by Stephen Metcalf
\n(prisoner member of the Community Church of Boston)<\/p>\n
The evil Sheriff of Nottingham lives.\u00c2\u00a0 He lives in the person of the current Sheriff of Bristol County.<\/p>\n
It seems that the Sheriff of Bristolham didn’t get the memo that said “being in prison” is the punishment.\u00c2\u00a0 He also didn’t read that piling on more and more punitive, degrading and mean-spirited sanction on peasant prisoners is really revenge and retribution.<\/p>\n
The Sheriff of Bristolham violated the law by charging his peasant prisoners $5.00 a day.\u00c2\u00a0 He illegally collected well over $750,000.00 before the Superior Court and finally the Massachusetts Appeals Court told him he was a law breaker.\u00c2\u00a0 Ironically, many of his peasant prisoners were convicted and placed in his dungeon for stealing far, far less than $750,000.00.<\/p>\n
The Sheriff of Bristolham then plotted and schemed to “right” this unmeasurable wrong perpetrated against him by the “liberal” Court.\u00c2\u00a0 He “coveted” all that free, no strings attached cash flowing into his Sheriffdom.\u00c2\u00a0 Cash he absconded from his peasant prisoners living in his dungeon.<\/p>\n
Enter FOX 25.\u00c2\u00a0 With FOX 25 beating his drum the Sheriff of Bristolham began a campaign to legally steal peasant prisoner funds.\u00c2\u00a0 He created a scapegoat.\u00c2\u00a0 All prisoners – bad!\u00c2\u00a0 Sheriff of Bristolham – good!<\/p>\n
Working the legislature like J.Edgar Hoover worked the Presidents he distorted the Massachusetts House of Representatives into supporting his scheme.\u00c2\u00a0 They voted to charge peasant prisoners $5.00 a day piling thousands of dollars of debt upon their backs.\u00c2\u00a0 Debt that follows them into their “free life” and is reported on their credit report.<\/p>\n
On May 3, 2010 the Sheriff of Bristolham appeared on the PBS Channel 2 show, “Greater Boston” with emily Rooney.\u00c2\u00a0 Regaled in all his gold leafed finery, he presented a picture of royal splendor, the image of princely power befitting a sheriff of the realm.<\/p>\n
His television appearance in a format other than FOX 25 was fraught with mis-statements, fabrications and outright distortions.\u00c2\u00a0 Emily Rooney was having none of this, dismissing his false assertions that prisoners enter prison with thousands of dollars in their pockets and are picked up in limousines.\u00c2\u00a0 The representative from Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, now called Prisoner’s Rights Coalition, neutered all the Sheriff’s distortions exposing them for what they were.<\/p>\n
It soon became obvious that the Sheriff of Bristolham was seeking to impose a fee that served no penal purpose.\u00c2\u00a0 The $5.00 a day fee was simply a vindictive and thinly masked scheme to drain peasant prisoner accounts under his care and custody.\u00c2\u00a0 He conspired a way to legally steal peasant prisoner personal funds positing, “If families of peasant prisoners have money to send prisoners then I shall garnish it for my treasury.”\u00c2\u00a0 The Sheriff of Bristolham would punish peasant prisoners further by denying them even minimum canteen.<\/p>\n
At the same time he could punish families of peasant prisoners by gouging their pockets, and in the process creating a 21st Century version of a 17th Century debtors prison.\u00c2\u00a0 Sheriff of Bristolham – Good!\u00c2\u00a0 Prisoners and their families – Bad!<\/p>\n
The bane of prisoner canteen is Keefe Canteen Corporation.\u00c2\u00a0 In this case, however, they have come the advocate for prisoners.\u00c2\u00a0 If the Sheriff of Bristolham has his way virtually no prisoner in Massachusetts will have the funds to purchase canteen.\u00c2\u00a0 Keefe Canteen Corporation sales will crash.<\/p>\n
Putting Keefe aside, the real philosophical intent of the Sheriff of Bristolham is “mean-spirited nastiness!”\u00c2\u00a0 He will not accept the fact that “being in prison” is the punishment.\u00c2\u00a0 He is hell bent and determined to bring every prisoner in his dungeon down into a state of animal encagement.\u00c2\u00a0 If that means reducing every prisoner in the Commonwealth to total degradation then so be it.<\/p>\n
When I came to prison in 2002 I arrived with $35.00 in my pocket.\u00c2\u00a0 I had already lost my job, my house, all my possessions and my good credit.\u00c2\u00a0 I arrived with only the clothes on my back which the prison promptly took away.<\/p>\n
I did not arrive in a limo.\u00c2\u00a0 I did not have thousands of dollars in my court clothes or $300.00 sneakers or the best jeans.\u00c2\u00a0 In truth, neither did most everyone else I know in prison.<\/p>\n
In 8 years, working at from .50 cents a day to $3.00 a day I have saved the princely sum of $985.00.\u00c2\u00a0 Upon release this money will hardly pay rent, food, clothing, prescriptions, drivers license, phone, transportation, training (God knows the prison provides none), and other assorted expenses, until I get a job and get back on my feet.<\/p>\n
Under the Sheriff of Bristolham’s scheme I would leave owing about $14,600.00 with no money to get back on my feet.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me ask, Sheriff of Bristolham – good?\u00c2\u00a0 Prisoners and their families – bad?\u00c2\u00a0 Every right thinking person that considers the Sheriff of Bristolham’s plan knows that it is bad if not down right evil!<\/p>\n
The real Sheriff of Nottingham was taken down by Robin Hood until the good King Richard the Lion Hearted returned from the crusades.\u00c2\u00a0 The real Sheriff of Bristolham needs to be taken down by the State Senate or the Governor.\u00c2\u00a0 Schemes such as this need to be fought with all the vaolor and integrity a modern day Robin Hood can muster.<\/p>\n
Then hopefully the good people of Bristol County with former peasant prisoners and their families will vote to elect someone willing to put “correction” back into Corrections.\u00c2\u00a0 Once and for all – voting to eliminate retribution, vindictiveness and the Sheriff of Bristolham’s pompous self-righteous pride.<\/p>\n
Prior to joining the ranks of peasant prisoners at Gardner, Steve Metcalf was a published author of humorous political commentary.\u00c2\u00a0 He is currently working on three books dealing with prison life, the parole board, and spirituality in prison.\u00c2\u00a0 He is wrapping up in a few years.\u00c2\u00a0 He is a proud prisoner member of the Community Church of Boston.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Stephen Metcalf (prisoner member of the Community Church of Boston) The evil Sheriff of Nottingham lives.\u00c2\u00a0 He lives in the person of the current Sheriff of Bristol County. It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1249,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390\/revisions\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.communitychurchofboston.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}