Hello Everyone,

It's been a fast few months since Ed McCabe went to prison. I already had a full plate of work before that happened and it hasn't made things any easier. This isn't really a complaint (Ed might have room for that, I do not), more like an explanation or apology for my failure to make the following letter we received from Ed McCabe available to you on the oxylist before now.

You might think a letter dated in May and received in July to be outdated, but it is still representative of the treatment Ed is getting in the prison system. We have had reports, it ain't no picnic. The letter follows:

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FRIENDS

From:
Ed McCabe
Inmate Number 08536-052 PMB 4000
Federal Medical Center
Rochester, MN 55903-4000
(Don't know how long I will be at this address, short or long)

To all the friends and supporters of Ed McCabe
May 18, 1998

One day last week, 12th May, while in Syracuse, NY Onondaga County Jail, I was told at 7:00 AM to be ready to move out at 7:30 AM. I rushed to do the best I could to pack my books and legal materials & address list & phone list and envelopes and stamps.

They put me into leg, waist & hand chains & took me to Oneida Airport where they took away all my possessions including all legal materials, and, still in chains, put me on a plane full of convicts (CON-AIR) and brought us to Stewart AFB, NY.

Then bus to Otisville, NY Prison where I was strip searched and put in the hole. "The hole" means Solitary -- a room with no, or almost no natural light and about 7X10 in size. You do not leave this room or have contact with anyone except occasional mean voices of guards all day long.

[In three days I was IN CHAINS all day as they transported me, and in the hole at night. Very uncomfortable. Amounts to torture, and I have not even been tried.]

The next day they put me back in chains and flew (737) me to Alexandria, Louisana Airport, and then to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Federal Corrective Institution in chains for about 12 hours. Back in the hole, next morning back on the plane in chains & long stops at Indiana, Detroit, Chicago to pick up and drop off inmates -- a long process stuck, chained into a seat in a 737 full of unhappy people, mostly gang types in on violence and drug violations. The young prisoners are the noisiest and worst, acting out all the time especially in the holding cells and in general population.

Finally we arrived here at the Federal Medical Center. So I spent three days in leg and waist chains with handcuffs all day long & slept in the hole at night. Strip searched 5 times with no shower or contact with anyone. No envelopes, papers, stamps, phone contact -- NOTHING -- Except my chained body.

Federal Medical Center, Rochester, Minnesota is where I ended up, although no one would tell me where I was going or why. Apparently they want to be sure that I cannot come back later and claim "insanity", so they need me certified sane enough for trial. Funny they do not require "sane certification" on any of the other inmates in the system.

Everything I write is read (this is a mental hospital) and everything that comes in is read. It will be weeks before I can get any money sent in and approved and in the phone account so I can call out. All phone calls are monitored. They only allow you to call approved people, all must be approved.

It took me days to get envelopes and stamps (they issue 5 stamps a month). Life in here (the hospital, or anywhere) is easier for the long term inmates, who have all the systems and accounts in place. But for an indigent person like myself who they keep moving around, I am always out of touch and out of resources.

Each place strips you to nothing, so you always arrive with nothing & no way to contact, no addresses, etc., so I apologize to anyone who sent me anything, as it is now gone and I have no way to contact anyone individually. I will have one phone call only, so I will call Howard at [number withtheld; Howard is head of Ed's defense team.]

Everyone else, please try to help me any way you can think of. IT IS ALL UP TO YOU as I am so limited. I have to write this one letter to everyone. For example, two friends sent me three books. They were stolen the next day by US Marshals. So, THANK YOU, but incidents like that will only tend to discourage what little kindnesses people do for me over time.

But I hope people will not give up on me, as unlike most others, I have no family or money to back me up. Constantly being reduced to nothing and waiting and waiting and waiting really makes me appreciate even a bar of soap, a toothbrush, a pen, a stamp, a piece of paper. All the things everyone else takes for granted.

I do not advise anyone to go the route I have been down. In fact, stay away as far as you can. I believe in justice and law, but I do not know if there is any left in our beloved country. I hope there is, but I have experienced federal employees lying in court and being very mean and vindictive when there is no need to. The judge was definitely not impartial, as he is supposed to be by law.

Technically, they say they could hold me here forever, while trying to "determine" if I am sane enough to go to trial. They can do anything they want to anyone at any time, they are all powerful. But I still believe in love and not fear, when the shocks subside. "Shocks" meaning loss of liberty, being chained, being in the hole, or whatever they do to hurt me.

I have all sorts of bills piling up on the outside, and I don't EVEN GET the bills, so I am certain all sorts of lawsuits against me are coming in debtors court as well, in my future, on top of all this.

Thank you everyone from the bottom of my heart for your kindnesses.

Love,

Ed McCabe.

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