With just four months to go before my upcoming fifth Parole Board hearing, it appears I’ll be attending my hearing from segregation, otherwise know as “the hole.” On June 9, 2014, I made the decision to be placed in the hole rather than spend another second in my general population cell with a 23-year-old, argumentative gang-banger. If I hadn’t taken action to get out of that cell, sooner or later we would have had a physical confrontation, something I didn’t need just four months before I go to the Parole Board. So I could not stay locked up in a cell with a man-child unable to understand that I didn’t care which rapper had the best-looking girlfriend or that I needed to work on my legal affairs in the interest of trying to get out of prison.
As a result of my decision to protect my sanity in a mouse and roach infested prison, I’ve been made into the bad guy by the Rules Infraction Board. I’m told the Toledo Correctional Institution has begun to segregate old-law prisoners as a way of protecting them from the power differential that results when some prisoners are subject to punishment by lengthened sentences for fighting and others are not. But long as I must try to navigate through a hostile environment where an overwhelming majority of new-law prisoners don’t need to worry about having their freedom granted by the Parole Board, I’m going to have to continue to be framed as the bad guy
I don’t know what the Parole Board will do to me when I leave the hole to meet with them. Considering that I’ve served more time than many prisoners who have killed people, I want to think I’ll be given a second chance to live in society—or at least that I’ll be given a conditional release date. One thing I do know: I am being mentally tortured by the Parole Board and the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Now, more than ever, I need your support.A Call to Action
I am grateful to have been able to launch FreeJasonGoudlock.org last year. With the unwavering support of Dr. William Nichols and activist Jason D. I’ve been given an Internet platform to present my social grievances and goals, as well as a forum to showcase my literary works. Anyone who knows me will attest to my pride in FreeJasonGoudlock.org. But as proud as I am of my website, I would be dishonest if I told you I’m satisfied with the support the website has generated. I’m not.
Due mainly to a lack of finances I have been unable to aggressively promote FreeJasonGoudlock.org to the various demographic audiences I want to reach. And that has diminished the impact of the website. Another reason for my underachieving website is my inability to promote it throughout the giants of social media networking. Both of these problems could be resolved if you decided to come on board and assist in my struggle to secure my overdue freedom and challenge injustice in Ohio’s prisons. Multitudes of oppressed people in the Middle East, in the midst of wars and civil unrest, use social networking to organize the removal of corrupt governments, and the same vehicle can be used to secure my freedom and address the larger problem of old-law injustice in Ohio.
I recently completed a story in support of Marissa Alexander, who is scheduled to go on trial in Florida for a second time on December 8, 2014. She is seeking to be fully acquitted for the aggravated assault charges wrongfully brought against her for defending herself. My piece of writing, “Spotlighting the Injustice of Marissa Alexander: A Fictional Conversation Between Malcolm X and a Social Activist,” if circulated widely on the Internet could generate additional support for Marissa Alexander’s freedom campaign. If you read the essay at FreeJasonGoudlock.org and agree with me, I encourage you to forward a brief supportive comment about it to any of the following social network websites, as well as to others of your choosing:
Twitter.com Hashtag (#YesAllWomen)
Twitter.com Hashtag (#fastfoodstrikes)
(Note: Marissa’s trial is scheduled for December 8, 2014 – More Info)
In closing I want to thank you for your time. I hope to network with you in the near future. Your support is needed.
In solidarity Jason Goudlock
Downloads: Download a PDF copy of Soldiering On: A Struggle for Freedom and a Call to Action By Ohio Old-Law Prisoner Jason Goudlock.