Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility - Federal

I arrived at Larned Mental Health Correctional Facility on January 25th 2018. A week or two after I arrived I submitted a Form 9 and notified the chaplain of my religious preference at this point I was placed on the Moorish Science Temple of America Callout. I attended it until it was shut down due to lack of members. A religion I’ve faithfully been attending since 2006 and K.D.O.C. records show this. Now since I arrived at this facility for some reason they have made my stay very uncomfortable.

As an individual I don’t indulge in any of the extracurricular activities such as drugs, etc or causing other people problems. I do my best to focus self, family, and God. For some reason this facility has made that hard. First they began taking my belongings by search and seizure leaving me with nothing because I had no receipt. At this point I feel I became a target. Most of my items were personal care products such as soap, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. The guards began to joke about this which really was not funny. Throughout all of this I was going through a very stressful court process with my kids being taken from their mother. I began to get real irritable so I tried to do what I thought was right by going and talking to mental health. You won’t believe the result of that. They put me in the hole, took all of my belongings once again, wrote me up and took my visits. I was just trying to do the right thing by talking to someone before I lost my temper and affected another person.

After that I told myself I was just gonna focus on God. Then the situation with my religion became an even bigger problem. After my religion was changed without my consent they continued to ignore my requests or properly address them. They denied me participation of requested religious events and continued to address me as Native American. That went on for some time. Then after they so-called fixed my religion due to computer error it continued to be an issue cause they refused to let me out for Ramadan which at this time was meal time, resulting in me going without adequate nutrition for several days. They would only let me out for the evening Ramadan callout for meal time. So if I wanted to eat in the morning I would have to break my fast which was very embarrassing cause I rely on the meals K.D.O.C. provides for me.

At this point I knew I had to do something about the issue at hand. I felt very hurt, frustrated and depressed. I was dealing with this at the same time I was losing my kids which really made it worse. I feel like they have taken enough from me at this facility and I refuse to let them take a privilege and a right to further my relationship with God. Something I hold close to my heart. Therefore I filed a 1983 in federal court. I don’t want anybody to experience what I’ve had to go through at this facility concerning my right to choose a religion of my choice and it be respected. Or be denied the right to attend an enlisted religious function. God provides good guidance for one’s life and that should never be denied. No matter a person’s religion of choice or denomination.

I would like to share a struggle that many Kansas captives are dealing with currently. In the past few years, the synthetic marijuana drug known as K2 has flooded the prison system. Its use is easily hidden from detection because urine analysis tests don’t regularly detect for it. One way it’s detected is from red eyes. The KDOC is saying “red eyes” is a determining factor in writing a class one Disciplinary Report (DR) for substance abuse.

I recently had a seizure (my medical history includes epilepsy) and was rushed to the clinic. I came to with red eyes from having the seizure and the nurse said to me “you have no history of seizures, did you smoke some K2?” With this comment, I was not treated for my seizures, I was taken straight to segregation, and while still in handcuffs had another seizure in the cell. From hitting my face, I was bruised and bleeding. The nurse came down and said “It’s just the drugs coming out of him, keep him in seg. We’ve already seen him.” I was scared I was going to die!!! I hadn’t used any drugs, I was having seizures and medical was refusing me care. It was later found in the computer that I had been treated for seizures, had been on anti-seizure medication, and had been hospitalized for seizures. Because of the DR I was placed in segregation for 21 days and had my visits suspended for one year. I filed appeals and even contacted the Kansas Medical Review Board. They concluded “because of this inmate’s history of seizures, we believe the DR may need to be re-evaluated.”

No one in the Department of Corrections was willing to correct this DR. The nurse that made the comment “this might be from K2” told me word for word “you should be able to beat this on appeal” after she was made aware of my past history of seizures. In her medical report (that was used to find me guilty) she stated “inmate has no history of seizures.” That was clearly medical malpractice, my history was in her computer, and I told her I had a history of seizures and she called me a liar.

I have now paid $195 and filed a 60-1501 [habeas corpus petition] downtown. There is no way that simply having red eyes after having a seizure shows proof of K2 drug use. I know of several others who have had red eyes from allergies and have been convicted for this same bullshit writeup. I’m encouraging everyone who gets a substance abuse DR solely on “red eyes” to challenge this write up on the way to the courts. It needs to be done and change needs to be made. This is based on a pure assumption and no solid facts.

MIM(Prisons) responds: This medical neglect in Kansas underscores the prison’s use of unscientific criteria to classify people into segregation. Just as so-called gang members are identified based on false evidence, now the Kansas DOC is identifying illicit drug users based on criteria so common they can use it to label anyone they like. Red eyes can come from a summer allergy, lack of sleep, or any number of other causes. Prisoners have to be careful they don’t get soap in their eyes when washing their faces, if the prisoncrats are looking for an excuse to punish them. We echo this writer’s call to everyone affected to challenge these writeups. And we urge this comrade, or others in Kansas, to draft a grievance that can be used by everyone for this challenge. This would make a good state-wide campaign because it ties together the issues of medical neglect and control units in a battle against a practice that will no doubt target politically active and conscious prisoners for isolation. We should work to build a united front to fight this policy in Kansas.