brought into the visiting room and gave it to Gary. We read the 21 st Psalm. It was the 21 st of July and our practice has been to read a Psalm or Proverb each day, beginning with the 1 st Psalm on January 1 st and reading one a day, followed by Proverbs, then starting over on July 1 st . When we are together, we have read together. Other days, we read them in the morning after Gary calls me at 6:00. It's one of the ways we stay connected, or try to.
Our visit was interrupted by Reed, who came into the visiting room, confronted and accused me of lying about BOP policy, stating, "You got by on a technicality today, but you are not entitled to a witness." What did I "get by" with? He wouldn't or couldn't say. I was searched, harassed, abused. I never did understand what I "got by" with. Perhaps he didn't make it simple enough for me to understand. But he did threaten -- always threats -- that I would not be allowed to visit in the future if I refused their abuse.
I repeated again that I had not refused anything at all, that I had, in fact, been thoroughly and illegally abused and searched. He showed me a print-out of a Program Statement -- BOP "law" and said there was no requirement that I be allowed a witness and that I would not have been allowed to visit. Yes, I would have, as I did not refuse anything, I again repeated.
"You would have refused without a witness," he charged. Now, this is a male prison employee I had never met before that day, telling me what I "would have" done. No, I said. "You would have been searched?" he asked. "Yes, and then I would have filed for protection from the court, which I will be doing anyway," I answered. In a mean tone of voice dripping with sarcasm, Reed said, "Good luck in court," before leaving the visiting room.
The Program Statement he was holding was dated July 13, 2013 -- the Saturday before my visit. Interesting timing and very odd that a policy would have been changed on a Saturday -- any Saturday -- but the Saturday just before I was allowed to visit Gary again.
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