New York Prisons

For many years now the New York $tate Department of Correctional Services has been exceeding their authority by calculating sentences consecutively with the undischarged term or terms of imprisonment. Recently, the Appellate Court holds (DOC$) may not run predicate sentences consecutive to parole time where sentencing court is silent on that issue.

The decision decided on February 28, 2008, People ex rel. Gill v. Greene, 852 N.Y.S. 2d (3rd Dept), reverses 25 years of caselaw to the contrary and, if implemented, would have sweeping consequences. It would require the recalculations of the sentences of some eight thousand comrades currently serving predicate offender sentences here in the gulags of the N.Y.$. DOCS. Some of those comrades would almost certainly be eligible for immediate release from these gulags if their sentences were calculated under Gill.

The issues about Gill concern the proper interpretation of Penal Law 70.25(1-A) and 70.25(2-A). Penal Law 70.25(1-A) states that when a court sentences a defendant who owes time (parole) on a previously imposed sentence, the court may specify that the new sentence run either “consecutively” or “concurrently” to the parole time, and if the court is silent, the new sentence shall “run concurrently.” Penal Law 70.25(2-A), however, states that when the court finds that the defendant is a predicate offender, it must impose the sentence to run consecutively to the parole time.

Now, where does it state that the N.Y.$. DOCS has the authority to act as a judicial function, and impose consecutive sentences? The only role that the N.Y.$. DOCS has as far as correcting the court’s error is under Correction Law 601-A, which states that wherever it appears to the satisfaction of the warden of any $tate prison based on facts submitted on behalf of a person sentenced and confined in a $tate prison, that any such person who has been erroneously sentences as a second, third or fourth offender, it shall become his duty to communicate with the district attorney of the county in which such person was convicted, and allow the district attorney to take the necessary action for resentencing.

For those that are under lock in a N.Y.$. DOCS and that are being affected by the actions set forth here by the oppressors, I advise you comrades to obtain the keys to stop our oppressors from oppressing us. For many years we’ve been living in the dark due to our own ignorance. The struggle is calling us, believe it or not. Remember that without struggle we have no progress. “Until the lions have their historian, the tale of the hunt will be told by the hunter!” The key to life is knowledge, my comrades, once we obtain that key then we have the authority and power to unlock that door and proceed to walk through the light and shine. It is time for us to unlearn, relearn, and lean again! ARISE

Any questions pertaining to this matter you can reach out to the Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, 114 Prospect Street, in Ithaca, NY 14850-5616.

This modern day plantation I’m in just came off a week long lockdown due to brothers acting some damn fools [Afrikan on Afrikan]. In that incident a few pigs got injured (so they say), it’s funny how they claim to be injured when they was the ones swinging those sticks. In any event, the plantation was shut down then the nonsense started. Very, very small portions of food was given out, not to mention the already small portion that’s given. Everyone’s cell was tossed-up (they call it legal cell searches), which is crap because what does the entire population have to do with a 14 man (pigs included) incident?

During the cell toss-up these pigs just went along hand-picking brothers in their boxer shorts and handcuffed, taking advantage of them. The roughshod began and it ran for 3 and a half days of plastic buckets over the heads of brothers then striking the bucket with their sticks. They knocked the tooth out of one brother when he asked “why was they kicking his radio around.”

These and many other racist tactics was done as a modern day paradigm for the Willie Lynch Theory! I say that because out of the many that I’ve spoken to, only a handful wrote out grievances, phoned family members, wrote lawyers, etc. The masses chose not to, in fear of retaliation! Some have open dates, others have parole boards coming up, and others just prayed for them!? That last one really got to me and it’s a shame that someone would believe that the very god that they forced upon us can save us! I mean, we loved Martin Luther King Jr., but I respect Malcolm because he never gave a damn about the repercussions! By any means necessary! We must continue to uplift our people and stop waiting for some clown named Obama to bring change.

This is to inform you of the recent incident involving officer Demo at Adirondack Correctional Facility.

On 7/19/2008 at approximately 2:10 am, I was walking down 3C hallway in route to the restroom. At this time officer Demo asked me “where the fuck are you going”. I stated “to use the restroom” and Officer Demo said “no go the fuck to bed.” I then stated “I take medication an dI really have to go”. He said “I don’t give a fuck if you piss yourself, go the fuck to be.”

There was no need for the officer’s unjustifiable harassment, seeing as though I was not causing a disturbance or being disruptive in any manner. I was only trying to use the restroom before I went to bed for the night.

After I used the restroom Officer Demo asked me “give me your ID so I can write your dumb ass up.” I then asked for a grievance and asked “why are you harassing me for using the restroom.” Officer Demo then approached me in a very aggressive manner. Then he took his right hand and slapped me across the eye and face area, again saying “go the fuck to bed.” I then said “call the sergeant, you just assaulted me and I want to file a formal complaint.” Officer Demo then told me to turn around and place my hands on the wall. I complied and he then pushed my head into the wall.

Due to an old eye injury I take medication to relieve pressure on my pupil. Officer Demo’s physical attack on me further aggravated my injury. Further, once the Sergeant and three other officers arrived in the dorm area Officer Demo gave me an ultimatum status “you leave this alone and go to bed or you can go to the box upstate.”

This is not the first time this officer has refused to let prisoners use the restroom facilities causing conflict between him and other prisoners.

As of now I am in grave fear for my safety and well being. For fear of retaliation from officer Demo. Seeing as he is known through out the prison population to bring forth repercussions to prisoner who grieve him.

I would like for Officer Demo to be placed under investigation. I am filing a complaint for assault, battery and harassment.

At the end of October, I will begin trial in a civil action lawsuit regarding the mistreatment of Muslim prisoners in the Lakeview Shock Correctional Facility in New York. This trial will be conducted before the honorable Charles J. Siragusa in the United States District Court in Rochester. I will be proceeding pro se in this case. This case is entitled Andre Smith vs Glenn Goord, 04 CV 6432 (CJS).

This case is based on the fact that the defendants placed a substantial burden on my right to exercise my religious beliefs at the Lakeview CF from December 30, 2003 to March 26, 2004, while promoting the Catholic religion at the expense of myself and other Muslim prisoners, by acknowledging the Catholic religion by passing out bibles to all inmates and allowing the Catholic chaplain to give religious advice to all prisoners, including myself and other Muslims. They accord special recognition to Christianity beyond anything necessary to accommodate the religious needs of the Catholic majority, and the defendants make it easier for Catholics to practice their religion than for adherents of another faith to practice their faith. The defendants did not provide an alternative way for myself and other Muslims to exercise our religious beliefs. This violates the religious land use and institutionalized persons act which congress enacted in 2000.

On May 19th, 2008 I received the book that you sent me, Schooling the Generations in the Politics of Prison edited by Chinosole. I really enjoyed this book, especially the section called, “Genocide waged against the Black Nation,” which starts on page 174. I totally agree with the theory that psychological warfare is being waged against political prisoners in an effort to get them to comply with brainwashing objectives of the U$ penal and imperialist system.

Dr. Edward Schein mentions 24 strategic techniques that prison officials use in order to break and dehumanize political prisoners. However, there is one strategic technique that Dr. Schein fails to mention that I would like to address in full detail: the sexual exploitation and manipulation of young and political prisoners by female staff sexual perpetrators. This technique leads to false disciplinary and criminal charges being filed against political prisoners who pose the greatest threat to the prison’s use of oppression and most importantly have the potential to lead other prisoners to fight the system.

Let me briefly explain how this is done. First, prison officials determine which prisoners have the greatest leadership potential and pose the greatest threat to the prison - politically speaking.

Once this is determined, prison officials will try numerous psychological mind-breaking techniques to disrupt and strip the political prisoner of his focus and will, and at the same time dehumanize him by making him subservient.

Once a political prisoner proves to be too strong mentally and once the prison officials techniques fail, prison officials will place these political prisoners in an ambiguous and pressure-filled situation. The high-ranking prison official will order a female staff member to play sexual manipulation games with this political prisoner, while at the same time putting pressure on them to conform and comply with what is desired by the female staff in order to win favor and to have the pressure lifted.

If the political prisoner does not agree to comply with the female staff’s sexual advances, then the female staff will create false claims of harassment against the political prisoners, which will result in false disciplinary and maybe criminal charges. If the political prisoner does agree to comply with the female staff’s sexual advances, then he risks being set-up and retaliated against by jealous male staff members. This will likely lead to physical assault of the prisoner by male guards, in addition to false disciplinary and criminal charges.

It’s a dirty game and this technique by prison officials is typically used against political prisoners who have the greatest potential for awakening and organizing the rest of the prison population.

Often, if the political prisoner chooses to have the sexual relationship with the female staff member, high-ranking prison officials will lift the pressure from the political prisoner, thinking that the prisoner has been neutralized and has become subservient to the wills of the administration. Once a political prisoner loses his focus and allows himself to be sexually exploited and manipulated, he dehumanizes himself and basically strips himself of his unique individuality and becomes neutralized, ineffective, psychologically incompetent and easy to control.

This prisoner basically becomes a slave to the female staff member, because the female staff is allowed to act aggressively sexually toward the prisoner. But once the prisoner tries to act aggressively, he will be beaten by the jealous male staff. This game is normally played on younger prisoners, but it is a tactic that works on all prisoners because it’s a no-win situation.

MIM adds: In an article entitled, Gender Oppression in u$ Prisons we quoted a study that found that, “In State and Federal prisons, 65% of inmate victims of staff sexual misconduct and harassment were male, while 58% of staff perpetrators were female”.

Maoists have long explained that gender is not about genitalia, but about power and relations between groups in leisure time activities. The Abu Ghraib photos were a clear lesson in this reality. Since then, it has become well established that amerikan bio-wimmin were used as gender oppressors against Arab biomen in prisons in Iraq and elsewhere. The use of sex in political repression within the u$ described above is another example of this theory in practice. Just as we say that sex cannot be consensual under patriarchy where gender is defined by power, there can be no consent between prisoners and prison staff.

I have been in Upstate Correctional Facility plenty of times, and it is a double bunk control unit called Special Housing Unit.

There is about 800 to 900 people contained in there. 90% of the facility is SHU, the rest is porters that cook and serve the food trays and do the laundry. The double-bunk cells are large because it’s a room for two and your shower is in the cell as well as a rec cage in the back of your cell. So basically, you never leave the cell unless it’s for a visit, hospital call out or release from the box.

The national makeup is 50% Black and 50% Latino. There are numerous prison rule violations to be placed in SHU, for example: assault on staff or on convict, gang lessons, dirty urine for drug use, weapon possession and all of these must be a tier three ticket. Anything lower , like a tier one or two ticket don’t go to those SHUs. So a tier three ticket is considered a serious offense.

This unit is the largest in NYS, and it opened around 1999. The SHUs in NYS have expanded by opening smaller ones that hold 200 convicts. They are still double-bunk and they were built behind medium security facilities throughout the state. Many are empty and a big waste of tax-payers money.

I have not heard or read any memos about new SHUs planned for NY, I hope there are not. We need some schools and social programs, not control units that are hardly occupied.

These control units are very dangerous and hazardous to the minds of convicts who are mentally weak and they lose control and become self-destructive. There were instances where a convicts bunkey almost killed him and tied him up. They put you in a cell with anybody, a perosn you never met in your life and who knows what ill intentions he might have, it’s a surivival of the fittest!

They feed you small portions of food, so that prisoners lose lots of weight. The visit are behind a chicken fence gate that separates you from your visitors, so there is no real humyn contact. They put brothers on food and water restrictions, they censor our magazines and books thoroughly and most times violating our right to periodicals that don’t pose a threat to security. These control units should be shut down because it doesn’t reduce prison violence and its a waste of money and hazardous on the mind.

Currently, I am in a Supermax, what you refer to as control unit/ solitary confinement/ the box.

There are five buildings. Each building has three blocks, each block has two galleries and on each gallery there are twenty-five cells. Within each cell there are two prisoners. In total there are fifty people on a gallery- 100 people in a block - 300 people in a building.

The exception is that one of these buildings are occupied by cadre. These cadre are the workers. These workers are akin to those of a beehive, they’re the lifeline of the facility. They clean the facility, and basically maintain it so that the facility is self-contained.

The four other buildings are strictly occupied by prisoners who are locked down, like myself, for 24 hours. A single prisoner might occupy a cell depending on that prisoners prior disciplinary history in the Special Housing Unit. Being that when one is locked in the box, we are liable to take anyone as a bunky, on several occasions people have been killed and some times even raped. Fights are common because of the frustration and being forced to double bunk with someone that you’re incompatible with.

Upstate was built in 1999. It was the last Special Housing Unit that I know of that was built within the past 9 years. There are several more SHU buildings throughout New York State.

As far as the racial makeup, my observation & analysis is based on the numerous facilities i’ve been in, whether solitary confinement or group population. More than 50% of the prisoners are Black, 30% are Latino and the rest is made up of whites and those of Asian descent. This ratio also holds true for Upstate (which is where i’m at). More than half the cells on each gallery is occupied by Blacks, then Latinos. Many galleries have no white prisoners, if there is two cells on a gallery occupied by whtie prisoners, that itself is a large number.

The way that the system of pairing prisoners works is like this: People are put together based on their race - Blacks can only bunk with other Blacks (there are exceptions if a prisoner bunk goes to population e may request to have someone in the cell, but that doesn’t mean the request will be granted). Latinos are bunked with Latinos and whites with whites. Now, Latinos and whites are allowed to be bunked. Basically, Blacks must be bunked with Blacks and all the other racial groups could be bunked together.

I doubt that the state plans to open new facilities for two reasons. (1) Organizations such as MIM have been putting a lot of pressure on the state to close the SHU. There has also been pressure around the fact that many of the prisoners that are locked away in solitary confinement should be put in psychiatric facilities. (2) Another reason is that many prisoners are receiving harsh sentencing to solitary confinement for minor infractions - anxiety attacks is a common one. This is a result of the tenure of Governor Pataki whose “tough on crime” rhetoric allowed him to build more prisons. More prisons were built in Governor Pataki’s tenure of two terms than at any other time. Within the past 8 years several jails have been closed and many of those being incarcerated are parole violators who are recycled back into the system. So it is harder to justify the need for so many SHUs.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the articles any more, but i have read a couple of journal articles on the harmful effects these units have on humyn beings. In reality there is no value to these prisons, except to control prisoners. They use them to break us down. There is nothing rehabilitative about this place.

UPDATE: On 9/17/2009 the comrade who wrote this letter was killed in Attica Correctional Facility

True solitary confinement - it’s general concept, ultimate purpose, and all of its myriad applications - must be exposed to as many concerned citizens as is possible. Media, cinema, and corrections spokespeople have all contributed to distorting our society’s perception of this shameful and torturous practice that has been a facet of this country’s history since it’s earliest years.

Amnesty International has defined solitary confinement as “all forms of incarceration that totally remove a prisoner from inmate society”, elucidating further that “the prisoner is visually and acoustically isolated from all other prisoners as well as having no personal contact with them.” But even this definition can forfeit the consideration of other variations of confinement that similarly and adversely affect the prisoners who are imprisoned in them. Professors Craig Haney and Mona Lynch concluded and supported with irrefutable evidence from the study they conducted that solitary confinement refers to a broad set of conditions, including single-celled control units where even some semblance of communication between prisoners is somehow feasible, double-celled control units that produce conditions of both isolation and overcrowding simultaneously, control units where prisoners are subjected to sensory overload as well as sensory deprivation, and control units that impose “small group isolation.” The effects of solitary confinement in all of its manifestations within this country’s prison system have been recognized by numerous authoritative analysts, as well as their impact upon society as a whole. Studies of this phenomenon, empirical and with scientific experimentation, have been conducted and recorded as early as 1790.

With this in mind, terms such as “punitive segregation”, “restrictive housing”, “segregated housing”, “special housing”, “administrative segregation”, “disciplinary confinement” and “control units” have all been used to designate constructed environments that employ what are essentially conditions- whether in part or whole - of solitary confinement. Despite their differences, all of them serve similar ends in that all of them employ torturous conditions as punishment rather than rehabilitation.

I have been a prisoner of the New York State Department of Correctional Services prison system for approximately fifteen years to date. I have spent at least two-thirds of those years confined to the system’s special housing units (SHU) for lengthy and continuous periods at a time. Recently, former New York State Governor Eliott Spitzer signed a bill into law that provides for mentally ill prisoners who have been sanctioned with disciplinary confinement penalties exceeding thirty days to be removed from conventional SHU’s and placed in newly constructed “therapeutic units.” The majority of these “therapeutic units” are actually conventional SHU’s amended with rooms designated for therapeutic group programming and individual therapy sessions. The rooms are fitted with “cubicles” that amount to small single-occupancy cages, to restrict prisoners contact with program instructors and each other during “therapy.” Whether this arrangement is a genuine and sufficient departure form conventional SHU to ward off mental deterioration fostered by the conditions of the various forms of solitary confinement seems to have escaped adequate forum for public debate.

One of the worst SHU’s I have been confined to, by my estimation, is the notorious F-Block at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York. I remained there for just over a year.

In their State of the Prisons report on conditions of confinement in 25 New York correctional facilities, published in 2002, the Prison Visiting Committee of the Correctional Association of New York described the SHU at Great Meadow CF as “… one of the most unsettling we have experienced. Many of the inmates were mentally ill and confined in cells behind thick metal doors or bars covered with Plexiglas to protect staff from”throwers.” Most striking was the pervading sense of chaos and the way in which inmates with mental illness are isolated, cut off from human contact and caged in barren, concrete walls. Animals in zoos are kept in more humane conditions… the more stable inmates spoke of the constant yelling and noise on the unit, the stench of feces and sweat, and the lack of ventilation.” Although the SHU capacity had been reduced since the time of that report, the conditions aforementioned were certainly prevalent even during my confinement there in 2004 and 2005.

With the draconian measures put in place by the Bush administration as a device of its purported “war on terror,” and a look to the conditions under which prisoners designated as enemy combatants are being held in at the detention complex in Guantanamo Bay by the U.S. government, I do not see that the use of solitary confinement is being diminished at all. Rather, I foresee that it will expand and morph into forms less conspicuous but more insidious, cultivated with and nurtured by the incitement of mass hysteria and the greed of profiteers.

After clarifying the general concept, myriad applications and ultimate purpose of solitary confinement, this information must be conveyed to the concerned active citizenry. The concept, applications and purpose of solitary confinement serve to control and inflict suffering upon a segment of the population through isolation and deprivation. It does not nor has it ever served to rehabilitate or improve the condition of society.

sources: “Regulating Prisons of the Future”, by Craig Haney & Mona Lynch, 23 NYU Rev. L. Soc. Change 447 (1997).
“State of the Prisons” Report, June 2002, by the Correctional Association of New York.
“Enemy Combatant” by Moazzam Begg (the New Press, 2006).

The BHU program originated from a lawsuit settlement in April of 2007 (see Disability Advocates, Inc. v. New York State Office of Mental Health).

Disability Advocates, Inc., Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, the Prisoner’s Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society, and Davis Polk & Wardwell brought the lawsuit against the Department of Correctional Services (DOCS) and the Office of Mental Health (OMH). DOCS runs the New York State prisons. OMH is in charge of mental health treatment and services within New York State Prisons.

The main purpose of the settlement is to improve mental health treatment and services for all prisoners with serious mental health needs in DOCS- operated prisons.

In hood slang this program is about changing how the pigz has constantly violating prisoners with mental health issues throughout these years.

The program is taking mental health prisoners out of SHU (Special Housing Unit), basically the box, who are confined to their cells 23 hours a day, 7 days a week and admitting these prisoners to programs that will be very beneficial in helping us transition our bad ways to more positive ways.

For example, there are prisoners with serious mental health issues who tries to commit suicide & the DOCS pigz will discipline these prisoners instead of giving these prisoners treatment for their illnesses.

The problem at the BHU program at Sullivan Correctional FAcility is that the OMH BHU Director Ms. Harris is not stepping up to the DOCS Deputy Superintendent of Security Griffin, who truly runs the program.

The thing is this, the DOCS don’t want these programs to exist because of the fact that they feel like the SHU prisoners are getting over by being released from the box and being sent to these program, so DOCS goals is to try and sabotage these programs any way they can.

The BHU pigz are constantly violating us by issuing fabricated tickets, deading us on supplies, cosmetics, showers, food, sending us back to the box (SHU) for alleged security reasons, forcing us to work unassigned porter jobs, that we don’t even get paid for.

We have prisoners who are not medically cleared and approved to work in the food pantry and if prisoners refuse to work, they are being sent to the box for demonstration! The pigz have deaded me on food and the OMH staff are aware of this, but still don’t do anything about it.

There’s so many things I need to explain to you in details, but the fact is it’s too much, therefore on behalf of all the BHU prisoners, we are requesting any type of assistance that you may provide because we’ve been submitting all types of complaints, grievances and we are not getting any results, but plain old more bullshit and corruption within these prison systems.

In closing, me and my fellow comrades wanna say thank you for remembering us behind these walls, and the struggles existing every where in every hood!

notes: Disability Advocates, Inc. v. New York State Office of Mental Health Private Settlement Agreement. summary from The Legal Aid Society.

MIM(Prisons) responds: We have received a number of reports regarding the BHU over the last year, many of them hopeful of the possibilities of the new program. Others describe it as no different from the SHU, and even this supporter points out the great inadequacies in eliminating abuse so far. Anything that gets people out of SHU will likely have progressive characteristics and we support BHU prisoners in their struggle to stay out of SHU and hold the state to the promises made in the Disability Advocates, Inc. settlement.

However, we do not put forth the BHU or other psychological approaches as solutions to the mental health problems faced by prisoners. The writer mentions the extreme case of suicide which requires “treatment.” In MIM Theory 9: Psychology & Revolution, MIM discusses mental institutions as the flip side of the same coin as prisons, both of them being tools of social control. MIM even addresses a revolutionary approach to suicide that recognizes our relationship to the world around us and our ability to transform it, rather than focusing on getting us to accept an oppressive world that we should be sad and upset about.

Former Governor Spitzer signed more recent legislation aimed at getting people with serious mental health problems out of the SHU on January 28, 2008. “Governor Spitzer’s action formalizes the state’s decision to ban the use of solitary confinement for inmates with a serious mental illness who violate prison rules. Instead, these inmates will be placed in a residential mental health treatment unit where they will receive intensive psychiatric and behavioral treatment in a therapeutic setting.” (1) As MIM has been saying for decades, and the state has openly admitted, the purpose of the SHU is to repress certain political ideas and social groups. And as MIM describes in MIM Theory 9, “intensive psychiatric and behavioral treatment” has the same goals.

The other problem with this legislation is the focus on the split between the mentally ill and not. Those who fall apart under the torture of being in the SHU have been successfully treated in the eyes of the state who is trying to break revolutionary and rebellious spirits. Therefore, the state is fine with letting those who have been broken out of the SHU while holding those who are able to stand strong in resistance. So while we may have decreased the amount of torture being committed by the state (that is still not clear), we have not done anything to address the problem that prisons and mental health institutions serve to repress elements of society that would otherwise be forces for progressive change for all of society.

Historically, experimentation with isolation, drugs and invasive brain surgery have all occurred hand-in-hand. Letting the state play one strategy of control off against the other, as if one is more humane or beneficial to the people is nothing but a good-cop/bad-cop sham. All prisoners need re-integration into society that includes education on how it is structured and operates in order to become sane productive members of this society.

notes:
(1) Mental Health Association in New York State. http://www.mhanys.org/publications/mhupdate/update080201.htm
(2) MIM Theory 9: Psychology & Revolution
(3) An Alternative to the SHU

2/22/08

This facility has banned ALL MIM materials and they refuse to allow me duplications of the Media Review Notices- the only copy I have was sent back for appeal purposes because it is not “legal” materials!

These fascist pigs have also taken 8 months and 8 days of good time from me because I reported their employee who was using me as a slave, and have started a civil suite over it. (see enclosed)

[excerpt from claim]The complaint/grievance was the result of the claimant’s having been enslaved by Mr. Snye, the horticulture instructor of Riverview. The claimant was forced to choose between completing a web-site for one of Mr. Snye’s personal business ventures or punitive physical measures (being forced to shift enormous stones and to engage in other extremely demanding physical labor) and, if the claimant contineud to refuse, expulsion from the program. Threats of bogus charges and accompanying disciplinary measures were consatntly looming, along with vague, yet clear indications that there would by SHU time, if anyone found out.

Safety concerns led the Inspector [General] to place the claimant in another facility immediately. Within 24 hours of the claimant’s arrival there, threats toward the claimant required that he be placed in involuntary protective custody, and be housed with inmates who are in trouble.

Current conditions have arrested the claimant’s ability to progress in rehabilitation.

Removal from ASAT (Alcohol Substance Abuse Treatment) hinders the claimant’s potential time allowance.

Could someone put some pressure on these pigs, particularly Officers Bartsch, Peters (who is the absolute worst pig I’ve ever encountered), and Program Assistant Jeff Portersnok, who arbitrarily, with Bartsch as assistant, removed me form the brainwashing program, effectively diminishing my good time chances to zero - because he took it upon himself to investigate the slave labor at Riverview!

Officer Peters arbitrarily writes disciplinary reports and calls me a “Commie Bastard” regularly, as well as disrespects my family, my person, and my property.

If some pressure could be applied that won’t result in retaliation it would help not just me, but the entire compound.

In Struggle,
a New York Prisoner

2/24/2008

I am writing regarding Mr. B. Peters, an officer at Cayuga Correctional Facility who works the 7-3AM shift in B2 Dorm. I have only been in this dorm for 30 days and it’s been the worst 30 days of my life. Mr. B. Peters harasses me constantly as well as many other inmates at this facility.

On February 14, 2008, Mr. B. Peters searched my cube with me present and during the search he said that he doesn’t like me. I have never done nothing wrong to this cop and he continues to make slick remarks, call me names like little shit and spick. He also told me that he can’t wait to pack me up. I am honestly in fear for my safety and I am nervous that he might throw something in my cubby while I’m in program or something. I am also scared that he might retaliate because I’m writing you this letter.

On February 22, 2008 he gave me a ticket for disobeying a direct order. This officer tells me to put my personal sheets into a plastic bag without any explanation as to why he wants my sheets. Then when I asked him why I have to put my sheets in a bag and bring it to him he said that he doesn’t have to explain anything to me because I’m in prison. He also mentioned that if I don’t comply with his demand, he will send my ass to the box. And since he was so rude and disrespectful I chose not to give him my sheets… Due to the ticket he wrote me I’m looking toward 30 days in the box.

In Struggle,
a second New York Prisoner

4/7/2008

Today, despite tremendous opposition by my captors, I have successfully defeated the censors here at this Cayuga Correctional Pig Pen (see enclosed).

Now, the bad news, today was supposed to be my release date. I have sent copies of numerous document to the party bolstering my position, and even the state of New York admitted their errors in respect to the employee who enslaved me, and yet they still won’t let me go free.

Another comrade here, who has a sexual assault investigation pending against Sgt. Hoadley, the grievance sergeant, is being held past his date now 2 or 3 months.

Please let me know what is happening as I am certainly becoming less and less able to proceed. My body is locked up, and I feel my mind is going too.

a New York Prisoner