Grievances in Missouri Prisons
The Missouri Department of Corrections has a lot of problems, and it is getting worse. Let me explain: I will go over four different topics.
Medical
There is no open sick call provided at the Jefferson City Correctional Center Prison. We are being denied adequate medical care by Centurion Health LLC. I have filed a grievance and medical staff never gave an answer, which denied me due process of law, then sent me the next form in the grievance process to fill out – never giving me a copy of my grievance or stating why no response was given. Prisoners are being treated with deliberate indifference on a daily basis by medical staff, by refusing to care for prisoners, without any concern of the prisoners’ well-being. Medical staff lie and say, “nothing is wrong with you”, while all the time medical staff knew that a prisoner had cancer or some disease. Medical staff fail to diagnose it, cause once they diagnose a medical problem then medical staff are required to treat that problem. We as prisoners in the Department of Corrections are being treated with cruel and unusual punishment by medical staff and prison officials allow it by not saying anything about it and turning a blind eye to it. I reach out seeking help on what to do in this current situation. I am only one voice out of 1800 prisoners, something needs to change within this prison.
Personal Mail
As of 15 June 2022, the Missouri Department of Corrections had all of the prisoners’ personal mail digitized, and all personal mail is sent to Tampa, FL. and sent to prisoners’ tablets, or friends and family can set up an account with Securus and email. D.O.C. lied, saying it “would stop contraband from entering the prison”. This violates every Missouri prisoner’s First Amendment rights to receive personal mail. Prison officials have made a blanket policy for the whole state of Missouri, instead Missouri D.O.C. should discipline those who broke the rules of prison, state, or federal.
As of September 2023, the Missouri Department of Corrections made a new policy concerning books, magazines, newspapers, religious materials, and other reading material. No family members or friends may order anything that enters into the prison. Inmates must order everything, such as: books, magazines, newspapers, religious material, and other reading material, etc… Also, prisoners are not allowed to receive mail order catalogs per new mail policy of 15 June 2022. But, prisoners must order everything themselves? I filed a grievance about the mail – “My religious magazine that is free from Truth For Today was sent back to Truth For Today”, telling them it must be sent to Tampa, FL, and digitally scanned to my tablet! I filed a grievance stating “I have a First Amendment right to receive whichever kind of religious material; books, magazines, newspaper, or any other kind of reading material I choose to receive. This needs to be stopped, and I seek help on how to put an end to this unconstitutional prison policy.
K2
In the Missouri Department of Corrections, the K2 epidemic is so bad that on 29 January 2024, prison officials closed down one wing in the honor house in H.U. #4, leaving 3 wings as honor wings, and used 4-C as a lockdown wing to house prisoners who receive violations for a Rule #11, which is either the prisoner was intoxicated or was in possession of drugs. Prison officials put these prisoners into their cells and to get into their bunk and lie down, if that prisoner is having reactions to K2, we prisoners call “having an episode.”
Prisoners walk around high in the housing unit open wing area; smoking in the wing; in their cells, this is a smoke free prison! Prisoners stumble around like they are drunk – and nothing is done to stop drugs from entering the prison system, and nothing is done to stop prisoners from using drugs in prison. Prison officials took all prisoners’ personal mail stating that drugs were coming in by mail, but it was a lie. Prisoners overdose daily here – one prisoner overdosed and died last Saturday on 16 March 2024 – his name was Billy Dyer. Prison officials also took the gift subscriptions from family and friends, saying drugs were the reason, a lot of good that did. The Missouri Department of Corrections needs to be investigated by the Feds.
Prison Custody Counts
The Missouri Department of Corrections, on a daily basis, messes up count so that prisoners cannot go to the law library, religious services, recreation, work assignment, or anything else prisoners need to do. This has been an ongoing issue in the Jefferson City Correctional Center for two years. It is not hard to count correctly, but every day prison officials re-count five and six times on the same count, when this prison only counts at 5:30AM, 11AM, 4PM, and 10PM. For one count, we, the prisoners, get counted more times than we should – we get hindered from doing normal prison activities on a daily basis. All prison officials have done is kept prisoners in their cells longer than they should. This really needs to change and to be looked into. This has to be a violation of some right that prisoners have.
The issues above are problems that are totally out of prisoners’ control, what we need in Missouri is a voice, one who is willing to fight a hard battle in court for the rights of prisoners. I am tired of the way we prisoners are being treated. I am willing to do my best to ensure that Missouri prisoners are treated fairly according to the law. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I thank you for your time.
