Last updated on 2021-03-06
In the spirit of Governor Kristi Noem’s call to identify with the downtrodden, I consider renaming my series of letters from the South Dakota State Penitentiary, “The Pen: We’re All In It™.”
In this installment, inmate Shane Bell talks about practicing Buddhism in prison and his legal fight for his right to do so:
I’m curious as to why these folks are writing to you, Cory.
They don’t have access to Dakota Free Press, do they?
Conquer the angry man by love.
Conquer the ill-natured man by goodness.
Conquer the miser with generosity.
Conquer the liar with truth.
(Dhammapada)
I would call the elderly fellow in the wheelchair, who moved the mop and then told the mop owner the other Buddhist fellow moved it, a “prison troll.” It is swell that the Buddhist and the fellow who got trolled got to have a gravy laden breakfast together and shower and play basketball together, but the prison troll snickered himself to sleep that night.
Let this be a cautionary tale to you all: Prison is just like the Blogosphere, and do not mess with elderly fellows in wheelchairs.
Mr. Bell asked what people think.
grudznick thinks the taxpayers could have saved a lot more than the $25,000 for his books if he had kept his nose clean and not been such a criminal and fiend and didn’t have to get locked up wasting far, far more than the $25,000 of taxpayer dollers.
Mr. Bell, if you can read this, you sir, your very existence, is costing taxpayers giant amounts of money. YOU, sir, are the problem, and taxpayers must foot the bill for your stupidity.
I think it’s a shame that there are people like the old guy in the wheelchair who just like to cause harm and see people hurt. In essence, I always figure they must be particularly miserable people. The sad thing is that they exist everywhere- workplaces, activities, recreational facilities, everywhere.
Grudz is DFP’s sad little man who’s meager pleasure, such as it is, comes from trying to be mean. The good part is those types help the rest of us practice our patience and wisdom, just as Mr. Bell so well did in prison. I think we DFPers handle our little pest well too.
Kudos to Mr. Bell. I’d like to see all policies and laws vetted very carefully by constitutional experts before being enacted.
Perhaps if the people making the proposals had a little skin in the game, they’d be more careful. For instance, if they’d be on the hook personally for, say, 10% of the expenses, I bet they’d be much more careful.
NoMa’am has already had ____ laws tossed out of court at a cost of $_______ to the good citizens of SD. If 10% of the attendant costs came out of her pocket, I’ll bet those numbers would be Zero and Zero.
… sad little man
CIRD, I don’t know what all prisoners are allowed to read in the Interwebs. But I’m happy to provide support to folks anywhere who are challenging abuses of power committed by South Dakota officials.
Just last month, Judge Veronica Duffy ruled that Pen employees were violating the state’s settlement by retaliating against inmate Bell for winning his lawsuit: “Mr. Bell alleges defendants have violated this provision. He asserts that prison employees repeatedly have discussed within his hearing a plan to have Mr. Bell moved to ‘A floor,’ a location within the prison used for prisoners who are being disciplined. Furthermore, Mr. Bell alleges these same employees call him names like ‘rat,’ ‘lawyer rat,’ ‘Buddha rat,’ and others. He also asserts these prison employees give other prisoners information about Mr. Bell…. Those allegations support an inference of acts by defendants and their employees that are designed to harass, worry, and endanger Mr. Bell’s safety among his fellow prisoners. This may very well constitute ‘unlawful adverse effects.’ At the very least, these actions are not within the spirit of paragraph 3c of the parties’ agreement.”
When the state signs a settlement, it has an obligation to honor the settlement, even with convicts.
Sigh. I sometimes think government is among the worst at keeping its word.
Goodness, Mr. H. Name-callers, you say?
Shallow and selfish little mind …
as if a federal judge’s order like “Don’t retaliate” has any meaning among the human scum who choose to go to prison every day and enforce the chickens**t rules there. Right.
Bob’s right. Those fellows are almost as bad as corporate narcs.