Posted on 01/14/2023 10:46:56 AM PST by llevrok
A man serving between 50 years and life in the Wyoming prisons system for murdering a man and confining and sexually assaulting a woman is suing the director of the Wyoming Department of Corrections and certain staffers for taking away his PlayStation and not giving it back.
John Hereford, 34, is an inmate at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins, according to a legal complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for Wyoming.
Started With A Shakedown
Hereford alleges that he was subject to an “all facilities shakedown” search the evening of June 15, 2021.
A detention staffer told Hereford that Hereford’s name was on a list of inmates whose PlayStation video game consoles were being searched, according to the lawsuit.
Hereford wrote that he complied, giving over the PlayStation and put a video game he said was Dragon Ball Z on his bunk in the process.
The staffer asked what the game was; Hereford told him, he wrote.
The staffer asked, “Where he got the video game because it was mature rated,” Hereford’s complaint continues. Another staffer asked about the game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Then they asked Hereford where he got that one, the complaint says.
‘Don’t Do Me Like This’
Hereford jokingly responded, “Come on … don’t do me like this, you already got my money,” according to his complaint.
“Your (sic) not going to turn this around on me,” the staffer replied, according to Hereford’s complaint.
Hereford two days later was placed in “the hole,” or segregation. He says he was isolated without a hearing.
When he got out, Hereford claims he spent two days without fresh clothing – and he never got his PlayStation back.
More Penalties
Staffers said it was being searched for contraband and had shown an error code when inspected.
Hereford received a conduct violation report due to the error code, his lawsuit says.
Hereford disputed the finding at a hearing, claiming he didn’t plug the PlayStation into anything forbidden.
He was reportedly penalized with 21 days of canteen restriction.
He also had to give up the PlayStation altogether, Hereford claims.
“Never in the 10 years the plaintiff has been in (the penitentiary) or (Wyoming Medium Correctional Institution) has there been a forfeiture of ones (sic) console for playing a mature rated game, and as showen (sic) here in the inmate handbook sanctions for a general offense,” says Hereford in his complaint.
It’s ‘Personal’
He lamented that he likely could not get another PlayStation in the remaining decades of his sentence. Hereford was sentenced Nov. 13, 2013, in Fremont County District Court.
Hereford said while he was in lockdown, he heard inmates coming from the Torrington facility saying other inmates had gotten their PlayStations back in 60 days or less.
“Everyone who had there (sic) Play Stations confiscated have received them back,” Hereford said in his complaint, adding that he thinks there are “personal reasons” he doesn’t get to have his PlayStation.
Hereford alleges that he “is forced to suffer for a punishment that … does not fit the crime and is being denied property that was legally uptained (sic) and was confiscated.”
Where is it written that inmates should stay sane? Most of us think that they were not sane before they got there or they would not have murdered and raped. And how about not letting murderers have video games that let them relive their crimes over and over.
Can you translate that for people who are not criminals?
i don’t see a problem returning it AFTER it is “repaired”.
Just remove the BD tray from the CD Player, all System RAM, the system CPU, and wipe the main drive of all system files.
And microwave all his game cd’s for about 10 secs each.
Went back to their cells early to watch tv.
Prison is supposed to be punishment, not an R&R experience.
He's in prison for punishment, not to be rewarded. The fact that they even allow game consoles in this prison system is ludicrous. It's just one more thing for inmates to extort each other over. They will extort other inmates over anything, and the more things they allow inmates to have, the more opportunity for extortion, and violence. Crap like that makes the job of uniformed staff that much more difficult because they have to deal with the fallout when problems over the consoles occur, and I'm sure they do occur.
I spent 25 years in uniform in NY State's prison system. It was bad enough they let them have cassette players. They were engraved with the inmate's ID number before being handed over to them, but we'd regularly find stolen players with the numbers scratched out in possession of other inmates, who in turn were written up for being in possession of stolen property. It was an unending headache. As well, inmates would take the cassette players apart, and use the motor to make tattoo machines. Tattoos in prison are illegal.
In order to have a gym membership, I have to pay for it
In order to have an attorney, I have to pay for it
In order to have a magazine subscription, I have to pay for it
In order to have cable television, I have to pay for it
In order to have a roof over my head, I have to pay for it
In order to have a electricity, heat, water air conditioning, I have to pay for it
In order to have clean clothes, I have to pay for it
In order to have food on the table, I have to pay for it
I pay for it by working and living within a tight budget, like nearly all Americans.
Not so for those in prison.
The standards should be the same for convicts.
They may be confined, but they should be required to work to pay for they own costs.
I should not have to pay for three hots, a cot, cable TV, gym membership ad nauseum.
/rant
If they were sane, they wouldn’t be in prison in the first place. Do you realize how many mentally ill people are doing time in jails and prisons in this country? You’d be surprised at the amount of money Federal, State, City, and County governments pay for drugs to keep these convicts sedated. Not to mention the drugs they can get in on visits, or through corruptible staff. They close the psych centers, and these people end up in the prison systems. I know, because I saw it happen over a 25 year career in corrections.
You’re absolutely right. Prison should be so hard that you’d never want to go back to it. Because they aren’t, the recidivism rate is very high. It was 50% when I took the job back in 1980. I can’t imagine what it is now, but at least then they were locking people up. They aren’t doing that anymore. They’re simply ignoring crimes, reducing the level of the charge, making plea deals, releasing violent offenders without bail, closing prisons and pushing inmates back on the street so they don’t have to complete their court-ordered sentence, etc. This is all so they can say that crime is down, when it really isn’t. It’s all smoke and mirrors.
Exactly, it should be like “Midnight Express” or “The Shawshank Redemption” as opposed to club fed.
Amen 🙏🏻!!!!
Inmates with TVs and radios spend more time in their cells alone than in groups inthe dayroom getting into trouble
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