Kindness
"If you wish to file a complaint for a violation of your civil rights under 42 U.S.C. 1983 ... [t]he court requires parties instituting civil actions to pay a $150.00 filing fee." — C.A. Long
The Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP) falls within the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. It is a federal court and therefore the only regional judicial body that can give state prisoners relief from the tyrannical behaviour of administrators.
Readers may or may not know that the GDCP's administrators are trying to end much of death row prisoners' foreign correspondence by instituting US postage stamp restrictions upon prisoners.
Attached to these restrictions are various sub-restrictions, too numerous to detail in this space, that deny death row prisoners timely access to state and federal courts as well.
The effect of these restrictions can be deadly when you consider that courts often impose 10-, 20-, 30-, 60- and 90-day time limits in which legal motions and documents can be submitted. Sometimes it takes 10 days just for a letter to leave the GDCP.
I have decided to bring a civil action against the GDCP. According to C.A. Long, the pro se law clerk for the Middle District of Georgia, I will need $150 just to file the proposed civil action.
So then, this is a plea for funds to do that. If you would like to help, please make your donations payable to: Mr Bill Barlow, Orchardton Stables, Auchencairn, North Castle Douglas DG7 1QL, South West Scotland, UK.
Please be sure to include a note bearing your full name and address, all of which he will pass along to me, so that I can in turn send you a note of thanks for your generosity and kindness.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns (include your name and full return address on the envelope, or prison authorities may refuse to deliver it). He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-63, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]