October 2

Hillary Clinton's latest "travel itinerary" has been disclosed. She will visit several European and former Eastern Block countries, aand will include a speech to the members of the World Bank. This latest vacation will cost taxpayers an estimated $3 to $7 million; two to five times the cost of the home the Clinton’s are to purchase in New York. Will it never dawn on the American people that being The First Lady is not an elected office and that Hillary has no official function such as acting like a stateswoman and a representative of the American Government to foreign nations? After this trip she will have visited more than 60 nations. Why not just buy her 2000 or 3000 pairs of shoes and be done with it?

October 3-6

Inmate Kenneth Williams #107948, who had only been confined three weeks, escaped. He had been sentenced to life imprisonment without parole for killing cheerleader, Dominique Hurd of Pine Bluff, and shooting her boyfriend. ADC officials did not discover him missing until 6:30 p.m., although he was later confirmed to still have been inside the compound after 10:20 a.m. They have no idea how he escaped.

At around 1:00 p.m., the body of Cecil Boren, a nearby Grady, Arkansas resident and former assistant warden at Cummins, was found. He was robbed and killed some time earlier that day. His pickup truck was also missing. Later reports indicated that Williams shot Boren and then ransacked his house, changed clothes and took the truck. Witnesses said that a suspicious character had been seen in the area shortly after 9:00 a.m. Some Pine Bluff residents also allegedly called the prison unit late that evening after seeing Williams after he killed Cecil Boren, but whoever received that call just dismissed it.

Mid-morning on October 4, Williams was apprehended in Urbana, Missouri after a high speed chase, while still driving the pickup truck stolen taken from Cecil Boren. He rammed into a police car and then crashed into a service truck, instantly killing Michael Greenwood, 24. Later reports indicated that a police cruiser also ran over Greenwood. Williams fled on foot but was soon apprehended.

The inmate grapevine contends that Williams was assisted by a guard who walked him out the gate and drove him near to Grady under cover of going to pick up take out lunches at a Grady diner. This account has not been given to the public. Although the ADC admits they have no idea how he escaped, it is the ADC's official speculation that Williams used bed sheets to climb over the fences. However, such a baseless hypothesis is totally inconsistent with known facts and there is no explanation of how Williams could have traveled several miles on foot undetected in broad daylight in order to kill Boren well before 1:00 p.m.

On October 5, a new version of the supposed escape circled among the guards. Williams was to have escaped either via a trash or slop wagon. Since someone must be held to answer for this inexcusable incompetence and breach of security, inmates believe that the good ol' boys will do whatever it takes to create a scenario that will place blame upon the cunning of prisoners, rather than upon the incompetence of ADC staff. Therefore, it is likely that the trash wagon/slop wagon excuse will be developed and spoon fed to the public as the official means of escape. It does appear that Williams was assigned to process the slop when he was incarcerated here on a prior sentence. However, if Williams did escape by way of the trash or slop wagons, it will not explain how he was confirmed seen inside the compound after 10:20 a.m., while the wagons had left the unit at least two hours earlier; how he traveled on foot in such a short time to be at the Boren place well before 1:00 p.m.; or why he did not rob any one of several dozen farms and residences he encountered along the way first in order to expedite his flight. Since he also changed clothes at the Boren residence, his escape via the slop wagon should be immediately ascertainable because of the stench and stains that he may have left behind, particularly if he left his prison clothes.

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October 4

Three inmates of a local county jail escaped and have the community in an uproar in the wake of the Williams case. Two of them remain at large.

October 5

Arkansas was graced with yet another "badge of distinction". It ranks 50th among the several states in transportation planning. After ranking 50th in annual income per capita just last week. Seeing that tourism is Arkansas' primary money-maker, failing to plan for adequate roadways and travel routes explains much. Despite its 50th ranking for income, officials said "Arkansas has a strong economy." Relative to what?

Two fatal cases of "equine encephalitis" were discovered in Arkansas after two horses on a local farm dropped dead. A third was infected but recovered. The CDC and other agencies have expressed concern over the fact that the "east Nile" viral strain of encephalitis that recently killed several people in New York may spread south due to the migration of infected birds - primarily those of the crow family. New Yorkers were said to have become infected when the disease was spread to humans by mosquitoes that had bitten infected birds.

Wonderful! The Cummins Unit property, and much of the surrounding delta land, is a natural stop-over habitat for two types of migratory birds; ducks, and crows or blackbirds. Tens of thousands of them land here at times, about this time of year. Also, this part of Arkansas is infamous for its mosquito infestations, and Cummins prisoners have had to anguish with that problem for decades. The rice paddies planted next to the perimeter fences serve as ready breeding ground for the mosquitoes as well, and they blanket the unit in literal clouds for about two months of the year; thankfully only in the summer. Both New York and Cummins also share pigeons in common. Hopefully pigeons don't also migrate to this area.

October 6

The vow to go through with a starvation food strike was apparently ended when two of the three inmates discovered that the other one was eating sandwiches on the sly at night. At least one of them is now "scamming" his own mother for money to feed himself. He lied to her by telling her that he is no longer on the strike, but that several hundred others are and that he needs money from her so that he can eat. The intention of the third inmate is not yet known. I am tempted to write the mother a candid letter.

Official reports indeed stated that Williams "appeared" to have escaped by way of the slop wagon. "Footprints and a knee print" were allegedly found in a ditch near where the slop was supposedly dumped. It was also said that Williams contacted a Pine Bluff man, Sylvester Brown, after killing Boren. Brown already had outstanding warrants for battery and armed robbery, but the police were more interested in talking to him about the escape. This is very curious given the fact that Williams' method of escape is supposedly known, and that he did not talk with Brown until after the Boren killing. Brown otherwise appears to have no other material relevance in this event and yet the police are making an all-out effort to find him. The police refused to confirm or deny that Williams used Cecil Boren's cellular phone to make contacts.

October 7

Inmate Louis Shavers #110167 was apparently overcome with being treated the way he was and tried to hang himself. His life had been reduced to little more than the "thorazine shuffle" that his psychotropic medications cause. However, the sheet with which he tried to hang himself broke and caused him to slam his head on the nearby sink, sustaining seriously injuring. He may get his wish, albeit by a more protracted death. Shavers is the fifth ADC inmate to attempt suicide by hanging within the past 6 months. One was successful. When will people inquire why so many people in a relatively small prison population of only 12,000 meet with violence and violent ends so often?

October 8

Cecil Boren was buried today. The family is even more upset because they do not believe the ADC's account of how Williams allegedly escaped in the slop wagon. They had found articles of clothing worn by Williams in their home and they neither looked like nor smelled like they had been in hog slop.

The ADC was defensive. Spokeswoman Dina Tyler insisted that Williams had escaped in the slop wagon, but that the Cummins Unit slop contains "only vegetables and some water." This is an outright falsehood and implicates everything else that the ADC has professed. The gallons of beets, boiled okra, and "mush" we eat would leave no doubt that Williams had been in slop. The Boren family also believes that Williams left much earlier than asserted, but the ADC refused to retreat from the contention that he was still on the unit at 10:20 a.m., even though the slop wagon had left the unit long before then. No reference has been made to the 360-degree view camera that is housed less than 50 feet from the slop wagon and that could easily have recorded Williams' escape.

Five ADC inmates who were on trustee assignment at the Arkansas Law Enforcement Training Academy got drunk and three of them escaped. While the police were out successfully recapturing those three, two others escaped as well. Mark Stone, serving time for first degree murder since 1984, is still at large.

October 9

It was reported that an off duty patrolman apprehended Mark Stoner, one of five who recently escaped from the State Police. He did not cuff Stoner and told him to wait while he made a phone call to have someone take him into custody. Stoner took off again and has not been seen since. He is suspected of burglarizing a home and stealing guns. He is now considered "armed and dangerous."

October 10

All the inmate trustees were recalled from the State Trooper HQ, ALETA, and the State Capitol. Neighbors were upset with the fact that they were not told and did not know that "convicts" were working there. Prisoners have worked at those places for more than 25 years. Goes to show you how little people pay attention to what goes on in their own communities. The brass of the State Police has requested that Governor Huckabee appropriate $500,000 to hire free world persons to do the work that the trustees formerly did. I have a feeling that when that request is received the convicts will not be nearly as big a threat or danger to the public as they were today, before a half millions bucks was requested.

October 13

About half of the trustees that were recalled from the State Police and other facilities were returned there again today. Looks like the half million dollars in budget increase to hire free world help to fill their work slots was enough incentive to counter the typical "reactionism" of local authorities. Interesting what the thought of money can do.

October 14 to 27

It's been a quiet couple of weeks with nothing particularly noteworthy going on. Since the week after the Williams escape, Cummins now conducts a 1:00 p.m. head count, and the inmates are pleased. So far only 1 count has taken less than 1 hour to complete, with several counts lasting 2 to 4 hours. The prisoners are amused because it appears that their normal workday is reduced by up to four hours now and none of the state's work is getting done. The guards are getting uptight and edgy because the supervisors are constantly breathing down their necks over not being able to clear count. Rumor is that the Director and Attorney General's Office is being told the lies that count is cleared in about 45 minutes. Instead, supper is delayed into late evening and the first evening count is delayed an hour or more; and free persons are getting seriously disgruntled on weekends because whether or not they are allowed to visit a loved one now depends entirely on "timing." If the inmate does not get called to the Visitation Center by the time count starts, he will simply not be allowed to see his visitors that day.

Although it is still too early to tell, it does seem that at least a part of the strategy to retaliate against me for daring to expose things on the internet is beginning to unfold now. On October 25 I received a memo from my supervisor directing that I was no longer to process the subscriptions to our newsletter and that his secretary would take care of that from now on. I guess they think I may be channeling news through our subscribers. It's okay. Less work for me.

More seriously, Linda and I devised a plan a few weeks ago whereby we were going to enlist the aid of a friend of the Tant family to write a letter of concern and inquiry regarding me to ADC officials just to see what they would answer. I had been much surprised in the past when, despite my antagonism of the ADC through lawsuits and other "displeasing" activities, officials said some pretty nice and positive things about me to free world people who had inquired what sort inmate I was, etceteras. I had felt that they would bad-mouth me in every way they could and, well, it was just a surprise.

In response to the letter written by the Tant's family friend, however, it is clear that no matter what the outcome of our efforts on the internet, ADC officials will strive to try to discredit me and to act in ways that will likely harm any future bid I may make for clemency. In other words, if they have a hard time making me "pay" on the short range, they will make as certain as they can to hurt me for the long term. I AM defenseless when it comes to "them" pointing out that I have been convicted of felony crimes, and I suppose that that fact alone casts my "credibility" into question or destroys it altogether. Nevertheless, I will continue to believe that people know the ring of truth when they hear it, and the presence of ill motives when they encounter them. What else is there to believe in, but that the truth will always be vindicated in the end? I've been through this before, anyway, since some time after 1984 and before 1992, "someone" made entries into my prison files saying that I had been convicted of attempting to kill a police officer and otherwise had committed atrocious offenses in prison, while no such things had ever happened. Because I did not know that my files had been falsified like this, I did not know how detrimental they were in terms of my clemency applications between 1986 and 1992, or to the present. Of course, no one knew "who" might have made these malicious entries into my records, although a notation was then added that I had not been charged nor convicted of such offenses.

This is what Warden Marshall Dale Reed recently wrote to Mr. Stephens, the Tant family's friend:

Dear Mr. Stephens

I received your letter in reference to our concern with inmate Rolf Kaestel #76784, who currently resides at the Cummins Unit. I assume your friends you speak of would be Bud Tant's family.

Inmate Rolf Kaestel is doing a life sentence for Aggravated Robbery and is a career criminal in my opinion. I cannot set your mind at ease about inmate Kaestel's intentions as he is one of the best manipulators of circumstance and of people in vulnerable situations that I have ever encountered in my twenty-six years in Corrections.

I made several efforts over the period of inmate Kaestel's incarceration to give him the opportunity to make positive changes in his situation, only to have him use those efforts against me or the ADC in a negative way.

As long as your friends associate with inmate Kaestel they will be deceived of the facts of any situation and they will be manipulated for their time and money if they allow inmate Kaestel to do so. Inmate Kaestel thrives on the average person's weaknesses and fosters bitterness and eternal resentment in all persons that follow him.

I don't know how you can convince your friends but I can assure you it is worth your while to try. Your friends are lucky to have you on your side. I hope I have answered your questions and have been helpful to you.

Sincerely,
/s/ M.D. Reed, Warden

cc: file

It stings a little bit, I must admit - and especially the "cc: file" - but otherwise I have nothing else to say, except when the time comes again and Warden Reed and I have occasion to look into each other's eyes, it will not be I that will lower mine. He and I will know, even if no one else ever does. Sometimes that is all the treasure life gives to someone. It is enough.

Thank you Mr. Stephens.

October 28

Linda and her dad, Mr. Robert Tant, Sr. were able to visit today and it was so very good to get the chance to meet them and to be able to share a few hours together in person! They had flown to Arkansas after having been invited to a special gathering of media and other representatives primarily regarding the blood plasma scandal documentary that will be aired within the next two or three months, and to discuss some other issues concerning the exposure of the good ol' boys and the ADC. They had lots of good news; well, news that was good for our efforts, but bad for the ADC. There was some bittersweetness to the visit, too, though, because it was obvious that Linda and Mr. Tant ached from the memories and the echoes of the visits they had had with Bud in this very place and the fact that he was no longer with them. They bravely hid it well.

While they were in Arkansas, they also took occasion to visit several other prisoners whom they had befriended the past few months, and they, too, were excited about meeting them and having the chance to talk. They had wanted to visit several other prisoners at still other ADC units, but time and geography prevented them.

Linda hopes to return to visit this Wednesday, mainly to update me on what transpired at the media and VIP gathering, and with her visits with several other free world persons who have been helping with the effort on the internet; just friends, supporters, and allies that Linda has made since March. I am anxious to learn what was discussed and decided.

NOVEMBER JOURNAL