FDOC - Reflections of An Inmate Laborer

The inmate who wrote this was recently released and just read about the situation, various parts of which he has additional info on, including inmate labor and FDOC equipment that hasn't come out yet. He also put his initials in various places and knows where some evidence of theft may still be located. He was forced to be there so he has it first hand. This gentleman is willing to talk to the FBI and the media. He wanted to get the FBI contact info that would be most interested in this. I gave him Don J. Pashayan's number.

I would like to take a minute to ask you some questions. See I was at ACI when the Halloween party took place. I was one of the inmates who built the nice white deck you have in your pic's of Clark's house on the lake.

I can and would be happy to give you and the FBI info on several things. Like inmates removing asbestos from housing, and where dinks were stored (not sure that they would be there now).

I know a lot because I was there and had to take part in it (not by choice).

I worked in the cabinet shop and did remodeling to the Clark house on the hill and I worked on several of Clark's boys' state houses. We were adding a room addition to the colonel's house when I was released.

The state corrections department started taking care of the parking lot next door to Clark's house. That was part of the ARMY CORP. because it was the lake parking lot. They needed somewhere to park all the cars at the parties.

There are pics of the halloween party in the local paper. They show the house and back yard full of people in costume. But there has been nothing said about the bathrooms that were built for the party or the guard tower that was moved in for a de-jay booth. See these kind of things I know. I know which guard tower it was and how it was never properly placed back where it was. It was just set there and you could tell it had been moved, and had work done on it.

All of the party things were taken down the next day because of the accident with the guy loosing his toe and the wreck out on the main highway.

I know where underground cable is that was installed (this stuff costs like $5.00 a foot) that is still in place in Clark's back yard. I know a lot more.

ONE

Well where to start? I went to prison on a conviction of poss. of cocaine. When I went into the system, I was in prison at Butler for 2 weeks, transferred to ACI main unit for another 2 weeks, and then transferred to the west unit.

After about a week there, I was classified and put on an outside work crew. It was the cabinet shop. They called it carpentry 2. I will say my boss was a civilian, (please don't use his name) and was very kind and very fair. You did your work and didn't get him in trouble was all he asked (just like on the outside).

We made cabinets and trim for several of the staff homes that were remodeled. I understand that these homes were very old and needed the remodel, however, some really needed no work at all.

Such as Cornel Frye's home. It had just been remodeled prior to him coming to ACI, but he wanted textured walls instead of smooth walls. So about 5 inmates, 1 guard (who also had a work squad, Officer Stone) and my boss worked on that house for about a week. After we were finished, a man came in and built a recess in the living room wall to fit the big screen TV.

Capt Bowen's home got new carpet and a new heat system, there was nothing wrong with either, they just wanted new. Also we built a dog house for his two dog's. (My name and DC# are wrote inside the dog house just to verify that I was the one who built it. I thought that was a little outside the scope of maintenance.)

There was one house on the main road between the two units, that was due to be remodeled. Trust me it needed it!! The floor was rotten and several of the floor joists (most, we replaced them all) needed to be replaced. The only reason this house was in this shape was because the officer who lived there had nn respect for the free housing he was given. This house had been remodeled by my boss about a year and a half earlier.

While we were removing the floor we discovered old 9"X9" tiles. These tiles are known by all in construction and remodeling (which is what I did before I fell) to be asbestos.

When we discovered this my boss (being the good person he is) stopped us from going further. He went to his boss to tell him the discovery (Kenny Weeks) and was told to keep going because the job could not be delayed. (A new guard was coming who needed a house, so they moved a man from a large house to the one we were remodeling)

So I wrote a request form to Capt. Bowen and told him I was afraid I would go to jail for refusing to work. Well after telling my boss my concern, my boss took me to work and let me sit in the truck until all the asbestos was removed.

I can tell you where it was illegally dumped. The ACI gun range. I know it was put in black bags and dumped in the landfill, (I was There).

After a couple of day's Capt Bowen came by and asked me about my request, I told him what I just told you and he ripped up my request and told me not to write another one like that again.

There were 4 inmates and my boss involved in this deal. I felt sorry for my boss because he had no choice. Me, I would have taken the lock down but would not have liked it. So you can see why I think my boss was a good man.

Let me start the next part by saying that carpentry 2 is part of maintenance. When A.C. Clark first came to ACI it was a sweet camp, no real controlled movement, a lot of things you already know.

But soon after [Clark's arrival] a lot of inmates were moved from the main unit to the west unit. These inmates had higher housing levels and some worked on the field force (Under The Gun) picking vegetables in the field.

Of course this raised the level of the over all population of the camp so we needed controlled movement afterward. That put minor drug offenders in the same camp with people doing life. This is not how things are supposed to work. Like housing and security levels are supposed to be housed together, that's why there are two camps at a lot of places.

Next we went to AC Clark's house on the hill and made minor repairs before he moved in; new carpet, paint, normal stuff, but shortly after or basically at the same time, a hot tub was installed on the screened in deck. We installed a privacy screen on the open side.

Shortly after this, almost all of the work squads went to work on several different things to get ready for the big party, the Halloween party. I will have to dig through all of my letters because I documented the information and hid it for obvious reasons. So some of this is vague for now until I dig it up (which I will for any reporter or FBI man you want.)

We started by building the big white deck you see in the pics on your site. First it was around 8'X28' or so. Well, Mr. Clark showed up and decided that this would not be big enough for the band and several people on stage at the same time. That's right, I said stage, it's no deck, it's a stage! About 12'X40' would be a good guess..

While we were doing this, several other work crews were busy doing their thing. Electric was run from a transformer to a power box in the wooded area near the parking lot for the lake/dam (and party). I can't say exactly how much cable was buried until I look at my notes, but it was something like 800' @ $4 to $5 a foot, and that is a lot of money just to supply power for the street lights that were installed in the back yard, the stage, the DJ booth (I'll get to that), and a trailer that was converted into bathrooms for the party guests.

That's right an old construction office trailer was converted into all bathrooms so people would not have to go in and out of the house. Perch plywood doors and stall dividers plus about 10 toilets that were supposed to be used to fix the broken ones in the dorms. This plywood is a finish grade material on both sides and costs about $32 a sheet. About 30 sheets of plywood would be a good guess.

Of course plumbing had to be added so the thing would function. So a sewer line was dug from the septic tank to were the trailer sat. (By the way all of the wire and plumbing, including the foundation pads for the DJ Booth were still in the ground the last time I was there. It's just below the surface so as not to be seen).

Then, because the septic tank would probably not handle the load, (no pun intended) about 800' of sewer line was run connecting the septic tank to the main sewer just off the property. (I'm not too sure that is legal, code wise)

We built a bar that went between all of the openings on the lower part of the deck, this bar was about 60' long when completed. (Again my name and DC# are on the bar)

A guard shack from the back side of the rec field was removed from where it was (guarding the rec field) to AC Clark's back yard. It was put on posts about twelve feet off the ground. Stairs were built and shelves were added to hold all the equipment. Of course power was run and a new window unit A/C was installed. All of this was painted to look nice of course.

Well, at the party Mr. Clark had people put on little acting skits for fun. Their's was a western theme, Mr. Owens, a civilian in charge of the electrical work squad, was in the skit with Mr. Clark. They used real guns with blanks for this skit, and during the skit Mr. Owens had the misfortune of misfiring his weapon and, because it was so close to his foot, it blew off his little toe on his right foot and peeled the skin off of the one next to it. He went to the local hospital for treatment. (How there was no investigation of a gun shot wound I don't know). He was off work because of this for about two weeks. I'm sure his payroll records reflect this fact.

Well, the night of the party there was an accident on the way home (again I have the names just have to dig them up, I will, give me time. I haven't looked at that stuff sense the day I was released.) between two employees of the prison system. One guy was driving and hit the other in the rear end.

One truck was totaled in this wreck. I'M sure there is a police report because of the personal stuff with insurance about replacement of the vehicle. Also the local police (Sneads) were at the party directing traffic to the parking area. Remember the city of Sneads get a work crew from ACI prison for the police department and public works, (the county taking care of ball fields and parks.)

The day after the party everything was removed from the yard at AC Clark's house in a big hurry. The guard shack was sat back in place, not like it was nor hooked back up to the power. The trailer was removed and hauled off ACI property. All of the plumbing and electric was cut just below the surface of the ground so it would look like nothing was there.

The local paper had pics with people in costumes, Clark on stage with the band, oh and don't forget karaoke. All of the Halloween decorations, the bar, oh, and the Coffins we built were all removed. They were taken to a storage building behind the Maintenance office and basically dumped. All of this is probably still there as the state doesn't throw anything away. I can tell you there was a lot of half empty beer cans for some work squads to clean up.

As for the house by the hog farm, ACI used to have a hog and a dairy farm. The dairy farm was still running. This house we went to and remodeled the bathroom with new carpet and basically gave it a good cleaning. This house (we were told) was to be Mr. Crosby's when he came to visit. Well it is about 15 minutes from the prison out in the middle of nowhere. It sounds to me like a good place to hold private parties.

Other things that were done is Miss Frye was given a job in classification at the main unit.

See I was on the inside (in one of your letters from a inmate, I was the guy whose bed the roof leaked on off the light fixture.) and was able to read some of your stuff on the inside. However, I feel that just posting the information is not enough, you need to take it to the next level. In short I would like to help by doing what I can from the outside. Tell me the proper person at the FBI office to contact and I will.

Please talk to the reporters you mentioned and I will be glad to speak with them as well. Please get back with me and tell me who I need to contact at the FBI.

Sorry for the way I left things yesterday, it was time to eat.

I think I left off with classification and Mrs. Frye (She was nice to look at but had NO skills).

Well speaking on that subject, MR. Neal was my classification officer, well he tried to be anyway. When I went through Butler, I was classified, minimum with a very low housing level. This allowed me to work outside the gate.

While working on the hog farm house my boss had to fill out a travel request to be approved by classification. My level was low enough to travel off grounds with supervision. One day I was called in from outside the gate, (from the hog farm house) to classification. I was informed at that time that my classification level was raised because of a misdemeanor charge of battery I had received like 5 years before my prison term.

Then I could no longer travel with my crew and boss to perform the job I was given. That lasted about two days. My boss spoke with Capt. Bowen and Cornel Frye about this and all of a sudden he didn't have to fill out the travel request any more. (I have been in new construction my whole life and been in charge of more than 150 people on the job at one time, I've done several remodeling job's and owned my own company for more that 6 years. So you can see how I was a help to my boss.) We traveled wherever they needed work done.

My boss was very good at his job and he got things done very fast, all of this was there requirement. Plus he didn't make waves, he knew the consequences of saying no!! However the whole time my housing level remained higher than it was in the beginning. This made me ineligible for work release, which by the way is why I chose prison, because I should have been allowed work release much sooner than my release date. But that never happened!!

Also you know about Florida's 85% law. Well that's a lot of crap, because when I got out I had to serve the rest of my time on paper. (which was only two months, but it was two months I thought I would not have to do!!) On a year and a day I was under the impression that would be ten months, and I should have went to work release after 6 months in the system. That why I chose the prison sentence.

At the time I owned my own company (Black Sheep Framing & Construction.) I had four employees and was the only person in the home that worked. My fiancée had two kids that were living with us (and still do) so I thought all that would be taken into account. NOT!!

Well about 2 months before my release date we started a remodel job. It was on Cornel Frye's house!! That's right the house that had just been remodeled twice in the last year (this house is next door to Warden Solomon's)

We started a room addition, with a garage attached. They only have one child in a three bedroom house. I guess his wife needed a garage to park the Corvette in. It was going to expand the master bedroom, add a bathroom in the master and add a Florida room ( for the hot tub) and another room (I not sure what it was), a bigger eat in kitchen and storage room. All of this had to happen quickly.

Did I tell you that before we could start this project, we had to remodel another house for them to live in while the remodel/room addition was being done to the house they lived in. To me it sounds like a lot for one person.

Well my wonderful family is coming home and I don't give them enough time now, so I need to go for a little while. The reports you mentioned, and your address for the donation would be helpful.. Thanks again.

By the way I now live out of the state and don't think they can get to me where I am and if they can, its okay because I am clean, have been since I got out, or went in, however you want to look at it.

Prison is not rehabilitation, you go and learn things from people who have done more and worse things than you did. When you get out there's no help for you. No one wants to hire a convict who just got out of prison. You get nothing from the government but a bus ticket and a 100 dollars. Enough to get to where you commit your next crime.

If people want to help start programs that are supposed to be in place now, make sure the prison has what it is supposed to have. AA, self help groups, counseling and add for prisoners who are getting out after losing everything. You want a man to go back to what he knows how to do best, then lock him up, put him in crime school with baby rapers and killers, drug dealers and thieves, and turn him loose with nothing but everything he has known and learned while he was away. (Well what I did wasn't as bad as what they did so I can do this to get by. Make sense.)

It's funny, when you're inside, you know, you can tell the people that will go back to their old ways. It's sad but what else have they got, what help do they have. A lot only have what they leave prison with. No skills and bad knowledge. That's what really hurts me the most.. I can understand mistreatment that is going to happen when ever you put one in charge of a lot that have no power or are unable to defend themselves. But someone should try to help better the people while they're away. Not degrade them and belittle them to the point that they have nothing left, not even their pride. That's where the help is needed.