Behind prison walls: Corruption, drugs, prostitution and rape...the list goes on

[Note: This was originally going to be published by me Oct. 3, 2015 but because of one thing or another, I hesitated on publishing it. It seems to be as good a time as any to get it out there.]

As many of you know, I have a son, Shawn, who is currently serving a 25-to-Life sentence for a crime he did not commit. He has been incarcerated for the past 14 years. With that said, he has 14 years of first hand knowledge of the corruption and fraud that goes on behind prison walls…corruption and fraud that costs New York State millions of dollars per year. Some of the details of the corruption is so sensitive that my son will not talk about it unless it’s with the proper people whom he has tried to reach out to and I will explain below.

Some of the corruption consists of drugs, weapons, prostitutes and gambling. Most corrections officers can be “bought” for as little as a pack of cigarettes.  Anything can be bought within the prisons.

At Wende Correctional Facility, 3 women have been fired in the past several years for having sex with inmates. Two were civilian women and one was a corrections officer. These women are forced to resign and the inmates were sent to the ‘box’. Up until a few years ago, there were still 2 women officers working at Wende that are literal prostitutes and inmates pay them for sex.

Many of the woman who work inside of prisons have sex with inmates…more than one can imagine. It doesn’t matter if the inmate wears green and the officer wears blue, enough time together and the lines get crossed. Some develop a deeper relationship. These are the same women that work in the men’s blocks, walking the galleries, stopping at inmates cells and talk to them. These COs surprise men going in and out of the showers, watch them shower and have then the right to put an inmate against the wall to pat-frisk them.

As well, it comes as no surprise that there is a constant influx of drugs, alcohol and cell phones into these prisons.  Corrections Officers, and civilians that work there and inmate’s families are  3 of the ways the contraband enters the prisons. The 4th is via mail coming into the prison from inmate’s friends and family. Most of this is general knowledge…and all of it is nearly out of control.  Shawn says that there is an epidemic of the specific drugs K-2 and heroin use in the prison with overdoses happening all the time.

Something that happens beneath the radar is that COs get paid by inmates to crack open cells so that another inmate can be robbed, beaten and even raped. It also happens in the reverse, officers pay inmates to beat-up, stab or stab another inmate that the CO doesn’t like. “It is a world within a world, a community within a community,” Shawn says.

One of the crimes that is even more sensitive in nature, is officers paying each other and paying inmates to be witnesses to things that never happened, to that the officer(s) can collect a lot of money from the state. This issue (scam) costs the state millions of dollars each year as well.

My son is a loving husband, son and brother. He is very intelligent and he will go to the ends of the earth to end this corruption (as safely as possible) and to make things change. We can’t stop 100% of the corruption, however Shawn believes he knows how to stop 90-95% of it IF the right people will listen, it will work! Those millions of dollars saved yearly could then be allocated to things like education, public schools, public health care centers, hospice centers, child hunger, parks, roads…etc.  Isn’t it more important that the taxes of hard working people in New York go to the places that is needed most instead of being used to fight corruption and fraud?

Thus far, Shawn has reached out to Governor Cuomo, the Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, 2 Senators, New York State Investigator General and local attorneys. So…

** Why no response from any of them?

** Do they know about the corruption and choose to keep a blind eye for fear of the can of worms that would be opened?

** Do they assume that my son is just another inmate that has no idea of what he is talking about?

** What are they afraid of…the truth?

** Do they not care about what does go on inside of prisons?

** Is it easier to just keep handing money over to corruption and fraud…instead of stopping it all?

Questions…questions…questions!

The Governor has the power to do something about this…yet hasn’t responded to my son. Why? I believed he was a man of integrity and wanted a better New York State.

Something needs to change. Someone needs to listen to what my son has to say! Let’s help my son make these prisons safer for everyone.

Thanks for reading,

Deb