Georgia Prisons

Mail the petition to your loved ones and comrades inside who are experiencing issues with their grievance procedure. Send them extra copies to share! For more info on this campaign, click here.

Prisoners should send a copy of the signed petition to each of the addresses listed on the petition, and below. Supporters should send letters on behalf of prisoners.

Commissioner, Georgia Department of Corrections
300 Patrol Road
Forsyth, GA 31029

Southern Center for Human Rights Law Offices
83 Poplar St. NW
Atlanta, GA 30303-2122

GDC Office of Internal Affairs, Investigation and Compliance
PO Box 1529
Forsyth, GA 31029

United States Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division
Special Litigation Section
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, PHB
Washington, D.C. 20530

Office of Inspector General
HOTLINE
P.O. Box 9778
Arlington, Virginia 22219

And send MIM(Prisons) copies of any responses you receive!

MIM(Prisons), USW
PO Box 40799
San Francisco, CA 94140

this petition was first put up in November 2014, updated October 2017

I’m always striving for perfection and giving the next man good advice when they’re going through shit because it’s getting worse by the day. My heart is so pure now because I don’t think for just myself; I’m doing it for the dudes around me. I’m gonna stay at it as long as I got life in my body because I truly understand that unity is power and once we all conquer that then we mastered a good thing. It’s a must we stay true to each other and move against the system as one. By us doing that it would be brought to the world’s attention the things we go through on this side of the gates.

The reason I have rooted myself in this idea is dudes that have a long sentence to serve. We must stick together to make things easy for those types of guys and I want to make a difference so the young generation that have been coming to the prison system can pass the unity remedy down. The organization that I’m building is called “Stand Firm With Unity” and the five principles of the United Front for Peace in Prisons are planted in my heart.

1. Peace: the first step to make things perfect, and that’s something we all must have within to show the next brother that we need that in our heart to accomplish our goal.
   2. Unity: the foundation to become one. It’s very important to move as one because it’s the only way that we will see results on making changes in the prison system that we are trapped in.
   3. Growth: in order to speak wise words and show wise action to another person we must first make changes in our own life because the best teaching of all is to show it in your actions.
   4. Internationalism: it will be an amazing thing once we do the things that are right for us in each state and to stand firm to each other on changing the prison system.
   5. Independence: we must understand that the system is not for us. It’s not here to make our life easy. It’s made to make us submit to them.

MIM(Prisons) adds: We welcome Stand Firm With Unity to the United Front for Peace in Prisons (UFPP). We also welcome them (and all UFPP signatories) to send us reports on how organizing around these five points is going on the ground. What has worked to get people on board with the united front? Showing peace and unity in one’s actions is good for setting an example of the UFPP; send in your reports on how you’ve actually done this in your facility and the results you’ve seen.

We also want to ensure the concept of internationalism is well understood, as it’s one of the main characteristics that sets the UFPP (and MIM(Prisons)) apart from other similar attempts (and organizations). We not only want to do what is best for prisoners caught up in the Amerikan criminal injustice system, but we also want peace and justice for oppressed people throughout the entire world. In the United $tates, everyone (even prisoners) benefits from the imperialists’ theft of resources and labor from all across the globe. If we lose perspective of this, we’ll work to fix our oppression while making conditions worse for the majority of the world’s people. This is how reformism and a lack of internationalism has played out in the past. Learning from history, we know we need to keep the conditions of the majority of the world’s people in the front of our minds in order to not sell them out for our own benefits.

Hello, I am contacting you on behalf of Gwinnett County prison population in Georgia. I have started a lawsuit about major Constitutional violations and denials that happen here daily. We are currently accepted in the 11th District, Northern District of Georgia. Our civil action # is 15-CV-00123-AT-JCF.

We are looking for attention from the media to help spread information on the blatant disregard Gwinnett County Detention Center has for the United States Constitution. The defendants in our case are Sheriff R.L. Butch Conway, Colonel Don Pinkard, Major D. Hughes, Corporal Campbell, and Gwinnett County Detention Center.

The jail’s rules on restricting prisoners from watching world news on TV during recreation, “free time” as it is called, is a denial of our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association, and freedom of the press or the right to access to the media.

The jail’s “postcard only” policy restricts the prisoners from receiving incoming letters in envelopes, which severely restricts correspondance with our families. This constitutes a violation of the right to freedom of speech and association under the First amendment of the United States Constitution, violating the First Amendment rights of all prisoners at the jail, and all of their correspondents’ First Amendment rights as well.

The jail’s policy of returning mail and publications, whether world news print media, books or magazines, or incoming letters, and not notifying the prisoners or the senders until after they have already been returned, without giving us and all other correspondents an opportunity for redress or to grieve the issue, constitutes a violation of all prisoners’ and all their correspondents’ First Amendment right to petition for redress of a grievance under the First Amendment of the Unites States Constitution. It also violates the prisoners’ and all of their correspondents’ right to procedural due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. It is also a violation of deprivation of liberty, or property without due process of law under the due process clause of the Fifth Amendment of the United State Constitution.

The “postcard only” policy is a denial of the prisoners’, and all of their correspondents’, right to expectation of privacy. This constitutes a violation under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution, as well as the right to equal protection of the laws, a violation under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

The denial of grievances by stating that the “grievance is unfounded,” and then not having an appeal process for the grievance, denies us the right to redress of grievances and constitutes a violation of our procedural due process right under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

This is just the start of 150 pages of the current lawsuit pending against Gwinnett County Detention Center for violating our First Amendment rights, the due process clause of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the right to privacy under the Fourth Amendment.

MIM(Prisons) adds: In our experience fighting censorship in U.$ prisons, it is clear that county jails have some of the most blatant violations of prisoners’ rights and United $tates law when it comes to handling incoming mail. Gwinnett County Detention Center’s policy of allowing postcards only, and only if they are sized 4x6” or 5x7”, definitely does not satisfy the reasonableness test laid out in Thornburgh v. Abbott. Marin County Jail in California and Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Virginia are examples of county-level facilities in other states where censorship is blatant, illegal, and has almost no recourse.

California is implementing (and probably beta testing) a program called Prison Realignment which is purportedly a response to the overcrowding in California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) facilities. Under Realignment, money is allocated to the counties to provide services and “housing” for state prisoners. Many advocates for prisoners’ rights would like to see this money put toward rehabilitative services, and in some counties they may get their wish.

How it’s playing out in real life, though, is that more prisoners are being moved to county facilities which are operated more like state prisons, and California is leasing space in privately owned prisons. In both cases, there is less accountability than state prisons. Often times (and on the whole in private facilities) censorship and other conditions of confinement are even worse than at the CDCR level.

While California moves more toward county-level imprisonment, we anticipate we will face more challenges with censorship, as is happening at Gwinnett County Detention Center. If this prototype “works” for California, we wouldn’t be surprised to see other states move in this direction.

We encourage prisoners everywhere to get involved in fighting censorship when it happens at your facility. This is critical for those interested in anti-imperialist organizing, as it is revolutionary literature that is most frequently denied to prisoners, making our educational work particularly difficult.

I am a prisoner that’s being housed here at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison Special Management Unit (GDCP/SMU). I am here to address the immorality of the conditions that we are facing here on a daily basis.

• pernicious forced beatings
• threats by officials while in handcuffs and leg iron shackles
• sexual harassments by staff
• sexual assaults by staff
• mental torture by staff
• being shot with stun guns and thrown in strip cells for days at a time without being fed
• being denied access to the law library, which is guaranteed by United States law
• being served filthy eating trays that have an extremely obscene smell from the trays being washed by hand and then sprayed down with a water hose
• being served spoiled food and undercooked food, etc.

On 27 July 2015, over 30% of the prisoners took a stand in a peaceful protest on another hunger strike. This has been a regular strategy here in SMU. We had a hunger strike on 9 December 2010, 12 June 2012, 25 January 2014, and on 9 February 2014. But sadly nothing has changed in the officials’ actions or the oppression by the administration. Their oppression strategy is to perplex the minds of the prisoners into thinking like animals.

At least 63% of the prisoners here have been housed at the SMU for over two years without any disciplinary reports on their prison conduct file. Yet the administration is refusing to transfer them back to general population. When prisoners first arrive here at the GDCP/SMU all constitutional rights have been stripped from them, violating due process by law, and equal protection, by not having an institutional hearing to advise the prisoners how long their stay will be at the GDCP/SMU. By law this must be done, otherwise this is as if the Georgia Department of Corrections has kidnapped the prisoners without a proper institutional court hearing. In fact, it’s been almost two years since someone has last been transferred out of here, leaving us mentally lost due to being locked down behind an iron door for 23 to 24 hours daily for years without any rehabilitation program to help reinvent the mind. This, I emphasize, is cruel and unusual punishment and deep dark underhanded torturing of humans.

Not only has this refusal of transfers been an underhanded oppression, but the covering up institutional level grievances, from not responding to grievances, destroying them, denied by the administration staffs then writing up the prisoners in disciplinary reports by saying that the prisoners are lying so that this will destroy their credibility for the rest of their time behind bars.

Over the past 6 years behind the walls of the GDCP/SMU there have been so many ongoing sexual abuses by staffs that have been ignored by the administration or covered up, without any investigation outside of the institution, as due process requires by law. And when, or if, investigated inside of the institution, the investigation always comes back not finding any evidence due to administration covering up for their staff. And as a matter of fact, for the past few months, the administration has covered up the actions of sexual abuse by Mr. Phillip King and Mr. Robert Moore, who have carried out gang rapes, sexual assaults, sexual harassment, racist profiles, and other brutalities on Black prisoners. And after their sexual abusive actions, they threaten that if the prisoners tell anyone, that they will kill them and get away with the murders. Now the prisoners live in fear because of the threats, not knowing if poison will be placed into their food.

On 28 July 2015 a prisoner was sexually harassed by Officer Phillip King, while this prisoner was in his cell, with sexual comments of how he wanted to rape him. After the prisoner reported Officer King’s sexual abuse under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) to officials, the issue was never even taking seriously as the PREA program of no sexual abuse requires in the Georgia Department of Correction. This left an open door for Officer King to return back to work days after and retaliate on the prisoner, and the prisoner was punished by administration.

Consequently on 31 July 2015 another prisoner was sexually abused by Officer Phillip King, and this action was ignored. Then on 5 August 2015, another prisoner was abused by Officer Phillip King. While taking the prisoner to the recreation yard by escort, Officer King physically assaulted the prisoner by body slamming him on his head while in handcuffs and leg shackles for no reason at all. Or should I say by racial profile. And the prisoner was punished after the assault by the depraved administration.

The actions of Officers Robert Moore and Phillip King are truly getting out of hand, along with the underhanded covering up by the administration. And if their actions don’t get attention from the outside then the next step could be someone’s life, or another sexual abuse. And to support the ones that suffer this struggle, we stand in a massive peaceful hunger strike for the outside support by protesters across the nation.

I am 40 years old Hindu Indian from South America Guyana. I have life without parole in the state of Georgia. I have been on Lockdown since 2005.

I was put on lockdown for an incident i did because of my uncontrolled mental health problems which i beg for help, but no one believes me. While I was on lockdown I asked the mental health counselor for some kind of therapy. The only thing they did was give me mental health medication. Those meds mess me up good. And when I complain, they just give me new meds. So i stop complaining because I don’t want to become a zombie on mental health meds.

The officers think i am from the Middle East and a terrorist. They told me that their family and loved ones got killed in Iraq. I told them i am a Hindu Indian from Guyana, but they don’t believe me. They spit in my food, and sometimes they won’t feed me. And they skip me on shower and yard call. Then they lie on me by saying i refuse to eat and shower and go to yard. When I told the warden about this problem he did nothing about it. A few weeks later i was moved to K-BID. In those cells it had a TV, power sockets, toilet bowl flush switch and light switch.

I wrote my family and told them what i am going through every day. My family was afraid that the officers will beat me and kill me. My family told me to stop complaining. That is what i did and i took all the abuses. In my cell i never talked to other prisoners. All i do is read books, listen to music, and watch TV. When the officers come to my cell i don’t look them in the face.

The way i clean my cell is i use a rag to put soap on it and wipe the walls, floor, and toilet bowl. Days that they won’t let me take a shower, i wash up in the sink. My fan saves me in the summer, the TV saves me from going crazy, and my family saves me to live.

Over the years on lockdown, i walk back and forth in my cell and talk to myself. I worry a lot about if they will spit in my food today or beat me. And when i get a letter from my family I have to read it about 10 times because I don’t understand it. And when i write my family they don’t understand my letters. So i have to think about what i want to write and read it over and over so it makes sense.

My mental problems have gotten worse and it blew up in July 2013. The Warden Robbert Toole had all TVs, light switches, toilet bowl flush switch, and power sockets removed from K-BID. I then asked Warden Toole why he did this. He just walked away from my cell. Two days later, two CERT team officers handcuffed me and beat me. I never was taken to medical. Every day i worry about what they going to do to me, so i try to kill myself. When they took me to see the mental health doctor, I tried to tell them my problem but they cut me off and said i need new meds. They shot me up with meds and sent me back to K-BID where the cell is so hot and i have to smell my pee and shit for many hours because the floor officer is n where to be found.

I wrote my family and told them what they did to me. That day i stopped eating at all. On the 9th day of not eating, they found me passed out on the floor and they took me to the medical floor and i told the doctor i stopped eating for 9 days. On the 20th day of me not eating Warden Toole told me to write my family and tell them that i am ok and he will have the CERT team beat me no more and have the officers stop spitting in my food. Eight days later i got a letter from my family begging me to eat. I was sad so i ate food again. Two days later they put me back to K-BID to smell my pee and shit. And it got worse.

On 15 July 2014 they took all my personal property and gave me 1 boxer, 1 pair of socks, 1 jumpsuit, 1 state toothpaste and toothbrush, 1 state soap, 1 state shower shoe, 1 toilet paper, 1 bible, 1 bed, 1 blanket, 1 pillow, and 1 bed sheet. Then they told me that i have to do a Tier 2 program. And this is the reason why: “Inmate has received no disciplinary infractions within the past year. Inmate XX was charged with causing the death of an inmate in 2005. And a validated member of Five Percenters. Inmate XX should be assigned to the Tier 2 phase 1.”

In the Tier program phase 1 is 90 days without personal property, and commissary is limited to only legal supplies; no books, no magazines, no personal pictures, no general library books. Each cell has a comment sheet on the door. The floor officers write on the comment sheet if a prisoner acts up.

Each phase is 90 days. At the end of 90 days they will do a 90 day review. They will check if you got any disciplinary infractions or any bad comment on the review sheet that is on the cell door. And if there is just one bad comment we have to start over on phase 1. Around November 2014 they made phase 4 for those prisoners who cannot return to population. And around February 2015 they made a phase 3+ which is also for those prisoners who can’t go back to population. Now because of the Tier 2 program i can’t complain about cell clean up, shower, yard call, and to get my toilet flushed because the floor officers will write a bad comment and i have to start all over on phase 1.

In December 2014 every prison in the state of Georgia gives each prisoner a free food package on Christmas day, but Warden Toole said the Tier 2 program will not get any.

When the mental health counselor comes to lockdown i tell him my problems and ask for some kind of mental health therapy all he does is laugh and ask me if i want some crossword puzzle and then he walks away from my cell.

I put in grievances but they throw it away because of the new rule. Lisa Fountain, Senior Investigator for Inmate Affairs and Appeals Unit Southeast Area said in a memo that when you turn in a formal grievance to the counselor that he will take it back to his office and review it, then they will mail me a grievance receipt. And every time i turn in my grievance and i don’t get back no receipt, the counselor lies to me that i never gave him any grievance. So now i can’t grieve the Tier 2 program and my mental health problems because Lisa Fountain made a way to get rid of a good grievance. I have no proof at all, and when you complain about it to the Warden he will have the CERT team come in your cell and take all your pens, stamps, legal works and make you do the program from the beginning on phase 1.

Last year a prisoner killed himself because of the punishment in K-BID and this year, 2015, two more prisoners in K-BID killed themselves because of the cruel punishment we get from the wardens, unit managers, officers, CERT team, counselors and the mental health department. I don’t know how to file a lawsuit and fill out a 1983 Civil Rights form. It took me about 2 1/2 weeks to write this letter. I wanted to spell the words right and I re-read this letter 35 times to make sure it made sense.

At this moment i am in lockdown in K-BID at Georgia State Prison and it’s hot as hell in this cell and i have to smell my shit and pee for many hours and worry about if the officer spit in my food and if they throw away my mail and if they going to beat me again and walk back and forth in my cell every day and talk to myself. I also am getting more mental and i believe if they ever put me back to any general population it will be dangerous. Because i have dangerous buildup that will explode and someone will get hurt again. I need some kind of therapy and help. What is being done to me is also being done to another prisoner who will go home soon. What do you think he will do when he goes home? The free world people in the state of Georgia need to know that Georgia’s prisons system creates monsters and society should not be surprised when those monsters are released and do a horrific crime. Society needs to know and they need to know fast. I pray that someone reads this letter an don’t put it in a file. I hope someone can help me with my mental health problems that department of corrections won’t treat.

One of the latest tactics of the Georgia Department of Corrections at Macon State Prison is to implement a rule that no religious denomination is allowed to hold group prayer in the day room areas. They are not saying that you can’t pray or worship however you believe, it’s just that you are not allowed to worship in a group within the housing unit dayroom area. This rule was mainly put in effect to discourage the unity of the prisoners on a spiritual level, namely the Muslims that follow the principles of Islam. This tactic is only being employed to discourage any type of unity among the captives being held in the GA DOC.

As a jailhouse lawyer my mission is always the same: to fight for justice where injustice lives. My mentor, the late Johnny Cochran, embraced the adage “an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” I believe that’s what led me to law school and now I possess two law degrees and I’m an outstanding member of the National Lawyers Guild.

In December 2014, I submitted a Georgia open records act request for the names and titles of all staff at Hays State Prison in Trion, Georgia. Hays is the most high profile maximum security prison in Georgia and it is the most racist. The Georgia Department of Corrections legal office mailed me records responsive to my request after I paid the fee for the copies.

On 2 April 2015, Hays Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT) searched my cell and found the request I made for those records. I was immediately locked in segregation/Tier I pending investigation. I was told by five white CERT Officers and one white CERT sergeant that I had no business requesting such information as they slammed my head into the Tier I housing unit door. I was also threatened with being beaten if I told anyone about the assault I had just ingested. All my personal and legal property was taken without due process and not returned. After reporting this to chief of security (who is Black) he laughed and said “you had no business with these folks’ information.” All I did was exercise my right to acquire public information like any Georgia citizen. I’ve committed no disciplinary or prohibited act. Yet I remain committed to my mission and will fight injustice wherever it may be found.

About 150 of us are currently at Macon State Prison and 20 of the Family are in other camps. I’m currently in the hole for going to war with the officers and the Bloods for breaking a peace treaty. I extend my hand in assistance to stop imperialism and oppression through paperwork or blood.

When the officers see Bloods, Crips, GDs, Muslims, Vice Lords, Piru, coming together, they don’t know what to do. One day we were in the rooms meeting and no one was hardly on the floor. They came in telling us to lock down for no reason, just because they had the authority.

I had to use the scientific method in coming up with a peace treaty. I went around surveying the people of different parties about what makes them fight and kill each other. It’s not the color no more, it’s about different creeds stealing and tricking each other. So I came up with the antithesis to it, which was to give out prizes at chess and basketball tournaments. It had other things such as a poor box in each dorm where the UFAO is at, which is for everybody.

Nothing happened in the dorm I was in until the Bloods stole out of the box of the GDs and Muslims and they broke the treaty. So, me being the General didn’t approve of it, so a war broke out. Because once you say you’re revolutionary, your word and peace treaties mean a lot in my eyes.

I am also asking for guidance and support because people are getting free, going home, and I don’t want the impression of a gang or drug lord. I’d rather finish what Assata Shakur, Martin L. King, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass and other great leaders left off on. I’m open for all political and friendly advice. My goal is to support all oppressed people no matter their affiliation, and under a treaty with people with affiliations in gangs.

We as a whole must unite and become one family to end the criminal label that the United $tates put on us, to disguise what their gang is doing. Because they have abandoned and malignant hearts when it comes to power and wealth. And I’m going to stop the real terrorists at all cost.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We commend this comrade for pushing for peace on their unit, and for pointing out that the imperialists are the real enemy. It makes sense that in organizing the lumpen for peace, we will still see lumpen tendencies arise, like the one our comrade described above about stealing the poor box. Even though we’re bringing people together for revolutionary reasons, we are still heavily influenced by our capitalist culture and indoctrination. We need to make it a priority to bring thorough revolutionary education to all the comrades we’re working with, in order to combat this lumpen mentality of getting up on the backs of others, and undermining our struggles for peace.

Prisons are a volatile environment. And we’re building for peace in prisons. It’s somewhat ironic to enforce a peace treaty using physical violence. We should take this incident as a lesson that while we’re discussing how to begin a peace treaty, we also need to discuss how we can hold others accountable to the peace treaty if they break it. Is a prison war the only possible method of accountability?

If anyone needs literature to help educate others about the role of the United Front for Peace in Prisons in our overall fight against our common oppressor, then write in for back issues of Under Lock & Key. If you’ve been able to develop a sound peace treaty and have experimented successfully with how to hold others accountable when they fall out of line of the treaty, then please send a report to ULK so we can grow stronger as a movement.

I received the unconfirmed mail form last week and am replying back to you all. I have not received the indicated items (The Autobiography of Malcolm X and tips on writing for ULK) from you all. There corrupt prison officials are implementing all types of censorship tactics which unequivocally violate our First Amendment rights.

They have implemented a program called Tier II which is a strategy to atrociously inflict cruel and unusual punishment based upon past disciplinary sanctions and redress of retaliation methods by diabolically corrupt prison authorities when you file grievances against them. This program restricts you from having reading materials, newspapers, and/or magazines until you reach a certain phase.

The living condition are inhumane and unsanitary which further violates our protected constitutional rights. In fact I have killed a huge roach and sent it to the Eleventh Circuit Court as an exhibit in one of my lawsuits. A judge called Warden Gregory McLaughlin retaliated by having the Correctional Emergency Reponse Team recklessly search my property and have me repeat phase one as a vindictive retaliation method.

I recently killed a rat and attempted to send it to the U.S. Supreme Court but they intercepted it to prevent the truth from being exposed about the inhumane and unsanitary living conditions. An associate/roommate did the same by exterminating another rat and of course they retaliated by putting me in a strip cell and illegally confiscating all my legal materials for days.

I’m a Muslim prisoner currently being housed in a Georgia Department of Corrections torture chamber called the Tier 3 Program. There are no requirements or due process to go through to be placed on the Tier 3 Program. If you file lots of grievances, the Warden doesn’t get along with you, or if a rat who works for the administration wants you out of the way for some reason he can lie to the Warden about you and get you placed on the tier.

Here at Tier 3 for the first 90 days you are locked in a cell with just a shower, toilet, sink, and bunk. For 10 days there is no recreation, books, or magazines. All the windows have a metal gate over them preventing prisoners from seeing out. Throughout the state we are only fed breakfast and dinner Friday through Sunday. Without store items on the weekends, they basically force us into starvation.

Every time I speak out about it, the guards curse me out. If I resist any other way, they pepper spray and beat me. They also use our food as a means to punish us. It’s time to stand up against the oppression. I’m waiting to hear back on two assault grievances. So far it’s been over 60 days and still no response. There are 200 prisoners here on Tier 3.

MIM(Prisons) responds: In Georgia we have heard a lot about this new system of long-term isolation with the neutral-sounding name of a “tier” program. This torture and starvation are just a few of the reasons why we have a campaign to shut down all control units. These units target politically active prisoners like this comrade who is filing grievances. We look forward to working with this writer as a part of the USW campaign against control units. Building unity in Georgia and beyond, we will take on these tools of social control as part of the broader anti-imperialist prison movement.