Here’s the latest Jodi News Update (#102) for February 2021:
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Last month, an outside kitchen worker employed by the prison tested positive for COVID-19, exposing several inmates on Jodi’s unit and necessitating a two-week quarantine. (All the women residing on that unit are now OK.) Jodi said, “Everyone was put on a giant time out.” Much like the rest of the world, only essential inmate workers reported to their jobs. Jodi utilized the gift of free time by reading — a lot. One of her 2021 goals is to read all the books in her possession and donate them to the prison. She donates nearly all the books she receives after reading them, but she fell behind and accumulated too many. “I’ve been focusing on reducing the number of books in my tiny room.” Next week, she’ll be donating her eighth book since the new year commenced.
On Friday, January 29th, extra prison staff combed through the unit and confiscated everyone’s acrylic paints. Rumors had been circulating for months that Perryville’s “new” Warden hated arts and crafts and didn’t want inmates making anything beautiful. The several previous Wardens of Perryville had been more supportive of rehabilitating inmates through productive activities and creative programs. After years of that quality of leadership, Jodi says, “It was a little unusual to us that someone of that rank would hold such a narrow view, so many of us disregarded the rumor.”
Whether true or not, in mid-January, two men escaped a maximum-facility prison near Florence, Arizona, setting off a manhunt across the region that ended in their apprehension. The escapees appeared to have used industrial acrylic paint — the same used by Arizona prisons via cheap inmate labor to paint their buildings — to cover their orange pants and transform them into stiff new “khakis.” (A few years ago, Perryville was coated with this same shade, covering all the buildings’ dull gray with a new drab beige.)
The men who escaped did not use the watery, elementary-grade, nontoxic, water-based paint sold on the inmate commissary in small two-ounce bottles of primary colors. If these guys used paint it was the same paint procured by the prison to beige-wash all its buildings. Somehow, they would have gained access to the large quantity required to sufficiently cover the orange material of their pants.
The Department is using its own blunder as an excuse to eliminate from its prisons arts and crafts, a proven method of therapy and rehabilitation. Art can be an integral part of rehabilitating men and women scheduled to reenter society. So this backward move may have long-reaching negative effects on both inmates and the Arizona communities into which these people will eventually reintegrate. The Department should confiscate from itself its own paint, its own “escape paraphernalia” made available to those men, and hold itself to account for its lapse in security instead of taking away a time-tested, tried-and-true vehicle for rehabilitation and reduction of recidivism.
Ironically, The Arizona Department of Corrections recently rebranded itself “The Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry” (ADCRR) in an attempt to rehab its image. Yet the steps it has taken in this situation are in a direction opposite of what its name suggests. This anti-progress is in the name of “security.” It has capriciously contrabanded harmless art supplies that were never used by the escapees instead of focusing on fixing the real security issue: Inmates managed to breach the prison’s many fences, razor wire, and thinly-populated staff. (The latter is another issue for another time.)
Jodi loves to paint, but due to her circumstances, has not always been able. She has always turned to other media to continue creating. The few acrylic paintings that remain with her family have by virtue of the above developments increased in value, but at this time she does not intend to sell them. She will, however, post them soon for display. For now, it is literally back to the drawing board for Jodi as she plans her next piece of art using pens and pencils. (Click the pic below to visit the Jodi Arias Art Gallery.)
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FUND UPDATE: The JAA Appellate Fund total currently stands at $100,770.94 — so let’s be sure to keep the momentum rolling so the fund total can push on towards the ultimate target of $250,000. That in turn will help towards covering all the legal fees associated with appealing Jodi’s wrongful conviction.
All donations via Justice4Jodi.com go directly to the fund. It is also the ONLY website authorized to collect donations.
In addition, please DO NOT, under any circumstances, donate through any other website or Facebook page/group claiming to be “official” and/or acting with Jodi’s approval or authorization. The same applies to any “Jodi Membership Clubs”, groups or fake Trust funds that have been set up. These sites are bogus – they continue to steal money from Jodi’s future – and they should be actively avoided. If you are aware of any such sites, please help Jodi by clicking here and reporting them.
Remember… each day that passes takes us one day closer to Jodi’s release date.
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As always, be sure to leave your thoughts & comments below.
SJ
Team Jodi #WINNING <<<
Click the banner below to read Jade’s post – “Justice Denied: Why The Jurors Got It Wrong & How The Facts Decimate The State’s Case Against Jodi Arias.”:
