Looking out: Thanks
By Brandon Astor Jones
"I know Glenys will fill you in on the news from her [and] from me ... I first heard you were in Reidsville from ... who left a message on my tape machine on Thursday morning." — Diane L. Post
By now many readers will know that I was transferred from Jackson to the Reidsville prison on Wednesday, September 25. When I met the counsellor early that afternoon, I explained that my Australian family was — on that very same day — landing on a flight in Atlanta. My surprise transfer would emotionally traumatise not only my family but family friends as well, because she/they expected a regular visit on that Saturday, and a pre-approved "special visit" on October 2, the following Wednesday.
I gave the counsellor the names and phone number of my family in Vermont. She seemed to be genuinely concerned. After all, most of the immediate areas to Atlanta are urban while, nearly 200 miles (320 km) away, Reidsville lies in a thoroughly rural setting. If a visit was to take place, the logistics of lodging and transport would have to be rethought at great extra expense.
I did not hear from the counsellor on Thursday or Friday; and I had been trying all day on both days to place an emergency phone call. On Friday afternoon, a less than civil person brought a phone to the cell. He said that all he could get was "an answering machine". He quickly left the cell while I continued to ask him to try another number. No-one in a position of authority would answer any of my very reasonable questions; and no message came to me from the counselling staff over the weekend.
I had been held for nearly six days, and I had made the emergency nature of my transferred circumstances known, but no-one would — or could, it seemed — tell me anything.
I had been held a full seven days when a supervising counsellor informed me that I would be moved from the fourth floor to the second floor some time that Tuesday, and that visits had been arranged for my Australian family on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I was elated. I have not forgotten that no-one bothered to tell me anything for more than seven days or that my family has really been poorly treated in this matter.
The administration-to-prisoner communication system leaves a lot to be desired in such emergency situations. For the most part, the Georgia Department of Corrections is, at best, a very mean-spirited, backward, nepotistic bureaucracy. At almost every opportunity it seems to take pleasure in the dehumanisation of prisoners' families and friends. I have never had sufficient cause to praise any part of it until now. After communicating with two of my family members, I now have reason to believe that there are two humane rays of hope individually shining through in the helpful persons of those counsellors. I hope that both will accept our thanks.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the Unite States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, Georgia State Prison, HCO1, C-1-30, Reidsville, Georgia 30453, USA. Australians Against Executions is raising funds to pay for a lawyer for Brandon's resentencing trial. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 10 Palara Place, Dee Why NSW 2099. Donations to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account may also be made at any Commonwealth Bank, account no. 2127 1003 7638.]