Guards Hiding Name Badges to Evade Grievances at xx Prison

I have been submitting Step 1 grievances for months (no replies from the Unit Grievance Office), and talking to the Sargents and Lieutenants and writing to the Captain and Wardens has been useless. I have tried to make them aware of violations of my civil rights by forcing me/us to choose between meals, medical, medications or religious activities and meaningful access to the courts.

The Grievance Office is not answering the grievances. I have submitted one every 40 days over and over since MARCH and I do not even get a reply. I can’t submit Step 2 Grievance until I get a reply to my Step 1 Grievance. It is obvious they are looking the other way to protect other guards. I imagine I can’t file in court until I exhaust local channels. But if they never received or replied to the grievances, that bars me from bringing them to court.

The same goes for them not wearing name badges. I was told by a guard “You can’t write me up if you don’t know my name.” Asking other guards what another guard’s name is proves fruitless. When denied access to the law library or attempting to address the issue they have threatened me with writing me a case for being out of place and sent me back to my section. So all attempts to remedy the situation have failed so far. They have a duty to investigate once I bring a violation to their attention, but no one takes ownership. What do I do? Who on the outside can help with this? How do I proceed?

When we ask for rank (supervisors) we get denied access to them or the Sgt/Lt refuses to come look into the situation. We don’t know if it is the guard that didn’t tell the supervisor and is lying to us (to not get in trouble) or if it is the Sgt/Lt that just doesn’t care. Since we are in the day-room or cell we have no way of knowing whether supervisory staff is really ignoring the issue or whether the officer is just trying to cover up issues related to violations of our rights.

It has been quite frustrating here trying to diligently fight these issues that pose a legal disability.