Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

Time to send a holiday card to a prisoner

December 2nd, 2020

Anyone who knows a prisoner knows how important it is to them to receive mail, especially at this time of year. Many prisoners receive no outside support at all.

I don’t care if you send a Christmas card, a holiday card, or whatever. Neither will they.

Here is a list of prisoners who’d be delighted to get a card.

Unfortunately, New Hampshire prisoners are not allowed to receive greeting cards of any sort, picture postcards, or any typewritten or printed material. Only handwritten letters on stock paper are permitted.

-Bob Chatelle

Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

A Prison Post from Shane Crum: COVID Behind Bars

November 30th, 2020

“Earlier this year, when the outbreak of covid-19 first became a national issue, Marion Correctional Institution in Ohio made international news. I wrote several e-mails to my friend, who turned them into a blog. The administration here was making some bad decisions which led to over 90% of the inmate population getting infected. Among those decisions was the moving of inmates who tested negative into a lock by themselves. This may seem like a great idea, but they could not say which inmates were infected and who still tested negative. The experts on TV were telling everyone who tested positive to “shelter in place”, and here we were moving inmates all around the institution. At one point, it got so crazy, that inmates who had tested negative, were placed in locks and cells with inmates who tested positive. I wish this were the only issue back then. It had all the appearances of an attempt to infect the whole population.”

Read the rest of Shane’s post.

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Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

Frank Fuster: More about my Cases

November 21st, 2020

Greetings from my heart.

My two convictions from Miami Dade County share certain aspects in common. Let’s examine three of them:

1) The family of some of the children were employed as law enforcement agents, such as police officials and assistant district attorneys for Janet Reno. This fact is key to understanding the fact that these influential and powerful persons relied on their official positions to ask Miami Dade County State Attorney Janet Reno to file false charges against me. Miss Reno desperately wanted their votes and their friendship. When Miss Reno conspired with them to frame me with bogus evidence; and acted outside the legal perimeter of the law, she did it for political reasons as well. She did it for votes to win her reelection bit. This fact was published by Free Lance Investigative Reporter Ms Debbie Nathan, through her book: Satan’s Silence, in connection to my second conviction, i.e., Case #84-19728-A, known nationally as The Country Walk Case. Ms. Nathan’s book is mostly a rejection of the false allegations that were made against me and my young wife Iliana, by Jan Hollingsworth, who was one of our neighbors; and a Janet Reno’s acquaintance. The purpose of Hollingsworth 600 page illusive book Unspeakable Acts, which she created out of her imagination from the omniscient point of view; and the ABC movie that followed that book, was to provide support to Janet Reno’s fabricated charges against my wife and I; and to provide support to the parents’ civil actions. In out of court settlements, those parents in the Country Walk Case collected up to $1,200,000.00 per child (Eleven children in total). Ms. Nathan’s book reveals that Hollingsworth was hired to draft the book by Laurie and Joseph Braga, who played a major role in assisting Janet Reno in the gross job of manipulating the tender minds of the Country Walk children.

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Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

Frank Fuster Prison Post: The Truth about my Convictions

November 18th, 2020

“I am aware of the fact that, the current circumstances of my human experience, i.e., being incarcerated under horrible allegations of crimes against children under the age of ten years old, have effectively eliminated; or reduced to a minimum, my credibility. Therefore, I ask myself: Why should anyone believe anything that I write? After all, Janet Reno had me convicted twice of child molestation, thus assassinating my character in the process. Anyone could argue that I have been in denial since 1981, even though that is very hard to believe; and that I can declare all the allegations that I want in pursue of my objectives.”

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Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

Post from Frank Fuster: Spiritual Beliefs

November 10th, 2020

“Through this second blog, I am going to share with you an important part of my world of thoughts, in a good faith effort to start the long process to undress my brain before you. I like to address my spiritual life at this onset, because one’s spiritual life influences every thought of the human brain. I will begin by informing you that I do not subscribe to any organized religion. In fact, in the prison I am currently registered as a humanist. Prior to that, I dedicated many years to evaluate some of the main religions of our planet. I determined that all of them serve the ego’s thought system. Having said that, I know that God is, and that because God is, I Am. Further, I subscribe to the metaphysical spiritual knowledge imparted by “A Course In Miracles” (WWW.acim.org) (Available in all the main languages of this world); and, up to a point, to other similar schools of spiritual thoughts.”

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Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

A Prison Post from Frank Fuster

November 6th, 2020

Most readers of this blog will remember Frank Fuster. His was perhaps the most notorious of the bogus daycare hysteria cases of the 80’s and early 90’s. While just about everyone else wrongfully convicted in these cases has been released, some with and some without exoneration, Frank is still behind bars. A forgotten man.

But he has started a blog from his prison cell. Here is his first post.

You may refresh yourself about his case at his web site.

Subscribe to his blog.

Contact Frank with a message of support.

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Frank Fuster has been forgotten for far too long.

Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

A New Prison Post from Shane Crum: Grievance Procedure

October 21st, 2020

“In one of my posts, I discussed the issue with the inmate rules of conduct procedures. Well, that is not the only problem with how inmates are treated in these institutions. The inmate grievance procedure is every bit as corrupt and dysfunctional.”

Read the rest of Shane’s post.

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Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

A very important message from Bill Dobbs

October 19th, 2020

The Dobbs Wire:  Time sensitive request.  Do you have a friend or loved one who is locked up in jail, prison or a sex offense civil commitment facility?  They may be eligible for a $1,200 stimulus payment and not know it, or unsure what to do.  Please send them information and forms so they get a chance at a check like everyone else!  Get the materials to them quickly as time is short.  For individuals who need to file a form to get a payment, the postmark deadline for paper filings is Nov. 4.  For those with internet access the deadline for online filings is Nov. 21.

 

The IRS had been falsely claiming incarcerated individuals were not eligible for payments.  A class action lawsuit exposed what the IRS was doing and there’s important news – a federal court has ordered the IRS to stop interfering with the checks and start making the payments.  Now the information needs to get inside as soon as possible.

 

 

Here’s the list of what to send –

 

  1. A note or letter.  This can be brief, let them know you’re sending materials so they can take action if they wish and to make sure they know about the Nov. 4 deadline.

 

  1. Frequently Asked Questions.  Details from lawyers for the class action.  Print on both sides of the paper if possible, here’s the link:  https://www.lieffcabraser.com/pdf/CARES_CASE_FAQ.pdf

 

  1. Sample IRS Form 1040 with notations explaining how to fill out a blank form.  Print on both sides of the paper if possible, here’s the link:   https://www.lieffcabraser.com/pdf/updated_1040.pdf

 

  1. IRS Form 1040 – for those who need to file a form, this is the one that gets filled out. Print on both sides of the paper if possible, here’s the link:  https://www.lieffcabraser.com/pdf/EIP_Form_no_color.pdf

#  #  #

 

 

The best website for information and updates, set up by lawyers for the class action:  CARES Act Prison Casehttps://caresactprisoncase.org/

 

Below are some news stories about the case.  There’s a big push around the country on this, your help is needed and appreciated.

 

–Bill Dobbs, The Dobbs Wire  If you would like to join The Dobbs Wire email list, drop us a line:  info@thedobbswire.com  We’re on Twitter:  @thedobbswire

 

 

NOTE – some of these stories were written before the court extended the postmark deadline to November 4.

 

Detroit Free Press | Oct. 19, 2020

Nov. 4 deadline near for prisoners to apply for COVID-19 stimulus checks

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/19/stimulus-checks-prisoners-in-michigan/3653109001/

 

Los Angeles Times | Oct. 12, 2020

Federal stimulus checks must go to prison inmates, U.S. judge in California rules

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-12/stimulus-checks-prison-inmates-federal-judge-california

 

New York Times | Oct. 15, 2020

Prisoners cannot be denied virus relief payments, a judge rules.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/10/15/world/covid-coronavirus#prisoners-cannot-be-denied-virus-relief-payments-a-judge-rules

 

Prison Policy Initiative | Oct. 5, 2020

Update: Court says IRS can’t deny economic stimulus payments to incarcerated people.

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/10/05/checks-update/

 

Excellent background

The Appeal | July 8, 2020

Prisoners Face ‘Undue Punishment” as the IRS Claws Back Their Stimulus Checks

Politicians and advocates say the IRS is illegally denying CARES Act payments to incarcerated people.

https://theappeal.org/prisoners-stimulus-checks/

 

 

 

Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

Frank Fuster

October 10th, 2020

The web site for Frank Fuster was very out of date. So I’m doing some work on it.

Visit https://fuster.ncrj.org/

-Bob

Friends of Justice is a personal blog. Here I speak only for myself.

The not so bold Peabody-Essex Museum

September 28th, 2020

September 28, 2020

Dave Olson, Editor
The Salem News
300 Rosewood Drive, Suite 107
Danvers, MA 01923

Dear Editor,

My name is Robert Chatelle and I live in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Since its founding in April of 2002, I have served as Executive Director of the National Center for Reason and Justice (NCRJ), an advocacy group for people falsely accused or wrongfully convicted of crimes against children.

A friend recently forwarded to me a flyer for an exhibit at Salem’s Peabody-Essex Museum, entitled “The Salem Witch Trials 1692.” The flier concludes:

“The victims of the Salem witch trials had complex emotions, fears, and doubts just like we do,” said Dan Lipcan, head librarian at Peabody Essex Museum’s Phillips Library. “To empathize and understand their experience emboldens us to speak out against injustice and cruelty in our own time.”

Sadly, the Peabody-Essex has not always boldly “spoken out against injustice and cruelty in our own time.”

The Daycare Panic of the 80’s and 90’s was in many ways a replay of the Salem witch hysteria. In January of 1997, Carol Hopkins of the Justice Committee had arranged a seminal two-day conference, Day of Contrition, that was to take place at Peabody-Essex. Presenters included DA (now Judge) Alan Rubenstein, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; internationally renowned psychologist, Dr. Elizabeth Loftus; journalist Debbie Nathan, the first to write critically about the hysteria; Mark Pendergrast, author; Professor Frederick Crews, University of California, Berkeley; Donald Connery, author and former Time-Life correspondent, Dr. Richard Leo, the leading expert on false confessions; and (by videotape) playwright Arthur Miller and author William Styron; and many others. Also attending were many victims of the hysteria.

Unfortunately, word got out and true believers in daycare sexual abuse complained to Peabody-Essex. Their response was far from bold. At the last minute, they told Carol Hopkins that she and her presenters were not welcome at Peabody-Essex.

Fortunately, the Hawthorne Hotel stepped up and the conference went on. Alliances were formed and many of us are still fighting for justice. The National Center for Reason and Justice, for example, grew out of discussions that occurred at that conference.

We appreciate that Mr. Lipcan has worked for Peabody-Essex for less than two years. We are optimistic that he means what he says about speaking out against cruelty and injustice and we wish him success.

Sincerely,

Robert B. Chatelle
Executive Director, National Center for Reason and Justice

CC: Dan Lipcan, Carol Hopkins, Day of Contrition presenters and attendees