MAIL HAS BEEN ALLOWED TO REACH RECIPIENTS AT THE MONROE COUNTY JAIL
by Sharon Rondeau
(Dec. 21, 2010) — The Post & Email was informed this morning that the appeals form sent by The Post & Email to Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III at the Monroe County jail has reached him, along with a Christmas card mailed the same day. A card addressed to another inmate, Mr. Richard Joe Crawley, Jr., has also reportedly been delivered.
We were informed that the box of Christmas cards donated by an area church for the inmates to address and send to relatives was considered “contraband” according to jail rules because the envelopes had prepaid postage on them and therefore could not be distributed to the inmates. This raises the question as to why the jailers accepted the box of Christmas cards and envelopes with the prepaid postage in the first place, knowing that they could not be used by the intended recipients.
When a visitor arrived last Wednesday at the jail with a packet of legal forms for Mr. Fitzpatrick, the visitor was told that he could not leave anything for an inmate; it had to be sent by U.S. mail. The package was mailed the next day from Georgia.
The Post & Email asked Mr. Fitzpatrick about his well-being, given the assault which occurred last week, and his response was “Everybody in Cell #4 is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances.”
When we inquired as to the conditions in the jail following the inspection which reportedly took place on December 7, 2010, Mr. Fitzpatrick said that there are still “showers that don’t work; hot and cold water does not work; mold…”
The telephone connection was cut off shortly after that wherein we could hear Mr. Fitzpatrick but he couldn’t hear us. Whenever a call is accepted from the jail, it is collect, and an operator’s voice states, “All phone calls are subject to monitoring and/or recording. You have 15 minutes. Thank you for using Eagle Cell and NCIC.”
Today we did not have 15 minutes, for whatever reason.