JA: Hey how are you doing Peter?

PR: Fine, How are you?

JA: Just a little better than the last time I talked to you. I just got my quarterly package

PR: What does that mean

JA: It's like a care package, it has coffee, tobacco, pencils, pens, a couple of handkerchiefs, candy, little items.

PR: Who does that come from

JA: I have a friend.she and a couple of others put it together for me. We're allowed to have four of them every year.

PR: If I wanted to send you a package on the spur of the moment, I couldn't? I would have to have special authorization?

JA: I would have to get an authorization slip from the property officer, and send it to you.then you could put the package together.we usually get them. Fortunately, they didn't take anything out of this package. A lot of times they do, because something isn't packaged right. I'm careful to tell people what they can send.

PR: So you make coffee in your cell?

JA: Instant coffee

PR: How do you heat the water.

JA: The water in the sink is usually pretty hot, but we're also allowed to have a heating element, called a stinger. If the water's not hot enough we can use the stinger.

PR: I remember you mentioned you're allowed three electrical appliances. Does that count as one of them?

JA: No it doesn't.

PR: What are your electrical appliances?

JA: Well  usually the most important are a typewriter or a TV.

PR: What do you have?

JA: I only have a TV.

PR: If someone wanted to get you a typewriter, could you receive it?

JA: No, there used to be a time, years and years ago, when we could get typewriters like that, but now they have a  got a monopoly on literally everything that comes to this institution, except the quarterly packages.and that's even gotten worse, because there was a time when quarter packages used to be able to weigh 50 pounds and we could have canned goods sent in, and all kinds of other little stuff. No more. You have a 30 lb. limit on your quarterly package, you can't have canned foods any more, there's color restrictions on clothing. You used to be able to get blue jeans.there's a lot of stuff you can't get any more. Tennis shoes.

 this recorded call is from an inmate at a California state correctional facility

PR: If you wanted to have a typewriter, could you get it through the prison?

JA: You have to buy it through the prison

PR: and how much does it cost?

JA: They have two different places you can order from, but I haven't had any money on my books for so long that I don't even worry about it.

PR: What's the situation on the lockdown? When we last spoke you were all on lockdown, and they took all the exercise equipment out of the yard.

JA: Nothing's changed on that.we're still locked down. They're relocating all of-well they only had a few little things, a pullup bar and a dip bar, which is like parallel bars.those have been relocated to another part of the yard.

PR: I found a picture of East Block.what is it, three stories of cells?

JA: East block is five tiers.

PR: Yes, that's it, I wasn't sure from the picture. It looks like an awful dismal place.

PR: I wanted to mention one thing.as we're talking I might ask you a question that you really don't want to deal with, for practical or emotional reasons.

JA: I'm not concerned about that. My only concern is security, and I'm always careful to not say anything that these people may misinterpret.

PR: So if I ask you something you don't want to answer, be sure and tell me.

This recorded call.

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PR: So what about meals? Do they serve you meals that come around on a tray like the telephone?

JA: The meals come by on a cart. They have a food cart.Usually the officers are fairly decent about asking you what you want, not that you have a hell of a selection.  You have your basic food groups. Eighty or 90% of the time the food is hot.

PR: And you don't have the opportunity to work in prison?

JA: No.

PR: Nobody on death row does?

JA: No, no one does. A couple of guys through here are the exception, in that they are the yard workers. After everyone coes in, tghey are the ones who make sure the yard is kept clean.

PR: James, what is it like to live in that place for so long? I think about it sometimes myself. For a month I could handle it. Does it drive you crazy?

JA: It has driven some people crazy. If I didn't have such a strong case, and such a strong will to regain my freedom, and accomplish things.. And my sense of humor. A lot of people have told me that my sense of humor has been an asset in retaining my sanity. That's a good thing to have.I have done a lot of studies about all the religions, spirituality, mystic arts.

PR: Do you have any kind of meditation routine?

JA: Sort of. I can't really concentrate the way I like to, the way that I need to, as a result of this shit in my head.

PR: What does that, give you pain?

JA: I'm always thinking about the potential of losing my eyesight.Every now and then as I'm reading, my vision starts to blur, my vision goes in and out.

PR: What about glasses? Do they give you glasses?

JA: I have reading glasses.It goes back to.these people here, they've got quacks as doctors! Listen, I'm going to give you an example. I went over to the ophthalmologist here at San Quentin. I went over a year ago to get my eyes examined, and I asked him to give me a recommendation for an MRI. He told me "there's nothing that an MRI can tell you about your medical problem that I can't." Can you imagine that?

PR: You have a glass particle stuck where?

JA: It's on my optic nerve.

PR: And how did it get there?

JA: A motorcycle accident years ago. I think it's from that accident. It could be from an operation I had in Riverside when I was incarcerated some years ago. I'm not sure, because I don't know what it is. They know it's a piece of glass; they've confirmed that.

PR: .l talk to you in two weeks.

JA: I need some postage stamps. I really need those, and I appreciate it.also, I wanted you to know that there's going to be a protest in front of this place on the 15^th of this month to try to get our contact visits back.

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