Oct.

18, 2010

Contact: Rev. Stan Moody

Manchester, Maine
(H) 207-626-0594 or (Cell) 207-607-3055

MCLU Baldwin Award winner calls

for media attention on Maine prisons
AUGUSTA -- Prison chaplain Rev. Stan Moody took the mainstream
press in Maine to the woodshed Friday evening in Bangor after receiving the
Roger N. Baldwin award for “outstanding efforts to defend civil liberties in
Maine” by the Maine Civil Liberties Union.
The former state representative from Manchester thanked the Village
Soup chain of weekly newspapers and Solitary Watch of Washington, D.C.,
for publishing his first articles on prison reform.
He accused the mainstream press, however, of lazy journalism by
depending on official statements issued from within the Department of
Corrections in Augusta rather than conducting their own investigations into
prison issues and problems.
Moody specifically cited the death in solitary confinement of Maine
State Prison inmate Sheldon Weinstein on April 29, 2009.
Weinstein died of a ruptured spleen, Moody told the Bangor
gathering, ostensibly from a prisoner attack four days earlier. Moody alleged
that Weinstein’s death had resulted from medical and security neglect within
two hours of Moody’s request that prison officials give Weinstein toilet
paper.
Weinstein’s wife, a senior vice president of a major U.S. corporation,
was told by prison administration that her husband had died of natural
causes, Moody said.
The prison had Weinstein’s body cremated, although they knew from
the autopsy that he had died of a homicide, Moody alleged in his MCLU
comments.
Mrs. Weinstein was left in ignorance of the cause of death until six
weeks later when informed by the State Police. “We cannot dismiss this as
just the collateral death of a convicted felon in prison, although that in itself
ought to be a story,” Moody told the crowd. “This is a flagrant disregard for
common decency on the part of prison administration in Maine.”
 “Was there no one in the (state) Department of Corrections who had
the decency to reach out to a grieving family? First, they lied about the cause
of death. Then they covered up the lie by cremating his body. They kept me
quiet for six weeks by threatening that any public disclosure of the
circumstances surrounding (the) death would jeopardize the investigation,
which by now has stretched out for 17 months.”
Since the beginning of 2010, Moody has written nearly 60 articles /on
the need for prison reform in Maine, calling for “tearing the shroud of
secrecy off the prison system and restoring dignity and humanity to both
staff and prisoners.”
Moody asserted that people are dying of suspicious causes -- three
deaths within the past year alone -- inside the Maine prison system, adding,
“and they are just circling the wagons.
“They have long ago forgotten that it is not about them and their job
security; they are accountable to the people of the state of Maine,” Moody
said.
Below is Moody’s complete statement given during the MCLU
awards ceremony in Bangor last Friday.

“I am a whistleblower, known in prison as a “rat,” the lowest form of

prison life – even lower than a sex offender.
“The usual award for being a rat is a beating, if you are a prisoner, or a
bad personnel record if you are a staff member. You may have broken the
mold tonight by the granting of this award. Let’s hope so, because we need
more prison employees to come forward with information on human rights
abuse.
“I am going to say a few things tonight that you may find
uncomfortable. I am sorry for that, but that’s the kind of thing that we
whistleblowers are known to do -- to bring attention to violations.
“In doing so, I should like to acknowledge several people who have
made this award possible by pushing me out of my comfort zone onto the
slippery slope of human rights activism.
“To Maine Department of Corrections prisoner 05170, Sheldon
Weinstein: Shelly died on April 29, 2009, in cell B117 in Solitary
Confinement. He died of a ruptured spleen from a beating he received four
days earlier, not because he was a sex offender, which he was, but because
he refused to pay rent to a gang tacitly organized and encouraged by prison
employees.
“Shelly died within two hours of the time I requested that he be given
toilet paper. He had been using his pillow case.
“To Shelly’s widow, Janet Weinstein, senior vice president of a major
U.S. corporation, who, for six weeks after his death, was led by prison
administration to believe that Shelly had died of natural causes. They
cremated Shelly at Janet’s expense. She not only had to deal with the trauma
of Shelly’s crime and then with his death, but with the lies and cowardice
from prison administration about how he died…
“Janet’s tearful words to me were, ‘They killed him, didn’t they?’
“To mental health worker Kate Gerrish, who, along with me, became
a key witness to the circumstances surrounding Shelly’s death, but unlike
me, stayed at the prison too long and jeopardized her personal life, her
credibility and her career.
“To those precious few honorable and courageous staff members who
have sacrificed promotions and careers by daring to do the right thing in
standing up to a ‘Good Old Boy’ system of nepotism that has lost sight of
where discipline ends and abuse begins.
“To the Village Soup chain of newspapers that graciously gave me
space to publish my first articles on prison reform.
“To Solitary Watch in Washington, D.C., that invited me to be their
first guest columnist.
“Finally, to a public that is beginning to wake up to the fact there is
something grossly immoral about a system that spends over $300 million
year to warehouse human beings and then dumps them on the street with
$50 and a bus ticket. Sixty percent of them come back, defeated by
hopelessness and despair.
“But there is hope. Hope is in the hands of people like you who care
deeply about justice and human dignity. Hope is in the hands of hundreds of
churches across Maine that are struggling to become relevant, but are afraid
of people who are different. Hope is in the hands of a free press that is
heaping abuse on both staff and prisoners by sacrificing investigative
journalism on the altar of bureaucratic group-think from within the
Department of Corrections in Augusta.
“So, where do we go from here? We can start by working together. I
have a pocket full of business cards – more than enough for everyone in this
hall -- and invite you to work with me and a growing number of grassroots
activists here and across this nation to relentlessly pressure our legislators
and the mainstream media to tear the shroud of secrecy off the prison system
here in Maine and restore dignity and humanity to both staff and prisoners.
“The path to prison reform is simple: It is to believe in the ability of
any human being to change and to offer equal opportunity to those willing to
try.
“Finally, let me share the words from a card I received just today from
a prisoner I have known since he was 10 years old, sent after he heard of this
award: ‘I celebrate all that you’ve accomplished, and I honor all that you
are…Your friend in Christ…’ That is award enough!”
“I thank you for this award, for your attention and for your
willingness to stand up for human rights for all our citizens.”

END