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Texas announced two more prisoner deaths today. One - Timothy - was a man I knew. He wrote me a lot.
“I don’t like to think of dying,” he said in his last letter. “But we all have an expiration date.”
“I don’t like to think of dying,” he said in his last letter. “But we all have an expiration date.”
We’d been writing off & on for a couple years. There was a letter from him sitting next to me on the couch tonight.
It was (as usual) incredibly long. He mused abt coronavirus, & gave me (as usual) all his commentary in response to the last time he’d heard me on the radio.
It was (as usual) incredibly long. He mused abt coronavirus, & gave me (as usual) all his commentary in response to the last time he’d heard me on the radio.
He talked about the impossibility of social distancing in prison where “sickness runs like a crazy horse thru a flowerbed,” and worried about his bad kidneys.
“I do get sick at times but have to tough thru it but this new stuff looks nasty," he wrote, "and I hope that I am tough enough to get through it if it hits us.”
It did hit them. His unit - Wynne - is one with a lot of cases, especially among the officers. There are 40 confirmed cases among the staff and 65 among the prisoners, according to today's numbers.
In the past, we’ve exchanged letters about his dentures, and after officers allegedly beat Frank Digges to death, Timothy wrote me and told me everything. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Texas-prisoner-dies-of-injuries-after-officers-14569709.php
He always thanked me for the work and talked about the impact of journalism on the world behind bars. But when I left to go to the Marshall Project, he was mad. Really mad.
He sent me a nasty letter, and I actually cried: He said I was abandoning Texas prisoners for a job w/more money.
I wrote back and addressed his various points, reassuring him I still had another article on Texas prisons! It was this one. https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/texas-bans-greeting-cards-in-prison/
I wrote back and addressed his various points, reassuring him I still had another article on Texas prisons! It was this one. https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/texas-bans-greeting-cards-in-prison/
In his next letter, he apologized. He said he was just mad because the guys think of me as “their” reporter and didn’t want to share me with other states.
One of the things we corresponded about was his teeth: Timothy had dentures, but they were partly broken and he couldn’t get adhesive. That was something I’d never considered when I was writing about dentures 2 years ago.
I know that Timothy is not a sympathetic character; he wasn’t always nice, and I know the nature of his conviction. He always said he was innocent, but I didn’t push for details.
He wasn’t necessarily even someone I liked - but his letters always made me smile. They were reliable, regular and verbose. He used winky faces a lot ;)
He was a consistent presence in my mailbox.
He was a consistent presence in my mailbox.
I didn’t ever think about whether I’d be at all sad if he died - but it turns out that I very much am.
Not just because of him but bc I know this is probably the first of many: There will be lots of deaths in prisons & jail, & I’m probably going to know at least a few of them.
Not just because of him but bc I know this is probably the first of many: There will be lots of deaths in prisons & jail, & I’m probably going to know at least a few of them.
Even when there isn’t a pandemic, this is a dark job. One of the things that keeps me going is letters from prisoners telling me how important this work is to them.
Sometimes the impact of reporting is easy to see. But right now, being a prisons reporter feels like standing on the sidelines watching a train wreck.
Timothy closed his last letter by thanking me. I couldn’t do anything about his last dental complaint, so I’d forwarded it on to a few other people - and he seemed to think that had helped.
“I just wanted you to know that I was thinking about ya and let you know that someone called these folks and scared them and that was someone that you most likely contacted so thanks.”
“I have you and your family in my prayers and we will get thru this,” he wrote. “Let me know how you are, more to come.”
Signed: “the Wild Man of Wynne.”
Signed: “the Wild Man of Wynne.”
