"Roses have thorns, and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,
And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud
All men make faults".
William Shakespeare
You would think that in the 21st century, a transfer of £50 to an individual in the U.S.A, would be the work of an instant.
You would be wrong.
Although it has been considerably easier of late, sending funds to a prisoner in Ely State Prison can still be a frustrating ordeal, that takes time and energy, and requires sharp wits and a tractable disposition.
My early experience of this procedure was infuriating. Some state prisons had the facility to offer electronic transactions; Ely State Prison did not and the inmates’ friends and families were consequently involved in endless rigmarole, especially those who lived outside the US.
It was first necessary to obtain a US money order which you can only get from the States, or from a US airbase in the UK. This particular problem was overcome by a UK couple, who were associated with the charity that had put me in touch with Bill, of which I was a member. They travelled frequently to the US on business, and whilst there, purchased a number of money orders to bring home with them after each visit. It must have cost a fortune. For a charity member to purchase an order, it was necessary to contact the charity by mail, enclosing an official money order request form, a (Sterling) cheque and a self addressed envelope. On receipt of the order, it had to be filled in by the sender - a horrible undertaking because there was so little space within which to answer the multitude of questions and you were under constant threat of the order being invalidated. Once completed, the order could be despatched to Ely Prison Authority who, when they felt like doing so, would process it and pay it into Bill’s account.
The proceedings could spin out for anything up to three weeks, before the funds were finally made available to Bill. It was exasperating how much money was leached off during the whole operation: bank commission, fluctuations in commercial exchange rates, postal charges and prison administration fees. The final stage in this unhappy business was cruel and humiliating . Each transaction was subject to the deduction of $5 to be put towards the costs of the inmate’s funeral.
Bill has no official source of income, no direct access to his bank account and no relatives to offer him support. His mother and father are both dead, and the whereabouts of his only brother is unknown, he was last heard of five years ago, at which time he was in gaol. Bill surmises that by now, he could well be dead. Bill also cites a couple of elderly relatives, but none communicates with him and again, he is unsure whether they are dead or alive.
For this reason, he is totally dependent on donations from outside sources. Luckily, he now has several staunch penfriends who send him regular amounts but is hasn’t always been the case. When I first wrote to him in 2011, he had lost a very dear penfriend who provided vital financial support. Bill was so broke that he was reduced to selling his desserts to other inmates.
His outgoings are considerable and include toiletries, warm clothing and comfortable footwear, to supplement the thin orange jump suits and canvas shoes which are prison issue and offer little protection against a Nevada winter, spent in a cold cell. Other items that have to be budgeted for are stamps, artwork materials and as many edibles as he can afford from the prison shop. Prisoners in Ely are always hungry as the meals served by the prison kitchen are meagre and unappetising.
There is also other, more onerous expenditure. Bill has a television and an MP3 player and both have limited life spans. There was a problem two years ago, in the run-up to Christmas, when his TV broke down and he had no funds available to replace it. Happily, his penfriends pulled together on this one and he was able to enjoy TV over the festive period. He has no access to the internet but he can receive correspondence on his MP3. I have been employing this means of communication as it is easy and cheap. I write a letter once every two weeks and send it to Corrlinks, an organisation which, after vetting them, forwards electronic letters to prisoners.
I have recently had the good fortune to meet, online, another of Bill’s penfriends, a lovely lady, named Jennifer, who lives in the US and whose kindness has made it possible to expedite fund transfers I now send the money electronically to Jennifer who then draws the requisite amount out of her account and writes a check which then has to go to the prison authorities, before arriving in Bill’s account. This process is a lot less cumbersome than the previous method.
If you are interested in writing to Bill, please don’t hesitate to do so. He can’t emphasise too strongly how much it means to those on death row to receive a letter or postcard, something ‘easy on the eye that brings pleasure to the heart’ (his words). He would be ecstatic at the receipt of a simple country scene, seascape, or perhaps a foreign city. His favourite postcards are works of art, especially Picasso and the modernists.
Postcards must be put in an envelope and must not exceed 10 in number. Bill’s prison number, #0016830 must be clearly printed on the back of each postcard.
Bill’s address is:
William Leonard #0016830
Ely State Prison,
PO Box 1989
Ely NV 89301
U.S.A
This address must appear in the bottom right hand quarter of the envelope and your own address in the top left hand quarter. Any deviation from this will result in the letter being returned to sender or destroyed.
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