Jon's Jail Journal (by Shaun Attwood)

Free Mike Hunter: John McCain Letter Writing Campaign

14 Oct 08

So far no media help has been forthcoming for Mike Hunter, so I am starting a letter writing campaign in the hope that John McCain, the senior United States Senator from Arizona, will attend to the plight of this mentally-ill Vietnam vet stuck in Arizona’s prison system beyond his release date.

If you wish to help Mike, then please send a postcard, fax or a short letter to John McCain demanding he address the issue of Mike Hunter:

John McCain
United States Senate
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Main: 202-224-2235
Fax: 202-228-2862

Or if you’d prefer to send John McCain an email, here’s the link: http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.ContactForm

And don’t forget to include Mike’s full information:

Michael Hunter 044273
ASPC-Tucson, Manzanita Unit
PO. Box 24401
Tucson, AZ 85734-4401

For more information about Mike’s plight, and his written requests for help to John McCain click here for what I posted last week.

Thank you for helping Mike!

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below

Shaun P. Attwood

8 comments:

Sue O. (aka Joannie, SS) said...: I was just wondering if Mike would eligible for VA medical treatment. I did check the Tucson website for Veteran's Affairs. Under the circumstances, being that he has really has served his time and would be out now if he could-might this be a viable option? I will write to John McCain.; 10:59 AM
Chris Phoenix said...: John McCain is busy losing a Presidential campaign. He's picked a chatbot to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, and that is causing predictable problems for his campaign.

I'm sure McCain has problems that seem far more urgent to him than the plight of one incarcerated ex-con veteran. After a respected politician pointed out that the chatbot's rabble-rousing was reminiscent of vicious racism in the American South a few decades ago, McCain's next airplane flight was delayed while all his advisers considered how to deal with it. It goes without saying that Slingblade won't get anywhere near that much attention.

So your only hope would be that the media picks up the story and builds it into an issue against McCain that he can't ignore. But I think they have plenty of juicier stories.

In addition to going for the media, you might try encouraging the Democrats to use the story against McCain. But there's the unfortunate fact that Slingblade is an ex-con, and perhaps still dangerous. A few years ago, there was a very successful campaign against Democratic presidential hopeful Michael Dukakis , based on the release of a prisoner (Willie Horton, if you want to google the story). So I think the Democrats almost certainly won't touch this story, since the point of it is to get a prisoner released.

I don't know enough of politics to guess whether you'll have any luck after the elections, if McCain wins or if McCain loses. But I strongly suspect you won't have any luck right now.

You might have better luck trying to contact a state-level politician in Arizona who's a veteran.

Chris; 1:38 PM
Anonymous said...: Shaun,

I notice on Mike's info page on the DOC site that it lists his sentence as Life. Is he guaranteed to be released on that parole date listed, or is that pending a review? How does that work?

Also, are you subject to any type of post release supervision, etc. in the UK because of your US conviction, or are you free, clear and recordless as far as they're concerned?

PS
I fired off a quick letter on McCain's site, though I don't expect to see much done about it during this campaign.

-Alex; 3:43 PM
Jon said...: Alex,

I am under no supervision in the u.k..

Mike's life sentence ended in April 2006. But his release package wasn't prepared correctly that year and the next, so the parole board couldn't let him go. It's negligence by the prison staff, and Mike does not have the competency or anyone standing up for him to see it gets done properly. So he's just stuck inside there.

Shaun Attwood; 2:19 AM
Sue O. (aka Joannie, SS) said...: I like the idea of contacting a state level rep who is a veteran or has connections in the department. Anyone from Arizona have any suggestions?; 2:25 AM
Ron Larson said...: OK.. I meant to write this when I received the first email. Writing to McCain about this guy is a waste of time for two reasons.

(1) McCain is in the middle of an election campaign. (a) He doesn't have time, (b) the last thing he wants to have is appear to be soft on crime. So politically he isn't going to touch it.

(2) McCain works for the Federal Govt. The prison is run by the State of Arizona. McCain has zero jurisdiction over the AZ DOC. In fact, the AZ DOC would more likely than not resent a federal politician sticking his nose in their house. Even if you got McCain to pay attention, it might backfire.

Your best bet is to focus your efforts on people or organizations that operate at the state level. If you want to use the Vietnam Veteran angle, then talk to an AZ veterans program. Talk to the Governor. Talk to the state representatives of the city that Slingblade is from. They are the ones that have influence over the DOC. Not McCain.; 8:24 AM
Jon said...: Please bear in mind that this came about because Mike Hunter wrote to John McCain, and McCain indicated he would help Mike and requested more information. McCain purports to help Vietnam vets and Mike Hunter is a Vietnam vet in McCain's home state. Even if McCain doesn't help Mike, by putting his plight online, awareness is being raised, and perhaps help for Mike will come from another source.

Shaun Attwood; 3:17 PM
Chris Phoenix said...: Shaun, in a reasonable world, following up on John McCain's letter would have a reasonably good chance of being effective.

American politics is not reasonable right now.

I don't think anyone here thinks it's unreasonable to write letters to McCain... just that it's likely to be ineffective.

You might as well ignore what McCain said months ago - too much has changed since then.

Chris; 8:49 PM