If you got here from the thread at PTO, thank you for reading Whit's blog. Unfortunately I (and others) was recently permanently banned from PTO because I/we also joined another site devoted to parents of incarcerated children, so I won't see anything you post in that thread. If you have any comments, please leave them here, or email me directly (see "Contact information and how I post").
Jeff, Whit's dad
15 comments:
April is ein schwerer Monat, das weiss ich. Trotzdem, wie geht's?
I'm not sure what to say. I came here from Dooce.com and was immediately drawn in. If I'm being honest, I was shocked at the eloquence that your son showed in his writing-- I guess a part of me was expecting the "rough, gruff, callous inmate" type stuff and to find a young man that was so thoughtful, intelligent, and passionate was amazing.
I'm so incredibly sorry for the loss of your son. I wish I had found this blog years ago- Whit seemed to be the type of person you meet once in a lifetime and I would have been honored to be able to get to know him.
I hope this comment finds you well. If nothing else, please know that this blog, your son's words, changed one person's perception of those who are incarcerated. I hope that you are still striving for a book deal, to get the word out there about the injustice of our prison system, that you haven't given up on Whit's voice- he wrote words that I believe could start a revolution if spoken loudly enough.
My thoughts and prayers go to you and your family.
Dear Jeff,
Like "S," I too found this blog through the comment section on dooce. I took your advice and went to the beginning, the first post by Whit. I was hooked immediately. I was forced to examine my prejudices--I thought, "the musings of a convicted felon would surely border on gibberish and rambling since he's probably an uneducated low-life." After reading his first two posts, I was definitely put in my place--he was a brilliant writer with an equally brilliant mind. He sounded like the kind of person I'd be friends with, someone who'd come to Sunday cookouts, someone I'd trust to watch my child. I'm sorry I judged your son, and I'm sorry for your loss. If his play ever comes to MA, I'd love to see it. xo
Dear "S" and Leigh,
Since your comments are so similar, I'd like to answer them together.
Most people who have found Whit's blog have done so through forums dedicated to prison reform, families of inmates in the state or federal systems, and those devoted to matching inmates with pen pals. The response from all these people is gratifying but also predictable; they already get it. They already understand that you can't lump all felons together, as our society would like you to do, as "rough, gruff, callous" inmates who if they could or did write, would produce "gibberish and rambling," the product of an "uneducated low-life."
It's OK. Between what many would call soft-on-crime bleeding hearts and those whose motto is "If you can't do the time, don't do the time" (though they have no clue what doing the time really means, as you now do), are a lot of truly compassionate, understanding and sensitive people who have been fortunate enough in your lives never to have experienced what I have - not just the death of an only son, but the hell that is prison in America.
As difficult and painful as keeping Whit's words alive can often be, it's reading words like yours that helps to console me. Don't me wrong: I don't believe that crap about everything happening for a reason, I'd much rather you have gone through the rest of your lives blissfully ignorant of this knowledge, or at least that something other than Whit's death would have been the source. But you two have made my day, and I'm grateful that you had the courage and took the time to write. If you would like to know anything else about Whit or what happened, please don't hesitate to write me.
As for the play, I hope the premiere in Cincinnati garners enough attention that it comes to MA and lots of other places. I believe it will. And rest assured I'll let you know.
All the best,
Jeff
Anyone is also welcome to write me directly: jeff dot transtech at gmail dot com
I'm up to the 2009 writings, and I'd like to know...why was Whit in segregation and not in general population? He never mentions it, as far as I can see, maybe because the mail was monitored? He seems so calm in his writing--surely he wasn't segregated because he was a threat to other inmates or for bad behavior?
It's a fairly long story, longer than would make sense as just a "comment" here (hence the encouragement to email me directly!), but in a nutshell: He first went to the SHU because an inmate with a beef against him planted a shank (homemade knife) in his cell and then had it reported. Eventually he was released, not to general population but to a new program the warden had initiated for certain individuals, mostly perpetrators of violent actions but also for "shooters" (inmates who openly masturbate when a female CO walks by). Whit was neither of those, and his good friend Gerry (aka Tiny), who had a lot of pull with staff, tried unsuccessfully to get him out of that program. Anyway, those guys could go out on the yard during the day, but had to wear yellow jumpsuits to identify their status. Two problems: a) every single inmate hated the program, whether in it or not, and b) one couldn't tell who was a shooter and who not. It was agreed in general population that anybody caught on the yard wearing a yellow jumpsuit would be severely beaten by other inmates. Very quickly the guys in the program said hell with this, I'm going out in the yard, but I'm not going to get beaten up or mistaken for a shooter, so lets just take off our jumpsuits, throw them in a pile, and tell the warden the program is a bad idea. Whit joined in, threw his jumpsuit into the pile along with all the others, and the administration freaked. They needed to identify ringleaders to make an example of, and Whit was wrongly accused by staff (and no one else) of being a ringleader. That got him sent right back to the hole, celled up with a guy named Michael Vaught (who when he saw Whit being led in said "Damn, Smith, somebody sure threw you under the bus!"). What happened a few months later as a result of actions by Vaught is what precipitated Whit's death.
And that's another story.
Here's the answer to another question most people eventually get around to asking:
Whit was found at around 2:30 a.m. on the morning of April 4 with each of his hands and each of his feet tied to his bunk, with a plastic garbage bag over his head.
As you may have gleaned from reading some of my own post-4/9 entries, it took me nearly 1-1/2 years to obtain a copy of the investigation report done by the BOP. I had to file a request under the Freedom of Information Act, and even then I had to get an attorney involved. What finally came to me was heavily redacted, edited and generally incomplete. They did see fit to include a photocopy of a picture taken of Whit in a coffin at some undertaker in Terre Haute, before he was sent home. How thoughtful of them.
I also came over from Dooce's blog and have found Whit's writing incredibly moving, insightful, funny, and clever. I've passed it on to many friends.
Very sorry for your loss, Jeff. Thank you for maintaining this blog, I'm grateful for having had the opportunity to read it.
Thank you Kate. The four adjectives you chose are exactly what I hope people will take away from Whit's words. And as unspeakable as his situation and conditions were, it is always gratifying to hear someone recognize his sense of humor.
Thanks also for passing the word to others.
All the best,
Jeff
I echo what others have said here, I came across the blog by way of dooce, yesterday as well, and I have been reading voraciously from the very first post. Like so many others, I too find Whit's writing amazing, insightful, witty, and so very intelligent. I suppose I wouldn't have expected an "inmate", and such a young man at that, to produce such incredible writing. I am truly impressed, and I apologize for originally thinking in a stereotypical sense...my eyes have now been opened. That Whit didn't make it out of that hell to realize his full potential, and that he is gone too soon is such tragic, senseless loss...I'm so very sorry. My thoughts are with you.
Pam in FL
Thank you Pam, you've said so much of what I feel. I hope you also saw my reply to your comment in http://whit-superfriends.blogspot.com/2009/04/to-all-who-have-been-hearing-my-sons.html?m=1. All I can do is keep finding ways to put Whit's voice out where it can be heard by a larger audience, and people like you, Kate and Leigh actually make it happen. Whit deserves no less.
Jeff, I did indeed read your reply to my previous comment as well. Thank you for taking the time to respond. I tried to leave a comment on the post with the story Whit wrote as a boy, about the sailing trip, but for some reason I couldn't get it to go through. I wanted to say how impressed I was by his writing at such a young age! He wrote such an entertaining and well put together story, and used words I probably didn't even know yet at that age! I found the epilogue quite funny, especially the sibling rivalry flavored bit about his sister. :)
Also, I've begun reading the other website you posted about, the one with earlier letters from Whit. I'm enjoying reading that as well, and learned quite a bit of background info that filled in some gaps, from your letter to the judge. Your love for your son shines through the pages, or screen in this case, beautifully.
Take care and I hope you're having a good day,
Pam
Found your comment at Dooce too. I don't read her blog very often although I love to read. I have the day off from work to prepare for a vacation and instead I've been sitting here enraptured, laughing, intrigued, and finally sobbing. His writing makes me feel like I know him, like he is alive, like it is all happening right now. I am just a little younger than your son. I feel now like I know him. I have had a few childhood friends with similarly beautiful and creative minds who are now gone, some would argue through their own choices. All I know is that they are lost now and the world is poorer for it, a world that rejected them and dehumanized them. Sometimes I feel like they never had a chance, I look at those who made it to the other side of those tumultuous years and don't see the difference. And even if it was their own choices that brought them to their end, does it matter? Either way they are gone, and in the end I know none of them wanted that. And reading I know Whit didn't want that.
In high school I started a program to gather up all those books none of us would ever want to read again and donate them to prisons. My friends who all got their service hours at low income daycares or at the animal shelters thought this was strange although they happily participated (strangely none of them wanted to reread A Separate Peace). Even so I have never felt so keenly the plight of the incarcerated until today. Maybe I even had a few of those "don't do the crime" thoughts. This blog has made it feel so personal. And I can't help but feel that the treatment your son received in prison is beyond cruel and inhumane. If men are judged by how we treat the "least" among us then we are doing very poorly.
Thanks for keeping it up, and also thanks for sharing your perspectives here. This blog is incredibly rich with human pain, but also love and hope. Your love for your son and his love for you shines through all of the trauma and is an inspiration. That's what I'm going to take with me and hopefully stop crying sometime.
Ailiel,
Well now you've got me sobbing too. Whit, the person he was and the life he was denied, is always in the scene, every hour of every day, sometimes as a slightly out-of-focus background, sometimes filling the whole frame in frighteningly sharp focus. Your note caused it to zoom in again, which is fine; that happens, it always will. That you happened to cause that speaks volumes for who you are. "Incredibly rich with human pain, but also love and hope." I would dearly like to see those words in the first reviews of his play next fall.
More generally, you are absolutely right about how many other "similarly beautiful and creative minds" are now gone, people you and I have known, and many we will never hear of. No, they didn't want that. Anything you can do to help the plight of even one incarcerated individual will have been an achievement. I do a lot of that on a lot of levels; don't hesitate to email me (you have my addy?) if you'd like any ideas or to hear about that.
Thank you for writing, and thank you for making me cry ;-)
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