Dixon's Disabled done wrong

Dixon STC (Special Treatment Center) Correctional Center is a facility that abuses, verbally and physically, Illinois’ fathers, nephews, cousins, uncles, brothers and sons, while failing them on a regular basis. It doesn’t fail them in a rehabilitation manner because this isn’t a regular facility. This facility is for the physically and mentally challenged.

How does it fail them? It fails them by constantly breaking these men’s civil liberties. An abused man can stand up for himself, but many of these men, like lost sheep, are left to the wolves, the guards, and fall right over. These men, Illinois’ family, are slaughtered by a system that protects the abusers, the guards, and slowly destroys the abused. Some of the abused even try to kill themselves because of the situation.

It starts with the guards, which are composed of, in rising order, correctional officers, sergeants, lieutenants, and majors. They all come from around the Dixon area and are a tightly wound group. Most, not all, of the guards treat the STC prisoners with constant badgering or demeaning names and comments. In groups, the guards will make fun of or belittle an individual’s disability; especially if the individual has no other witnesses. However, that is just the beginning.

The abused men here have three options: take the pain, retaliate, or do paperwork. Sadly, the choice taken is usually one of the first two.

If they are quiet, then the verbal abuse continues until they get out or, like some choose, they exit by suicide.

The other route, retaliating, is what the guards love and the system is made for. If the abused counter with words then two things can happen. The first is disciplinary action can and will be taken. The second, which some guards do, too often, is they take it farther. A guard might strike or even gang assault a prisoner. However, it doesn’t end there. They then write reports claiming a whole different story occurred and a whole new case will be given to the individual.

How can this happen? Because three or more officers versus a man that is deemed low in society, forgotten, and disabled isn’t hard to crush in the courts.

What courts? Lee county, whose main area, Dixon city, is built around Dixon CC and it’s precious guards.

Anyone would say ” Why at Dixon STC and not other joints?” The answer is simple. It happens at other joints, even the General Population side of Dixon CC, but rarely as often because it’s a Special Treatment Center, on the other side. The prisoners here don’t either know how to use, don’t believe in, or don’t trust the system. Being disabled they don’t know better.

These family members of ours need our help. They need the help provided at this facility, but not treatment like this. Even if they choose to fight back through paperwork the system’s a joke. You first need to fill out the paperwork, which most of them can’t do or don’t realize what rights have been broken. Then, you send it through the mail, which the guards sometimes have access to at different points, to the counselor. Then, a week or two later you get it back. You send that to the grievance officer who gets it done in a month and then gives it to the chief administrative officer to agree or disagree with. Then, you can finally send it to Springfield. That wait is a long time and after that you can finally sue for your rights being broken. Like that, if you can prove it, can make up for pain, humiliation, and for the fact you have to go back. With such a long process, where most are done with their sentence or punishment by then, it’s a joke.

They have an Internal Affairs here, but today in May I’ve been asking for over a month to report a beating where I only retaliated with words, yet I still haven’t seen them. I even sent them a slip 10 times already, but no response.

They even have guards who are crisis Correctional Officers for men who are feeling really depressed, but these are the same guards who most don’t trust because of what they do. When counselors are available, a guard, who isn’t trained or trusted by the individual to discuss the issue, may not give consent and call the counselor for the patient when asked.

Notice not once did I refer to these men in any kind of criminal or demeaning term. They, like myself, made a mistake, but we are the people of Illinois family and we should be treated like people with rights. When they ridicule us without reason it isn’t fair to punish us if we do it back, just because they are officers. Provoking fights and laying your hands on the disabled, when not attacked first, is wrong and illegal. No one has the right, no matter how much power they may have, to lay their hands on someone and then lie about it, especially the disabled.

Just ask yourself - why aren’t the guards being arrested?

This is what’s occurring to your fathers, nephews, cousins, uncles, brothers, and sons at Dixon Special Treatment Center. The fact is, what is occurring at Dixon STC is wrong.

MIM(Prisons) responds: As we’ve reported in ULK 15 on Mental Health in prisons, “In imperialist prisons, the ambiguity of diagnosing people as mentally ill becomes very pronounced. Part of the problem is that imprisonment causes mental health problems, so people who may not have had symptoms that would lead to a diagnosis often develop them.” Prisons cause health problems, but revolutionary study and organizing is the best option to fight this oppression. Don’t give in to the system, work with MIM(Prisons) to organize against the criminal injustice system and fight for the rights of all people.