DOC takes ahold of whatever programs that are brought in the prisons to help us out, they change things around, put things in, take things out, then come up with a way they can monopolize & make money off it.

We need programs in prison that benefit us, not that benefit the pockets of DOC. The volunteers that are allowed to come in, are put under heavy & strict scrutiny, especially for certain religious groups. They should not be here as “warm bodies” so the DOC can ask for more funding for “acturarial” studies & “logistics” of bringing in more programs, that never come to fruition, but the DOC still gets paid.

People who are incarcerated need to be able to network with the outside community, its is hard because phone calls in the State of Washington are $3.20 for 20 minutes & out of state calls the rate starts at $0.29 a minute. Being the fact that calls are so expensive, people are not able to afford to communicate, which obviously is not only detrimental to the relationships, but also contributes to the lonliness & torture of the people who are incarcerated. What justifies people having to pay, to keep in contact with their loved ones who are in prison? DOC is punishing the citizens on the street as well, because they can’t hear the voice of the one they love. DOC also makes it difficult for people to visit & to receive visits, for one, prisons are usually in remote locations, far away from where the majority of people in prison come from, making it expensive, time consuming & hard for families to make time int the schedule to come visit. For instance, in the State of Washington, the Cascade mountains seperate the east from the west, splitting the state right down the middle, during the winter, the mountain passes are filled with snow, loose rocks, & heavy traffic that is backed up with slick roads. This means at certain times, it is very dangerous to cross the pass, sometimes the state even shuts the roads down because of danger & there is countless amounts of accidents. So if a person is from Seattle or Tacoma, but locked up in Airway Heights in Spokane, then their family is not only isolated by the weather, but its over 280 miles from Seattle to Spokane, & vice versa if a person is from Spokane or Tri-Cities, but locked up in Monroe, it poses the same problems.

Not only under certain circumstances does DOC not allowed the would be visitors to visit, when they are visiting, they are put through hardships & so are the people in prison, who are stripped searched on the way back to the living unit.

So again, my friends, I ask you, what justifies coming in between a families way to keep in contact with each other? IS IS THIS CONSIDERED JUSTICE TO YOU????

The need for reform in the criminal system in the USA is evident, even President Obama himself has been actively involved, in March of 2014, he released 22 federal prisoners, on July 13th 2015 he commuted 46 people’s sentences and on July 16th, he became the first president while in office to visit a federal penitentiary,
(El Reno in Oklahoma).

Jonathan Gordon
DOC #793350