Georgia Prisons

In December 2015 i forwarded you guys a letter in which i informed you all that i was battling my protracted Tier II segregation through litigation. My civil action cite is Nolley v. Nelson, et al, 5:15-CV-75-CAR. The case was filed in Macon division of the United States District Court for Middle District of Georgia circa March 2015. It can be accessed electronically at ecf.gamd.uscourts.gov.

The defendant prison officials, after the initial screening process, moved for dismissal on several grounds (see docket entry no. 22 in above referenced case). The court, however, in declining to dismiss my complaint, just recently issued an order condemning the Tier II practices as an overt violation of the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution (see docket entry no. 50, p. 29). And, judging from the court’s order, my case appears to be somewhat the “vanguard” case of cases attacking the Tier II program. I say this, chiefly, because the court did not cite circuit precedent in its assessment of my claims.

Of equal interest to the favorable court ruling is the court’s detailed layout of the general confinement conditions characteristic of the Tier II program. In any case, now that the court has explicitly held such conditions to be “unconstitutional.” I am seriously contemplating adding Governor Nathan Deal as a defendant party to my suit. I’m thinking i can base his liability on “endorsement of state-sponsored torture” theory. What was the basis of liability for California’s Governor in the Ashker v. Brown case?

It would seem as though the court’s condemnation of Tier II practices amounts to headway in our efforts to expose – and hopefully abolish – the unchecked, torturous treatment of Georgia prisoners. As always, i will be diligent to keep you updated.

Greetings my friend. I just received y’all letter and I want to get involved. I’m currently on the administration segregation mental health Tier II program, on phase two. I been on this program since last October 13th, 2015. We be getting done so wrong. They treat us like a dog.

They put officers in the dorm that don’t want to work in the dorm. We eat cold food, so the officer might let our tray sit in the open. One time I got a tray with hair and a roach was in my food.

I’m currently serving a life sentence but I’m trying to get my case overturned. It be hard to get the proper access to the law library. I have filed grievance but I truly believe my grievance never get turned in. It’s sad because a lot of inmates don’t try to stand up for what’s right. I have been jumped on, got my teeth kicked out by two officers.

I am a prisoner in the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) who is requesting your petition to remedy problems with the grievance procedure. I have blood markers of cancer that prison facilities never informed me about. They tried to prevent me from finding out about this by transferring me to a different prison whenever I would file a grievance demanding to be informed of the results to lab. At Calhoun State Prison on June 29, 2015 the grievance coordinator, who is also the deputy warden of care and treatment, Ms. Christine Cross, informed me my grievance was rejected because I’d forgot to sign it. The counselor I’d turned it in to has an obligation, according to prison operating procedure, to check the grievance for this type of technical compliance when I turned it in to him. I told Christine Cross he could have asked me to sign when I turned it in to him. It wasn’t like I’d did it on purpose. I told Ms. Cross I would appeal the rejection to Department headquarters in Atlanta. Later this same day I was transferred to Dooly State Prison (DSP).

I turned in the appeal to grievance staff at DSP. Several months later I was being interviewed by the grievance coordinator, Ms. McClairen, when I thought to ask about this appeal. McClairen replied it seems there is no record that one was ever forwarded to GDC main office.

McClairen said this in a passing sort of fashion. The procedure requires appeals be submitted to our present facility’s staff, and those staff will forward it to the main office in Atlanta. Apparently this doesn’t work out in many cases. I am wanting to join your campaign. I will attempt to organize some of the others having this problem. Please send me the petition, with any other information I must know.

I wonder if those political prisoners form Fleeta Drumga, to Larry Hoover and many more, are content with solitary confinement due to the abuse of the COs that take place throughout a facility on a daily basis? It’s crazy that after 34 months of max security lockdown and the fight I uphold until my assignment back to GP that upon arriving at Hays State Prison, I feel safer being locked down. In about 10 days of being here I have heard, witnessed, and by a mere split second almost became a victimized prisoner. These officers let it be known that they will kill here, my only question is when will my number be called to reap the wrath?

I witnessed a fellow brother receive a flying knee and became over powered and thrown to the cement all because he didn’t comprehend a command to get down. I mean, it’s 20 officers yelling at 50 prisoners so how could he distinguish the command to him from another?

Simultaneously, another young brother was being attacked by at least 700 lbs of human flesh when he only weighed about 130lbs. He was punch, stomped and tased just for looking at an officer at the time that the staff was riled up from the first of three incidents involving use of force, but I have limited knowledge of that one.

Here, I have been sent, to tame. But my devotion to the cause will only leave me questioning daily; am I next? So, I am determined, as I said in Sept/Oct 2014 issue of ULK, to sink this titanic! From Georgia State Prison to here, my fight has not halted not one bit, the struggle has changed form malnutritional meals and rectal searches to verbal and physical abuse. But nevertheless, it’s all a united struggle within!

To my fellow comrades, stay focused, keep ya heads held high. Never forget the struggle we fight together. Stop our gang quarrels and learn why the majority of these gangs were started in the first place. To overcome oppression.

At present, I am proceeding on two civil suits that are under Appeal Brief and Summary Judgement phases. I’m mentally ill (on medication) and housed in Tier II segregation unit, being denied physical access to law library and legal items requested from law library.

I only compleded the 6th grade of school and was recently denied appointment of counsel by the Georgia Court of Appeals 11th Curcuit. At present I don’t even know what the Appeal Brief should look like, but the case was dismissed due to defendant’s claim of failure to exhause administrative remedy. But I turned in grievances and prison officials declined to process or provide me an appeal form to proceed to the next stage in the Georgia Department of Corrections’ statewide grievance S.O.P. ILB05-0001, even after I addressed the Grievance Coordinator, Warden, and Executive Assistant with inquiry.

I’m almost at a dead end to take on proceedings through the courts, and I haven’t been able to secure much help.

I am currently writing to you from inside the walls of Georgia’s Hancock State Prison where I am housed in its Tier II program. I am writing in hopes that I can be one of those who receives Under Lock & Key issues because I have a supreme respect for its message. I really value its information and am in hopes that I can help in spreading its message to the unconscious minds that fill these prison cells to its fullest capacity.

Also I would like to study and learn as much about Maoism, as I have taken his views as mine thus far. Me and three of my comrades have been rotating the few issues available among one another, and have taken to your 6 points and 5 principles as the foundation of our Guerrilla Union. We all come from different sides, but through awareness of the truth taught by you comrades of MIM we’ve put these titles aside and are now striving to build a strong unity under Maoist teachings and play our part in the struggle towards a socialist/communist society. Whatever must be done will be done on our end. This paper would do a lot for us.

Keep spreading the word cause with us it starts inside but continues when we return to the streets. Please keep me in mind, for I am a sincere comrade, and once again your paper would mean a lot to my strive. Your brother in the struggle, UHURU. Let’s get free!!

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade is on the same track as thousands of other prisoners across the United $tates who have discovered that Maoism isn’t just words written by some long-dead persyn from China, but a living philosophy that can be applied to current conditions of oppression around the world. This should be no surprise, even to the imperialists if they are paying attention. Maoism is merely the practice and application of scientific thought, or as communists call it, dialectical materialism. We learn from history and apply those lessons to advance our theoretical understanding.

Prisoners, who are among the most oppressed people within U.$. borders, can see from their everyday experiences that the oppressors aren’t giving up their power without a fight. This is just one example of why Maoists understand the need for a dictatorship of the proletariat after the people overthrow the imperialist governments. We need a system that can enforce the power of the people, even when the oppressors try to claw their way back into power.

And once we have established a system of government that is serving the interests of the majority of the world’s people rather than the minority, history teaches us that we still can’t rest easy. It’s not just the old bourgeoisie of capitalism who will present a threat, but the new bourgeoisie that will arise and hope to seize power from within the party and government. This drive for persynal power and wealth is a remnant of capitalist culture that won’t disappear overnight after a socialist revolution.

It is these lessons, among others, that prisoners must study to help build an organization that can eventually join the oppressed nations of the world in successfully ending the reign of terror of the imperialists. Thankfully MIM(Prisons) distributes many of these materials and helps run study courses on vital topics. Write to us at the address on p. 1 to get involved!

I’m at the most racist prison in Georgia, Hays State Prison. I am currently on lockdown in the Tier 2 program (long-term solitary confinement) and the other day they shook down a prisoner’s room and found two knives. Being that this is a lockdown the Unit Manager Reids and the Lieutenant Jones were pissed because we’re not supposed to even have a way to get a knife, plus sharpening them. And there are 7 or 8 cameras in the dorm, so they can’t hide this like they used to back in the days when there were no cameras.

They have to report this to the Warden and log it in the log book for everyone to see. They were so mad at this prisoner that they took it out on the dorm by keeping the dinner trays outside the dorm for an hour and a half. Other prisoners in the dorm made a statement to the dorm saying that we all should refuse these trays and make them go get us new hot trays instead of those cold ones outside. Everyone agreed and when the officer came in to pass out the trays (a racist officer) everyone started screaming “We don’t want those cold trays! Go get more trays.” When the Lieutenant came in he threatened to give out a DR (disciplinary report) to any prisoners who refused to take a tray.

The goal is to not take the trays. If one person takes the trays then no one will get new trays, and we refused our tray by choice. But if no one takes the trays then they have to go get new trays. They have to feed us. So things were going good, the first 5 rooms refused, until Lieutenant got to the 6th one. He took his tray, then two more rooms did after that. Others were refusing but like I said when one takes a tray it’s pretty much a failed mission.

My Brother in the room with me and my two other Brothers next door said they was going to get their trays since a few took theirs. They didn’t want to go unfed on a weekend where we only get fed two times. I told them “Hell naw! Just because the others took theirs that don’t mean we give up an fold! If we got to go hungry and starve just to let the white man know we as Blacks and as prisoners won’t go for anything then so be it. We have to sacrifice for the greater purpose.”

True, my stomach was touching my back. But I was ready to starve just to show the white man he does not rule me mentally. But unfortunately when the trays got to my two Brothers’ room they took them. Then they were in front of our door and my roommate grabbed me one and passed it to me. At first I was going to refuse, well I wanted to, but seeing the tray with food I gave in.

While we were eating, the Lieutenant came to our door and said “Good boys. Y’all keep being good.” That made me feel so bad and embarrassed. I let the white man win another war. He made me feel so low like I’m a mutt and he told me to sit, I obeyed, and he rewarded me with a bone and said “good boy.”

I was mad at myself. I should have refused the tray even if it means I’m the only one refusing. At least I will feel good about myself and what I did for my self-respect. But I didn’t. Another Black man falls to the worst side of a white man. Why are we so weak-minded? Why can’t we Blacks stick together against oppressors? Why do we fall for their Willie Lynch tactics?

“My Brother is my Brother and I am my Brother’s keeper.” “2 Black minds are stronger than one, and one strong Black mind is better than none.” I guess I needed that extra mind to motivate me to go further with the protest. And when it didn’t I folded, because of feeling alone, vulnerable and hungry.

That day I told myself that won’t happen again. If I have to starve by myself then I will. Our ancestors went through much more worse than this. I won’t fail them again.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This comrade provides us a good example of self-reflection and learning from our mistakes. Even the best revolutionaries won’t be perfect all the time, in fact we will make many mistakes. But the key is always keeping an open mind to learning from these errors. And also learning from the successes and mistakes of others. This was essentially what the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was about in China: encouraging people not to blindly accept what their leaders said and instead to be critical of incorrect actions and political line, and to learn from mistakes. During this period in China prisoners were offered an opportunity to learn from their errors, undertake serious self-criticism, and return to society as productive members. Although we don’t currently live under a Socialist government which is encouraging and enabling these progressive practices, we can still learn and grow, as this comrade bravely demonstrates.

I write to inform the internation community of comrades that select comrades and myself currently held kkkaptive within Georgia’s prison system have finally amassed enough mutual support amongst ourselves to come to the position of forming what we call the Red Confederation (“red” as in anti-imperialist, anti-police state), comprising a body of politically conscious prisoners affiliated with various lumpen organizations, i.e. prisoner/street organizations.

Individually we’ve come to realize that regardless of our organizational affiliations/differences, we all stand on common ground as to our repressive confinement conditions, our degraded and demeaning treatment by the pigs, and, ultimately, who our oppressors – the real enemies – are. Thus, we recognize collectively the need to build unity, solidarity, organization, and informed resistance amongst ourselves statewide against the ever-increasing repressive tactics being employed by the Georgia Department of Corruption in their efforts (“efforts” being synonymous with “subtle war”) to suppress lumpen organizations and all politicall conscious/active prisoners in general.

Accordingly, we are not unmindful of the State’s underlying impetus for their actions – their compulsory need to oppose the ascension of lumpen organizations of the oppressed in an attempt to maintain the current social order of their oppressive regime. We recognize that the State is in reality acting out of fear and self-preservation, as they foresee the end of their control of us – the diminishing of their power – within our unity.

All that is to say that, by virtue of this letter, we consciously join the United Struggle from Within, and, in so doing, we incorporate into our “Protocols of Consideration” the five principles of the United Front. We are of the opinion that upholding them is essential to begin organizing for effective, efficient resitance by building bridges along common interests of the oppressed both nationally and around the world. We adopt the fundamental political line of MIM(Prisons) as the official guiding philosophy of our own organization. And as we continue to struggle together internally so as to disclose ways in which we could more accurately serve the interests of the movement particular to the objective reality of our current confinement conditions, we will strive to develop a more comprehensive peace treaty amongst ourselves with the intent of sending it in for others to study and possibly use or modify, as may be needed given a group’s unique objective conditions.

Moreover, in light of the multifarious (many and diverse) human rights violations being perpetuated – and actually propagated by the State – in its recently implemented statewide Tier II long-term isolation program we, as an organization, have taken it upon ourselves to revive the campaign to end solitary confinement in Georgia. For we are of the opinion that the plaintiffs in the Ashker v. Brown case “sold out” and ultimately betrayed the entire prison movement by “settling” the way they did.

Our class action (Nolley, et al. v. Bryson, et al.; 5:15-cv-00096-LGW) was commenced on or about December 1st, 2015. We’ve since then forwarded letters to both the ACLU of Georgia as well as the Southern Center for Human Rights, seeking the representation of their respective organizations. And i am currently drafting a similar letter with intentions of forwarding it to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which, in my understanding, was the lead attorney organization in the Ashker v. Broen case. We will keep you updated.

Finally, we ask that you send us any and all material you have in your possession concerning California prisoners’ Agreement to End Hostilities that may be useful in providing us with somewhat of a guide to kick start the Agreement to End Hostilities amongst Georgia prisoners.

Bulloch County Jail in Statesboro Georgia has an isolation wing (or control unit) which consists of many isolation cells on both sides of a hallway. The windows on these cells doors facing the hallway are covered by hinged metal flaps that open and close from the outside of the cell. The majority of these cells have no windows to allow prisoners to see outside. In the cells which have a window it is only a narrow slot of glass too heavily frosted and high up off the floor to see out of. The only time officers open the flaps are for 2 to 3 seconds at count times.

Every night at 9 p.m. all of the cells lights are shut off (including in the cells without outside windows). The cells are pitch black until the next morning at breakfast. There is a nightlight function which only stays on when an officer outside of the cell pushes a button and holds it down continuously. As soon as the button is released the nightlight goes back off. This is obviously just to allow officers to count during lights out.

It would probably be easy to modify to allow lights to stay on for prisoners desiring some light to read, write, or move around by. But nobody in the jail is organizing to write grievances on this, etc. Prisoners are discouraged from knocking on the insides of their cells doors or calling out to summon staff by threats of pepper-spray, tasing, or use of a restraning chair. In 2014 I was in this isolation/control unit while some type of inspection group toured the jail and I heard a female visitor/inspector open one of the metal flaps and comment “that can’t be right.” Yet this practice continued until I was transferred in March 2015.

I read in PARC Prisoner Resource Directory’s 2015 issue some “standards for treatment of prisoners” that restriction to a dark cell, as punishment, is a violation of the Geneva convention. And many of the prisoners there are under disciplinary status. Though Bulloch County Jail staff attitudes are that at this jail they do what they want. I have personally seen them take positive remedial action when it becomes known to them that someone on the outside is paying attention to the jail’s treatment of prisoners. This is my first attempt to gain attention on this particular complaint. The jail captain is John Staten and his chief lieutenant is Danny Tremble. They have these prisoners “living in darkness” literally.

I am in the Tier 2 program here in Georgia, and it’s probably the worst time that anyone could do. First, I did not get into any kind of trouble or receive a disciplinary report (DR). I got put on the program simply because the unit manager wanted to fill the empty beds.

The pigs do not allow us to clean our rooms. We get hardly any recreation time, even though the standard operating procedure (SOP) states that we should get at least five hours a week. And anybody who is a part of the Atlanta street gang Goodfellas (GF) is on lock down and is not allowed back on compound.

Georgia is slowly taking away our rights and slowly taking away our food. Little by little they are starving us. Before Tier 2 I weighted 220 lbs and i’m 6’6”. Now I might weigh 180 lbs. And these pigs don’t care.