For those who don't know Gary Waid, he was arrested for the first and only
time in his life in his 40s and charged with smuggling marijuana.  It seems
to be a moot point that they could produce no drugs in evidence: The word of
a snitch was enough to arrest Gary, and the threats of law enforcement were
enough to scare him into foregoing his trial. He was sentenced to nine years
in federal prison.

Gary does not claim to be innocent.  He did his 5 years in Federal prison
stoically and would have been out by now, except that he was traded to the
state of Florida like a baseball card and, despite the rules, lost all that
his good behavior had earned him before he was dragged down to the state
level.
Now you'll pay to illegally keep him for those extra years.

The point here is that people charged with non-violent crimes live in the
same horrendous conditions of human warehousing that those charged with
violent crimes do - conditions that are unfit for animals, conditions that
reflect the fear-mongering of faulty statistics and political rhetoric, and
conditions that do not meet the minimum standards of care demanded by state
and federal laws and international treaties.  And you pay for it!

The nearly 30 year old Drug War flies in the face of reason and justice -
always has, always will. It is the product of a 60 year old prohibition that
has cost us a fortune; and because of mandatory minimums and the conditions
we allow prisons to impose, will cost us so much more in the years to come
in health care, disrespect for authority by large numbers of citizens, and
an on-going battle that seems never-ending.

Go ahead and tell me that "you do the crime, you do the time".  Although it
has been proven that there are many far less expensive alternatives to
incarceration for the 65% of our two million prisoners who are not violent
people, we continue to pay the incredible costs of mass incarceration with
no victory in sight.
And I'll just ask you, "Why?"

If you agree there has to be a better way, write a letter to the editor of
you local paper and call a politician.  Go ahead: Ask them when this war on
American soil will be over.

Kay Lee
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
THE SMUGGLER'S TALES FROM JAILS
by
PODW Gary Brooks Waid
Federal prisoner Number. 24582-034
Illegal Florida prisoner Number 124551

I am Gary Waid, Federal Prisoner no. 24582-034.  If you were to call the
Federal Inmate Locator Number, you might get a pleasant voice telling you
that Gary Waid is an incarceree at the Federal Halfway House facility in
Montgomery, Alabama.  They've said this for years.

It's not true though.  Never has been.  I'm in Florida, lost in a system of
rotten politics and lies.  My friend and soul mate, Kay Lee of [Making the
Walls Transparent] and Journey For Justice, has asked the voice on the phone
why they say this thing, but they won't tell her.  They won't say anything
at all.

In 1998 the Federal Bureau of Prisons, in exchange for 30 of what they call
Joint Task-Force Inmates that Florida was threatening to release, traded 30
non-violent, first time, mostly drug offenders to the Florida Department of
Corrections. The Task-Force inmates were lifers, and the sleight of hand was
political, a cozy deal done between Janet Reno's Justice Department and the
Governor of Florida, Lawton Chiles. They manufactured an Executive Order and
the Governor signed it. Then, using the Executive Order, they took away all
my rights and broke one state law and at least three Federal laws-by
shipping me off to Florida in chains.

No one cared about the law, though.  Normally executive orders are used to
create national parks or pardon politicians.  In times of national emergency
they do terrible things, like authorizing the internment of 120,000 Japanese
Americans during World War II.  My inclusion in the trade did not conform to
statute law or the U.S. Constitution.  And I lost all of what I was striving
for plus 18 months or more taken from my life. I should have gone to a
halfway house this past December.
Instead, they'll keep me until June of 2002 or longer.

I am in prison for my involvement with marijuana.

I am in a Florida prison because I was a well-behaved, non-litigious idiot.

I've been down a while (since 1994) and my sentence was only to be 85% of 9
years-less a year and some halfway house time for the Federal Drug and
Alcohol program recommended by my judge.  But because Florida is picking up
a check, getting a rebate on my body, I was pulled from consideration for
the program. In addition, I was treated as less than human (many of the
state guards thought I was a federal spy), threatened repeatedly, and
transferred through no less than five state facilities including an
emergency removal for my own protection because the hacks at Florida State
Prison in Starke (work camp) actually wanted to beat me for exercising my
First Amendment rights.  I've lost my place on a roll of inmates allowed
schooling or a right to halfway house.

The State of Florida gives me nothing but a hard time, actually, so I write.
The novel Jimmy Duppy was smuggled out of Florida State Prison Work Camp. It
will be published, soon we hope, but although a contract has been offered,
Mr. Stephen Everett, my agent, says we'll get a better deal.  So we're
waiting.

I invite you to read my other stories, though, and to run my name on your
search engine. You'll discover some nasty truths about Florida's Corrections
bureaucracy.  You'll get it right from the idiot's mouth.  In fact, I'm
probably the only Federal non-violent, first time marijuana prisoner to ever
spend a bit of quality time on Florida's Death Row (G-Wing, F.S.P.) for
writing a letter to the Miami Herald.

Enjoy.
Gary Waid,  P.O.D.W.  1-20-01

The Smuggler's Tales From Jails
http://www.angelfire.com/la/kaylee/tales.html

His Novel, Jimmy Duppy is introduced at:
www.JimmyDuppy.com

Gary Waid is now at the "Geriatric" prison called River Junction Work Camp
[ http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/fci/junction.html ]

You can write to Gary at:
Gary Brooks Waid
#124551 E-1124
River Junction Work Camp
300 Pecan Lane
Chattahoochee, Fl 32324

MAKING THE WALLS TRANSPARENT
http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/starke

Journey for Justice
http://www.journeyforjustice.org

Kay Lee
1290 Overlook Terrace
Titusville, Florida 32780
321-383-3000