FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLORADO
Civil Action 14-cv-00245
MATTHEW HALE
Plaintiff
V.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS
Defendant
AMICUS COMMENTARY TO MOTION FOR LEAVE (DOCUMENT 236) TO RESTRICT
COMES NOW, Helen Hall a sixty three (63) year old Women, concerned citizen and friend of the Plaintiff Matthew Hale. I have read document 236.
Efforts on my part to communicate with Mr. Hale were badly confused and denied when a greeting card sent to him at PO BOX 8500 was returned to me un-opened., with a yellow sticker informing me that the card was " not deliverable as addressed, unable to forward" I asked Evelyn Hutcheson, Mr. Hale's mother, what was going on and I learned other people had had mail returned to them for the same reason, eventually she mailed me a copy of a letter she had received from the Bureau of Prisons(hereinafter BOP) stating that the correct address was not 8500 but 8000. A check of the BOP website showed that the mailbox number listed was 8500 , the same number it has always been. I further verified this with a call to the prison, during which an unidentified male stated that the Florence ADMAX mailbox had not been changed.
Unsure what was going on, I mailed letters to both boxes and eventually learned Matt was getting letters sent to either box. There was no reason the card that I sent should be returned. When I looked today, July 2, on bop.gov, I see it shows the address as PO BOX 8500. This "game" by the BOP is only one example of the unlawful harassment Matthew Hale is experiencing while he is helpless in their "charge".
Also, 2017 I received four or more "returned correspondence" forms from Complex Warden John Fox. Two, dated May 10th, 2017 and May 31st, 2017, respectively indicated that my letters contained "Security threat group related information" while one form dated September 29th 2017, stated that my letter contained "gang related information". I believe that one of the May letters was returned (unopened) because I addressed Matt as "Rev" on the envelope. Because I had been corresponding with Mr. Hale for many years about Creativity and addressing him as "Rev" I did not know why my letters were now being labelled "gang" related and I considered it a very bad joke on the part of the prison staff. Later I found out that all references to the church were being censored.
At that time, Mr. Hale asked his correspondents to "black out" all words relating to his faith, "Creativity" on returned mail and to resend the letters. I did so, but as I recall, the prison rejected the blacked out letters too. At this time, the second half of 2017, I began to send simple greeting cards hoping to make it through the censors, but with mixed success, as described above.
I have no criminal record, beyond a few traffic tickets, and I am not in a gang. Creativity is philosophy of life and is not, nor has ever been, "gang related." Frankly I believe that the Fist amendment to the United States constitution guarantees "freedom of (not from!) religion" As Matthew Hale's religious beliefs come under the name, Creativity, the BOP's heavy handed censorship is decidedly unconstitutional.
America's prisons are full of actual gang members who are treated better than a man who has committed no crime, or even consider committing same. Yet, for all his innocence, because the establishment hates Matthew Hale's vision of the world, he is incarcerated for forty years, fifteen of which he has spent in solitary confinement being harassed and tortured by a penal system that obviously answers to nothing and no one- including the constitution. It is time for this travesty of justice to end and for Matthew Hale to be freed from durance vile.
SUBMITTED JULY 3RD 2018 BY HELEN HALL
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