Just heard Accidenta

Just heard Accidental Felons is going viral inside of the Arizona Prison System!!

Accidental Felons, featured on Jon's Jail Journal

A new Blogger has taken up the baton on Accidental Felons. Shaun Attwood, a prisoner on Arpaio's gulag for 2 years and in Arizona's prison system for 4 more has returned to the UK and speaks about the horrors of living in Arizona. This is both good news and sad. It is good news that the world is shouting a warning to stay away from Arizona. It is sad that all of Arizona's economy is penalized by the actions of 2 elected officials, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Nations throughout the world discourage their citizens from visiting the state and our tourism numbers are reflecting the change in trend.

Arizona could tolerate one rotten apple and Sheriff Arpaio was it. But with the one-two punch of adding a political predatory like Andrew Thomas to an elected "county" position, the entire state now suffers the consequences. Here is what one reader in the UK says:

"Between the criminal record barring things like jobs, education, et al...and the memories...it'd be a simpler proposition to go prey on the society that treated me like an animal for nothing.

So - good. Keep writing about it, all of you. I have ex-cons in my family, and they are screwed. They get out and still have no choice in the matter. You did time, you're a throwaway to society. Least we can do is make their death sentence vaguely comfortable." --Anon

Andrew Thomas wants to stop this!

Montana attorney general to investigate APF

Andrew Thomas has proven himself a dedicated servant of the for-profit prison industry. He worked diligently to break the back of Arizona's state budget, putting busload after busload of Maricopa County residents into prison until the system collapsed from the strain. Thousands of residents were coerced into pleading guilty to draconian Mandatory Minimum Sentencing laws. He successfully derailed the Court's ability to protect citizens and now he wants to protect the for-profit's investment in him by becoming Attorney General of Arizona.

Stop Andrew Thomas before you too find yourself on a bus as fuel for the machinery of for-profit prison operations. Stop Andrew Thomas before you become a means to create rising stock prices. Stop Andrew Thomas before he targets your family.

Republicans, you can rally to save your party by voting in the election primary.

Andrew Thomas wants to remove all opposition to the for-profit prison takeover of the state now that he has forced state legislators to betray the people. Andrew Thomas wants to stop any intervention of Justice into the for-profit prison industry's plan to dominate Arizona's economy.

You see what they did in Montana! Arizona is their largest catch ever--an entire state penal system! Profit, profits, profits, and Andrew Thomas is their man on the inside, their mole, the champion of incarcerating middle-class Americans for upper-class profit.

This is the America I learned about in school.

Unfaithful woman seeks 2nd chance by wearing sign

An Ohio woman who said she was unfaithful has chosen a very public way of asking her boyfriend not to break up their engagement. Jess Duttry, 19, stood outside a supermarket parking lot in northern Ohio this week with a handwritten sign that said "I cheated" and "Honk if I deserve a second chance." On the back, Duttry had scrawled, "I honestly love him."

She said she choose to stage her vigil Wednesday evening after her fiance took back his ring earlier that day when she confessed she'd cheated on him this summer.

It's not clear if he saw the message, but Duttry said dozens of people honked, and some got out of their cars to hug her and wish her well.

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The last sentence says it all. Remember this America? The one with compassion. The one where the local sheriff did not say that belonging to the KKK is a badge of honor. The one where the local county attorney was not hell-bent on breaking the state budget* so the state would sell it's population to the for-profit prison industry that controls him.

The one where media reports were accurate and laws with the harsh words buried in the back like "...the department of administration may transfer some or all of this state's interest in any state department of corrections prison facility..." (Section 34, page 27 of 28) were not reported in the middle of a news article tamely as "...the state will attempt to sell the rights to operate some of its prisons..." (para 8 of 14) when the lease term is 20 years!

The one where government provides more "real" services for the money and less fear mongering to strip our wallets for "protection" money.

The good news is that many people in America are just like these good people in Ohio.

Now, if we could just get them to read more and watch less television.

To avoid the discomfort and look at the shadowy side of life where predatory elected officials prey on citizens to advance their careers.

And to vote.

Then we could get the America I learned about in school back. That will be a happy day!

*Sources for Ranking

2008

2006-2007

2005-2004

1998-2003

Is Andrew Thomas a benevolent prosecutor?

The Preface of Accidental Felons opens with: “This book contains many themes. It contains the joy of a newborn child, the heartbreak of a lost career, medical mysteries, death, and stories of survival. But, the overriding theme throughout this book is the abuse of political power by elected officials. “

Now, after 4 years of silence, the woman in the accident, Marion Phelan, has come forward to protest my portrayal of her in Accidental Felons and my portrayal of County Attorney Andrew Thomas throughout the book to the Phoenix New Times. Ray Stern supports County Attorney Thomas as being a benevolent prosecutor to the residents of Maricopa County.

An article like this (with photos) is difficult to address with sensitivity. It is indeed the Horns of a Dilemma that so much about this accident has been. Rather than being “tried by a tabloid” newspaper, I’ve uploaded Chapter 4 from the book that describes facts that Mr. Stern is apparently unaware of. I do find it curious that Ms. Phelan (now living in California) comes forward at a time when County Attorney Andrew Thomas is beginning his bid to become Attorney General of Arizona.

My description of Ms. Phelan’s condition the night of the accident, See Chapter 4, comes from the emergency room medical reports the prosecutor was using to prosecute the case. In that medical record, the following facts exist:

• Ms. Phelan tested positive for opiates.

• Ms. Phelan tested positive for the anti-psychotic schizophrenia drug Seroquel.

• She told both the paramedics and the doctor that she was a recovering heroin addict.

• She said that she was not in a great deal of pain.

• The doctor said he gave Ms. Phelan a shot of morphine, the strongest narcotic in the hospital. He gave this as the reason she failed the drug test.

• There is no record of a shot of morphine administered to Ms. Phelan in the medical record turned over by the prosecutor.

(Note: If a doctor administers a potent narcotic to someone who they know is an addict who denies being in a great deal of pain, it is a serious violation of medical procedure. If a doctor falsifies a medical record, it is a crime. If the county attorney’s office withheld some of Ms. Phelan's medical record – material evidence in charging a crime — it is a crime.)

• There is mention of injury in the area of the collarbone that might be a fracture or a bruise, tests were inconclusive.

• There is mention of a fracture to one bone of the foot by one doctor that is referred to as one bone in the ankle by another doctor in the ER.

• The medical report isn’t conclusive if she had a sprained ankle.

• One doctor describes Ms. Phelan as frail and undernourished.

• There were no stitches, no surgery performed, and no life-threatening (serious) injuries mentioned in the emergency room medical record.

If I was unduly sketchy of Ms. Phelan’s injuries, I apologize to the reader. As I say in the Preface, this is not a book about Ms. Phelan or me, it is a book about the abuse of political power. I do believe that Ms. Phelan's statement to the prosecutor, as well as her refusal to come to the courtroom, influenced my plea agreement.

The second woman in the accident isn't mentioned a great deal, but I should note that she had 18 months to come forward with any complaint of injury or loss. She refused both to show up at sentencing or to file a claim proving loss or injury. The Pre-sentencing report indicates there were injuries that the medical records do not show. The pre-sentecing report is in error (a common occurance I have been told by attorneys).

Like many other county residents I met in jail, Andrew Thomas indicted me as a violent felon--the crime of intentionally attacking another person with a dangerous weapon and seriously injuring them--Aggravated Assault. A serious crime, only two classes below 1st degree murder, and 1 class below molesting a child. All these are laws carry mandatory minimum prison sentences and are intended to be used only against the most egregious predators in society, not the general population.

The book exists because I know in my heart that Andrew Thomas is using the residents of Maricopa County for nails as he builds himself a political resume to run for higher office. I know this because I've met dozens of county residents who had their lives severely damaged by this man's abuse of mandatory minimum sentencing.

While my experience shows me that Maricopa County's Attorney does little to serve society, he does a great deal to create the statistics he needs as a political "crime fighter" for a resume bereft of any such experience. There are hundreds more county residents silenced inside Arizona's for-profit prisons. Domestic disputes without blows = Aggravated Assault, DUI accident with any injury whatsoever = Aggravated Assault, and Post Traumatic Stress in a Veteran = Aggravated Assault. These are the stories that comprise the majority of the pages of Accidental Felons, not the auto accident I was involved in.

I merely present the facts, the reader gets to be the judge.