Welcome To My World

"...She sent a Dear John letter to me, addressed: To Whom It May Concern." - Realto B. Love

To Whom It May Concern AND All people with loved ones incarcerated:

     There are many things that you may not know about how
your loved ones are being treated behind the walls of incarceration by the people in place over them, and
by the system in general.
     First and foremost I want everyone who is reading this to know that the narrative that you’re listening to right now was written by someone currently incarcerated. l’m someone’s husband, someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s uncle, someone’s cousin, someone’s friend, and possibly even someone’s father.
     My name is Travis, and I’m locked up for committing crimes against the state of Georgia.Currently
I reside in Smith State Prison, the worst, most violent, dangerous, Closed(Max) security prison in the state of Georgia, and the eighth Worst Prison in the entire United States of America.There are currently more
than 150 Prisons in the state of Georgia and well over 80,000 people currently incarcerated in these
facilities with another 150,000 people filling up the county jails and detention centers around the state
waiting to be sent down the road to come where l’m at.

     The purpose of this narrative is to make people more aware of the way their people are being treated inside the system. 1st of all I want it understood that l and everyone else realize that some of the people in here deserve to be where we are, however, I also want it understood that nobody’s perfect, and the only
reason some of you are listening to this right now instead of writing it yourself is, because, unlike us you
did not get caught for the things you've done. Furthermore, I want you to see and understand that each and every one of us locked up is someone’s son, brother, father, uncle, cousin, husband, and someone’s friend.
Think about yours when you read what I’m about to recount to you.

     In the environment where we live, hostility and tension are the norm. The powers that be (i.e. the ones with the badges) make us live in dehumanizing conditions.
The dorms which we sleep in are made of metal and they are not equipped with central heating and air.
We freeze during the winter and burn up during the summer.
The plumbing is constantly backed up and the pipes are so interconnected that when they leak or bust human excrement and urine as well as the sewage water overflow and spring up AND *out of the shower drains* where we bathe at and administration sometimes waits 8-24 hours before they decide to come and work on the problem, meanwhile they give us between four and six mops and some cleaning rags with one bottle of bleach to clean up a dorm that houses 96-104 inmates.
Not only that, these same 96-104 inmates have to share 6 showers and most times four because in most of the dorms at this camp two of the showers are broken.

     Next let’s take a look at how people are fed here. They feed you three times a day Monday through
Thursday. They give you breakfast lunch and dinner on those days. Friday through Sunday they only
feed you twice. Now here’s the catch:
First of all the portions that they feed us ,no matter what they may tell the public, are nowhere near what they need to be. The portions on our trays are less than the equivalent of the portions that first graders receive at their elementary school lunch cafeterias. Most times the food is ill prepared. Sometimes, it’s
even spoiled and when we, as inmates, complain about it or protest they tell us we can either eat it or starve.
Now, as I said, they only feed you twice from Friday to Sunday. When they call you to walk to the dining hall for breakfast most of the time its between 3:30 and 4:00 am.
After that, the next time they feed you is anywhere between 3:00 PM. and 7:30 PM.
This is why Commissary is very necessary. They barely feed you and so if you don’t have loved one’s to put money on your books for commissary you’re without a doubt going to be malnourished.
One of the reasons that I believe that they feed us the way that they do is so that we have to spend money with their commissary store.
Those whom are indigent and don‘t really have anyone to send them money for food and other groceries such as hygiene and stationery are forced to either stink and damn near starve or fight, stab, rob and steal from others which is one of the biggest contributing factors to prison violence next to Gang and race issues.

      Contrary to popular belief, in the state of Georgia you do not get paid for the slave labor that they force you to do. Georgia is actually one of a few of the last states in the US. that does not pay it’s inmates for their work. If you want your loved ones to stay healthy and nourished as best that they can once they  are incarcerated, they need your financial assistance with their commissary,
     As I’ve said before, a lot of time the food that they’re being served by the state in the dining hall is often ill prepared and spoiled, and the staff that runs the Georgia Department of Corrections takes the stance that they’re doing their part by serving the food, whether or not the inmates choose to partake of it or not is irrelevant (regardless of whether food is not cooked properly or spoiled).
Truthfully, the only time that the staff clamps down on fixing the portions and making sure that the food is cooked and prepared properly is when the health inspector and the auditors come to visit or one of the regional directors of the Georgia Department of Corrections, along with an internal Investigator, comes along.
     l’m one of the people that doesn't really have anyone to help me out financially very much except for maybe once every two or three months, if that, and I’ve gone from being 220 lbs. on the street, all the
way down to 165 lbs. since being incarcerated.
Now, I’m one of those people who could afford to lose weight like that because I was overweight at first, but just think about those who were never overweight or those whom have almost always been underweight actually. This is a problem that needs to be fixed.

     Another problem not being addressed and actually being swept under the rug is police brutality behind the walls. Although technically speaking, the Correctional Officers, are not policeman.
They are sworn to the same oaths and hold the same positions of authority over the incarcerated population as the police over the civilians in society.
The police are very harassing and oppressive and even sexually harassing to inmates. They'll provoke people and then handcuff them and take them to the solitary confinement building, where they’ll taze them, jump on them, beat them with metal batons, stomp on them, and then they’ll leave them in the solitary cell until they heal up. They then often keep them away from the rest of the population so that the inmate cannot tell anyone about it.
This goes on more than you would think or imagine, and when internal affairs or any of the higher ups come down and investigate it they’ll make sure that they have doctored footage of the incident, not showing how they provoked and attacked the inmate first, but where the inmate was fighting back and
from there the ”action” that they had to take because of it; Making it look as if the inmate was the one who provoked the incident.
There is so much that goes on behind these walls that you would never even know because those
that go through them feel like nobody *wants to know* or even cares about what people go through behind these walls because we feel like all of you out there in society feel as if we "deserve” the cruelty and oppression and torture that we’re put through. Which is understandable, but also, wrong.

     As I said when I first began this narrative, think about your husband, your wife, your son, your brother, your uncle, your cousin, your father, your mother, or your best friend, being put through these things because of some mistakes that they made.
Tell me based on that, whether or not you feel as if they deserve to be treated like this on a yearly monthly, weekly, and daily basis.
In many cases that is exactly what’s going on. Take care of your people in prison, because rest assured, that if you don’t no one else will, and financially speaking, they cannot take care of themselves without having to resort to more criminal activities (which just automatically defeats the purpose of incarceration for the rehabilitation of one’s character).

Thank you for helping me out.

   

     I would  greatly appreciate those of you who would find it in your heart to do the kindness of donating  money to my commissary fund, as I’m one of those people who could use financial help.

     The easiest way it to go to http://paypal.me/LovettTravis, A Paypal Donation.

Also, Green Dot Refill Money pack from your local CVS, Walgreens, RiteAid, and most WaI—Marts

and sending it to my brother so that he can deposit the money to my inmate account.

Lance's emails on my behalf or @lancelovett on social media.

There is also a clickable link at the bottom of the page you can use as well.

     Donations cannot be made directly to my inmate account by those who are not on my current approved
visitation and financial lists which is why you must send the money to my brother,  http://paypal.me/LanceLovett, or by the methods mentioned above because that’s the only way that it can get to me.

Thank you for your time and your compassion.

    

     My brother, Lance, is also setting something up to help me with my medical bills the state charges inmates for while they are incarcerated. It doesn't go away once you have served your time. He will be posting more information about that directly.

     In closing, I hope that you spread the word about the conditions of the incarcerated because easier than you may know you could find yourself behind these same walls one day.

Travis N. Lovett, 2017