The original of this letter is at the archives of Nevada-Cure.
Thank
you for writing me back. I received your letter on August 30, but am
only now getting a chance to answer it. I have been going through so
much in here for about a month because these so-called correctional
officers have been denying me my meals and not only me but a couple of
other inmates as well, and that senior co in the bubble name Jesse Cox
has been throwing away my fellow prisoners’ mail retaliating against us
because of grievances and anything that we do or say. So me and several
other prisoners had to do what we did to get the warden’s attention.
It’s obvious they don’t understand nonviolent protest because every
time we get together and write a grievance these c.o. continue to do
what they want to do “illegally” so we have to do what we have to do in a
violent way to get these people to understand us. We are not animals,
we are human beings that are locked down 23 hours a day in a maximum
security prison in the middle of nowhere, a lot of us don’t have any
family to help us (I know I don’t) and it’s hard to get people to hear
our voice because the “C.O.” throw away our phone kites.
Just a few weeks ago I was removed from 4A to 4B after talking to
the “caseworker” about what was going on and its like they don’t even
care because after I told the caseworker what happened and why I was
acting the way I was acting, they moved me to the other side (4B) with a
bunch of really really mentally ill people who scream and bang on their
door all day. Not only that, when they moved me into the cell, it was
not clean at all. My water was turned off, my toilet was turned off and
the guy who was in there before me left feces and urine in the toilet
and I couldn’t flush the toilet because the co turned it off. I asked if
they can turn it on so that I can flush it and the only answer I get is
whistles and “chain chain chain, chain the fool” song that the c.o.
sings to me just to provoke me. It keeps going and going.
That same day they refused to give me my dinner. I did nothing
during chow time and they passed right by my door without even looking
at me. So I flooded my room, tired of all the foul treatment, the cruel
and unusual punishment, my lonely life without any help and everything
else. Pencil in my hand I tell the Sgt. to go get the Cert team, come in
my room and get me, I’m not cuffing up. You come in here and I’ll stab
all of you. That day I was ready to die or get beat down by seven
officers but it didn’t happen. They kept me in there all night until
about 10 am the next morning. I was able to calm down and the warden
came to talk to me. I told what happened. She acts like she cares but I
know she doesn’t care at all. So I cuff up, get on my knees so that they
can put the shackles on my ankles. The c.o. made a slick comment and I
turned around to look him in the eyes and tell him to shut up and boom!
I’m knocked to the ground with a closed fist by the officer. This isn’t
the first time, so it didn’t shock me. One of the officers named Coleman
that also had fun assaulting me while yelling, Stop resisting! Thrust
his two fingers to the side of my neck going for my pressure point. I
laughed at him because he wasn’t doing a good job at what he was doing,
my body was supposed t shut down when he did that even though I was on
the ground already, but it didn’t. The AWO was there, he seen what
happened, why it happened, but he didn’t see it all (I wonder why?)
Well, I’m sorry for taking up your time with all this and not
responding to your last letter. I will respond to your last letter, but
let me tell you more. After that happened with the officers I was sent
to the infirmary with no shirt, no socks, no shoes, put in a cell naked
with a suicide blanket until I was seen by “mental health”. I was seen
and cleared to go back to the hole. I was doing alright until one
morning I was up ready to go outside so that I can get some fresh air
and run a couple laps, a c.o. that did not like me told me that I
couldn’t go to yard so I captured the food flap so that the Sgt. could
come talk to me, he did and he said it was all a misunderstanding and I
could have my yard time if only I would comply with their orders. I did.
I got my recreation time and came back to my cell without any incident
at all.
So I’m
sitting in my cell reading a book by Chairman Mao Tse-Tung and here
comes the mental health lady telling me she’s taking my yard and my
phone. I didn’t care about the phone because I didn’t have anyone to
call anyway and still don’t. So I ask how long are you going to take my
yard time and she said, “As long as I want to.” I told her she couldn’t
do that because I didn’t do anything and she walked away, so I flooded
my room to get the sgt. or warden’s attention but to no avail. The
C.E.R.T team comes and tells me they are going to clean out my cell and
search it. They did and they also took me to another cell and strapped
me down to a bed naked in a camera room and while they were strapping me
down I told the CERT officer that I can finally look him in the eyes.
He pulled my hair, pulled it so hard that my head lifted and turned my
head the other way, pushed it down on the bed. A week later I got
strapped down again for talking to another prisoner down the way from
where I was and then they moved me to another cell and refused to let me
shower and have a towel. So I flooded again. Nothing happened that
night. The next morning mental health lady comes to my door and tells me
that they are going to be taking my mattress every morning from 6 am to
6 pm. I told her no, you’re not. They took it from me and I slept on
the cold dirty nasty stinking bug infested floor all night. They did not
give it back to me at all. I was cold, without clothes, just a suicide
blanket, naked sleeping on the floor. Did I write a grievance? No. Why?
Because all I’m going to get is grievance denied, grievance denied, and
grievance denied. I tell you this because nobody else listens to me at
all. I hope that you understand the life I live in prison.
Well, as you probably already know, I will not be able to get a job
here at Ely because of all the things I’ve been doing (It’s not my
fault). They’re violating my rights; they’ve been doing it for the
longest now. But there’s nothing I can do because I don’t have any help
in here or out there. I hope that you can help me or get the IG or AG to
talk to me because if this continues I don’t think I’m going to make it
out of prison, and in my mind I don’t even think that I am going to get
out of prison and I’m not even a lifer.
Now, on the lawsuit that I want to file is for something that
happened down in High Desert. I did not want to shower in my room
because it was dirty so the officer took me to the other shower up front
in the infirmary to the shower. I started yelling and screaming, that’s
all, and the officer opened the shower gate, snatched me out and
slammed me on my face, punched me in the left side of my face, then my
nose, causing it to bleed and then he put a pillow case over my head. I
couldn’t see or breathe and I was down after that. I was scared,
terrified and paranoid because of the cruel and unusual punishment and
the excessive force that was used on me. (Like always). If you would
like for me to send you a copy of my notice of charges I will do that
because the c.o. even says that he hit me in the face and put a
pillowcase over my head. It says that in my write up that he wrote
(which I know is enough for a law suit).
Well, thank you for your time…
