Battle for Food

This letter from Chris disturbs me. You can see how the guards continue to jerk the inmates around, holding power over them to break them down. Chris sounds really tried at this point in his writing. Pray for him, please.

-----------------------------------------

January 28, 2011

Dear Anne:

“I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you came unto me.” Matthew 25:36

It seems that only by writing can I expire, only by waiting can I transform this place for naught into something for good. Back from chow hall where the staff had no special tray for me. I get a vegetarian diet per the medical profile. I have long wrangled for the staff tried to serve me a regular tray of grits (1 cup), I sausage patty – which they removed and gave to someone else, and two biscuits with jelly packet. My pleading went ignored and my religious belief scorned. The officer in charge would not call the kitchen to have prepared the special tray which would have a substitute protein/caloric equivalent (such as two eggs). He sent me back to the dorm haunting me that I didn’t accept what they gave me – literal to the fact there was no meat on the tray. The orderlies were spiteful to me under the auspices.

Again & again & again. Thank God for support from my dorm. Jackson has filed a grievance form also, witnessing in his own way, he accepted the offered dish, receiving a second helping of grits & biscuit. His approach is not to get on the officer’s bad side. And yet it’s Jackson’s example that taught me to make no compromises, to wait until they bring the special tray.

“I was hungry and ye gave me meat.” Matthew 25:35

7:08 AM Officer Gentry reports that he has received confirmation from the kitchen that they are preparing something for me.