Clinton Correctional Facility - Federal

Under Lock & Key No. 10 page 11 has been found unacceptable for the following reason:

“page 11 violate guideline IIE of Directive 4572 as they allege that an inmate at a New York State Correctional Facility was being mistreated by New York State Department of Correction Staff. It is the opinion of the Media Review Committee that this article, if introduced into a correctional setting, could incite disobedience toward correctional personnel.”

There is no way that an article could incite disobedience toward correctional personnel in this facility. Since my arrival at this very racist, corrupt, biased, gang-oriented facility, security personnel here have been on a war path brutalizing numerous convicts unchallenged. Three guys remain here on SHU who were allegedly engaged in fights with other prisoners who were brutalized by security staff. One of them was not only beaten in general population by security staff, but when he went on an escort call out of the SHU one of the officers who was involved in the first assault against him orchestrated an ambush while the prisoner was being escorted through the hall returning from this call out. The officer busted the man’s head open while he was in a waist chain and hand cuffs.

Most of the prisoners assaulted by gang staff members are alleged affiliates of prison organizations, yet none of their cronies raised up to the occasion. So how in the hell could an article incite disobedience?

MIM(Prisons): The article in question was one of a series of reports from prisoners at Clinton documenting the abuse there. As laid out in Johnson v. Raemisch, it is illegal for prisons to censor publications because they are critical of staff. Lesson from Clinton staff: if you utilize legal grievance procedures, you’ll have your rights and your persyn violated. But use of violence and abuse on the oppressed will get you a well-paid job with the state of New York!

Dear Brothers and Sisters at MIM,

Despite today’s harsh realities, my warmest. I have not received the latest MIM newsletter and I know the reason why: Clinton.

Today is the 28th of July and the population here just got off lock-down. The reason is simple, “annual tribalism”. In fact I wrote to the brothers and sisters at MIM about our last incident around the same time last year.

This year marks the second gang “nonsense” which these CO’S (corruption overseers) love because they get to reap the real benefits of “sectarianism”. While we as a people continue to run around with this “thug of the year bops” and claim a “G’d up status or mentality” these sick pigs enjoy the following: punching you and anyone that looks like you and I in the face, kicking out teeth in which the pig who did the most damage (more than 2 or 3 teeth kicked out in one kick) receives kudos from his co-workers, throwing you and anyone that looks like you and I down the stairs while in “full facility shackles”. Not to mention 2 - 3 “justified Murders” a year and I can not forget the overtime hours, plus the compensation pay.

Now comes the fun part (notice my sarcasm because I’m laying it down pretty thick.) There was a 8 man rumble in the yard on the east side, which we on the west side had nothing to do with, yet we still suffered 5 days with no showers, small portions of our already inadequate food, groping by some pigs who had no gloves on, and the list goes on and on. I just know that I’m going to hear some disturbing news about brothers receiving their “annual torture” for something that did not involve them. See while some of the so-called “gangsters” bang on each other the “pigs” bang on us all!

I really hope brothers can work it out because as I see it, for the past 15 years it just keeps getting worse. As a brother I try to talk with the vanguards, O.G’s, etc. of these gangs in a way that our brother Fred Hampton, Sr. Did with the rainbow coalition. (May his benevolent soul rest in solidarity) We as a people need to bring about a tangible change! We need solidarity instead of hostility. Towards one another, unification is the grassroot for upward social mobility…. Lets Unite!

PEACE AND SOLIDARITY FROM ONE OF YOUR COMRADES AT THE CLINTON PLANTATION

MIM(Prisons) Adds: In our recent censorship report we mentioned Attica Correctional Facility as being notorious for not allowing mail correspondence to prisoners, creating a virtual blackout on news from within. Clinton Correctional Facility isn’t so bad, but is perhaps the second most notorious facility in the New York State system. While generally very bureaucratically accountable, the NYSDOCS allows these facilities to continue as they do, proving that their willingness to play by the rules is conditional. Clinton has been particularly repressive towards New Afrikan Maoists and their literature. MIM(Prisons) has also had little success getting literature to comrades in Clinton, as this comrade attests to. We haven’t confirmed anyone receiving ULK in Clinton in 4 months. Historically, Clinton has been the destination for many high profile and overtly political prisoners.

Dear MIM,

I was the person in your article in ULK # 5 page 9. I was beaten for no other reason than the color of my skin! The pigs tried to pay me off with a television, in order to keep quiet. I’ve filed a grievance with the facility, but they all work with each other. I wrote to the Inspector General of New York, no help. I need a civil rights attorney to represent me, most attorneys in this area are friends of the officers responsible for my injuries: black eye, lost tooth, fractured rib cage, back cuts and welts.

MIM(Prisons) adds: Unfortunately there are not enough lawyers out there willing to take on cases like this. We are adding this to the campaigns page of our website because we are getting a lot of interest in this incident. But this is not unusual. Anyone who can offer assistance can contact this comrade through MIM(Prisons) by mail or email.

On September 12 at Clinton Correctional Facility I was a victim of Prison Official’s assault. They came to my cell searching it, and while one CO kept asking me what’s in my cell, as soon as I spoke up another CO kept slapping me in the face roughly for 20 minutes. I told the prison official to keep his hands to himself so COs took me to an isolation area for the beating of Blacks and Latinos where I was roughly beaten for 30 minutes. I was repeatedly assaulted with CO’s intentions to break something (an arm or leg), kick my teeth out, and they shouted racial slurs during these attacks. E block is a Special Housing Unit with no camera to record these attacks.

In a surprising move, Sgt. Randell transported me to the new hospital mental health unit where Sgt. Randell hit me in the face with his stick over my left eye causing a painful injury to my left eye, a bleeding cut on the side and a black eye.

Prison officials have begun to engage more frequently in a monstrous form of prison homicide, a strategy to instill terror in the hearts and minds of Black prisoners. This is Clinton County NY, a white district. We don’t have Black nurses or Black CO employees to lessen the racial tensions here at Clinton Corr Facility. In spite of the brutality, there is no special prosecutor and consequently no conviction of any criminal charge in recent homicide at Clinton Correctional Facility.

Commissioner Brian Fischer talks about NY gang-related violence in correctional facilities, but he is the gang leader of New York. The white supremacy CO mobs with a routine of beatings and murders that Inspector General in New York State Commission of Corrections fails to prosecute. The term homicide means the murder of one human being by another. A big percentage of COs mistreat Black prisoners, and there is no penalty. There is no regard for the life of the Black and Latino prisoners who have been beaten to death.

Prison official’s white supremacy still rules in every sphere, they kill five or six of us every year sending the message, ‘you best behave well or die.’ This philosophy of intimidation and murders lets prison officials legitimize their mob attacks under the name of “back up”. Prison official backup is often no different than the lynch mobs 100 years ago: Brutal murder of Black and Latino prisoners are twisted around and called justifiable homicide.

8/12/2008

Yo, I just want you to know that I received your letter and that I didn’t get the MIM Theory #7. I am waiting for the grievance that I filed on 8/5/08 and I just wrote to the superintendent of programs about this. I got the manila envelope that they send the MIM Theory in, but the MIM Theory was not in the envelope, instead there was a pictorial sex book.

…I don’t know if it was on tv out there but the jail got locked down for like 4 to 5 days and 4 C/Os got cut or stabbed, so shit’s been crazy.

8/18/2008

I just wanted to let you know that I didn’t get the MIM Theory #7. I wrote to M. Putnode, Deputy Supt./Programs Services and they said that they do not have it. I wrote a grievance and they didn’t write back.

- a prisoner in Clinton Correctional Facility

MIM(Prisons) comments: We can document a history of abuse and targeting of politically conscious prisoners at Clinton Correctional Facility going back years and naming names. Numerous prisoners have filed complaints regarding these staff members, and groups like the Correctional Association of New York (in 2004) have reported on these trends. Yet the state has still not put an end to it.

This example is similar to others at Clinton, where there is no paper trail, allowing the administration to say that nothing happened and deny responsibility. In other words, the NYS DOCS has granted staff the freedom to act however they see fit to repress efforts at organization and education in Clinton.

We have written in previous issues about the gender oppression of prisoners. This act of sexual harassment is just one more example of that. A Black man tries to educate himself about the liberation of his people and some cracker steals the literature we send and replaces it with porn. He sees the Black man as having no interests outside of smoking weed and chasing pussy, and this is how he reacts when faced with reality.

Upstate and Five Points have recently censored mail from MIM(Prisons) as well alleging that it promotes violence. Once more, for the record, MIM(Prisons) does not promote violence, we promote a world free of oppression. Only the oppressor can decide how that will come about. Unfortunately, we do not have the power to do so ourselves. We can only transform the world we find ourselves in by understanding its internal nature.

Some recent censorship was justified because it was critical of prison labor, the physical abuse of a prisoner in New York, and advertised lawsuits that are pending against the state. The most recent prison censorship case, Lorenzo Johnson v. Rick Raemisch, Daniel Westfield, and Michael Thurmer, Case No. 07-C-390-C, upheld that prisons cannot censor literature because it is critical of their department. And attempts at stifling support for class action suits is just one more effort to prevent prisoners access to legal protection. The recent attacks at Clinton reported here show what happens when you don’t allow prisoners access to legitimate grievance procedures when staff becomes abusive, as they inevitably do in such an oppressive situation.

The policy of the NYS DOCS of supporting staff committing these abuses for years demonstrate a clear attempt by the department to promote violence. Even if they can’t learn from their own experience, we’ve been telling them this for years, and we know they read our literature, so they can’t claim ignorance. They want violence, because they use violence as an excuse for further repression. Repression is against the interests of the oppressed, so the oppressed (MIM(Prisons) included) oppose this violence that is being promoted at Clinton.

see censorship records

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.

Me dirijo respetuonamente a ustedes. Para dejarle saber lo que me esta pasando, y para que me ayuden. Tengo diez meses en SHU en Clinton CF. Tan pronto llegue comence a sufrir acosos sexuales y abusos por parte de los sargentos, oficiales, psiquiatra, consejero y el director medico y el superintendente, le escribí al Commisssioner Brian Fischer, Inspector General Anthony Annucci, Lucien J. Leclalle Jr. y a varias organizaciones y no hicieron nada por my. Y puse un grievance pero aqui no procesan los grievances.

El 7/7/07 el oficial J. Cross me acoso sexualmente mientras me bañaba en mi celda. Pero como no deje que me falte el respeto y lo denuncie tomo represalia conmigo. Primero me dejo cinco dias sin comida, y me boto todas las medicinas. Y el 7/8/07 le puso veneno o un liquido deconocido a los tres jugos que me das el medico. Me tome la mita de un jugo y pase el día vomitando y desde entoces tengo fuertes dolores de estómago.

El 7/9/07 me puse para el sick call, y le enseñe los jugos a la enfermera y a un sargento, y le escribí al departamento en Albany, y a V. Johason, Medical Director en Clinton Corr Fac.

El 8/1/07 una persona me vio respecto a los incidentes, y le dije que necesitaba un interprete, porque no habio ni entiendo el ingles correctamente, pero la persona me dijo que estaba bien y se fue de una vez.

El 8/9/07 recibí una carta del Commissioner Brian Fischer dejandome saber que el Superintendent Dale A. Artus, hizo una investigación de los incidentes, que a mi me hicieron una entrevista, y que mis alegeaciones son mentiras.

Aqui en SHU hay una camara en cada celda y graba lo que uno habla. Yo le estoy pidiendole al Commissioner y al Superintendent que cheque el video del 4/22/07 que me asaltaron en la yarda y el 8/4/07 que la enfermera me trae la medicina incompleta desde que llegue a Clinton CF, y el 6/22/07 que el oficial R. Perry me acoso sexualmente en el baño, y el 7/7/07 y el 7/8/07 que el Oficial J. Cross me acoso sexualmente y quiso envenenarme.

Pero esto cerdos criminales y corruptos no me dicen nada respecto a los videos porque saben que es verdad. Ademas yo tengo todos reportes de los incidentes y no se puede mentir con las camaras.

Tambien no me estan dando la recreación que es una hora diaria mandatoriamente ni el baño tres veces a la semana. Aqui en SHU no cogen lista para el baño pero cogen lista para la yarda. Pero sacan aquienes los cerdos quieren. Yo le digo al Commissioner que cheque el video, para ver si abren la puerta de mi celda cuando hacen el baño y la yarda pero no hace nada por mi.

Los Sargentos W. Bisso y N. Giambruno son los cerdos que permiten que los oficiales hagan lo que quieran. Un día no me dieron el baño ni la recreación porque la psiquiatra M. Smith le dijo al Sargento N. Giambruno.

Aqui en SHU no dan limpieza de celda ni revistas ni ponen deportes en la TV ni en la radio ni ponen programa ni musica en la TV ni en la radio. Ahoramismo no le estan dando comida ni baño ni recreación a algunos presos.

Los cerdos llevan a los presos a la clinica y le dan golpes en un cuardo sin camara y lo ponen desnude en un cuarto sin nada. Y en invierno abren la ventana del cuadro con la temperatura bajo cero. Y a algunos presos le inyectan droga en contra de su voluntad. Y lo bañan con aqua fria en invierno. Y le envian un libro de ley con páginas rotas y lo acusan que lo rompio para que la pague y no permitirle usar la biblioteca de ley más, y para que lo no luche contra todas clases de abusos inhumanos de parte de estos cerdos criminales.

Aqui, no procesan los grievances y el Superintendente Dale A. Artus es el primer cerdo corrupto y el Commissioner Brian Fischer no quiere hacer nada por mi ni quieren chequiar los videos. Que puedo hacer yo para que vean los videos, y me envien para otra prision, antes que me envenenen o me maten estos cerdos criminales.

Yo tengo una demanda en proceso por estos incidentes, pero como puede ver necesito que me ayuden, porque el Commissioner y el Superintendente no quieren ayudarme, y los grievances no lo procesan.

Quiero dejarle saber lo que me hacen aqui los oficiales. El 7/8/07 el oficial J. Cross le puso veneno o algo a los tres unsources que me dan el medico. Porque el mismo me lo dijo. Y ademas pase el dia vomitando y estoy enfermo desde ese dia. La enfermera hizo un reporte de este incidente. Y el 6/22/07 este oficial me boto todos mis medicinas. Y cuando trabaja no me dan comida, y le dice a los otros oficiales que no me den comida y no me dan comida. Y me tiene amenazado de muerte, y no puedo ir a la clinica a ver al medico porque me quieren golpearme los oficiales de la clinica porque el oficial J. Cross le dijo.

El 6/22/07 mi madre me mando unos libros y el oficial Bruce no quiere darmelo, aunque tengo los recibos de los libros. Aqui no me dan el baño ni la hora de la recreación que tiene que darme mandatoriamente.

Ademas, apagan las camaras de video, y me acusan de cosas que no hice, y me dan tigues. Ademas, aqui no me procesan los grievances. Los Sargentos W. Bisso y Giambruno son lo primero racistas y abusadores. Y el Superintende no hace nada por mi aunque le enseño las pruebas de los abuses de los oficiales contra mi.

Le escribí al Commissioner en Albany para que me ayude, y me saque de Clinton y no han hecho nada por mi tampoco. Ayudemen si pueden para salir de Clinton porque mi vida esta en peligro con los oficiales y los sargentos.