March 5, 2019


Re: The Jailhouse Lawyer Initiative.


My name is Sam I am incarcerated in the Texas Department Of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) serving (Redacted). I've been incarcerated approximately 25 years, I've been litigating and known as a "jailhouse lawyer" for 17 years. During the 25 years of my incarceration I have filed multiple § 1983 civil action suits against TDCJ, two (2) of which I brought under the "Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Person Act (RLUIPA). One of which [No. 4:06-CV-01119] resulted in summary judgment for TDCJ once the officials agreed to implement a policy which permitted Muslim inmates to purchase Islamic prayer oil from an approved outside vendor which was the basis of my suit. And the other suit [No. 4:18-CV-00531] also resulted in summary judgment for TDCJ as well once the prison officials agreed to permit Texas inmates to grow a 4 inch religious beard and repeal the stipulations which prohibited prisoners from neatly sculpting our beards and repeal the requirement that we completely shave off our beards yearly for photo identification, which was the basis of my suit. I, now have one suit currently pending in
regards to TDCJ's "Deliberate Indifference" to the safety of the prisoners and for their "public strip search method" which violates RLUIPA.


I, would like to report the situation here in Texas, the Texas prisoners are completely behind the "8 ball" more so than any other prisoners anywhere else in the United States [mainly due to Texas prisoners cowardness]. TDCJ does not have any kind of "law clerk" program nor are the inmates whom are assigned to work in the law libraries given any legal training nor are they re- quired to have any knowledge of the law. Thus Texas prisoners whom attend the law library trying to work on his conviction are pretty much on their own without having any knowledge of the law himself nor any one to assist him. Those of us who do have a little understading of the law and knowledge to litigate we are hindered and in some situations outright denied to help other prisoners in need of assistance due to the law library rules and restrictions which among other things, prohibits inmates from talking to each other when attending the law library. Plus the law library itself books are outdated [no case law newer then 2009] and a lot of the useful books and resource material has been taken out of the law library all in an effort to hinder and restrict prisoners'ability to litigate their conviction(s) or to bring suit against TDCJ.


P.S. Please acknowledge receiving this report


Thank You
Sam (Redacted)

December 31, 2022

Dear

Re: Law Student pen-pal program.

My name is Sam I'm incarcerated in a Texas prison I write to request that you place my name on your pen-pal list to corresponse with a law student.

In closing I'll like to make the following statement and ask a question. There is no federal legislation passed into law the pass 25-years that's more detrimental to state and federal prisoners than the "Anti-Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act (AERDPA)" and the "Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA)" both signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996. My question is I would like to know whether there is any grassroot organization working to try to get Congress to repeal or amend those laws? And what can we do as Jailhouse lawyers to get this issue on the radar of grassroot organizations? I, personally have tried to organize the Texas prisoners on the plantation that I'm assigned on to start a wrtining campaign to federal legislation but my effort failed because the Texas prisoners are simply to childish and apathetic to be pro-active.

Mail reply to: Sam

Thank You
Sam

Dear Jailhouse Lawyers:
June 19, 2023
My name is Sam [redacted] I am a jailhouse lawyer incarcerated in the Texas prison system, I give you my permission to print this letter in-part or in its entirety on any one of your platforms and you can use my true name and my location. I, write to bring up a critical point that needs to be at the forefront of being advocated
on behalf of prisoners and that is for the repeal or amendment of the
"Anti-Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act" (AEDPA) 1996; and the
"Prison Litigation Reform Act" (PLA)|1996. It is a fact that there has not been any law enacted by Congress in the last 30-years that's more detrimental to prisoners (both Federal & State) than the AEDPA and PLA. The AEDPA established a 1-year time limitation period for federal and state prisoners to file a habeas corpus in federal court challenging the legality of our conviction(s) and the PLRA established a three hundred and fifty ($350;00) dollar filing fee for prisoners to file a $1983 civil complaint challenging the condition of our con-finement.
Myself being a jailhouse lawyer, I have read numerous prisoners
Reporter's Record and discovered that many of them have meritorious constitutional claim(s) which begs the court's reviewal but due to the AEDPA 1-year limitation period they are forever "timed-barred'
from presenting their meritorious constitutional clam(s) to theil federal court. (including myself). It was unfair of Congress to enact the AEDPA which gives uneducated pro-se prisoners a 1-year time limitation (1-year after their conviction becomes final) to somehow come up with his Reporter's Record then rear it, learn the law, reaserch the law, prepare, draft and file his federal habeas corpus or failure to accomplish such within a 1-year time period the prisoner will be time-barred and forever prohibited to present his meritorious constitutional claim(s) to the federal court. The AEDPA must be repealed or at least amended to a 3-year limitation period to allow prisoners 'to obtain our Reporter's Record and learn the law to prepare, draft and file our habeas corpus.
The PLRA placed an onerous burden and restrictions on us to file a $1983 civil suit, note that in the quarter-century since the enactment of the PLA it has effectively slammed shut the court doors to us, as it places numerous procedural obstacles in our ability to challenge the condition of our confinement or to hold the prison officials accountable for their unconstitutional conduct. One of the original justifications for the enactment of the PLRA was because prisoners frequently file frivolous lawsuits, so Congress enacted the PRA to stop supposedly frivolous suits by placing numerous restrictions, obstacles and a $350.00 filing fee, all aimed at discouraging prisoners from filing suits. If there really ever were thousands of frivolous lawsuits being filed by prisoners, then one would think that since the PLA supposedly screens out frivolous suits than one would think that there would be a higher success rate in the remaining cases brought by prisoners. But a study by Margo Schlanger at the University of Michigan Law school found that there has not been any newfound
success rate since the passage of the PLRA, the only thing that has occurred is that the number of suits filed by prisoners has plummeted even as the mass incarceration rate has went-up. It should be noted when prisoners file a suit it is screened and if it is deemed not to be frivolous he will be allowed to proceed. If he lose at the summary judgment stage he will be charged an additional $350.00 to appeal the ruling even though the screening of the suit it was deem not to be frivolous therefore we should not be charged the additional filing fee. In short, the PLRA must be repealed or amended eliminating the initial filing fee and/or at least the filing fee to appeal the ruling.
Thank You
Sam [redacted]