Marquette Branch Prison: They Act like Gestapo!

The American concentration camp, commonly known as a plantation, inside Marquette Branch Prison. It took America 150 years to incarcerate its first million, but just twelve years to incarcerate its second million.

The Michigan Department of Corrections is a perfect example of a prison that locks people up for profit. Warden Robert Napel had an extra three million dollars of tax payers’ money, so he decided to help his friends by installing two million dollars worth of camera equipment and then remodel the gun tower, another million dollars, instead of improving the conditions of the prisoners.

The problem is the tax payers who refuse to develop a checks-and-balances system to protect tax dollars that belong to the tax payers of the State of Michigan. There are many ways the Michigan Department of Corrections steal money from the tax payers: (One) by hiring family and friends. (Two) by the misuse of state property and using such property for personal purposes. (Three) they remove items from State premises without proper authorization. The food is terrible, but the correctional officers eat every day they are at work at the Chow-Hall, without paying a single cent. This is once again stealing from the tax-payers. As a prisoner, you cannot take an apple from the Chow-Hall, but a correctional officer can, without any penalty. The correctional officers are stealing money from the tax-payers, without any remorse or concerns. Stop sleeping!

The correctional officers fail to report other correctional officers’ rule violations. An employee shall immediately report behavior of any employee who is in violation of departmental rules, policies, or procedures, to supervisory staff. But that will never ever happen; the good ol’ boys club at Marquette Branch Prison all work together to broke and steal tax payers’ money.

The other day, Warden Robert Napel’s cell phone went off inside the Chow-Hall. It is posted that you are not to have a cell-phone at the entrance, but the warden’s cell-phone went off inside the Chow-Hall. Then the very next day, the assistant warden Erica Huss’s cell phone went off. 

But this gets better! There are correctional officers who bring their cell phones into (N Dorm) and download different things off the Michigan Department of Corrections computer, on State time, and browse the internet, including bhbanco.org and other websites almost every day. Let’s face the facts: the Marquette Branch Prison are stealing from the public tax dollars every day and committing crimes everyday by bringing in drugs and chewing tobacco. It is against the law to fail to report; a complete written report must be made no later than the end of the employee’s work day. Only the tax payers can stop them!

Rev. Pinkney

Correctional Officer Schretter steals money from tax payers

We are living at a time when State workers are allowed to do whatever they want to do. Anytime you have a correctional officer threatening, intimidating and harassing prisoners at will, and the warden keeps silent about it, you have a major problem. 

Correctional Officer Schretter, for the last two months, has been using the Michigan Department of Corrections computer for his own personal use. He has been going to bhbanco.org and inviting other correctional officers, on the department’s time, to review the bhbanco.org website, which is a good thing for me. I want everybody to know what is going on inside Marquette Branch Prison. But it is a violation of the Department of Corrections policy. I have been an eyewitness ten times or more of Correctional Officer Schretter watching my website and other non-MDOC activities; more than ten other prisoners reported seeing him doing that as well.

Further, Correctional Officer Schretter has been the executor of a retaliation by the Department of Corrections for lawful First Amendment activity: Schretter has continuously threatened, intimidating and harassing me. With speech, action and gesture, which have caused me mental intimidation inside the Marquette Branch Prison. He even attempted to assault me. The Warden has ordered him to torture me.

Marquette Branch Prison is a concentration camp with nineteen head-counts every day and sixteen of these times, you must be on the bunk.

There is no other prison which operates like this in the whole country. This is the lowest level of prison that a person can be in, but they are now allowing the prison to be out of control.

The warden will be installing over forty cameras, which is stupidity, when you can just improve the conditions. The sad part is that the Department of Corrections is deceiving the public, the tax-payers. You have correctional officers doing nothing but talking with other correctional officers and playing on the internet on the department’s and public’s time and money. They are actually stealing from the public.

There is a lot of tension here at Marquette Branch Prison and the reason is simple: the correctional officers are untrained, unskilled, unprofessional, uneducated, and out of control. I spoke to the ARUS about Schretter’s behavior, and she stated: this is just the way he is. 

The public, the taxpayers, must start holding the Michigan Department of Corrections accountable for their actions and inactions. The Department of Corrections waste millions and millions of tax payers’ dollars on correctional officers who are stealing from the public every single day. 

The misuse of State property and threatening and harassing prisoners is conduct unbecoming a department of the State of Michigan.

The public must stop the stealing of the tax-payers’ money by the Department of Corrections and their officers. Let’s hold them accountable for their actions!

I want you to contact the State Police here in Marquette, Michigan. I want to file a criminal complaint against Correctional Officer Schretter for threatening me. I will need everybody’s help. I have no intent of allowing him to continue with his conduct unbecoming a department employee. He believes he has the warden’s blessing. Let’s continue this fight! It is not just one thing, it is everything!

Rev. Pinkney

Pinkney Convicted With No Evidence

Rev. Pinkney files this reply brief in relation to three matters stated in the prosecution’s brief on Appeal. These include whether evidence Pinkney presented during his defense may be considered when Pinkney made a motion for a direct verdict at the end of the prosecution’s case in chief, and when there was no basis for this evidence to allow for an affirmative finding of guilt, even if the jury disbelieved Pinkney’s evidence.

The standard of review in relation to some of the “Other Acts” evidence, when the prosecution did not provide the required notice under MRE 404 (b)(2) and when defense counsel made an objection after some of the evidence had been admitted and made similar objections throughout the trial and prior to trial in relation to the evidence that was subject to proper notice under MRE 404 (b)(2). The prosecutor’s remarkable statement in its brief that Pinkney’s First Amendment activities were “not evidence of other crimes and could not be prejudicial in nature, because they involved things like the fight for freedom and justice and equality for all and to provide food, clothes, and shelter for the needy.” When the prosecution argued to the jury that this was not true and argued that jury should come to conclusion about Pinkney’s activities that clearly indicate the prosecution had an improper and prejudicial purpose in admitting the “Other acts” evidence.

The prosecution indicates that the defense presentation of testimony regarding Veniter? Campbell supports the prosecution’s claim that the prosecution prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Pinkney is guilty, that is the most ridiculous statement. This testimony obviously came after the prosecution rested. In Pinkney brief he made a motion for a directed verdict at the close of the prosecution’s case in chief. The issue was whether the prosecution met burden of proof must be evaluated on in reference to evidence admitted at this point. 

The main problem is that the evidence doesn’t lie, but prosecutors do.

Rev. Pinkney

Day 410 of Rev. Edward Pinkney's Unjust Imprisonment

Today is the 410th day that Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan sits in prison doing felony time (2-1/2 to 10 years) for a crime he did not commit. Rev. Pinkney and other members of the Benton Harbor community group, BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community Organization), have lead multiple petition drives to recall local officials who are viewed as supporting corporate dictatorship and the emergency manager system as one strategy of their campaign. Their recent efforts to recall Benton Harbor mayor James Hightower, because he opposed a city income tax that would've forced local corporations like Whirlpool to pay their fair share of taxes, was the latest part of that drive.

Rev. Pinkney was railroaded to jail by a kangaroo court as part of a strategy to stop that successful recall petition drive. However, that strategy only slowed down the inevitable. While there was absolutely no evidence presented in court that Rev. Pinkney had committed a crime, evidence that the community was outraged was shown in the landslide victory of Marcus Muhammed in last November's election in which Mayor Hightower was ousted. The message from corporate dictatorship in Michigan is clear: they will crush leaders of the movement for opposing their rule.

FREE REV. PINKNEY NOW!

Please send letters to:
Marquette Branch Prison
Rev. Edward Pinkney N-E-93 #294671
1960 US Hwy 41 South
Marquette, MI 49855

Please donate at http://bhbanco.org (Donate button) or send checks to BANCO, 1940 Union St., Benton Harbor, MI 49022

No Human Rights in a Corporate Dictatorship

Today is the 409th day that Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan sits in prison doing felony time for a crime he did not commit. Rev. Pinkney was railroaded to jail with absolutely no evidence against him December 15, 2014, for 2 1/2 to 10 years. And, even though the town of Benton Harbor is 90% African-American, Rev. Pinkney was found guilty by an all-white jury, none of whom were from Benton Harbor, a jury that was instructed by both the judge and the prosecutor that evidence was not required for a guilty verdict. When Rev. Pinkney's lawyer raised that there were serious violations of the United States Constitution taking place in this case, the judge ignore them.

Judge Schrock's actions are reminiscent of the 1857 Dred Scott decision in which chief Supreme Court Justice Roger B. Taney declared that black people "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” Today, slave dictatorship has been replaced by corporate dictatorship spearheaded by the emergency manager system in Michigan. As Rev. Pinkney has stated over and over, "it is not about black and white, it is about the haves and the have-nots." The poisoning of the population of Flint, Michigan's, water is just the latest example that the poor have no rights that the corporations are bound to respect.

FREE REV. PINKNEY NOW!