FC: Tips for Bill Purdy on surviving domain-name contempt in jail

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[To her great credit, Vicki provided us with updates on the case of Paul 
Trummel when he was in jail on contempt charges:
http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=trummel
Let's hope that Bill doesn't suffer the same fate. Previous message: 
http://www.politechbot.com/p-04365.html --Declan]

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Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 13:55:56 -0500
From: Vicki Richman <vicric () vicric com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Cc: "William S. Purdy" <wpurdy () attbi com>
Subject: Re: FC: Bill Purdy: "I'm going to jail over my Washington Post domain"
Message-ID: <20030124185556.GA25453 () panix com>
User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i
Organization: http://vicric.com

> From: "William S. Purdy" <wpurdy () attbi com>
> To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
> Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2003 01:25:09 -0600

> Question:  Declan have you ever been to a Federal Prison for Contempt?  Just
> wondering how bad it will be, and who they put you in with?   Well I will
> find out on the 4th.  I wonder if you can use email in there?

You may not go to a federal joint at first. The marshals may
assume that you'll purge yourself in a few days, and they'll
send you to a county jail, which can be quite hairy,
especially if you're under 25 years old. No email.

One way to protect yourself in a county jail is to get
thrown in the hole, but then you'll have seclusion,
discomfort, and deprivation to deal with. Try a hunger
strike, and be loud about it. The other prisoners will leave
you alone if they think you tend to activism and attracting
the attention of the hacks. Once the hacks believe you're
serious, they'll put you in the hole, and, after about two
weeks, in the hospital for force-feeding.

County prisoners are thieves, ruffians, bullies, whores.
They have no experience with more rarefied crimes like
contempt of court for a computer site. Remember that they'll
say anything to get out, even rat on a friend. They won't
understand your refusal to purge yourself. If you talk about
your case to the other prisoners, they may presume you're
lying to hide a crime like child molestation, making you a
pariah and a target for violence. Use only vague
generalities about your case -- "It's what the fucking feds
said I did with my computer" -- and sound angry, not
defensive.

Never ask another prisoner, "What did you do?" and never
answer such a question. If you make a friend, ask only,
"What are you in for?"

If it becomes clear to the feds that you'll hold out for
months or years, you'll go to a federal joint, which can be
quite pleasant. I don't know about access to computers, but
you'll have comfortable quarters, fascinating companions,
exercise, games.

Thanks for your strength, Bill.

Solidarity,
--
Vicki Richman
vicric () vicric com
http://vicric.com




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