cannabisnews.com: Inmate Moved After Writing Accusatory Letters!





Inmate Moved After Writing Accusatory Letters!
Posted by FoM on August 17, 1999 at 15:35:28 PT
By Steve Bousquet, Capital Bureau Chief 
Source: Miami Herald
A convicted marijuana smuggler serving time in Florida was moved over the weekend from a low-security work camp to a high-security lockup amid accusations that he used the prison's computer to write letters to The Herald and other newspapers.
In those letters, inmate Gary Brooks Waid, 49, joined the chorus of prisoners accusing guards of brutality. And in the tense atmosphere following the fatal beating of Death Row prisoner Frank Valdez, Waid's charges are being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and his temporary transfer has drawn intense scrutiny.Late Monday, Waid was back at the work camp with other white-collar criminals, away from the killers and rapists down the road at Florida State Prison -- the place where Valdez died a month ago after a confrontation with guards. Waid's brief journey speaks volumes about the climate in the Florida prison system since Valdez died.Shortly after Waid was moved last Friday, his lawyer was demanding explanations, and a friend, Kay ``Grandma'' Lee of Key West, was sending urgent e-mail messages to Florida newspapers and to inmates-rights groups around the country, pleading with them to take up Waid's cause.Prison officials took pains Monday to describe Waid's three-day transfer to the closest prison as a necessary move while they look into charges of misuse of state property -- a computer in the work camp law library.``He is not a security risk at the moment. We're moving him back to O Unit,'' said Florida State Prison Warden James Crosby, using prison jargon for the work camp. ``We wanted him separated from any access to the computer until we could have someone go through the computer and check it. We have everything he had on the computer. We had to remove him over the weekend until we could get an expert to look at it.''Letter not typical Prisoners' letters to the outside often are written in painstakingly precise handwriting, a reflection of the amount of time inmates have.Not Waid's.His three-page letter to The Herald on July 28 is neatly typewritten and articulately phrased, with key words italicized for emphasis. Describing himself as an apprentice law clerk, Waid said that since Valdez's death, ``more and more inmates are coming to me to help them with their affidavits.''``They don't like a prisoner who's able to articulate himself,'' said Waid's lawyer, Donald Cohn of Miami. ``He's one of the people they don't like because he's exercising the rights he has. This was, in effect, a form of punishment that was given to Gary because he's not the kind of inmate you normally get.''Waid, formerly of Merritt Island on Florida's Space Coast, was convicted four years ago of conspiring to smuggle two tons of marijuana on a fishing trawler from Jamaica to Florida over several years. He got a nine-year sentence in a federal prison and wasn't supposed to be in state custody in the first place.He was one of about 30 minimum-security federal prisoners swapped last November for 30 violent state offenders, many of them murderers who came to the United States during the 1980 Mariel Boatlift. The prisoner swap had been advocated by state officials.Record defended His lawyer says Waid had an unblemished record while in federal custody and that he'd probably be in a halfway house by now if he hadn't been transferred to Florida State Prison's work camp last November.``We're now in the process of doing whatever we can to get him out of there and get him back into federal custody,'' Cohn said. ``He was in the worst place they could have put him.''Corrections spokesman C.J. Drake said some e-mails on Waid's behalf came from people involved in efforts to legalize marijuana use. But he said Waid's transfer back to the camp was not a result of any complaints made by Waid's supporters on the outside.``There's a heightened sense of awareness by prison management when it comes to conducting internal investigations,'' Drake said. ``The Valdez incident has created an environment in which prisoners feel they have a forum to rehash allegations against the prison system.''Waid's Internet home page, set up by his friend, Kay Lee, is entitled ``A smuggler's tales from jails.'' On it, Waid describes Florida's prisons as ``factories of hate and violence.'' A biography written by his brother says Waid was a promising musician -- a onetime professional trombonist with the Florida Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra who got into shrimping and from there ``became enticed into the marijuana trade.''e-mail: sbousquet herald.comPublished Tuesday, August 17, 1999 Copyright 1999 Miami Herald 
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 18, 1999 at 16:48:25 PT:
Related Article
8/18/99 6:08 PMTampa Bay Onlinehttp://tampabayonline.net/Prison Tries To Counter Code-Of-Silence Image With Tour, Video STARKE, Fla. (AP) - Hoping to counter a code-of-silence image and several abuse claims since an inmate's death sparked a high profile probe, officials at Florida State Prison say they want the prison system more open to scrutiny. Towards that end, officials offered a tour of this top security prison in north Florida's Bradford County on Wednesday and showed a video of a recent incident in which an inmate claimed abuse. Since death row inmate Frank Valdes died July 17 at Florida State Prison and state officials began a murder investigation into his death, the prison system - particularly FSP - have been under a media and law enforcement microscope. Nine guards have been suspended while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates whether Valdes - in prison for the 1987 murder of correctional officer Fred Griffis - died at the hands of guards. So far, no charges have been filed, although the FDLE has said Valdes was beaten to death. Newspapers and state officials have received several complaints of abuse of inmates. Lawmakers have asked prison officials for information on the FSP wing where Valdes died and the FBI has been asked to help look into the surge in complaints. ``We need to be more open with our institutions,'' said Florida State Prison Warden James Crosby. ``We need to give people a chance to see what we do.'' Crosby said that has not happened in the past. ``That's what's caused the mystique, the gothic interpretations,'' he said As a gesture of the new openness, Crosby led reporters on a tour of the prison that houses Florida's electric chair, including ``X-wing'', the wing where Valdes died. The corridor where Valdes got into a fight with guards trying to take him out of his cell is a crime scene now, its cells empty. The other inmates who were there have been moved as potential witnesses. The door to Valdes' spartan 7-by-9-foot cell, Number 2202, is taped shut with red evidence tape. Officials also showed off changes made since Valdes died, including putting mounted video cameras on the hallways of ``X-wing,'' and videotaping all encounters between guards and inmates where force might have to be used. Crosby showed the first use of force recorded since the new videotaping policy was implemented, partly to counter a recent abuse claim. Duane M. Leach, 33, claimed in a grievance that an officer struck him with his fist during an incident August 9. But the video Crosby showed reporters of a 4 1/2-minute confrontation between guards and Leach shows three guards restraining the inmate without ever striking him. Leach had been verbally abusive earlier, Crosby said, leading guards to begin videotaping their encounters with him that day. On the tape, after Leach says: ``I'm going to make them kill me,'' he twice tries to kick a guard in the head. One officer can be seen pushing Leach back into a cell with an open hand, but doesn't appear to strike the inmate. ``Abuse can be in the eye of the beholder,'' Crosby said. ``At least now you are going to have a visual record.'' Copyright 1999 Associated Press
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