On October 27th 2021 West Yard was published and it amazed me how well it has done with respect to sales and the positive feedback that I have recieved. The main comment on social media and in-person book signings has been that current and former CSC staff from across the country found it “validating”.
Many CSC staff members have shared their most personal, violent and shocking experiences from working behind the walls with me. They say that they do this because I have established myself as someone who has been in their shoes and experienced the same traumatic events. Most of all that in their eyes I’m someone safe to express themselves. Some current and former members attend the book signings with their copy of West Yard tabbed throughout. When I asked them why their book is filled with these little markers they tell me it’s because they have experienced the same trauma, corruption and violence. Or they say that I found the words for them that express what they were feeling. Abandonment, gas lighting, destruction of evidence, extortion, assault, death threats, racism, sexual assault are all very powerful words that should not be used to describe your day to day working environment. Yet here they are are, told for the first time in a truth to power evidence based biography from someone who witnessed it, experienced it and was victim to it, just like they were.
With respect to the book itself I have to apologize to my readers. The quality of my editing was not up to the standard that it should have been. That being said you can expect a West Yard 2nd edition in the new year with these issues addressed. As well, the 2nd edition will contain yet more sensational incidents that have occurred since I left the service. I wrote the first edition from my reports, notes and research. The 2nd will contain evidence from depositions of current and former CSC staff members who have been brutally victimized by this meat grinder.
I deliberately did not commit myself to writing an opinion on the current state of CSC with respect to its treatment of staff because I did not have the evidence to back it up. With the evidence that I have gathered from those who volunteered their experiences and from my extensive research I have formed an opinion. That opinion and the evidence to support it will be voiced in West Yard 2nd edition.
Stay up to date on the West Yard web-page for a coming announcement about a TV series currently in pre-production.
“Yard Up For Sure”
