This letter is to inform you that I too was an inmate in Red Onion
Supermax prison when it first opened. I too witnessed the horrors that
occurred there in the name of the state of Virginia, and this barbaric
device that this country has embraced throughout this land called
Super-Max’s.
There are a couple more facts I would like to pass on to your readers, I
was blessed when I was able to read the copy [of Under Lock and Key]
that I did, for it was passed on to me with knowledge I was there [in
Red Onion]. I could not, in all my self-conscious, sit back knowing the
information I do, to think “it’s not my problem”, “I’m not there no
more” to abandon my brothers there. You must get it out of your head, it
is not just Black, white, brown, yellow, that matters, because if you
follow that line of thinking then you have already lost the battle. To
divide is to conquer, and that is just the play they did to us. For I
not only am a convict, I have lived through the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s
in and out from these walls. I was there during the riots in the system
to get the things to better our way of life in here, only to watch these
“inmates” come in here and waste the blood that was shed during these
uprisings.
In all my time I have never seen such barbaric living conditions within
walls. Sure it was brand new, clean and good food, but the threat of
someone shooting you for something as simple as turing around to go back
to your cell because you forgot your lighter, to light a smoke. Anything
at any time could get you shot. “Just being Black,” “a white dude
getting along with the brothers” (you were hated by these hillbillies),
to come to someone’s aid, better not even think about it.
Remember that the DOC of the state of Virginia put this prison so far
west in the state it was nearly impossible for one from the Richmond,
Virginia beach area to come that distance to visit. This area they put
these two prisons in were at one time coal mining regions, well those
fell through, and since the new economical booster for any depressed
area are prisons, they put two of them there. These folks know nothing
but coal mining and hunting. Now they put them in charge of these
prisoners, give them guns, and tell them if they get out of line shoot
them. And they took that to heart and opened up.
There were no jobs, library, law library, schooling, trades of any kind.
They opened these prisons before they were ready for a safe operating
condition.
I tell people here and they look at me like I am insane. Try to make
these people believe that this is going on in this country, and they
laugh at you. I start bringing out the paper work to prove my point.
Comrades understand there are forces in play that would like nothing
more than to lock every one of us away, and they are doing it state by
state. Pennsylvania has its own “Super Max” called Greene County. They
abuse them down there too, but no guns as of yet.
The beast that ran the Virginia DOC, Ronald Angelone, was the same beast
in Nevada’s DOC, from what I have gathered he got run out of there. This
was done with the blessing of then-governor George Allen. When we first
started reporting these conditions to whom ever we could, no one
believed us, not even some of our own family. The only one who listened
was the United Nations Human Rights Watch Group. Even these folks got
run off the property. This is the new vicious and barbaric way they want
to do things in here and most other places. In PA the Greene County
Super Max has a history of inmate abuses. Sgt. Grainer, yes the leader
involved in the Abu Gharaib prison abuses in Iraq, was the lead abuser
in the RHU units at Greene County’s Super Max in the state of
Pennsylvania.
But since he was not charged in state court, and resigned on his own,
you only heard this reported one time in the very beginning of the news
reports about the abuses over in Iraq, (hush hush hush) never to hear
another word about it again. But I was there and I remember. This goes
on in every prison system in this country.
Do not think it does not affect you because it does, every time you read
a story and think it can’t happen to me, I am in a safe place, remember
the only qualification that got me sent to Red Onion was I had a life
sentence. Nothing more nothing less. Now in PA’s DOC they got a new
plan, lifers will be allowed to work only in approved areas off the
block (cell house). Every system is so full of small timers that the
older lifer prisons are being overrun with short timers who do not care
and do not see what is coming down the road right into their faces.
There is no way to turn this around unless we protest in a nationwide
effort. Could you imagine the impact on this system, and the world
reports that every prison in the country is on some sort of protest
strike.
As I have known for years this is the new beginning of something even
worse. Think big brother isn’t watching? That is because you are too
busy crying me! me! me! We got brothers of all peoples being beat,
killed, and abused each and every day, in every state of this country.
Poor health care, mental care, and then they want to disrespect your
people when they come to visit you, to even abuse them. They are
arresting our people right in the visitors parking lot for violations,
all to discourage the family units from staying together. When are you
going to raise your voice and make a stand? This is just the beginning
of horrors to come, and believe me they are coming!
Remember when they decided to take DNA from the sex offenders, for the
protection of our children and females? Well then they said why not
lifers, how about violent offenders, we might well as get all felons,
now it comes to the point where if you have committed any crime they
want DNA. Have you been watching of paying attention to the news, they
can get your peoples DNA to get you. There is no end to their madness,
the new thing is putting electronic taggs in the children, next is the
sex offenders, then lifers and every convicted felon, and parolees too
Must I go on? The lesson is to open your eyes, as long as they have you
divided into sub-peoples, whites, Blacks, reds, and browns, and fighting
and killing each other. Then they have nothing to worry about for all
your hatred is directed at each other instead of at them where it should
be, they would be in fear if that was the case.
There are no truer words, it have been practiced by the peoples of every
country, race, in war and out of war, throughout time: divide and
conquer. It’s us against them, you must take a stand, make a choice,
make up your own mind. Stop the madness of going against each other.
It’s time to wake up brothers! We don’t want to be divided, we want to
be united! It’s the only way, or the blood and lives given by those who
came before, were given in vain.
If you have any questions, new information about Red Onion, or want to
put someone in touch with me such as an attorney who is defending
something there, please feel free to contact me here. I know it is very
difficult for attorneys to get in there to see their clients.