October 8,2012

Dear Nelly,
                  I think from the moment I walked through the doors in prison my nickname has been "STRETCH".It has never changed in 29 years and some believe it is my real name.The reason I'm saying this is because the block I'm in houses guys(in the cells below)from a drug program called Willard Corr. Fac..If they complete the program they only have to do 6 months in prison.It is ran like boot camp so there are a lot of failures serving their whole sentence for many are not able to follow rules even if it's only for 6 months.
                    Most of these guys don't have a pot to piss in and all day they call STRETCH because they scraped up a stamp here and a stamp there.I sell them 2 handrolled cigarettes for 1 stamp.I order 2 bags of "cheap" tobacco from a place I've dealt with for years.I get each bag(usually 2 per month)for $4.92 per bag($6.35 shipping)and it comes out to $16.19 total.I get 2-3 hundred stamps per bag(yes 600 stamps-$270.00)for something that only cost me $16.19!!It isn't always stamps,but I will NEVER turn down stamps for I always use them.When Lise was alive I'd send her 1-2 hundred per month so she wouldn't have to buy stamps.
                       You'd be surprised how crazy the cigarette habit is!I have seen guys sell their wedding bands for a pouch of tobacco that costs $3.20!Yes,three dollars and twenty cents.
                        I spoke to David & Linda last night and they would really like you to call.
                        When I first started this sentence I looked at every conflict as a major event and I used every conflict as my way to set an example to follow me throughout my imprisonment!At times,I did not have a piece of metal to make a knife so I used writing pens,pencils,or anything else that I knew would pierce skin.It wasn't ONLY myself that thought this way for jail or prison is known as a violent environment.If you're afraid to fight you certainly have come to the wrong place.
                          The biggest & best reality T.V. show would be cameras in a prison 24/7 and the producer would be a rich genius!
                            Though violators of the law are prosecuted,it does not happen every time.
In Clinton Corr. Fac. most stabbings are not prosecuted,yet in Elmira Corr. Fac. every stabbing is prosecuted!In Attica Corr. Fac. I've seen an inmate get 21/3-7 years for murdering another inmate and in Auburn Corr. Fac. I saw a guy with the same type of murder by knife get 25 years to life!Than in Auburn I saw Donald Nash(he killed 3 C.B.S. employees in the early 80s)get 10 years for cutting a guy's head off!Yes,he cut it off because the kid use to harass him.Mr.Nash was in his 60s and the kid was 20-something.In Attica I remember the C.O.s loved to whistle Beatle songs to harass Mark David Chapman.He is the meekest,gentlest looking inmate I think I ever saw he should be grateful every day that he is housed in solitary confinement for his entire sentence.Other inmates would love to make a name for themselves by killing him.A guy with noyhing to lose would certainly become infamous by taking Chapman's life.Now in the 80s-early 90s inmates would kill someone and get a year or two years in solitary confinement.Today you get approximately 10 years in solitary confinement and once your 10 years is up you stay in that cell and now your status is called Administrative Segregation.In other words,technically you're no longer in solitary confinement for discipline reasons,but what does it really matter what title the status is for you're in the same place with no privileges just as the guy next to you who has 10 years solitary confinement.It is a bad way to have to serve a sentence for your could have an inmate in population serving 10 life sentences and he is afforded all privileges where he could get married,conjugal visits,etc. as opposed to an inmate serving 20 years,but he is in solitary confinement under Administrative Segregation and he gets nothing!!This Administrative Segregation became big when Governor George Pataki took office.
                             When I began my sentence there were about 3 inmates in Administrative Administration in all maximum security prisons,today it has continued after Pataki left office and there are about 30 inmates under that status.In other words,25 years ago you had to be a heavy hitter(very dangerous)as opposed  to today where they will put you there at the drop of a hat.In 2006,they tried to do it to me,but it was the first time I refused to eat and after 3 weeks they decided against it!No way would I EVER accept that status unless it was for disciplinary reasons.Today they put guys in it that are JUST suspected of being threats.
                                The feeding tube was removed from my stmach about 10 minutes ago.No nice way to put it except to say it was literally pulled out.On the end of the tube was a flexible piece of rubber.For a quick second it hurt and felt uncomfortable at the same time!I don't know which one was worse,but I'm fine with a bandage over it.I asked the nurse how come on other parts of the body you need a stitch or two for wounds smaller than this hole,but on the stomach it closes on it's own rather quickly.I'll quote a Phil Collins song,"There was no reply at all."Really,she didn't know!!
                                   From August of '81,when I was thrown out of my house at 16,I lived in Rocky Point above the bar AVENUES which was right there on Prince road across from the big parking lot for HARRY'S bar.I lived upstairs from the bar,then I went and lived with a friend in his basement for about 2 months.I then went to a group home in Stony Brook called Seabury Barn.I was thrown out for trying to hit someone with a baseball bat.Quickly thinking,in no particular order I lived in Medford,Mount Sinai,Port Jefferson,Sound Beach,Sagamore Children's Center(Melville)Kings Park Psychiactric HospitalNorthport,West Virginia,Georgia.If I haven't forgotten any place,that is about it in 27 months.Plus I was in the Suffolk County Jail for 6 2/3 months.I lived in Sound Beach 3 different times and Rocky Point about 5 different times in basements,woods,backseats of cars,on idle trains in Port Jefferson,etc..I probably forgot a place or two-oh yeah,an abandon house in Rocky Point as well.I also stayed in this place for a night,that place,or anywhere else I layed my head as well as Hope House and a run down welfare hotel in East Patchogue.
                                       I remember stealing a car and taking it to Maine because I thought my brother was on an Army base there.When I called my mother and told her my brother wasn't there on that base,she told me the cops are looking for me all over Long Island for stealing the car.She told me to get back to Long Island,lay low,and to call her once I did return.
                                        I drove that car into a wooded area,got out and put my thumb out(hitch hiking).I was picked up right away by a young couple in their mid 20s with two little girls in the backseat with me.During that ride the couple offered for me to come home and live with them!If I didn't have such a homesickness for Rocky Point,who knows what would had become of me if I went with that couple.
                                         Another time I was hitch hiking on 112 going to the Social Services and a black guy driving a tractor trailer picked me up.When he asked me where I was going?I told him where ever he was going.During the ride he offered me to live with his wife and 9 kids.I second guessed myself and returned home again(Rocky Point).I think of these things and wonder what could have been?I could easily make stories up behind them all that would be very interesting,but I'd really wish I took a few of those people up on their offers.You don't know how many nights I slept on the trains in Port Jefferson or in Penn Station in Manhattan.Many times in motel rooms and in the Yaphank motel across from the lake.I stayed there for about 5 weeks in the summer of '82.I met so many people for a few weeks at a time and than I'd disappear in the night with my suitcase because I was drawn back to Rocky Point for that is where my family lived and the town I knew.I picked to live on the streets over comfortable beds.A lot of times I'd sleep in my parent's basement(my stepfather didn't know)or on the boat parked in my yard.
                                              In December of '81, my friend Conrad ran away from home andwas trying to talk me into hitch hiking to Florida with him.I couldn't leave Rocky Point and refused to go.I never saw him again and he was my best friend growing up.I met him in a summer camp and then later when he moved to Rocky Point with his father.I'm sure everybody in Rocky Point knows I was arrested for murder and has no idea what became of me.
                                                In '97 while on a transfer I ran into a kid and his uncle was the one who owned Rocky Point taxi that was on Broadway.They were the green and white taxis and I think they're Keri's taxi(after his daughter who I think owns them now)?Are they still out there?
                                                 Anyway,this kid(Joe Marciano)told me everybody in Rocky point thinks I murdered "Calvin" who is/was a black homeless guy who always traveled around  on a 10 speed bike with a bottle of vodka.It's crazy to be thought of in that way,but I certainly didn't kill ANYONE except who I'm in prison for now.Tell me that isn't some crazy camp fire folk lore?I guess Calvin left the area and someone generated a crazy rumor,but I assured Joe in '97(he was serving 2 years for dealing cocaine)that I had NO idea what the hell people thought,but I did not kill Calvin.That was 14 years into my sentence and 15 years ago and Joe said to me,"I can't believe you still look exactly the same!"Well that was a few strands of gray hair ago and I definitely didn't wear glasses back than.
                                                In my life whenever something was/is going good it scared/s me for I expect it to soon be followed by doom.I still expect that bfor good doesn't usually stay in my life.
                                                 I've no idea what it will be like living with someone upon my release.Everything I've owned in the past 29 years has been within arms reach of my 6 x 9 cell.This cell is bigger,but usually I didn't have to get off my bunk to reach anything.
                                                  I'm not institutionalized(I don't think)for if I was released tomorrow and died an hour later,I would be happy I didn't die in prison.I HATE my life!!There is no other way to put it and I just don't know why James William Morgan has had such a difficult life whichis why I don't believe in GOD having a plan for all of us.I didn't do anything major for me to grow up as I have.I speak even before my imprisonment when I was imprisoned in my room;possibly preparing me for a prison(that is ironic).Truly my life has been lived in a room or a prison cell for more then 80% of it!That is crazy,but so true.
                                                   Well,I think I have given you enough reading material for a while.I will be back at it again once I sit and get lost in a thought I'd like to share with you.Until next time,take good care.
                                                             James