Veterans Exploited in New York Prisons at Taxpayer Expense
by prisoner John Doe

Foreword by Webmaster

     Corruption in New York State’s prison system is nothing new. The examples you could find with a simple Google search are practically endless. No doubt, such is the case across the country. A few articles posted on this Web site come up prominently in the Search Engine listings on this topic. This article was added to this Web site ten years after it was originally submitted (along with supporting documentation) by an anonymous inmate at Groveland Correctional Facility in SONYEA^[1], New York, and subsequently published in Justicia – the newsletter of the Judicial Process Commission. I have reproduced the article below, adding footnotes and bracketed comments for clarification and to cite independent sources.

     Since several inmates at that facility had subscriptions to the Justicia newsletter, a copy of this article found its way into the hands of the “counselors” – namely Mr. Frank Recchio, Ms. Abigail Kolomic and Ms. Karen Crawford, et. al.. Questions that weren’t properly answered by these three DOCS employees led to allegations of psychiatric incompetence, and was reported by the inmates to NEWS agencies, congressmen, senators, and whoever else would listen. Inmate’s letters alleging widespread corruption at the Groveland facility went unanswered – save for a single congressman – Congressman Bernie Sanders (Vermont), who initiated an investigation by the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Inspector General, who “partially” validated the slew of allegations, and issued a report which can be proven to be a cover-up prima facie^[2] if the report is read carefully. 

     It isn’t any wonder that Groveland’s “secret” had been kept since the VRTP^[3] program started, since incentives for “signing up” in the program were (among other things) segregated housing with other veterans in an “open dorm” barracks which had 3 large refrigerators and two commercial cooking ovens. Prisoners were cooking ethnic foods, pizza, and rarely ate the garbage served up in the mess hall; conditions were one step removed from one might expect at a “Club Fed” prison. The prison even has a bowling alley! (click here for complete history).

     VRTP participants were routinely threatened with transfer to other (maximum security) prisons such as Attica, Auburn or Sing-Sing^[4] if they “made waves”.

     Shortly after the article (below) about the VRTP program was published, all of the prisoners involved in the DOCS investigation and “stirring the turd” so-to-speak, were given bogus disciplinary reports and were transferred out of Groveland prison’s 1,725 landscaped acres (top photo) and sent to Attica, Auburn (bottom photo), or other NY-DOCS shit-holes. There is no doubt in this writer’s mind that although the DVA-IG’s investigation resulted in the firing of at least one Veteran’s Administration employee, because the Department of Veteran’s Affairs has no jurisdiction in a NY prison, NY-DOCS employees involved in the alleged scam were never investigated or prosecuted, and are probably still at their scams with other “programs” sub nom^[5].

     The corruption exposed at Groveland resulted in the discovery of what can only be called “collateral damage” in the case of Mr. Standley, who was mandated by NY State to complete the Substance Abuse component (ASAT) that he was denied access to because he was a Veteran, in order to get medical treatment for advanced Hepatitis-C  (viral load of over a MILLION) that he had contracted during his tour in Vietnam over 30 years prior (see article). Mr. Wright was never a drug addict or alcoholic.

     The Groveland VRTP staff lied to him and told him (and all the Veterans) he would be “covered” for “earned eligibility” under VRTP, but the VRTP program was never certified by the State, and so when VRTP was dismantled, he was mandated to attend ASAT – but he wouldn’t live to complete it because he was a late-stage Hepatitis-C case and being denied medical treatment until he completed a six-month “certified” substance abuse program. I felt that this situation was an outrage, and unconscionable, since who ever heard of compelling someone to take a 6-month long “therapy” program in order to “qualify” for medical treatment? As ridiculous as it sounds, this is precisely what was happening, and it is a matter of public record in the case Standley vs. Wright, dkt #00CV-6018-FE (WDNY, Dec 2000).

     In a brief to the court, Mr. Standley’s attorney wrote: "…the treatment of my client violates all standards of decency, and is a violation of the Geneva Convention III for the treatment of enemy prisoners of war." Mr. Standley was released in December 2000 – in time to be home with his family for (probably his last) Christmas.

     The prison system in New York – and indeed across the entire country has become a cesspool of corruption, and the crimes being committed by staff against the prisoners and the abuses that ripple back and forth between the courts and law enforcement rival those committed by the worst offenders locked up behind bars. Indeed, fully 80 percent of prisoners in this country are behind bars because of the corruption in the system, and not for any crime that was committed. With 6 to 19 times the per-capita incarceration rate of any Western European nation,^[6] the United States has transformed the criminal exploitation of prisoners into an art form. The criminals who work for the State are (conveniently) immune from criminal prosecution and civil lawsuit due to a little-known thing called “Qualified Immunity”. These people are literally above the law – but I and others have vowed to repeal this law and institute jail for judges. You can help this effort by signing the petition to end Qualified Immunity.

     This example is the tip of the tip of the tip of a very large iceberg. When you have a group of people who cannot be prosecuted for their crimes or personally sued for damages as a result of the commission of those crimes – such as false arrest, falsifying evidence, making false allegations, tampering with witnesses, obstruction of justice, or paying off judges, among a myriad of related crimes, you have an environment that is a festering cesspool of lawlessness.

     Anyone who has had any experience with the police that went as far as the courts, and almost everyone who has had any experience with the great failure of social engineering of “family services” will tell you not only is the system a total failure, but it is a travesty and a criminal enterprise worse than the Mafia. Until everyone – including those in law enforcement and the court system – are treated equally by the law, there is truly no justice in America.

“Justice depends on which side of the bull-whip you’re on.”

Veterans Exploited in New York Prisons at Taxpayer Expense
by prisoner John Doe

Published in the January 2001 Newsletter of
Judicial Process Commission
285 Ormond Street
Rochester, NY 14605
585-325-7727

(reproduced here with permission of the author and JPC)
 

     For years^[7], veterans incarcerated at Groveland Correctional Facility^[8] have been told that the Veteran’s Residential Therapeutic Program (VRTP) here was better than programs run by the Department of Correctional Services, and that participation in that program would “satisfy earned eligibility goals” and be “in full satisfaction” of all mandated programs. VRTP is an 18-month program, which is three times the length of the program run by DOCS. It was supposed to be “voluntary”, but until recently was not.  Vets were told that it was mandatory and their names were removed from facility “waiting lists” for the 6-month programs every non-vet had access to.

     3/27/99 [memo] (sent to individual inmates): “a decision has been made that successful completion of the VRTP’s substance abuse component will satisfy your earned eligibility goal…  Therefore, your name is no longer on the waiting list for ASAT”^[9].

    6/8/99 [memo] (posted in the dorms): “…if you are a veteran and need ASAT or ART^[10] (the aggression component), you will now meet these requirements through the veterans program.  Veterans are no longer on the ASAT or ART waiting list…  Failure to sign [up] may result in loss of good time”^[11].

    It turns out that none of the components is recognized by the state of New York, and it is doubtful that completion or enrollment in VRTP means anything to the parole board, since nobody has been paroled from within VRTP to my direct knowledge in over two years.^[12] I personally know all 80 vets in the dorm.  Certificate’s of Earned Eligibility are issued, but not a single vet has been paroled despite the fact that many have clean prior records, most were he gainfully employed, and are civilized human beings who gave years of their lives in the honorable service of their country.

     A letter from Don Little, program coordinator (OCS) Albany, dated 9/28/00 states: “…The substance abuse (ASAT) and aggression components (ART) are not, and have not been recognized as substitutes for the alcohol and substance abuse program, or the aggression replacement training program.  If veteran’s program participants have these needs, they are expected to address them by participating in those specific programs.”^[13]

    This letter in effect says that VRTP participants, even if they complete VRTP’s 18-month program – the one, according to the memos cited, was supposed to be “in full satisfaction” of all mandated programs [will not satisfy their earned eligibility requirements]. The programs outside of VRTP were not available to veterans because we were not on the “waiting list.” Vets were discriminated against because our bodies were needed for VRTP.  We were taught in a federally funded (through the VA) “therapy” program which was three times longer but which was never recognized in its 10 years of existence in the facility. VRTP is run by inmate “facilitators”, except for the sex-offender classes attended by both counselors.  The materials used have been identified as workbooks adapted from the state of Washington’s SAFER_[14] program, probably in violation of copyright, because SAFER never heard of this facility.^[15]

     Veterans in the program in Groveland feel that, although VRTP was intended to help veterans recover their lives and their dignity, it has been responsible for lengthening the prison stay because the programs are not recognized by the state. What are needed are the parole statistics for the men participating in the VRTP in this facility.^[16]  It is unconscionable that veterans be forced into programs that actually do them harm.  The public should demand an investigation into the program.

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