As planned, Joe M. and I visited Bee Saturday 10 March in the early afternoon. He seemed in good spirits, somewhat better than when I first visited him last year.

Since I was not able to take notes at the time, and couldn't take notes while driving my car back, the recollections below are somewhat haphazard.

I found Bee grateful for the interest of others, especially Bob Chatelle, in his case, though one compliment was bittersweet: "I told Bob he didn't really have to take so much trouble about me for the two weeks he'd be away. Before, I would manage on maybe two visits a year."

As far as visits in general were concerned, he made the quite sensible observation that they were a valuable break from the daily "soap opera" of intrigues and squabbles among inmates and guards.

Before visiting, I had contacted his mother. She passed on to him our proposal to show up on Saturday afternoon, and relayed his agreement when I called her back. She was planning to visit Bee Sunday 11 March with her husband. The next weekend they were expecting Bee's sister and brother-in-law from Maryland.

The evening before (Friday), Richard C. surprised Bee by managing to visit despite swirling snow outside.

There had been some uncertainty whether we could make our visit -- a major snowfall was forecast and came Friday night, but fortunately came down as melted slush in Boston and points southeast. I had mailed Bee a note Wednesday evening asking him to call me collect Saturday morning, so that I could tell him if we were forced to cancel, but he had not yet gotten the note when we showed up Saturday. Apparently the authorities take their time with mail, even for items obviously containing no more than a sheet of paper.
I learned later that Bee could not have called me in any case. Inmates can only place calls to people on a list that they can only update once a quarter. They can update a separate list of lawyers at will, however.

We arrived about 1:25 PM and got into the visiting center about 1:40. Bee didn't show up until about 2:05; he had been signed out of his residential compound to the gym playing basketball. Fortunately the gym made the effort to call his name; sometimes, especially when "150" people are milling around in frenetic activity, they don't bother.

Bee mentioned that he was currently in the highest ("blue dot") privilege category, due to holding a job, taking every course available, and avoiding significant disputes with inmates and guards.

A major benefit of "blue dot" status is 6 hours of access to a computer (per week? per month?). He can use it for word-processing and other in-house applications, and has a "hard drive" to save his work. (Note: I am not sure whether he meant a detachable CD, floppy, removable disk drive, or something else.) Not surprisingly, however, he has no Internet access. There is a technical advisor assigned to supervise and help the inmates. Many times he will tell an inmate to "read the manual," but apparently has been more forthcoming to Bee, who is an avid learner.

Since former Governor Weld (1990-1997) cut back education opportunities for inmates, the courses available to Bee are not at college level; they tend to be self-help psychology or home-economics. Nevertheless, they are better than nothing and can have moments of interest.
I am told that some inmates manage to teach themselves a significant amount by using prison libraries. Very little of what I currently know dates from my college courses. How much an inmate can learn depends on the quality of the library and how good he is at self-directed study.

Most jobs for inmates at Bridgewater pay only a dollar a day.

With that kind of living standard, even a $3 sandwich at the visiting center would be an extravagant luxury. (Normally visitors put enough money on their canteen cash cards to provide for him as well. We give him the cards and our preferences, though regulations do not allow him to keep the cards afterwards.) On busy visiting days, provisions in the machines may sell out, so some experienced visitors will hoard items, buying them early.

The real pinch is that on $6 a week, inmates have to buy their own clothing and toiletries at market prices. Bee complained in particular that the canteen carried only brand-name razors which ran rather expensive.

The administration, believing that some inmates were overusing the free medical clinic just to look at female staffers (or just because some people like the atmosphere of clinics), wanted to impose a $1 charge per visit. In itself, that is not unreasonable, but if so, they should raise wages above $1 a day.

At one time Bee worked as a barber, where he would sometimes get non-money tips besides. He gave up barbering, however, because of a seven-day work requirement, no days off.

At a prison he was formerly placed in, much more money could be earned legally. A commercial manufacturer ("United Industries"??) paid $1.50 an hour for 30(?)-hour-a-week jobs, plus he could take a second job on the prison staff (another 30 hours?). The big drawback to the prison, however, was the unsupervised violence that Bee was especially vulnerable to. He feels better off in the safety of the Bridgewater Treatment Center, even though poorer.

Bee has been threatened with termination from Bridgewater's therapy program, which presumably would mean return to prison. The ground is that most therapy programs require admission of guilt, and Bee, not being guilty, naturally refuses. (Indeed, apart from self-respect, refusal is also a matter of self-preservation. I gather many of these therapy programs require reliving and confronting one's supposed crimes; if one has to imagine crimes to keep the therapist happy [as in Washington State's "Remembering Satan" case], one's sanity is eroded.)
I am told that some other inmates are allowed to stay at Bridgewater even though they do not admit guilt. Bee's advisors believe there are other motives (politics? fear of embarrassment?) behind the efforts to evict him.

The most recent board hearing turned out to be anticlimactic; Bee's foes had not yet done their homework. A more important hearing is currently scheduled for May. This threat will need careful watching. Unless and until the Commonwealth sets up a closely-supervised "safe house" where vulnerable inmates like Bee can live normally (ie are not locked up in solitary "protective custody," itself a slow and insidious assault on mental health), removing him from Bridgewater would be a barbaric outrage.

Bee has hopes for a legal appeal of his conviction, though events move slowly. His original appeal never reached the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), so "finality" is not at issue. Neither his original trial lawyer nor his original appeal lawyer made use of the dramatic discoveries by the investigator for his day-care center's insurance company. These discoveries shredded the credibility of his accusers, and reduced their later civil lawsuit against the daycare center to a farce. His original appeal lawyer later took on the prosecutor as a law partner, raising questions about the energy behind his original appeal.

Attorney John Swomley is currently in overall charge of his case. Much of the actual research for an appeal is being done by attorney Pam Nicholson. Although experienced with appeals, she only recently arrived in Massachusetts, and is awaiting transfer of her license here. Bee has high confidence in her, and she gives every indication of strong belief in his innocence.

Bee's attorneys are getting reimbursed at the low rate the Commonwealth allows for court appointments. Nevertheless, to help with other expenses of Bee's appeal (eg expert witnesses, a private investigator), contributions would be welcome at
The Bernard Baran Justice Committee
POB 230783
Boston MA 02123-0783
http://www.freebaran.org/
If enough money were raised by the Justice Committee, Bee's attorneys would be able to give up reimbursement by the Commonwealth and devote more of their time to his case.

I recognized one of the guards from the last time. Though perfectly correct toward me, he seemed a little cooler this time around, perhaps because Bee had been giving him grief about something last week.

Another guard made a polite remark to Joe, but Bee told us he recently got into a pointless squabble with another inmate that landed the inmate in solitary. He may have been the guard who tried to tell Bee and other inmates to arrange their living areas in precise inspection order (eg toothbrush placed exactly so, etc.), and was met with incomprehension. It made no sense to Bee, and none to me either until, on the way out of the complex, I noted the existence of a nearby "boot camp" (presumably for juvenile first-imprisonment cases). Perhaps the guard in question had worked there (where, as any military veteran can tell you, nit-picky inspections are an integral part of "boot camp" brainwashing), and was transferred later to the Treatment Center.

including a facility index at URL
http://www.us.gov.ma/doc/facility/index.html

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