Latest from Wil

Wm. J. Hetherington # 186155
Saginaw Correctional Facility
9625 Pierce Road
Freeland, Michigan
48623
USA

Barry Jernigan

3/26/2007

RE: HOW'S IT GOIN OUT THERE IN THE FREE WORLD

Barry,

It's been a while since I heard from you so I thought that I would drop a note to say hello. I have restrained myself from calling and hopefully this has removed some of the oppression from you as I never intended it to be a negative.

The Governor says she is releasing over 5,000 prisoners before the end of the year. I can only pray that I can be one of them. There is a big budget crunch and this is only when they admit that they can release this many prisoners who don't actually need to be locked up, anyway! I wonder what the ratio of male to female prisoners will be in the final numbers? There are 51,000 total prisoners right now. Only about 7-10,000 females total on the outside margin. So, it would be an interesting statistic to find out exactly what the ratio of male to female prisoners that actually get released in this budget crunch!?!?!?? The public can go to www.michigan/gov.com and then go to the corrections link. Find the annual statistic book they offer free to the public. Request the actual numbers of male - v - female prisoners released from 1 / 1 / 2007 through 1 / 1 / 2008 ..?????

No Michigan prisoner can foia anything! We are barred by statute (MCL 15.231) Michigan Compiled Laws .. from obtaining any foia request of any kind of information! I cannot even foia pages out of my own MDOC files!!! I can get my medicla [sic] records but NOTHING else! Think of this for a moment? This is SIBERIA...

I appreciate every iota of your assistance over the years! I mean this in all sincerity and with a genuine fraternal thankfulness!

Few could even imagine the fatigue, mental demeaning process, and/or the stress levels generated from over 20 years of continuous incarceration! This ain't been no picnic! In fact, I have coined the phrase : " THIS IS WHAT TWO DECADES OF HARD TIME LOOKS LIKE " .. when, pointing to the premature aging my appearance reflects! The recent medical problems really took a toll on my beyond what words can even explain. I appreciate your compassion in all you have done for me. I will never forget it!!!

Barry, I did as you instructed me to do with the funds you sent me. I made it stretch as far as humanly possible! I simply am without at the present time. I can only ask and hope that you know this man would not ask if there was nay [sic] other way for me to survive this hell on earth of a place! I never had to ask nobody for nothing in my life until I wound up in prison! I worked from the time I was 15 years old. I held a job at a gas station from 15:30 - 23:00 every weekday even during the school year. Then, on weekends I worked double shifts. I worked at GM for almost 15 years right up until my arrest. I would have been retired by now!

Having said all of this, if you can please help me it would be greatly helpful to me. These are times more difficult than ever before, for me, in here! I struggle and beg for help and it hurts me deep down in my soul! I can only hope that you can hear this cry form [sic] the wilderness and the pain from which it is vented?

My own sister chides me for just calling to see how my family is doing! She is my only link now that my Mother has passed on. I do not have family that I can ask for help or I would never bother you or anyone else! The letter I wrote to the NCFM Transitions paper got printed on a delay of months. I asked for help back in about October or early November 2006 ... and by the time you and one or tow [sic] others responded it was 2007. I ordered the socks, boxes, t-shirts, shoes, and a footlocker I desperately needed. That took every cent that I got. I wrote a thank you letter in response. The reason that I needed everything is because I had counted on them paroling me the last time! I wore the things I had to actual thread bear [sic] status! Then when they denied me parole I was in a survival mode! The few things the prison issues us are not much at all! In fact, the shoes wear sores on my feet just from wearing them on a transfer or visit (on the rare times that I might get one). The brief shorts are not wearable so I don't. The t-shirts are ok but we only get 3. The socks are thin as sheet material. We only get 5 pair. The laundry system is what makes it bad. We send in our laundry twice a week (some facilities only once a week) so while our stuff is gone 2 - 3 days... we are just out of luck if we don't have our own stuff to wear. I know that this don't even explain it how bad it really is and words can't begin to tell someone who has never had too [sic] go through this mess!

Bottom line is that I got the things that I so desperately needed. However, it took everything that I had. I am having to use my good legal typing paper as I don't even have funds to get the typing paper they sell in the inmate store. This is the paper I reserve for the courts when I am able to file. I guess that I am feeling sorry for myself and should pull myself up by my boot straps and hope that they will let me go. I have stood in faith believing since 1 9 9 7. They have held me for over 10 years past my minimum sentence! That is an whole prison sentence by itself! I know that they would never hold a female prisoner like this! I am so sick of this morass that I could just throw in the towel, sometimes, when I really think it through! Not one law firm will take my case, why not??? If I was jew, black, female, or hispanic they would be coming out of the woodwork to take my case! Man, this is a screwed up system to never have been able to have my appeal of right or appeal my false conviction!

I gotta go ... I get so depressed just on a day by day basis thinking of all this mess. Then, when I have to write to ask for help it really gets to me! I am sorry for ever being a bother in any way ever! I never meant to be!

Fraternally,

Wil