1. Prison Ministry -- How it is here: email

Greetings;

Innocent, indigent, and other targeted people are being arrested and imprisoned in detention and mental health facilities in unacceptable conditions without due process for long periods of time for very minor infractions and fabricated infractions. Industries are based on our detention systems.

Does your faith community have a detention ministry? Do you rely on another faith’s prison ministry?

Even 15 minutes per week dedicated to a prison ministry could leverage significant improvement.

Do they name it a ‘restorative justice’ ministry and place little emphasis on people in detention facilities?

If you do rely on another ministry, scratch the surface and ask how many defendants and inmates in a detention, hospital and mental health facility they talked to annually for the past 10 years.

I am asking you to ask or hire lawyers, and ask law school staff, especially of Christian schools, locally and in your world councils, to document illegal dynamics within the courts in relation to treatment of indigent and other vulnerable people.

Indicators of injustice such as hearing decisions made by sidebars;

unnecessary charges such as trespassing, and the amount of time someone served for them;

delays in hearings;

reports of defendants in custody “refusing to attend the hearing”;

encouragement to plead guilty;

and quality of public defense,

need to be identified and documented.

Inhumane conditions are being hidden. People are too afraid to report them.

Do you want to hear what it has really been like in detention facilities like the County Main Adult Detention Facility, County Mental Health Hospital and vendors with whom the County Sheriff Department contracts?

* other people's feces, blood and excretions in the cells

* isolation pads on the windows and turning the lights off for unfounded reasons

* forced "finger foods" for unfounded reasons

* staff throwing food on the floor

* refusal to provide toilet paper for days

* medical staff who make themselves unintelligible, confuse names, refuse to talk to defendants and inmates needing assistance, refuse or neglect to document incidents of excessive force, write deceitful notes, don’t report crimes to law enforcement

* use of unnecessary force

* giving inmates and defendant clothing for the opposite gender or sized 5 times too big

* withholding access to heat, bedding, clothing

* removing items from booking including notes documenting illegal behavior

* clerical errors that impact the length of time a defendant or inmate is in a detention facility

* putting inmates and defendants in the mental health mod or involuntarily placing them in a behavioral health hospital because they complained

* covering the booking cell floors with a coating of a sticky substance including when inmates and defendants are barefoot

* illegal arrests

* not giving defendants or inmates information about the date, time, rights, or choice

* inappropriate media for the juveniles

Here is a news article that describes some of the dynamics:

(A link to a newspaper article about the conditions of a local detention facility was entered here. Your community may not have any reporting about the condition of your detention facilities or mental health hospitals.)

Defendants, inmates, detention and hospital facility staff, and court related workers are terrorized about what will happen to their families if they tell the truth.

We need a ministry that sees and communicates with people in their cells;

makes changes in the law or policy so people who are homeless are not allowed to be arrested for being homeless and left without adequate representation;

holds judges, public defenders, DA staff and other government employees accountable and gets them fired or imprisoned if they are not protecting vulnerable people;

holds “the local independent council created to monitor complaints about law enforcement” accountable until it can be unnecessary.

Anyone who has proof of vaccines and claims they were or are refused access to defendants and inmates for prison ministry without having fought it in court, is a deceiver.

Don’t believe anyone who assures you your printed material has been shown to any defendants or inmates,

or any of the ministries listed on the sheriff department website have been active the past 5 years, or if active, have conversed with many defendants and inmates. There is one dog training school the main adult detention facility staff allow in with their dogs, but they do not converse with the defendants and inmates.

Detention facilities, the businesses with whom they contract, and mental health facilities, will defensively block attempts to investigate, citing HIPPA and other policies, though they will find a way to allow in non-staff members who promise not to reveal the truth.

With all due respect, please do not listen to the assurances of anybody who has not witnessed the conditions of the cells and conversed with inmates and defendants in their cells consistently and repeatedly, nor to the assurances of detention facility, Sheriff Department contracted, and mental health facility staff.

Targeted people are very reluctant to report what happened including because they are concerned for their loved ones’ safety.

A significant number of people in behavioral health facilities should not or do not need to be in them.

In some cases, their diagnoses are fabrications. Sometimes it’s a form of punishment and they don’t have advocates, or their ‘advocates’ illegally conserve them or are incompetent.

Do not believe that NAMI or any other group has been investigating, aware of, or ethically advocating for ethical advocation of people diagnosed with mental health issues in the government departments and especially in detention facilities.

We have to stop pretending someone else is doing it.

At a minimum there needs to be a 24-hour cell phone which defendants, inmates, detention facility medical staff and court can call to get support, when they feel threatened.

There also needs to be in-person visits at the cells and hospital rooms; meaningful and appropriate literature for spiritual direction; ideally, a service to welcome defendants and inmates when they are released and take them to a safe shelter, if they need it; and follow-up ministry.

We need a comprehensive plan for restorative justice and prison ministries and mental health hospitals that includes accountability of the faith communities’ efforts.

Matthew 25:43 indicates our salvation, and the salvation of everyone in our faith communities, depends on being aware of what is happening and doing something about it, would you agree?

This is a worldwide issue.

I prefer to remain anonymous, but if you would like to know my identity, feel free to ask.

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