June 16, 2017 was a day of my current prison life that I would never
forget, no matter how hard I try or no matter what my mental health
counselors tell me about “letting go.” On this particular day, I was
being escorted down the walkway at Suwannee Correctional Institution by
a prison official by the name of Sergeant Moore, when out of nowhere
Sergeant Moore placed his right leg in front of my shackled feet and
slammed me face first on the concrete floor, splitting my bottom lip on
impact and knocking out three of my front teeth. Then he began
repeatedly punching me in the face while stating “I’ll catch you in this
blind spot every time mother fucker.”
As this tragic incident was taking place, another prison official by the
name of Lieutenant Riegel ran up to me, grabbed both sides of my face,
and banged my head against the floor three times before more officers
responded to the scene to take me to medical. I was taken to an outside
hospital for facial trauma.
The bad part about this entire incident is that neither the prison’s
administration nor the Inspector Generals Office did anything about this
incident, because the prison officials fabricated the paperwork stating
that I attacked Sergeant Moore. In reality, Sergeant Moore was the one
who attacked me, out of retaliation for the ongoing problems I was
having with security at Suwannee C.I.
In addition, I was in full restraints from my hands down to my waist and
feet at the time of this incident, which made it impossible for me to
have attacked Sergeant Moore. The prison administration knew this.
However, they still swept this incident under the rug like they tend to
do when officers brutally assault prisoners.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve always heard of officers jumping on inmates
in full restraints, but when it actually happened to me, my eyes were
instantly opened to the corruption that’s taking place in the Florida
prison system, especially at prisons like Florida State Prison, Suwannee
Correctional Institution, and Union Correctional Institution.
For example, there’s something called the “Cell Extraction Team,” which
is a group of five officers, dressed in riot gear, whose sole purpose is
to go inside of a cell and restrain a prisoner who allegedly “refuses”
to submit to hand restraints. However, instead of sticking to the sole
objective, these officers are often times going inside these cells and
brutally beating inmates by kicking them, punching them, kicking their
teeth out, etc. And while they’re doing this, they’re yelling “stop
resisting.” How can an inmate possibly resist when five officers are
beating him? The entire time they’re doing this, another officer stands
in the doorway to block the view of the camera. I’m currently speaking
from personal experience.
Another example is there’s something called “Property Restriction,”
which is when officers strip a prisoner of all his property and clothes
and leave them inside their cell in just a pair of boxers to sleep on
the hard metal bunk, for allegedly “misusing” their property. However,
instead of using property restriction for what it’s intended for,
officers are using this as a tool to simply strip a prisoner of all
their clothes, and they are mainly doing this in the winter time. Once
again, I am speaking from personal experience. Most states have actually
abolished property restriction practices in prisons, deeming it cruel
and inhuman treatment of prisoners, but it is still going on in the
Florida prison system.
Truth be told, officers aren’t the only ones that’s participating in the
corruption. The nurses are guilty as well because whenever officers
assault inmates, instead of documenting our injuries, nurses are
covering up for the officers by not documenting our injuries.
In addition to that, whenever we file grievances reporting what officers
are doing to us, the grievance coordinators are throwing away
grievances. Which is why I’ve decided to write this short story to shine
some light on the corruption that’s taking place.
The worst part is, the Florida Prison system administration is fully
aware of this cruel and inhuman treatment that’s being inflicted upon
inmates, because they’re the ones who sign off on the paperwork. Yet
still they’re not doing anything about it.
No one deserves to be treated this way. The readers of this article can
even go online and see with their own eyes that Suwannee C.I. was under
investigation for this same corruption a few years ago.
Now, I know some people may feel like we are criminals so we deserve to
suffer in prison. However, our mistakes don’t define who we are as a
person. It’s our heart. And I know there’s people in the community who
know some very good-hearted people that’s locked up in prison. In
addition to that, since I’ve been incarcerated, I’ve written three
novels and I’m currently working on my fourth novel, which shows that
coming to prison has actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Because if I hadn’t come to prison I would have never discovered my
God-given talent.
My only desire now is to expose the corruption in the Florida prison
system because not only are these officials mistreating us, but they are
also taking advantage of us.
I’m just trying to show the community how corrupted the prison system
is, and it should not be this way. Prison is supposed to be a place for
prisoners to rehabilitate themselves before they go back into society.
But how can we rehabilitate ourselves if we are constantly being
mistreated in prison, and then they wonder why prisoners get out of
prison and do the same thing. Because we didn’t learn anything.
And whether or not the community believes it, prisons are some of the
most corrupted places in the world. I’ve seen officers purposely put two
inmates in the same cell, knowing that both inmates were having problems
with each other. And these are just some of the things prison officials
have been doing.
Consequently, I’m sincerely asking that the community assist us with
pushing the “Prison Lives Matter Organization” (PLM Organization)
because it’s only so much us as inmates can do from behind the doors.
I’ve already written the blueprint for the PLM Organization and I don’t
mind sharing it with someone who’s interested in being the co-founder of
the organization. However, I’m looking for people who’s sincerely going
to put their heart and dedication into bringing about a change in the
Florida Prison System. If you are a serious inquiry, then you may
contact MIM Distributors for information on how you can contact me, and
you can be part of the PLM Organization.
PTT from MIM(Prisons) responds:We fully echo this comrade’s call
for people on the outside to get involved in supporting prisoners’
struggles. We are even recruiting for our own outside-support
organization, and it’s in a similar phase as PLM Organization. The main
thing lacking right now is people getting involved. If you are inspired
to contribute to prisoners’ struggles in Florida or elsewhere, but can’t
join MIM(Prisons) at a cadre level for whatever reason, we would be
ecstatic to support the development of a new prisoner-support mass
organization.
We have a policy that we don’t build organizations outside of the
MIM(Prisons) umbrella, but a prisoner-support mass organization led by
MIM(Prisons) can work in united front with other groups like the PLM
Organization. Or maybe the Maoist-led mass organization takes on the
work that encompasses what PLM is out to transform, so prisoners have an
organization they can turn to rather than needing to start their own
from behind bars as individuals. There’s a great opportunity here and we
encourage “people who’s sincerely going to put their heart and
dedication into bringing about a change” to get in touch with
MIM(Prisons) directly via our
contact page.
We have a different view than this comrade about the role of prisons and
the causes of criminality in our present United $tates society. Where ey
says that going to prison was a blessing in disguise, we ask, “why
aren’t there opportunities for certain populations of people to develop
their talents outside of prison?” And where ey says mistake don’t define
a persyn, we ask, “why are people committing these mistakes in the first
place?” And “who gets to say what counts as a crime, or not?” Clearly
there are many, many people in U.$. society who do things that harm many
other people, and they are not considered to be criminals, and are not
punished by the court system. So, why is that?
It would be great if prisons were a place where people who harm other
people go to see the errors of their ways and transform into people who
are able to contribute to society. Like this comrade who started writing
novels and advocating for prisoners’ rights behind the walls. In fact,
that’s what prisons were like in communist China under Mao Zedong, and
that’s a social model that we look to for inspiration and guidance on
how we can create it in our own future. Chinese society under Mao is
where we get our name “Maoist” from. We are big fans.
And we look to Chinese society under Mao for how we can create a culture
and economic system that means people aren’t committing crimes that stem
from survival needs, or mental health issues, or historical trauma.
Imagine how much less harm there would be in the world if these
low-level “crimes” became obsolete – if people’s survival needs were
met, mental health was taken care of, and historical trauma was healed
and not perpetuated. Not to mention if the capitalist crimes against
humynity were abolished, and we had clean rivers, and all peoples were
allowed to thrive.
So we think prisons in this country are working exactly as designed.
They’re not really “corrupted,” because the entire purpose of them is
for social control, to keep certain populations and certain ideas
suppressed. Every act that communicates that “prisoners’ lives don’t
matter” and “you can’t do that” is part and parcel to prisons under
capitalism. When you consider that capitalist prisons aren’t meant to
rehabilitate “criminals,” you can see that they are actually working
perfectly. Whether by punishment (beatings, isolation) or reward (TV,
privileges), U.$. prison administrators are doing their job and doing it
well.
MIM(Prisons) aims to get at the root of this suffering, which we see as
the capitalist economic system itself. On the surface, the economic
system might seem unrelated to abuse of prisoners, and to a certain
extent we could have better prison conditions (prison reform) under
capitalism. But as Maoists we are out to create a world free from
all oppression, not just a relief of some oppression for a
few groups. Where some groups are given privileges, other groups are
still suffering and often times suffering worse to make up for it. We
believe that only through addressing the root cause of the suffering –
capitalism and imperialism – can we fully support prisoners’ struggles
here and around the world.
