History has time and time again showed us that oppression breeds
resistance. This means that if you continue to mistreat a person, group or race of people and deny them their fundamental rights as human beings, they will eventually rise against the tyrant that created these
conditions.
This is what happened at the Indiana State Prison (ISP) on January 9, 2003 in the Administrative Segregation Unit in D-Cellhouse on the Eastside in D-A/S. Over 40 prisoners in one of the units came out of their respective cells for recreation on their tier. None of these prisoners were armed (did not carry any weapons), and they were caged into and locked on the tier. These prisoners expressed that they were fed-up with the abuse and relentless cruelty being inflicted on prisoners in their unit on a daily basis at the hands of racist and sadistic prison officials. These prisoners demanded to see a prison captain to address violations prisoner human, civil and constitutional rights.
Instead, Major James Kimmel shows up and when prisoners attempted to talk to him, kimmel told them to fuck themselves and that he had nothing to discuss with them. He warned that if they didn't lock themselves back up in their cells the prison officials would use force. Kimmel then ordered guards to shoot tear gas canisters and rubber-coated bullets at unarmed prisoners who were clearly NOT a danger to the guards (they were locked up in the tier!). This particular unit was then placed on lock-down.
The racist Michigan City Newspaper printed an article in their January 11, 2003 issue about this incident, but from the article it appears the officials at ISP once again misinformed the public about the real causes behind the incident: It was the ISP administration who created the conditions that caused prisoners to stand against officials.
Since 1998 prisoners have filed hundreds of complaints with the ISP administration, with IDOC Central Office, with state representatives and congresspersons -- each complaint about the many and endless violations carried out at this unit. But nothing has been done to stop them.
Here are some of the violations that prisoners have reported:
(1) Low quality (unwholesome) and inadequate sustenance.
(2) Collective punishment
(3) Excessive retaliatory lock-downs
(4) Retaliation for filing suits, exercising speech and engaging in
social and progressive activities.
(5) Religious persecution
(6) Censorship of mail
(7) Inadequate hygiene, clothing and bedding.
(8) Substandard medical care
(9) Indefinite administrative segregation without objective means of
procuring release.
(10) Denial of recreation without statutory authorization and denial of
lavatory access during recreation and inadequate recreation time.
(11) Arbitrary denial of visitation and telephone access.
(12) Denial of education and rehabilitation programs.
The prisoners in this unit are denied the rights of basic human existence by the officials in both IDOC and ISP. This is why prisoners harbor resentment and why they acted with a sense of desperation in hopes of drawing attention to the human rights abuses being inflicted upon those housed in D-A/S.
On January 9, 2003 the Michigan City News dispatch did not report our side (the prisoner's side of the story), denying us the right to give our voice to the public.
Treating prisoners in this unit like animals and not as human beings is not conducive to rehabilitation. ISP prison officials are not in the right. They are wrong and go about lying to the public about why prisoners resist. Their lies are against the public interest and prisoners have a right to peacefully demand better treatment. But the racist News-Dispatch refused to report the truth and seems to want to help prison officials look as if they are in the right.
Respectfully,
--A prisoner in Indiana, January 2003
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