Serendipity

Corruption...Fraud, Gambling, Prostitution, Extortion, Drugs, Physical/Emotional/Sexual abuse… It sounds like your everyday criminal activity, right? It is, but in a place you’d least expect it. Inside prison walls. The very place we send those to stop this kind of criminal activity. But it doesn’t stop them. They are criminals after all. I hate to burst your bubble but it’s not the inmates that I am talking about. I am referring to the criminal activities that are committed on a daily basis by the correction officers themselves. The very officers we hold to a higher standard and believe they risk their lives daily while working in these prisons, keeping control of the “criminals” sentenced there. Some of us look at these men and women officers with a high degree of respect. We have all seen commercials on TV or heard ads on the radio telling the state and every community how they risk their lives every day asking us to donate money and support these officers that work f...

[ 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 F...

window looking outside...7/5/13 A new story has begun in my life...one of beauty...one of sorrow. In the week ahead, I will begin at the beginning, but for now, I am starting here, where the biggest travesty is occurring. Michael, my boyfriend, has hit rock bottom. In the last 6 months or so, things evolved which were completely out of his control. His own brother attempted to kill him while high on crack; he lost his unemployment weeks ago; was evicted from the place he was living because he couldn't pay his rent; had to surrender his car because he was unable to pay for it; and now...he's had to turn to welfare for help.  (As a side note, he had been living in New Orleans up until 6 months ago, returning 'home' to New York.) I was with him when he applied for emergency help at the Department of Social Services...and watched as it tore him to pieces to have to be this low in his life, and saw how the whole process of applying and being interviewed shredd...