Letters From the Inside

At Retrieve Unit, I did get to complete the microcomputer application vocational. I also became a Muslim. And I tried, I really did try, not to get into any fights. But in prison, there always has to be some idiot who is going to disrupt your peace. The first fight, I got beat, finally beat, after all these years! The second fight, I broke the guy's jaw and nose. He was transferred to John Sealy Hospital to get his jaw restructured and wired.

I was determined to do what I set out to do, and that was to learn as many job skills as I could. I was transferred to Wynne Unit for the welding vocational. I completed the vocational, and after a while I decided to sign up for the sheet-metal vocational at Michael Unit. I wanted to take my chances staying at Michael Unit, but unfortunately I was recognized by some Texas Syndicate gang members. I was approached and told to write a letter of explanation to higher gang leaders about why I had renounced the gang. I knew they just wanted to fool me into thinking everything was okay, while they planned their attack. So I went to speak to the gang intelligence officer and explained my situation. As you know by now, Mr. Patterson, I usually like to stand up and fight, but not this time, no sir! I only had one more year to go, and I wanted to get to see the free world again!

After I explained my situation to the gang intelligence officer, I was locked up in a transit cell to await transfer back to Eastham Unit. I explained there what had happened at Michael Unit and that I was told by the Michael Unit administrator that everything would be explained on my record. The Eastham Unit committee said my record only reflected that I had refused to complete the vocational. So the Eastham committee decided to put me back in the Eastham regular inmate population.

Five days later, on Sunday, February 7, 1999, a friend and I were walking around the recreation yard, when all of a sudden I felt someone hit me on the back of my head. Then I felt someone stab me twice in the back. I turned to look and saw two inmates, one with an ice pick and another with a metal lock tied to a rope. I fought back. I was not going to go down without taking one of them with me if I died. I started punching the one with the knife. He stabbed me on my arm three times. I punched him again and he stabbed me on my side and punctured my lung, which collapsed. Then the other inmate came behind me and hit me with the lock on the back of my head. But then my friend started to fight with the inmate that had the lock. My friend was bleeding badly from his head. I don't know when he had got hit. Anyway, I kicked the inmate that had the knife. He swung at me and I tried to grab the knife, but it went through my hand. He had tied the knife to his hand. I noticed that he looked so young and scared, but I was determined to take him with me to the grave. However, he started to back off every time I walked toward him. Then he finally ran away. I knew that my friend could handle the other inmate, so I turned around and walked toward the tower to wave at the officer to get his attention.

I ended up at John Sealy Hospital with eight stab wounds. The most serious stab wound was to my lung. I stayed there four days with a suction tube in my lung, and then I was transferred back to Eastham Unit and to here at Pack Unit in March 1999.

You asked me how I feel about coming back to isolation. I do understand that I'm being protected from getting stabbed again, but the way I'm being treated is wrong. I'm locked up in a cell 23 hours a day in a small building with no windows at all. I only get to watch TV one hour a day or go out to a small yard. Always by myself. Sometimes I really feel bad, like I'm going crazy. But I grab my Holy Koran, do my five daily prayers and try to maintain sanity. One thing for sure, I will not fall into the trap that TDC wants me to fall into, going mad and crazy. TDC likes to create monsters out of people and then releases them.