The Incarcerated Montana Fireman
It has now been 350 days,
11 months, 14 days,
30,240,000 seconds
504,000 minutes
8400 hours
50 weeks
Each minute is an injustice.
Montana Department Of Corrections still can not or will not place Allen Whetstone into a regular CP&R class. This class is required by all inmates that enter into a correctional institution. This subject has been discussed thoroughly at the Law and Justice Meetings. Department of Corrections blames the Board of Pardons and Parole that they are going to require more from him anyway. Board of Pardons and Parole states that if DOC does not allow him to take his classes then they can’t release him. Well, Board of Pardons and Parole has at least been showing up at the Law and Justice Committee Meetings, despite the heat. Whereas DOC has not shown up at all, the Director of Department of Corrections, Mike Ferriter has not shown up once. We don’t know if it is because he believes he does not have to answer to anyone or if he knows that the system has caught up with him.
Since no one can seem to explain why an inmate cannot get into a regular class such as CP&R, the wife of Allen Whetstone called Linda Moodry, Public Information Officer at Montana State Prison. She stated that she would check into it and she did discuss it with one of the Wardens. They said that they are backed up because anytime that the Montana Parole Board has an ex-inmate on probation that returns to prison they are required to take the CP&R class again. These inmates are put on a priority list before the inmate population. We already have studies on how many are returned to prison on technical violations. This is not right nor fair that these returning inmates are put on priority to the top to take these classes while the inmate population gets shoved down the list. Allen should be on top priority since he will be going before the parole board in November. These classes take 12 weeks, so what is their reasoning beyond shoving these priorities down the list? Seems like another way to keep inmates in the system longer and have some money making on the side. Linda Moodry stated that she hopes they can indeed see where this problem is coming from and can correct it. The return rate on ridiculous technical violations are astounding. We are talking technical violations such as an ex-inmate being returned to prison for not getting permission to go to the emergency room or getting permission to get married. One from not being able to attend work and a class scheduled at the same time. Either way…if he goes to work he’s hanged, if he goes to the class he’s hanged. He cannot be in two places at one time. I didn’t know that was a cause to be incarcerated in Montana.
Also, they have taken Allen Whetstone off of his medication, again, cold turkey. Dr. Edwards has decided that he does not believe that the VA knows how to diagnose. Allen was taken off of this medication once when he first arrived at the prison, but after documents from the VA and a hearing at Montana State Prison even the prison ruled that he needed to be on the medication. He is once again starting to lose weight and having side effects. The VA and many other doctors have spoken up and stated that a prison that keeps yanking inmates off of life altering medication is inviting and instigating major health issues if not suicide with the inmates. Looking at the poor medical history of the prisons in Montana it seems like that is the very thing they are doing. How many men and women have to die before state officials start looking into this?
Allen Whetstone’s wife has been threatened to stop testifying in front of the Law and Justice Committee by one of the parole board members. He stated that “she was only making it worse for her husband when he goes before them.” That is a civil right. When is this state going to turn things around? Of course she has said she is not going to stop. The citizens of Montana need someone to speak on their behalf concerning all the atrocities that are going on within the state. Someone has to be a voice for those that have no voice, more and more people are rising up to do just that!
