Gabriel City » Death http://gabrielcity.com Gabriel City is a community for the tens of millions of Americans directly affected by our criminal justice system. We come together to share our stories and help to shape new ones. Inmates and the formerly incarcerated, family members of those serving time, men and women under community supervision, professionals in criminal justice and corrections, and the victims of crime; we support and respect each other as we work to break the endless cycle of crime and incarceration that afflicts our nation. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:18:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 The World of the Forgotten http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/the-world-of-the-forgotten-2.html http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/the-world-of-the-forgotten-2.html#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:50:48 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=2117 My house is one of heartache
A place of steel and stone
A barren cell, a home in hell
And here I stand, alone
And when I rage and pace my cage
That no man wants to own
My body aches with frozen stakes
That chill me to the bone
I hear them sling their giant keys
And crank the iron locks
The scrape of feet upon concrete
The guards patrol the blocks
Convicts’ knives take human lives
No jungle holds more danger
And each new day that comes my way
Each man remains a stranger
I watch my back ’cause there’s a lack
Of men who can be trusted
And through the haze there comes a rage
Toward the rat that got me busted.
They came today and took away
The man that lived next door
To end his strife, he took his life
He couldn’t take no more.
It’s quiet here upon the tier
Since Death has claimed a brother
Now each of us are wondering:
Who might be another?

by BRIAN JOHNSEN, #300907, 1115 H. St. Modesto, CA 95354

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/poetry-and-spoken-word/the-world-of-the-forgotten-2.html/feed 0 Further Developments in Inmate Death http://gabrielcity.com/news-and-journalism/further-developments-in-inmate-death.html http://gabrielcity.com/news-and-journalism/further-developments-in-inmate-death.html#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:26:39 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1685 A released autopsy revealed new information in the death of an Arizona inmate.

Marcia Powell, 48, died last May in a hospital after collapsing in an outdoor holding cell at the Perryville prison in Goodyear, Arizona. The recently released autopsy found that her core body temperature was 108 degrees and that there were numerous first- and second- degree burns on her face.

Powell was on anti-psychotic drugs at the time of her death, which are known to cause heat related illnesses. The ongoing investigation focuses on whether or not Powell’s death was negligent homicide or an accident.

Read here for more…

Marcia Powell, died May 20th from heat related-illness

Marcia Powell, died May 20th from heat related-illness

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/news-and-journalism/further-developments-in-inmate-death.html/feed 0 Witness – Death Behind Bars http://gabrielcity.com/video/witness-death-behind-bars.html http://gabrielcity.com/video/witness-death-behind-bars.html#comments Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:09:22 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1214 A two part special that talks about the life of prison inmates who live in prison with no chance of parole. It highlights the life and death of the inmates who spent more time in prison than in the outside world.

Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/video/witness-death-behind-bars.html/feed 0 What If You Knew the Moment of Your Own Death? http://gabrielcity.com/video/what-if-moment-of-death.html http://gabrielcity.com/video/what-if-moment-of-death.html#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:36:51 +0000 hcdmedia http://gabrielcity.com/?p=1097 What if you knew the moment you were going to die?

THE FARM: 10 DOWN

Premieres on The National Geographic Channel Tuesday, June 16th

as “A DECADE BEHIND BARS: RETURN TO THE FARM” @ 8PM Eastern/Pacific

]]> http://gabrielcity.com/video/what-if-moment-of-death.html/feed 0 Swede is Gone http://gabrielcity.com/blog/swede-is-gone.html http://gabrielcity.com/blog/swede-is-gone.html#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 20:51:09 +0000 Jonathanstack http://gabrielcity.com/?p=606 This morning I read that Douglas Dennis, died from a heart attack suffered while serving out his life sentence in Angola for a murder that took place in the 1950’s. I only knew him by his nickname Swede.

Swede was the most intriguing man in that place. Sarcastic, bitter, but funny and brilliant. I used to bring him New Yorker Magazines which he loved and we’d talk about almost any topic imaginable as though he had been everywhere and thought of everything. No doubt about it, Swede was the smartest person in Angola and a good storyteller.

Over the years, I asked Swede every time I saw him if I could make a film about his story.  He was always resistant, saying that if he did that he ran the risk of losing the ‘nickels’ the prison afforded him, meaning the bits of freedom he had achieved within the system. You see Swede had escaped in 1979 and was free and living successfully in Silicon Valley, California until 1989. Eventually he was picked up and brought back to serve the rest of his life sentence. As a risk threat he was never permitted to travel.

The crazy part of the story is that Swede was picked up for drunkenness while on a cross country road trip, ended up in the drunk tank with another man, got into a fight and the guy died.  He had no record until then.  That was in the 1957, the day I was born.  In the early 1960’s he got into a fight with another inmate in Angola and was sent to death row until 1976.  In 1979, while working for the Governor he escaped out of Baton Rouge, apparently first traveling to Central America and later returning back to California.

It would have been powerful for him to share his story with the world and ironically, the last time we met he actually indicated he’d consider doing it.  Maybe somebody else can still tell his story, but I’ll always feel that I let it get away somehow except inside of me.

I remember Swede telling me the night that Antonio James was executed in 1996 that he wasn’t sad, but a bit envious.  The other inmates working at the Angolite said, ‘Tell him Swede, tell him what you do every night!”.   Gruff as always, he said, “every night before sleep, I kneel down to pray. I ask God, please don’t let me wake up in the morning’.
For him, it was preferable to be dead then to serve forever in Angola. Well, he finally got his wish…

– Jonathan Stack

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