Dear Committee, It’s been quite some time since I’ve heard from you, and probably even longer since I’ve written you back. I hope you are in good health and spirits, continuing to do your part in speaking out on the injustice done to those convicted of drug crimes and those sucked into the huge vacuum of drug activities. The year 2002 has not been rewarding for me. I could give you a litany of things gone wrong, but I’ll save the ink. I am presently in isolation (essentially the hole) at a different prison than when we last corresponded. My infraction? Refusing to work (in the prison’s factory) for free! With me it’s a matter of principle. Why should I take on a job – they call it a “detail” – for no pay or incentive (like time off my sentence)? It’s akin to being a slave! I’ve been imprisoned for 12 years, at 4 different facilities. This is the first facility that has tried to force me into slavery. The hole is their “whip.” The amount of days I remain in the hole is the number of “lashes from their whip” I can endure! I may very well die in the hole one day. But I will have died while standing up for a PRINCIPLE, not while lying down for slavery! To compound matters, my outside connections and correspondence have been obliterated (not by the prison). One close relative passed away, the others simply faded away. Twelve years in prison will do that to relationships. I am not in the habit of asking favors, and I hardly have the heart to do so now, but I can’t think of any place to go for help (which underscores my desperation). I need about $100. Here’s what it is requested for. $74.79 will go to USA TODAY for a six month subscription. It is the only way I now have of keeping up with national and world issues, my last link to society, a modicum of freedom, if you will. The other $24 I would use to purchase stamps, envelopes, and paper. When I’m unable to write, it feels as if I’m choking. I have so much material inside my head. Oppression brings out truth and expression. Now I cannot promise to repay the money any time soon. But I’ll receive $150, some time in January, for second place in a poetry contest. I placed second with a poem I’d written 6 years before but had not submitted to a contest since then. (I enclose a copy of the original.). If you can do what I have asked, please send a money order to USA Today [Reginald goes into details of the transaction.] I would like to know how the web site is coming along. Would you like me to write an article for the site? Please bring me up to date. I remain a POW but NEVER A SLAVE! Sincerely, Reginald Alexander
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