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Dispatch from Holman Prison (from January 25, 2016)

The following letter is from a prisoner at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama which has recently seen an inspiring act of rebellion that left two staff members stabbed and major fire damage to correctional facilities. Much of what really happened there is still unknown but this letter sent in late January might help illustrate some of the conditions in the Alabama prison  system feeding the rage that we saw yesterday.

 

January 25, 2016

Dear [name withheld from online posting],

Thank you for writing. Let me begin by saying that the Free Alabama Movement and prisoners in the State of Alabama can use all the help and support we can get in our efforts to be released from this unjust system.

The entire Alabama criminal justice system is corrupt, from the police departments, to the prosecutors and judges, and the prisons. There is no justice here. These people are solely motivated to lock people up and throw away the key. That is the mentality here, and it is focused on black people and poor whites.

You may be aware that the Alabama prison systemn is severely overcrowded with approximately 30,000 inmates in a system designed for about 16,000 people. Now you would think the state government and the courts would do something to alleviated this unconstitutional situation, but all that they have done for the last 20-years is talk about it, with no real solutions to solve the problem.

The courts in this state are so corrupt that contrary to federal law, prisoners are routinely denied acfess to the courts unless they can pay a $260.00 filing fee to have their petitions heard. And the federal courts are going right along with this practice.

In addition, the Alabama courts also routinbely deny prisoners ‘due process of law’ in the court. That is, when we file petitions attacking our convictions and sentences the courts deny the petitions outright without affording us attorneys or hearings in court.

My case is a perfect example of what I am talking about. In 2005 I was convicted of trafficking cocaine and attempted murder of a police officer. In court hearings prior to me being indicted and tried, the individual who owned the drugs told the courts and prosecutors that I was a visitor at his home when the police came and executed a search warrant, and that the drugs were not mine.

The police also stated that the drugs did not belong to me and that they were after the owner of the residence because they had reason to believe that he was trafficking drugs based upon a confidential informant. The police also stated that they did not see me with a gun and were not accusing me of attempted murder.

Never-the-less, the prosecutors and the judges ignored this testimony and decided to prosecute me anyway. Simply because I was there. I have all of this information in my transcripts.

My case is one of thousands, where an individual has been wrongfully convicted. Having said that, I am of the opinion that if the Alabama courts afforded criminal defendants due process and equal protection of the law, then the Alabama prison system would not be overcrowded.

The next issue is the prisons themselves. The Alabama prisons are basically falling down. I am at Holman prison and the living conditions are deplorable to say the least. In the winter there is no heat, you get warm the best way you can by putting on as many clothes as possible. The food is unfit for human consumption for the most part and if you don’t have money to feed yourself, you are just shit-out-of-luck.

There are many things that I could go on about, but these are just some of the things that we are going through here in Alabama. I cannot speak for everyone but we need all the help we can get whether it is through social media or actual protest to the legislature in Montgomery.

You also mentioned that you could help with reading material. If you don’t mind could you provide me with a catalog or list of books that you have available.

I appreciate your time and consideration in trying to provide assistance to the prisoners of Alabama. I look forward to hearing from you in the near future.

Sincerely,

[name withheld from online posting]

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Dispatch from Donaldson Corr. Facility (Bessemer, AL)

This post is an excerpt from a letter sent by a rebellious prisoner at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama. His name and other sensitive information has been ommitted from the following write up.

 

February, 25, 2016

…Dealing with the same ol’ same ol’. Still in closed custody, but I’m taking some delight in the convenience of being allowed in to remain in the same cell for an extended period of time. Normally the administration is constantly moving individuals in closed custody, from cell to cell. More on that later.

You’re right mane, it is some bullshit they don’t allow us to have books in segregation. Donaldson is the only facility in the state that has that policy. This is the only facility that practices many of the policies they have created. Camps are supposed to function by the rules outlined in the ADOC Administrative Regulations, but Donaldson disregards that all together. They have their own set of rules and policies which they change, bend, break and write as they go. No exaggeration what so ever. For example, according to the ADOC Administrative Regulations code 403 which governs the process of disciplinary citations and what not, I clearly should not be in segretation. There are ten “working days” allowed to the administration ot present your case before a “hearing officer” from the exact time that you are served with the citation. Any minute longer and it is considered a due process violation where the write up is to be disconnected and the inmate released from segregation back into general population.

Every facility takes great measure to meet the requirements for due process except here. I informed the warden over the segregation unit at one weekly Seg’ review board” that the time fo due process on my disciplinary had expired and when could I expect to be released from segregation. Herself along with many of the dozen or so staff members on the Review Board burst into laughter as if I was a stand up comedian or something. The joke was really on me. When she regained her composure she stated to me. “There is no due process in my lock up. If the time truly has expired you can rest assured that your citation will be ‘re-initiated’”… Sure as shit stinks thats exactly what they did about two weeks after. But I later found out there are guys here who have been served write ups for things which took place months prior to them being served and yet the administration files it with ADOC Central Records as if everything was done by the book. Blatant corruptions and obstruction of justice. Representative of state and government agencies as a whole if you ask me.

What can we do about it. Complain to the Central Records department? Many individuals do this and if their claims are legitimate the ruling will be overturned, but it takes over a year sometimes years to get Central Records to complete that process. The administration knows that, and they figure by the time Central Records gets around to investigating and what not you will have served all of the time they gave you anyway. This allows the administration the freedom to administer whatever amount of tyranny they desire with impunity.

There are many guys like myself who have recently been transferred here from camps where there is constant rebellion and militant resistance to the oppressive tactics those administrations tried to implement. We have witnessed that through collective resistance we can force prison officials to conform to our demands. We have no desire to appeal to the state to correct itself. Where they do that?!?…

…I can get zines [as long as they aren’t stapled and/or containing pornographic images]. At one point the adminstration was rejecting zine packages I was receiving from comrades, but that’s only because the package were being mistaken for containing books. They wouldn’t even open it; just send me a notice that they were rejecting the package because I can’t get books in seg. I wrote a letter when one of these notices had the return address of a company that had been sending me zines before I came to segregation. They started opening them and making sure that it wasn’t a book instead of just rejecting the package because it appeared to contain a book. Sounds so logical you would wonder why they weren’t doing it in the first place SMH.

-A prisoner at Donaldson Correctional Facility

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Uprising at Holman Prison in Alabama

Last night prisoners took over Holman prison in Alabama. At around midnight a fight between inmates escalated to include guards and even the warden. Staff fled, and the rioting prisoners have taken over general population, lighting guard towers on fire and barricading the doors.News and video, here.

 

According to rumors, the incident began when an officer responded to a fight between two prisoners with excessive force and was stabbed in response. “Then they brought the warden down and the warden got to talking crazy so they ended up stabbing the warden, and then after that all the officers ran up out of the institution, that was like 12:00, 1:00 this morning.”

The warden and officer’s injuries were not fatal. There are videos circulating on social media of prisoners burning the control towers and opening all doors. “We’re tired of this shit, there’s only one way to deal with it: tear the prison down” one of the participants stated.

At around 2 am the riot squad and police arrived. They said they were waiting on daylight to move and try to restore control of the facility. At this time, people haven’t heard from the occupied portion of the prison for a few hours, but it seems the authorities have not moved in, either. Friends and family of prisoners in Holman are asking that people pray for their loved ones.

Holman’s capacity is 1002 prisoners, but it also has a segregation unit and death row, which are still under the prison’s control. Prisoners in segregation have not received their breakfast meal, four hours after it is normally distributed. General population at Holman consists of four open space dormitories, housing 114 people each, plus a 200 person annex, so there may be between 450 – 650 prisoners involved in the uprising.

Alabama DOC has been increasingly unstable in recent months, incidents of violence within the institutions have been stacking up, the federal government was on the verge of taking over the system due to poor management and budgetary shortfalls last year.

An article from Jan 2016 about ADOC’s failure to operate safe and stable prisons.

Georgia State Prison, Letters from prisoners, Tier Program, U.N.A.T.M.

“Only as One Will We Defeat Our Adversaries”

Revolutionary greetings to all

My comrade and I sit a mere few cells apart from one another in the belly of the beast, contemplating on how we can set up a solid and sound infrastructure amongst my peers to overcome any and all kinds of adversity set before us to simply dilute our strike for betterment as one. You see we are just two of the mass going through oppressive malpractices being used in the tyrannical Georgia courts and penal system. Our human rights are constantly violated by the maladministration at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, GA. Not only are we fighting the charlatans of justice but also the guile quislings in sheep clothing as well. After speaking with a few peers about taking a stand many became afraid of just the mere thought! Numbers became a big factor because the machine is made of many but it is our one common enemy. My comrads and I are working towards reincarnating the U.N.A.T.M movement (United Nations Against The Machine). For we know only as one will we defeat our adversaries. The odds are stacked against us this we know and many of my fellow peers question our mission with a concious of complete failure and nothing getting done about the maltreatment we are witnessing and face. Prominently, their main fear is being placed deeper within their confinement inside one of the many torture chambers guised as a step down program known as the ”Tier Program”; All of which my comrade and I have discussed and forseen as a probable future fate for ourselves. But to those we say this, at some point in time sacrifices have to be made in order for you to prevail.

There are statistics, research, and victims/witnesses that can plea the maltreatment and abusive authority that managed this industry of human servitude for capital. This can be a complaint of the victims and their supporters that will never cease if our endeavors as willful contestors continue to fall short caused by our inferior beliefs about the road of tribulation and long suffering we must first stride across. We have to continue concentrating more on devising efficient solutions to work in our favor. Realize the inalienable right to revolt and grieve any form of goverment that is found guilty operating under corruption. Georgia prisoners must recognize the Nation wide sacrifices, movements and changes other states and our comrades are making to bring justice to our unjust court and penal system. Exposure to media outlets, study groups about our rights as humans but most of all there must be a unified struggle against this repressive system within the system of policy. We lack courageous and solid solidarity in the Georgia penitentiary.

The U.N.A.T.M. (United Nations Against the Machine) was an official calling to end frivilous Quarrels between the common Georgia prisoners of war. Thus, as the movement proves to be more sufficient than the defective tier program many promoters/members of the U.N.A.T.M were then placed on the ”Tier.” For trying to bring peace and unity behind the enemies’ line. I have documentation of the machine repression toward the movement(s) of prisoner solidarity. On the facebook profile (Type in the search box: Vick Colbert or Mgdvick@yahoo.com) pictures displaying classified as State Secrets. Stamped and sealed under the Georgia Central Intelligence Unit (CIU). This is factual evidence that the system of institutional genocide grows and supports prison on prisoner violence and overall the failure to rehabilitate the prisoners of its system. This capitalistic industry justifies its means with the detrimental end of our lives. We as souljas in this struggle challenge all our fellow comrades to come as one. Join the nation wide front against the prisonercrats and their criminal injustice enterprise. We are the problem now let’s be the solution as the revolution!

All power to the people

&

Rebel loyalty to our

Struggle as United

Nations Against The Machine

BLAQMAN seer and BLAQMAN saladeen

Peace, Power, Respect

Black liberation, Georgia State Prison, Letters from prisoners, Social commentary

Chains of Suppression: Thoughts on Black Liberation from Prison

A Reason

Place the world under a temporary observation. There’s constant motion. Nothing stagnates but the mind. Evolution. The world revolves around one word. Progression. So how is it that we as Afro Americans are the primary race culturally regressing? Let’s dissect this. Despite a subversive government, we are the majority in the prison system in a lot of states. there is an exceeding number of us provided with government assistance. There are more of us jobless than anyone. We hold the majority when speaking of povertization. For every one of us that excels, three of us revert. I will be admitted into the prison system, I will become a victim of violence (racial genocide), and I will fall victim to poverty. When I listen to the radio, I hear artist advertising regression, embedding in our hearts that nefarious activity is acceptable, influencing avaricious mindsets to attain everyday life. In this modern day society, black indicates aggression. Black installs fear. But in reality, black resembles power. This is the reason government officials placed COINTELPRO into action. To progress, we must travel to our past briefly, to identify where we derived from. This exempts historical amnesia from our culture.

After the Emancipation Proclamation, blacks in the South became free, but with no way to acquire financial stability due to Jim Crow laws being placed in effect. Jim Crow laws were specifically placed in effect to recreate financial circulation. Blacks/slaves did everything. So when the document was signed, the economy roughly crashed due to the fact that whites were devoid the knowledge required to execute the primary job that preserved the economy. We sustained that knowledge. We were the essential factor (roads, railroads, canals, bridges). We were the individuals who constructed these. So the Jim Crow laws were activated impeding us from obtaining jobs. Sharecropping was produced. With us being so far behind and free for the first time in foreign territory we were coerced into this form of legal justifiable slavery. We had nothing, but our families needed taken care of. Blockades.

Fast forward to today. We have blockades placed in our path today, but we attain the vehemence to overcome suppression. This starts with self. Dissecting our actions and utilizing our position in society to enlighten the unaware. Refuse to subsist of the mentally enslaved. Unite as one and assist. Not oppress. Educate. Inform. Our worst enemy is self. Many search for a reason. That progression be the reason.

# There’s a deeper love inside #
Jordan pack
Comrade Quadir

Psychological Warfare

When it comes to the government I am a firm believer that they have mastered how to place a circumference around the African American societies mental functionalism. This explains our unawareness and some’s nonchalant behavior towards the realities of oppression. We are dealing with an intricate system that can be undisputedly disproved if only we weren’t suffering from historical amnesia. Check this. Studies from Carl Rogers show that we are born humanistic, stressing that humans have enormous potential for personal growth only if the mind is utilized in the correct way. He emphasizes the importance of free will and humans ability to make choices. So why do we fail to utilize this God given talent? Why do we fail to see the mental strain the government has on us? Why do we fail to see that we are involved in a psychological war with those whom we allow to govern us?

Our minds are being toyed with. We are independent variables in a “true experiment”. We are part of a control group and which we are used as pawns. People do not realize that the government utilizes the double-blind technique as a form of manipulation on both parties. Theirs and ours. Some of those who work for the government are unaware of the negative infestations placed upon their mind. The government controls all. For example the right to election. No matter who the president is things will happen exactly how the legislative, executive, and judicial branch plan. The right to election is simply a psychological manipulation tactic which is used in a placebo effective form. We are just unaware and lack the motivation to seek truism when it’s clearly in our face.

The way we are raised and oppressed is a blockade to mental independancy where we grow an ecological view of perception of freedom which becomes an innate mechanism for generations to come. The government uses classical and respondent conditioning us to manipulate us into thinking we are free, when in all actuality, we are in a harnessed environment. This is why we give an unconditioned response as a natural reflex to those who seek to expose the truth. We must learn to think for ourselves. We are placed in a controlled society for experimentation so it will be easier to rule out extraneous and distracting variables to manipulate all for capitalistic reasons. Certain things are placed upon us at as a test to measure our intelligence, anxiety, and leadership abilities in which any who shows any signs of radicalism shall be exterminated per COINTELPRO. A form of justifiable homicide.

Obstacles are constantly thrown our way to suppress the African race and confine an excessive number of us to povertization. Many begin to languish and turn to mind altering substances such as depressants and stimulants, which turns individuals physical or psychologically dependent for a sense of motivation. Now one has to gain the strength and support to detoxify theirself just to regain stable consciousness in a world where we are coerced to not be conscious at all. Now ain’t that some shit…

All in all, we are under what I like to call “involuntary political hypnosis” they have us in an involuntary altered state of conscious where we actually believe we are being governed in a righteous manner. We are truly victims of post hypnotic suggestions.

Relinquishing to the oppressive tactics of the government and our subversive minds is no longer an option. No longer will we commit any faux pas. We will become coherent and exert our minds in a productive manner. We must equip ourselves for war, for it is in full effect. Proper preparation prevents poor performance…

Jordan Pack
* Black Liberation Coalition of America
BLCA
Words from Comrade and black Liberator Jordan Pack
Chains of Suppression

What is the meaning of life? Don’t confuse this with your individual purpose of life. I witness so many, roaming about in the world they don’t understand. The Black man incoherently searching for his place. Involving ones self with groups that embrace racial genocide, unconsciously limiting their lifespan, but influencing the youth to embrace this lifestyle as their common ground. The conscious few limit their task to a petite group, but we retain an abundance of knowledge that must be expanded. I survey our youth traveling a road that leads to nowhere. Then I glimpse at their mental guidance. An immature mind conducting an immature mind, will not mature. It is the obligation of us conscious few to surmount the task of transforming the incredulous, nullifying any defeatist. To transgress, we must believe and possess a Herculean heart. Our challenge is to reactivate a cohesion that’s been obsolescent in our people for so long, making us permissible to tyranny. Empower the minds of our women. Unveil the significance of their existence, encouraging them to flourish from their atavistic ways. Our women are our support system. To subsist as a non-conformist of racial equality is an act of surrealism that will keep us inferior to an oppressive hierarchy. It is mandatory that we act as a as vanguards to conciliate the masses. This is the only way to reconstruct. Or situation is mutable. The fact that we are cognizant means our state of suppression optional. Let’s unbreak these chains.
Self Demoralization of a Durable Race

The View
Growing as a young Black man, I’ve been priviledged to obtain a liberated mind and view the world from a bird’s eye view. For the last few years, an immense amount of my concentration has been directed towards dissecting our race and culture. Alot of individuals blame our culture for barely maintaining and a lot of individuals have become content with just getting by. What happened? We derive from a powerful background. People who sacrifice their lives and well-being to ensure that we, as a people, gravitate towards success. Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Dr. King, Malcolm X. These individuals became colleagues of the same vision. The betterment of the people. So whom are we to devaluate and ravage the path these leaders have set forth? How do we modify our belief systems to make a drastic change in our communities? The answer is one mind at a time. But first, allow me to ramify a few of these problems.

Deceiving leaders and our youth. The primary influence on our race today is the hip-hop culture. Majority of us just recite the lyrics without deciphering a message or picture they are portraying. Their lyrics promote and nihilistic lifestyle, suggesting malicious and licentious behavior, depraving our youths minds, influencing them to embrace regression. We allow this to be embedded in our kids heads during their primitive years, so they grow to forbid the fruit of knowledge. Do our leaders realize their strength? Do they realize the mental restrictions they are placing on the African American youth? Is it that they are ignorant of this, or do they just not care? We become so engaged in negativity for self gratification, that we forget our every action is constantly being observed by our shadow. Our children are a reflection of us. The world is a complex matrix that will take a collective whole to progress and cause a mass impact. The world is in constant evolution. And the more we become mentally and trapped the further we will regress.

Preparing Ourselves

Our minds have been submitted to the point our primary goal is oblivious amongst us. We must govern our own minds and quit allowing negativity to pollute our infrastructure. Quit praising materialistic things. Other ethnicities make a mockery of our people. They realize that we are involved in an internal Civil War and they capitalize on the
(it cuts off here)

Georgia State Prison, Letters from prisoners, Prison conditions

“I believe if I stay at G.S.P I will die.” Medical neglect in the infirmary

1-2-16
This is Charlie Hood 712204.
I had 2 strikes in 2014 of May. I cannot walk and I cannot think like I use to. I have been in the infirmary at G.S.P for two years. They just holding me in here. The doctors here are not doing anything for me. They will not come and see me. Are do blood work own me. I try to talk with the doctors but they will not talk with me. I stay sick alot they will not do anything for me. I believe if I stay at G.S.P I will die. Because I cannot get any help from the doctors here. I believe if the doctors was doing they job. I don’t think I had them two strokes.
From
Charlie hood 712204
Infirmary cell 1#

[In different handwriting]
This person is mental health level 3 and the cause of his conditions was one of the nurses giving him too much insulin in 2014. He is now held in the infirmary with no communication with family or friends.

Georgia State Prison, Letters from prisoners

Prison staff medically neglect a stabbing victim

You know I was in the room with Elmo up in G 3#26 before me and Mel Mel got in the room with each other. the same day they move us I ask Srg. Blackey who I was going in the room with and he told me Powell. I told him I’m not going in there because I’m not Crip and he said that that don’t mean nothing and I still have to go in the room with him… So the next day I went to class and I told the teacher CoII Flower how’s they goin to take me out the room with they had in my file COD and put me in the room with a Crip and he told me he don’t know why they did that but he will let somebody know… So that weekend we had got to fighting I had three bite marks from him and he had done poke me in my eye. I could not see out of it like 3 day so I wrote a sick call the same day it happen. so after we got done fighting we “call peace treat” I was goin to put him on the door shower day so I didn’t, I kept my word as a Muslim and a man that I won’t do nothing to him and he did the same but he broke it…

Okay Nov 21, I had been sleep all day so about 3:00 p.m. he had asked me to play chess and I did. so I heard so I heard pill call out there so I stop playing, look up under the door with the mirror to see who was doing pill call. Off. Taylor. That’s when I felt something hit my head. I said to myself to know this nigga ain’t just hit my, so when I got to my feet we started fighting. Well I thouhg we was fighting til I seen the knife in his hand. that when I realize I got stab. I had grabbed to the knife and tried to take it but I cut my right hand up 5 place. then I heard Off. Taylor at the door with pill call I told him that I been stab and he call the code… When Srg. Turner come he told Powell, Mel-Mel to give him the knife an he replyed get him out of here or I’mma kill him. So Srg. Turner sprayed mace in the room and I told Srg. to don’t spray know more I will make sure he get the knife. so I told Mel-Mel to give him the knife cuz he done already jammed so he gave it to him. When I got down the step to ER they said I would have to go to the free world. I got hit 10 times in my head, one time in my left hand, one time on top of my right hand and wrist, got cut 5 time inside my right hand, 2 time in the face, 5 time in my back, and a lot more other places but the wasn’t deep, and 2 bite marks…

When I got to the free world I got 22 staple in my head to slow down the bleeding so I could get an X-ray and a cat scan but I was losing too much blood. so when I was getting my X-ray they did my chest first after they don’t that I told them I feel light headed and I’m hot so they told me to sit down, then I got up and they was doing my side my right side. and that when I had went out. I don’t know I long I was out to when I came back, that’s when they put an IV in me and put like 25 or 30 stitches in me. the free world had that me that I’m not supposed to be walking right now because one of the places I got stabbed on my back hit my spine bone.

I didn’t stop bleeding to five hours later… Than when I got back here at like 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. that night Cap. Jackson took me to ER to get check to see if anything was wrong and I was alright. But the nurses didn’t do nothing but just sat there and look at me. Didn’t check my blood pressure or nothing and when Cap. Jackson ask them where to put my they said they don’t know. Before I left the free world they told Srg. Gordon to let the nurses know to watch me because I lost a whole lot of blood an to check my blood pressure two or three time a day. So Cap. COII Brooke or Rook to put me in F3#15 and when I got here in F3#15 the next morning sunday Nov 22 I went to medical to get my blood pressure checked and other thing. but when I came back from the free world they sent some med for me to take that night for pain and I didn’t get it. So after I got check I ask for the pain med and he told me that I should have got it but I didn’t because the nurses that night didn’t do nothing. Didn’t bring nothing, left me for dead so he had to got out his way to get me something. he said that I suppose to get check up on for the next 30 days or so, but they didn’t do nothing at all. I had to write a sick call just to get my staples and stitches took out…

Georgia State Prison, Letters from prisoners, Prison conditions, Tier Program

Tier Program Concerns and Issues: a list of abuses from the inside

  • Sanitation – We are in a cell for 9 months – years at a time. Our rooms is so filthy due to us not being able to properly clean our cells. We are not allowed to use the broom, mop tolitebrush or even given a wash rag to wipe with. They (G.S.P) do not provide you with none of these items to clean with. We can not flush our own tolits. (Is flushing my tolit a privilege? This program is lost of all privileges not rights.) So if my roommate use the bathroom and nobody is in the dorm for hours at a time (which happens all the time) we have to sit in our room and inhale each others waste. It’s so many different germs and bacteria in a human waste that can lead to serious health problems. We are not allowed to put anything over the tolit to try to block the smell. (Not even while eating) not having a tolit button is very inhumane. Being that we cannot flush our own tolet the waste sits in the tolit for hours at a time which causes bacteria to build up. And being we aren’t able to properly clean our tolits (again not even allowed to use the tolit brush) sooner or later we are gone to get sick. According to S.O.P (Standard Operation Procedure) we are supposed to be allowed to properly clean our cells on the regular….

    We have a tray box (not the hand cuff flap) that is so filthy that it don’t make no sense at all. So much rust and dirt is caked up in it. The rest along can cause long term health problems. Rust and dirt always gets in our food when the trays is being place in this filthy box. I have never seen these boxes cleaned in the years I have been here. We can not open and clean them our selfs. Showers are never clean (never) one dorm holds 52 inmates. So I have to use the “already dirty showers” as 51 other inmates. Just on the tour program along I have witness so many inmates catch scabies and other infections due to us not being able to clean properly, Have the showers cleaned or have clean cloths.

    Lundry only goes out twice a week (supposed to anyway) Tuesday and Thursday. But when we send it out we don’t get it back sometimes up to two weeks. Sheets and blankets never get cleaned. We have to wear jumpsuits which hardly ever get cleaned and exchanged. We have to wear the same jumpsuit for months at a time…. We have to be inspection ready to take a shower (which is not in the S.O.P) if not we don’t shower. That’s not a privilege. That should be treated the same as our trays. Do we got to be inspection ready to eat? To get mail? To get cases from the law library? Ect…

    We don’t have proper ventilation. Can’t even open and close all windows at will. The ventilation system has never been clean. The cells are bug and rat infested. We never have our room sprayed for bugs, rats, ect… We cannot shave because they don’t give us no cleaning solution to clean the clippers with after the next man use them.

  • Physical health – the tier S.O.P states that we are supposed to get the same quality and amount as general population. That’s not the case. We are not getting what general population is getting. They only put just enough food on there so you won’t starve. The portion on the food trays is way below standards (based on a 2000 calorie diet) which include juice, milk and whatever else we supposed to have. We not even allowed to exercise properly because they take our yard away. Per S.O.P we are supposed to get five (5) hours a week unless security issues. The staff is so lazy that they don’t want to run showers and yard so they take our yard away. They take away the only hour we get outside our cells. The only hour we get to exercise. We did we do so wrong that we not allowed to maintain our physical health? Even high max security inmates gets a hour a day. It’s supposed to be 23 hour lockdown not 24/7 (23 and 1, not 24 and none) the water is contaminated. We got to be in the cell for 9 months or more without no proper exercise or clean water to drink. The water smells so bad which shows the pipe system have not been flushed or cleaned in years. No sprinklers in our cells. No emergency buttons.
  • Rehabilitation – the tier program is designed to rehabilitate, correct and make you a better person. It hurts you more than it helps you in so many ways. For example, the tier program do not offer any programs that will better you accept the O.U.T program. What about the ones that been back here for years and people who they not gone let out right now and the one’s who only lockdown due to a validation made by the system. The people who haven’t had a DR in months or years? The people administration is failing to let out due to “old” history or whatever reason. The people who is validated GoodFellas and others who been back here for years. How can they complete their case plans? How can they change? If you back here for months/years and the administration not letting you out for whatever reason, you shouldn’t be offered some type of beneficial programs? How can they make parole or complete the programs that is mandated by the parole board and case plan? How can you lock so many people down for so long and not provide them with these programs and education? Do I lose my right or choice to change and rehabilitate? Is thats what the tier program about? I can’t take these certain classes I need to be consider for parole or a transitional center? R-SAP? I cant get my G.E.D? I cannot take MRT, thinking for a change, motivation for change, Matrix recover family violence? Ect… That is mandated by the parole board because of the affiliation the system have me as or because of my old history. Because I got into “one fight” in the past? Or because I got two or three or even five DRs 11 months ago for failure to follow instruction? I can’t better myself, educate myself or strive for change because of mistakes I made so long ago? This is supposed to be about changing, rehabilitation and correcting right? It’s an unfair program. If my roommate is not ready for inspection, but I am fully dress, locker box like it supposed to be, bed made up and standing at attention, we both get punished. Both get drop back down to phase-1. Both cannot take a shower. That along leads to problems. How am I being held accountable for someone’s else actions? Am I supposed to make his bed? Am I supposed to put his cloths on for him? Am I supposed to argue with him about it which gone lead to a fight. Is that is what the program is trying to do? It’s unfair. A trap.
  • Double jeopardy/Triple jeopardy – We are getting punished for the same DR’s at least 2-3 times. First (1st) we receive a DR for the charge, which leads to a 4 dollar fine and store, package and visitation restriction. Second (2nd) for that same DR (same exact) we will be placed on tier-1 program. Third (3rd) even after completing the program successfully, we are recommended to Tier II phase 1 and the reason being is gone have the same exact DR/infraction that you just lost your visitation, store and package privilege for, fine 4 dollars and sent to tier 1. Now tier-2? 9-months “and” once you get done with Tier-2 you have to go “back” two Tier-1 again. All for the same DR’s.

    Not to mention this phase 3 plus (3+) phase that is not included in the S.O.P. What are the requirements? The law/rules (S.O.P) is not backing this phase like phases 1, 2, and 3. Without no law/rules that mean they can just put you on 3 plus whenever they feel like it. Up to 5 more times. That’s 15 extra months added to the 9-months you already did. All because the administration don’t like you. We can read the rules and guidelines for they have to follow on everything else except face 3 plus? Something is not right….

    The appeal process if unfair itself. The appeal (according to S.O.P) is supposed to go to the counselor to forward to Atlanta (facility director) not to the warden. from the counselor to Atlanta, why does it have to go from counselor to warden and administration then Atlanta? (That’s not S.O.P) How do we know our appeal reaches Atlanta as we wrote it? How do we know it’s getting properly investigated? It do not state why your appeal is being denied.

  • Torture act (and unconstitutional) – The tier-2 program is clearly a torture Act (which is unconstitutional) we are being placed in a cell with a roommate for atleast 9-months- thats years at a time.  without no personal property or hygiene. Not allowed to watch the news, not allowed to receive newspapers, clean our cells, eat properly (like the general population) not allowed to properly exercise, read or educate our selfs. No clean cloths on a regular, no decent water to drink, no pictures, not even nothing to sit on like a stool. No tolit buttons (can’t even flush our own tolit) can’t practise our religions properly. We only allowed 1 Bible or 1 Qu’ran. What about the other religions? What about the religions that require you to read several books a day? The ones that require proper exercise? Stretching and meditation? Law library access? We only allowed 2 cases at a time. How can I really study my case like this?

    This program is a torture act. This program not only takes away your privileges, but also your rights.

    Kevin Brumfield #1183117
    G.S.P Tier program

Georgia State Prison, Letters from prisoners, Prison conditions, Tier Program

It should be called The Torture Program: Tier Program denies education, sanitation, food, yard time

The Tier program at G.S.P Is not helping us mentally or physical at all. G.S.P Administration is violating all of our rights by not lettin us take G.E.D or any other program that are mandate for alot of us to make parole because we are on the tier. the program is designed for rehabitation. The Administration at G.S.P is using the tier for unusual punishment and physical torture.

we are place in a two man cell without a tolit button. If one of us use the restroom we have to smell each other feces because the officer is not in the dorm to flush our tolits on the regular base’s as they are suppose to. Sometimes we go hour’s without our tolit’s been flush so that’s inhumane to our health.

We don’t receive any clean matiral at all. i been on the tier at G.S.P in room G-3-12 since 8-26-15 and I have not receive a broom mop or any chemial to clean myself at all. Today is 12-15-15. The S.O.P state’s that we are to receive chemial on daily base’s.

They feed us through a box that is fill with rust and other decay that can cause food poison are other illness. The S.O.P state’s that we are suppose to receive 2800 calorie’s every meal. we do not get half of that. We do not received juice wit any meal at all. i been in the tier since Aug-26-15 i have not been outside but 3 time’s because i would not give up my tray’s. The office give us a choice “yard are tray” that’s how bad they are treatin us back here. but the S.O.P state’s that we are to receive one hour a day which we do not get at all. The Administration at G.S.P is corrupted all the way around. We ain’t got no kind of win or help from anyone back here on the tier. We stay lock down 24 hour’s a day 365. The tier program is designed for rehibitation not for torture and weight loss.

The system is going against all laws and poity’s that was implement to start the tier up. G.S.P Administration are comein up with they own law’s to use against us back here on the tier. Like (phase 3 plus) i have the S.O.P on the tier and it do not say anythin about (phase 3 plus) or that we can’t receive book, packged’s, are other readin matiral. You have some of us that have been back here 2 to 5 years without any contact wit outer world at all, G.S.P Administration is usein the tire program as a torture program it should be called (The Torture Program) the (Torture Act unconstitutional) the Tier Program is a Torture act which according to the USA constitutional is unlawful and not allowed in the United State of U.S.A. so we as a collectiet hold on the Tier at G.S.P are seeking understanding and a hold lot of help.

Prometheus Rosser 1252012
G-3-12

Georgia State Prison, Letters from prisoners, Violence by guards

Brutal beating by guard: Report from a prisoner

on 12-2015
I Lorenzo Patterson got assaulted by L.T. Javaka S. Johnson because he disrespect me by saying I am tired of you nigga trying to show off in front of these females so I told him you is not talking about nothing and try to walk off to go back to the dormitory but he was stoping me by walking behind me and saying since I am not talking about shit put your fucking hands on me and I will beat your mother fucking ass out here nigga so I told him to get out of my face and tried to walk off but he stopped me by standing in front of me blocking me from walking off so I push his hands out my way and he push me then swung on me which in the process of the assault he was jump up and down on my shoulder which cost my left shoulder to be removed from it joint

written from Lorenzo Patterson