In the dead of the night, Governor Tom Corbett huddled with the choir of the legislator and the rest of his cronies. The FOP [Fraternal Order of Police] introduced an invidious, unconstitutional, chilling effect tantamount to a civil chokehold. Governor Corbett signed House Bill 2533 and Senate Bill 508, which is legally unprecedented and has far reaching implications that specifically targets and impacts former and current prisoners in the state of Pennsylvania. The Victim Crimes Act will subject every former and current prisoner from publicly speaking about their cases under the constitutional provisions of Freedom of Speech, under our 1st Amendment.
Meanwhile, most of us who were born in the land of the free, United States of America, as citizens, were told and taught throughout our formal education that all along the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the basic freedoms of speech, the press, etc. The 1st Amendment of the Constitution as a right cannot be forced into a Hobson’s choice to accept such an unconstitutional amendment, which unequivocally creates a chilling effect, categorically violating our personal freedoms to express, share, and write the facts about our cases publicly through different mediums which would also be held bound to civil penalties for assisting us to gain exposure and access to the free world.
Our forefathers created the Constitution with the intention to protect all of its citizens, not just one particular group over the other. More importantly, these bills subject and victimize the actually innocent individuals who remain in prison fighting tenaciously every waking night and day to prove their innocence. To one day be exonerated. Obviously, the legislative act, HB 2533 and SB 508 has been designed for both former and current prisoners in an attempt to demonize us for the purposes of stripping us from our 1st Amendment constitutional rights.
Governor Corbett literally hijacked the budget of four hundred million dollars from the state’s education fund and misappropriated this outrageous sum of four hundred million dollars to build and construct two new prisons, Phoenix I and II. As of right now, both Phoenix one and two have serious deficiencies in the foundation the prisons were built on, and the structure is actually sinking every day and has not been able to pass the basic inspection. And the cells remain vacant, unpopulated, while the cost keeps on adding to the stranglehold of the average tax paying citizens. There is no telling that there will be added costs upward to the total of twenty-five to fifty million dollars more to structurally fix the foundation and stop Phoenix I and II from sinking altogether.
Governor Corbett has introduced these bills, HB 2533 and SB 508, as a red herring, which is a political ploy used to deflect the citizens attention away from the real victims in the state of Pennsylvania, which are the children without a school to attend and get the basic rights to a formal education. Does he really care about any of the alleged victims sponsored by the Victims Crimes Act? Governor Corbett’s actions speak volumes. What else could he say?
Our community is like a ship. We must take it by the helm and stand to fight for our 1st Amendment constitutional rights and not allow Governor Corbett and his cronies to take away our voices to freely express ourselves publicly. What is a man and woman without the right to share his or her story with the free world? This is a man and woman without a face and a voice. To invalidate man and woman’s 1st amendment rights is to strip them of their human existence. There is no stronger man and woman in the world. It’s him or her who stands most alone. Stand up, fight for your 1st Amendment rights. This is Bryant Arroyo at SCI Frackville for Prison Radio, the voice and face inside the nation of prisoners.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
