Okay, hello. This is Mr. Eddie Treadwell, Michigan Department of Corrections, Cotton Correctional Facility. My prison numbers is 205017, and I would like to talk about Michigan citizens dying in prison from unjust sentence. See, Michigan is one of the states, one of the only states that have the toughest sentences in the United States without providing prisoners with any type of disciplinary credits or good time incentives to help rehabilitate themselves and transform themselves into better citizens. So, they just warehousing here in Michigan. They just want to incapacitate you, to lock you up to prevent you from committing other crimes, but they have no concern about rehabilitating of the prisoners or correcting behavior, which will end up being a detriment to come back to bite the state, because most of these guys is getting out of prison.
So, they getting out in a worser condition than they was when they came to prison. Then it’s it’s more likely than not that they will repeat similar crimes, or even more heinous type of crimes, right? Because prisoners who sit in prison just idly wasting have nothing other to do than just sit back and learn other criminal behavior from other criminals inside the correction facility, right? And, it’s many other prisoners here that have long indeterminate sentences, such as myself. My case revolved around three individuals trying to kill me behind my house, after they already robbed and killed my brother months earlier. And once I got out of prison for a little stint, six months, they tried to kill me, but I defended myself, and then one of the perpetrators ended up getting killed himself, and I therefore was sentenced to 50 to 75 years. The jury found me guilty of manslaughter, which is one of the less convictions from first degree murder, which carried natural life. They found me guilty of manslaughter, which only carries 10 to 15 years maximum. But since I was a fourth degree habitual, they gave me 50 years right, and I’ve been here 36 years now, you know, fighting, trying to get out of prison.
The Michigan prison system do not want to let prisoners go. You know, they want to hold you, warehouse you, you know, and receive the money to facilitate or fund the facility, right? And it’s a shame, you know, when you sit here in prison and you look and reflect back on all the pain and hurt that’s been caused through your actions and actions of others, and it’s no rehabilitation. There’s no redemption. It’s no type of way to try to cure the trauma that may have been experienced through the act of crime and violence. Don’t nobody win, right?
His family was — my family was hurt when they robbed and killed my brother. Now they family hurt when they family tried to kill me, and one of them ended up dead. Now, I’m in prison doing all this time. Everybody lose. Everybody lost. I’m the only one left alive with my family, brother gone, sister gone, mother gone, daddy gone, grand mama gone. Everybody growing up in the household have passed away since I’ve been incarcerated, and so I sit back and reflect on the the people that I do know have family, and how I try to encourage them to pay attention to their loved ones and love them for the good or the bad that they may possess, because you only get one, you’ll never have another one like that, you know.
So, the point of this message is that it’s people in Michigan are suffering from long term incarceration with no sign of getting out of prison, and we have to do something about that. So, we know the problem. I’m pointing out some of the problems and everything, and we have to come up with solutions to solve the problem. We have to teach each other how to love and respect each other and try to not commit crimes towards people, whereas that you hurt and harm each other. We are humans and people of intelligence who supposed to try to assist and help further the life and existence of others if we can. If we can’t, then it’s no sense of trying to harm another human being. Animals and zombies on TV, you see, they know not to harm each other. They know who the enemies are. They stick together, and we supposed to be the one with intelligence. We have to learn how to stick together and learn how to work together as humans and try to create and build and be productive and relevant to the community – to someone. So, with that, I leave you as I came and expect to hear more from me. Y’all have a great day. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
