Recently, we received a letter from William N. Best of Altoona about the construction of Smithfield state prison at Huntingdon in central Pennsylvania. We reproduce the letter with minimal editing and we're following up with prison officials. "SCI Smithfield at Huntingdon 'Shoddy built' 12,000 structural defects "I was the masonry subcontractor working under the general contractor who made changes that were not approved by the [Pennsylvania] Department of General Services. The general contractor saw that the project inspectors were not paying attention to what was going on at the time the housing units A thru G were being built. "I made complaints to the Department of General Services and to [then] Governor Robert P. Casey. He joined in with the general contractor's fraud against the consumers of Pennsylvania. I made [Secretary of Corrections] in Camp Hill aware that the housing units A thru G are not safe to house any humans in. They ignored my warnings by putting prisoners into defective state public buildings. "The guards and staff workers have not been forewarned that these buildings do not have the exterior pilasters of reinforced concrete. There are 476 pilasters missing. This presents unstable conditions that could lead to a collapse. This spells danger of imminent harm. This SCI-Smithfield should have been condemned by the state and it never was. "I need to find anyone who has a wife, friend or a minister who visits within the housing units A thru G. If you have any of these people known to you, they need to get in touch with OSHA. They will go into the prison and inspect it for structural defects and condemn them. (Then all will be treated fair.) "Enclosed is a copy of a letter dated March 14, 2002 by Attorney General Mike Fisher, but I trust no government official. Will he follow through? This has been kept under cover in a conspiracy depriving the consumers of their right to know how their tax dollars are wasted on state projects. "Call me collect at 814-942-[withheld by publisher] if you have any questions and if this will be of any help to you. I have letters by politicians who are afraid of loosing their jobs and going to prison themselves. I have the original plans and pictures showing the structural defects."