False Disciplinary Cases have Lasting Ramifications
Forgive me for not staying on top of letter writing to you all, because I really miss the newsletters you send. I’m not sure if you have already heard about this incident that occurred here in Texas at the Ramsey Unit in Roshanon, but I will reiterate it for you and the results it brought. In March, 2018, an email was written and sent out to unit sergeants on the Ramsey Unit requiring them to have their officers write at least two disciplinary cases each day for “unauthorized storage of property” without exceptions. This email was written by Captain Reginald Gilbert on March 10, 2018, and was responded to a couple of hours later by now former Major Juan Jackson, who stated that the instructions on the email “will help greatly in fighting a gig,” which is slang for a unit audit. The quota system was abandoned a few weeks later, but an investigation has begun into this.
Now, even though a write-up for not being able to properly store our property into lockers or storage containers that were designed and built for the amount of property that was allowed during the time they were built, (over 40 years ago when the spending amount for commissary was $60.00 a month compared to the $210.00 that is allowed now) is considered minor, if you have already had two minor write-ups in 90-179 days, the third one would be considered a MAJOR case, which can result in the loss of good time, time earning class, commissary, recreation, telephone, and visitation restrictions being leveled against you. This has been and still is going on throughout TDCJ with NO ONE to monitor these atrocities occurring to us.
Now, as the so-called investigation of the bogus disciplinaries resulted in 180 disciplinary cases being thrown out, an inmate’s mother wrote us saying that her son had been set up by prison guards who had planted two screwdrivers in his cell in connection with the quota. Another investigation was opened, and this time, four men were FIRED and another one resigned. (It was my understanding the Major Jackson walked before they walked him.) That’s not all. Some of those same officers were ARRESTED on misdemeanor charges relating to the planting of the screwdrivers.
Once the information hit the fan about the bogus disciplinaries, 500 were found to be written because of the quota scheme. Along with the five officials that the Ramsey Unit lost, a state jail in Atascocita had one official removed; instead of demoting a Captain at this same state jail, he was FIRED. At McConnell, 293 cases were dismissed along with another 83 cases waiting to be processed, and a Major was demoted. At a state jail in Austin, 91 cases were thrown out and an assistant Warden, a Captain, and a Sargent were demoted and reassigned to other units.
Even though we were glad to hear all of this, it means NOTHING to those of us who have already been scarred by the hundreds and thousands of false & bogus cases that caused many of us to be denied parole, and many other things just so certain officials may look as though they are doing a job. When Disciplinary Hearing Officer (DHO) Captain Lonnie Douglas first arrived here on the Wayne Scott Unit back in August, 2017, she immediately initiated a quota system, threatening to write officers up who didn’t turn in a certain number of cases. The result; officers went to resigning by the dozens because many of them did not want to be part of an injustice against those of us who didn’t deserve it.
The cases against me during her tenure here were so minute that it cost the state more to address the appeals, then it did to write them. Captain Douglas has now been promoted and reassigned, yet there are still inmates whom she left her mark on. These so-called disciplinary quotas are still a part of this system, and will forever be. There are some acts of good news in the air concerning good time being given to help us come up for parole sooner, yet it doesn’t seem as though it will help the thousands of us in need of parole. I will let you know what happens with it at a later date.
