This Letter from temporary Services is in two parts
Part 1
Dear Friends,
Please take a moment to read this urgent email. It is a long one.
This email concerns Paul From - a prisoner at Pleasant Valley State Prison in California. Before being transferred to this facility, Paul was a long-time cellmate and close friend of Angelo - the author of the book „Prisoners‚ Inventions‰, a publication and project that we initiated in 2001. Paul helped a lot with Prisoners' Inventions. He read Angelo's writings, studied the drawings, offered editorial suggestions, and provided in-house support. Paul sought no credit for this so he is hardly mentioned in the book. After Paul was transferred he and Angelo could not remain in contact because of prison rules about inmate correspondence.
Angelo always spoke fondly of Paul's great intelligence and his wizardry at repairing electronics. Paul had been reading all of the Temporary Services booklets we sent Angelo. He expressed interest in our work so we started to send Paul his own copies. Paul and I (Marc) began corresponding and became friends. Because of his striking appearance (Paul is very tall and has long blonde hair) Paul was receiving a lot of love letters from other prisoners. He kept sending them to me, thinking perhaps they'd fit in a Temporary Services project. We found them too unsettling and personal to include, though we did invite a friend to read a few of them at the Prisoners' Inventions book release in Chicago - an idea Paul enjoyed greatly.
Upon his transfer to Pleasant Valley, Paul immediately began to encounter terrible harassment from inmates and staff. His letters became frightening to read as he spoke of increased vulnerability. All of this culminated with Paul being brutally raped by another inmate ˆ an assailant who has reportedly raped multiple inmates. A couple months passed before Paul told me about it; by then his health was in great decline.
Paul rarely imposes on me in any way - he never asks for money - but now he is in dire need of help. Paul tested positive for Hepatitis A and B (the prison still hasn‚t determined if he has one or both) as well as Herpes II. He has been given no treatment or counseling for the rape. The prison appears to have tampered with his mail when he made efforts to contact outside organizations for help. Making matters worse, approximately two months ago Paul was transferred to Administrative Segregation (Ad. Seg.) while his assault was being investigated.
Readers of the book Prisoners' Inventions may recall Paul's yogurt and cheese recipes. Dairy products are Paul's life-line; he has an unusually fast metabolism and medically noted special nutritional needs. Administrative Segregation makes it much harder for him to secure additional food. In just over two months he has lost 50 pounds. He is 6'4" and 149 lbs ˆ this is extremely underweight. Without adequate food and nutrition, Paul is rapidly facing death if something doesn't happen quickly. Money that was sent to him to buy food and vitamins was taken by the prison and used for medical fees, leaving him only a little that he could use to buy an appalling selection of non-nutritional items like cookies, candy, and hot sauce. His weight loss has exacerbated his prior health problems and he now suffers from anemia and heart palpitations.
Paul's situation is extremely serious and we are asking for your help. No one deserves to be treated like this. Paul has been a friend to Temporary Services, he has contributed to our work, and he has contributed greatly to the life and work of Angelo - one of our key collaborators of the past few years.
Since Paul notified me of the incident, I have been faxing his letters to California Prison Focus ˆ a group that fights human rights violations in California prisons. Their lawyer Charles Carbone wrote to the warden requesting medical treatment for Paul. Since that letter things have only gotten worse. On March 3rd we sent Charles to visit Paul in person. He verified Paul's condition and the legitimacy of his claims. We have decided to have Charles Carbone to file a writ against the prison on grounds of medical neglect.
In short, we need to quickly raise $2,000 in legal fees for Charles to file a case against the prison in California Superior Court. We are asking you to help us force the prison to save Paul‚s life.
Less expensive approaches have failed. Sending Charles to meet with Paul was a start but it‚s not enough. This prison needs to know that someone is willing to fight until this physical deterioration stops. We did not want to make this a more public matter until after Charles evaluated Paul's condition. We are asking for your help only after confirming the abuses that are taking place with a lawyer who has sat in front of over a thousand prisoners.
Donations will be compiled solely to pay legal fees to fight these medical neglect and human rights violations. We are not seeking monetary damages or handling any prior legal cases for Paul.
Donations (checks, money orders) must be made out to: „Support For Paul‰.
You can also mail well-concealed cash. Anything will help.
Send donations to:
Temporary Services
P.O. Box 121012
Chicago, IL 60612 USA
You can also make fast and secure donations online with a credit card, debit card or bank transfer. Visit http://www.paypal.com/ and send money to: supportforpaul@temporaryservices.org
We will strictly uphold the privacy of all who make donations.
Temporary Services is also asking people to write letters to the Warden to inquire on Paul's behalf. If you are interested in doing this, please reply to this email and we will send you a separate email telling how to proceed.
Thank you for reading this. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone who might be able to help.
Sincerely,
Temporary Services
(Brett Bloom, Salem Collo-Julin, Marc Fischer)
http://www.temporaryservices.org/
Part 2
Dear Friends,
We recently sent an email to our mailing list asking for your help on behalf of Paul From, a former cellmate of our collaborator Angelo. In case you did not receive that email, we have attached it with this note.
We are sending you this message with the hope that you could consider writing a letter directly to the Pleasant Valley State Prison’s Warden to express an interest in Paul’s well-being. We realize that this is an unusual request, but know that many of you have lent great compassion to a variety of causes and may have done this type of advocacy before. We hope you will seriously consider taking a moment to do this.
Please write a letter to Warden James A. Yates on behalf of Paul From. You can identify yourself as a concerned citizen writing to express in interest in Paul. You can write that you have become aware that Paul From, an inmate at Pleasant Valley State Prison is in grave physical health and that his life is greatly at risk if he does not get proper nutrition and medication. You can acknowledge that he is suffering from malnutrition, Hepatitis, and Herpes. Also, you can mention that he has lost over fifty pounds and requires immediate nutrition and proper medical care.
You can write that you became aware that Paul was raped by another inmate and are concerned that he should get counseling. You can ask the Warden to show compassion and to kindly act quickly before Paul’s health further deteriorates.
Please DO NOT acknowledge Angelo or the book Prisoners’ Inventions. It is very likely that prison administrators frown upon the book because it conveys information about contraband objects that prisoners make.
It is best to omit any reference to the project, the book, and Angelo from your letter. Our desire is solely to have people on the outside let the prison know that they are aware of Paul’s life-threatening situation and to respectfully ask that he be given proper medical attention.
Please DO NOT use a threatening tone or threaten action against the prison. Again, we want the Warden to know that people on the outside are aware of Paul’s fragile condition, they are paying attention, and that Paul is not alone – his voice is being heard.
YOU CAN list your credentials if you are involved in the media/press in any way or have any background in medicine or counseling. If you, or someone close to you, have suffered from any of the medical problems that Paul is dealing with, or if you have ever been the victim of a rape and you feel comfortable saying something about this, please do!
We are not providing a sample letter because our understanding is that personal letters written in a variety of voices may be more effective in swaying the Warden to show a bit of compassion.
Letters should be sent directly to:
James A. Yates, Warden
Pleasant Valley State Prison
24863 West Jayne Avenue
Coalinga, CA 93210
You do not have to CC your letter to Temporary Services – though an email letting us know that you wrote the warden will help us track the number of inquiries that were sent. If you have any additional questions about what to write, please don’t hesitate to ask. We will not publicize any emails or letters sent to us by people writing on Paul’s behalf.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Temporary Services
(Brett Bloom, Marc Fischer, Salem Collo-Julin)
