WAKULLA GUARD J. F. Watson
-----Original Message-----
From: J.F. Watson JF_WATSON@NETTALLY.COM
Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 10:42 PM
To: kaylee1@charter.net
Subject: your site is so unrealMs. Kay lee, I have just been looking over some of your comments and rumors listed on your site. I must say someone has an imagination that's got the best of them. One article that caught my eye was the rumor concerning a young woman who was a Correctional Officer at Wakulla Correctional Institution. Ms Lee I don't know where you get your information but maybe you should check it out before you printed false statements on your web site.
The Truth of the matter is the Young lady that was killed was a Correctional Officer. The Husband that killed her was an Ex-Inmate that had recently been released from Prison. It's shame that you didn't check this out before you printed a lie. The killer was one of those Inmate types that you think would never lie.
I would also like to say I have worked around Inmates for many years, and have found that there are a lot of young men that have made bad choices and found themselves in prison. Prison is like the streets you have good and bad, the good far out weigh the bad. The bad is the ones that have always been up held in their wrong doing and still while they are in prison they can convenience their love ones they are being miss treated and abused by the system. I know that the system is not perfect but neither are the individuals that are supplying you with your information. There are so many false statements on the articles on the Wakulla Correctional Institution site alone that it's laughable
Ms. Lee, if you choose to print garbage get a can don't put it out for all to see. There are some inmates that don't appreciate your comments. at Wakulla C.I. the majority of the inmates never have a problem they are the ones that understand they have done wrong and must pay their debt for the deeds they have done. There are only a few that have problems and yes they are the ones who write to you at your request and tell you what ever and you believe it as the gospel. Ms. Lee I wish you and everyone else who thinks the way you do could work one week in the Prisons you have so quickly condemned the staff at these Institutions put up with a lot for so little you just don't have a clue. I ask please if you are going to put something on your site make sure it's the truth that's all I ask.
Oh yes Correctional Officer do make mistakes and they do get taken in by the criminal factors of the job, but if you will only see they to can be placed in prison. I know several who have violated and have went to prison. The System don't condone Bad Officers and if they are found violating they to are punished.
Mr. or Ms. Watson. I am glad that you took the time to write me without getting condescending or threatening. I've been developing a shell I don't want with officers because nearly every communication I get from them they have cussed me, offered to disembowel me, and in general showed me anger using words I would never use and seldom hear. It's refreshing to have one of you approach me like you really want to have an adult discussion.
You are under a misconception, though. These people don't write me "at my request". These prisoners find me, not the other way around. I put their stuff up at the request of them or their wives or mothers. I have going on 600 prisoners who write. I definitely don't go looking. I've had a DOC medical person turn me on to a case of an innocent man in the prison, I've even had an ex-prison minister ask me to take on two inmates he felt were getting a raw deal, and a guard has asked me to adopt one he felt was innocent and being harassed by guards. I've even been contacted by some guard's wives who are terrified of their guard husbands, so don't think this is all coming from one side. I wish you all didn't try to come off with the innocent of anything attitude. It just makes me stubborn.
It's funny, because I have always asked for guards to share their side with me, but other than a relative handful who tell me there are lots of problems with bad guards in the DOC, I get no cooperation at all. Just the usual cussing and threats and attacks against my character, and that's not useful. In fact it tends to prove the point.
I have love for all man. But I do not tolerate it well for any man with absolute power to abuse those he has power over. I have recognized over and over that most guards are doing an okay job and some, "Correctional" Officers, are even doing a really good job. I give out gold stars on the site for those who show extreme professionalism or compassion or whatever. People recommend them, I look for them, but, sigh, they are few and far between.
I am not an investigator, I am an amplifier. I do not guarantee the truth of what goes up there and I state so at the very beginning of the site. If someone reports a situation, it goes up for someone else to investigate. Thank God I am no man's judge and jury, I am a listener. And I am willing to hear both sides, but the inmates don't cuss and threaten me...guards do.
I know some inmates lie, I also know some guards lie. But I have more than the inmate's word: I have medical records, witness statements, skin off their peppersprayed backs, samples of bad food and foul smelling water, family testimony, hundreds of grievances with ignorant and uncaring answers, lawyer input etc etc .... from guards I have nothing but cuss words and a wide-eyed perpetually innocent denial.As for anything on my site being trash and lies, I began this project explaining that I cannot verify all of the information, but leave it to the reader to form his own opinion. I would not stick my neck out if I didn't feel that what goes up has some substance and needs investigating. If something is shown to have a high probability of being wrong, I will correct it.
For instance, you say the person who sent me the note about the guard that killed a family member is wrong. Since I still haven't received the newspaper article she saw, I am willing to go put a note of explanation on the page. It is my intention to present information with substance that will cause any number of investigations to force the DOC to fire bad employees - especially those who put others at risk and I stand firm that the general picture this site paints is absolutely true.Your letter was interesting. You almost made me doubt the project until your last paragraph...and then you went too far. "The system don't condone Bad Officers and if they are found violating they to are punished." That, sir, lost you your credibility.
All one has to do is read the papers, go through officers' histories (FOIA is a wonderful tool), follow the grievances on any one officer. The paper trail proves over and over that bad officers do not suffer punishment to fit their crimes. Some bad officers disappear from the compound for awhile only to reappear either right back where they started or at another prison where they soon get the same kind of reputation. Sometimes they have to hang out in the gun tower until things blow over. But most of them do not even get fired and certainly next to none of them end up in court. I will be the first to admit surprise if Frank Valdes' murderers ever own that responsibility, if the Thornton kid, "Big Red", and the little mean one, Griffith... if they pay for their crimes despite their family ties then I might begin to believe that the DOC doesn't condone Bad Officers.
No one can tell me the DOC is full of truthful honest people. When I deal directly with the DOC, they lie to me over and over. For instance, I had a warden just a week ago promise me he would go down and physically look at a man who had been hit in the head by a guard with a flashlight. Hard enough to knock the kid out. The bruise and cut were still fresh. The guard, as always, said it didn't happen. So, I get the warden to promise me he was going directly down to the hole and check for himself. I believed him. He lied to me. You call the inmates liar, but the DOC lies to me all the time. How am I to take that?
I could go on and on but I'm sure you don't want to hear more. Suffice it to say, I having serious problems believing your claims of all these lying inmates and good guy guards and bad guards who get what they should have coming to them. But I do appreciate your calm approach to the conversation.