Georgia State Prison - Federal

I am being held at GA State Prison in G bld Tier 2 hell. They are only washing clothes once a week, our meals in Styrofoam trays prepared in another prison across the street, the trays are cold and maybe 1/2 the quantity we should receive. I haven't been able to use the phone in over a month or the kiosk computer. They do not shave or give haircuts in the 4 months I have been back here, they run the yard-outside cage -1-2 times per week if we are lucky.

They are doing our seg cell charts as 'gang signatures' where they collect-up all the charts + bring them to the control booth + use a cheat sheet + sign all charts to 'show' that they did their 30 min. walk through. Especially night shift. I have seizures and laid on floor for 3 hrs before c/o Prestonback came through, and he didn't look in on me. I wasn't able to talk to anyone until 6:00 AM shift-change and they thought I was lying about the seizure . I take medication for it.

I purchased a computer tablet from Jpay, the tracking says it was delivered Feb. 18, but I've not received it! And they denied my grievance! It cost $106.00 Ms. Black and or the mail lady have signed for it. They did the same thing with a food package I was supposed to get 2 months ago for $130.00. It took 3 months to get the money back on my folks’ credit card and I never received it. They have some sort of scam going on with things that are sent to the prison especially tennis shoes.

Oh yes and finally, here is a copy of my oms schedule... As you can see it states that I am on "inside orderly" activity location "dorm." Also from 9-11 the O.U.T./Self Discovery program on Thursday. Well I am in a 2 man cell 24/7 with barely 1-2 hrs out of it a week, I am not an inside orderly and I've been on Tier 2 over 4 months and have not had 1 class/program. I've written the program office 'Mr. Flowers' he does not respond and I have only seen him in here 1 time in 4 months. I wrote Washington about this. I am sure we are supposed to be having classes and be let out of these boxes, its mental torture in here 24/7. I'm 51 on Chronic care for seizures and have been beaten by several cellmates. I just went for a skull MRI for it!

[Comrades in Georgia have been suffering from and fighting against the Tier II program since its inception. Tier II is a long-term isolation program with indefinite terms and severe restrictions on communication and other "privileges." Of course the program is officially not for disciplinary purposes. And of course the program has set terms on paper. Below is a portion of a petition some of our subscribers have signed on to and mailed out to various administrators. It illuminates in detail many of the problems that prisoners in Georgia are facing. In December 2014 another comrade from Smith State Prison mailed us a similar petition with over 30 signatures, which we publicized on our website.

Another comrade in the state is working on a guide on how to fight against the Tier program. We encourage anyone who has successfully won any battle against the Tier program to write in with your experiences, so we can consolidate this knowledge and distribute it to those in need. However, many people on Tier restriction can't even have access to Under Lock & Key or other mail from MIM(Prisons), so those who are in most immediate need of this information aren't even able to receive it. Prisoners who aren't (yet) assigned to the Tier program should take an immediate interest in this topic, so that the knowledge is circulated among the Georgia prisoner population before people can't access it anymore.

As we've been writing about for a long time, we see long-term isolation not only as an atrocity because of the humyn suffering, but also as a political tool that is used by the state to keep the oppressed nations subservient, preoccupied, and broken. We want self-determination of oppressed peoples, and we oppose all tactics that the state uses to subvert this goal. -MIM(Prisons)]

In the name of liberty, life, and human rights the Administrative Segregation population at Georgia State Prison (GSP) is reaching out to you with hopes that you will advocate and intervene on our behalf to put an end to the horrific and inhumane conditions of confinement being forced upon us, through the implementation of the Administrative Segregation Tier II Program, because the grievance system here is a mockery and has rendered us no relief from the oppressive, repressive, and dehumanizing tactics of the Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC).

Georgia State Prison, which for decades has held a large lockdown population with some inmates being on lockdown for 20 or more years, began what is called the "Administrative Segregation Tier II Program" on July 16, 2014. On this date, GDC's tactical squad, along with GSP's correctional officers confiscated all of our personal clothing, hygiene products, health care products, books, photo albums, lawbooks, magazines, newspapers, CD players, radios, drinking cups, bowls, etc., with us only being allowed to keep 20 personal letters, a portion of legal mail, and a Qur'an or a bible (one or the other). Our personal hygiene products were replaced with only state-issue soap, toothpaste, and roll-on deodorant which are of very poor quality.

The guidelines for the Tier II Program (which lasts for a minimum of 9 months) places a ban on all books, newspapers, magazine (novels, textbooks, dictionaries, etc.) and many materials to self-educate ourselves. All books, magazines, newspapers, etc. which are mailed to us are returned to sender without giving us notification or a chance to appeal the prison's decision.

We are not being allowed to continue educational correspondence courses to earn degrees or diplomas so that we can have a better chance of getting legitimate jobs upon release.

Inmates are allowed very restricted contact/access to the "free world" which is perpetuated in part by the ban on books and periodicals and the confiscation of all TVs and radios which effectively blocks us from being kept abreast of current events and aware of the world's happenings beyond the prison's gates. Phone calls and visits are limited to only 3 fifteen-minute collect calls and 3 two-hour non-contact visits for the first 6 months of the program.

We are not being given proper access to the law/courts. Tier II inmates are routinely denied "law-library" by officers. The law library for Ad-Seg inmates only has seven small holding pens and one computer to service the needs of the entire lockdown population, which is approximately 600-700 prisoners.

We are not being given the proper nutrition or portions of food and are not being allowed to purchase commissary as a means to supplement the malnutrition being forced upon us. This is evident in the fact that the number of prisoners being placed on medical diets to increase weight and calorie intake has made a steep incline. Bugs (both live and dead) are often found in the food and the officers still force the trays on the prisoners.

We are inadequately clothed. The prison won't provide us with the proper clothing and won't allow us to purchase the clothing we need.

We are not being given the means to sanitize the cells that we are housed in. The cells are filthy. Most have food, blood, and feces on the walls and there is a serious rodent and insect infestation. We cannot even flush our own toilets; we rely on officers to flush the toilets for us so we may have feces and urine in the toilets for hours at a time.

We are not being allowed to have the hygiene products that we need and are not allowed to purchase any so most inmates have a foul odor because the deodorant the state issues us doesn't work for most of us.

We are routinely denied the right of religious freedom and expression. We are not allowed to practice beliefs that forbid cutting the hair, keeping kosher or other restrictions from eating certain foods.

Prisoners are subjected to brutality, humiliation, and harassment by correctional officers and staff at any given time. Prisoners are often assaulted while in handcuffs/restraints for no reason at all, but most frequently for practicing "freedom of speech." If a prisoner addresses the warden or other administrative staff about anything they don't like, or mistreatment, you are liable to be sprayed with mace, OC spray, any of the other toxic gases, stripped naked and humiliated and be placed on "stripped cell" with no bedding, clothing, or anything else (regardless of the temperature) for 8 or more hours just for exercising your 1st Amendment rights.

Mental health prisoners are often times punished for mental infirmities and deficiencies which are beyond their control and made worse by the conditions of confinement forced upon them. Mental health patients here are suffering because of a lack of treatment and staff. Many are wrongly diagnosed and are either over- or under-medicated.

Prisoners validated by the GDC as being part of Goodfellas, Young Mafia Family or plain and simply as "Mob" are being subjected to group punishment and all prisoners with this validation are kept on Tier II, and most have been on lockdown since November 2011 or even longer. The Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the Tier II program states that prisoners can only be held on the program for 2 years, but those validated as "Mob" are being transferred from prison to prison at the completion of one prison's Tier program requirements and forced to begin the program again at the entry level at the new facility.

We know that prison isn't supposed to be comfortable, but what we are experiencing at the hands of the administrators and staff here is torture and extreme abuse of authority. Regardless of our debts to society, we are no less human than anyone else. Many of us are mentally unstable, indigent, or have no family or friends who are willing to help us fight for our rights to be treated like human beings and not be subjected to such demoralizing and dehumanizing treatment.

Georgia State Prison (GSP), the oldest prison in Georgia is rodent and vermin infested with numerous maintenance problems. Tier II prisoners, housed in what Georgia prison officials call a Long Term Segregation Program based on your behavior, call it torture. Prison officials are enforcing a regulation to ban *all* legitimate publications which are mailed to prisoners in Tier II regardless of what phase (Tier II has 3 phases) they are on. These legal publications are mailed from the publisher. They include newspapers, all books, and all magazines. Specifically, the ban is on: San Francisco Bay View Newspaper, Chattanooga Times, Free Press Newspaper, Prison Legal News Magazine, MIM's Prison Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Atlanta Journal and any other legally authorized publications. The ban is only on prisoners in the Tier II Segregation Program. No one else.

The First and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees me the right to free speech and to the press and equal protection of law. The Georgia Constitution Article I Section I Paragraph II (equal protection of law) and Paragraph V (freedom of speech and to the press) are rights under Georgia Law.

To "return to sender" all my magazines, newspapers and books violates my constitutionally protected rights. None of these aforenamed publications were banned at any other Georgia prison I have been held at. I notified, by letter, Georgia Department of Corrections (GDC) Commissioner Gregory Dozier; Statewide GDC Tier Coordinator Otis Stanton; GDC SE Region Field Operations Manager Robert Toole; GSP Warden Marty Allen. All showed deliberate indifference to my issue by failing to respond to the illegal ban of publication problem.

Georgia prisoners are so divided along racial, class and STG gang lines that any attempt to organize any form of mass action rebuttal to these egregious and illegal acts by Georgia prison officials will falter. The fear that the GDC has employed on most prisoners prevents the addressing of constitutional rights violations.

As a "jailhouse lawyer" holding active membership with the National Lawyer's Guild, I have been fighting administratively and with civil action for redress of Georgia officials' numerous malfeasance since 2005.

This illegal publication ban fails to pass the "smell test." I have begun my quest to correct this illegal violation by filing a Formal Grievance, which is a joke, but must be done as a start to any civil action which will follow.

I solicit the assistance of all news organizations, prints, digital and television as I again take on the GDC in court. My three (3) current civil actions pending and my numerous previous civil actions show that the GDC cannot and will not ever intimidate this writer. My fight for my right to free speech and the press and equal protection of law continues.

I just read an article in ULK (Jul./Aug. 2016). On page #14 Overcome Censorship on TIER Program. I am currently housed at one of the prisons that has this so-called "program." We have nearly 800 inmates locked away there now. Some have been there for years. I myself transferred to court recently, & upon coming back here, they placed me in “TIER I” for 2 weeks before I went back to general Pop. For "security purposes"... It's torture!

The toilets are flushed by the C.O.s outside, & often times the stagnant waste sits in the bowl for hours. The food portions are never what they're supposed to be. The C.O.s are often nowhere to be found, & don't do their rounds consistently. If I had suffered a real life-threatening emergency, I wouldn't be here now & I was only in there for 2 weeks! I shudder to think of all the inmates struggling to survive in those conditions

With that written, I'd like to get pro-active & do all I can. Even in general pop., we're having issues with not receiving our mail in its entirety. Books must be approved by the institution in order to be received by prisoners (according to S.O.P.). However, completed forms never get returned, & so we're denied the opportunity for new books. We hardly get the chance to visit the prison "library" due to "lack of staff" or "security purposes".

Our grievance system is a joke. They must be handed personally to a counselor within a 10 day span of writing it, but the counselors do not visit the dorms regularly. When the grievances do get filed, it takes months for a response & the responses are ridiculous. So, I'm interested in the Censorship Pack, if you could possible send it. But what I REALLY need from you is the petition for the unanswered grievances (for the State of Georgia). I'd appreciate as many copies a you can offer, as this facility does not make personal copies for inmates. I will most definitely update the campaign of any progress I can make.

Greetings my friend. I just received y'all letter and I want to get involved. I'm currently on the administration segregation mental health Tier II program, on phase two. I been on this program since last October 13th, 2015. We be getting done so wrong. They treat us like a dog.

They put officers in the dorm that don't want to work in the dorm. We eat cold food, so the officer might let our tray sit in the open. One time I got a tray with hair and a roach was in my food.

I'm currently serving a life sentence but I'm trying to get my case overturned. It be hard to get the proper access to the law library. I have filed grievance but I truly believe my grievance never get turned in. It's sad because a lot of inmates don't try to stand up for what's right. I have been jumped on, got my teeth kicked out by two officers.

At present, I am proceeding on two civil suits that are under Appeal Brief and Summary Judgement phases. I'm mentally ill (on medication) and housed in Tier II segregation unit, being denied physical access to law library and legal items requested from law library.

I only compleded the 6th grade of school and was recently denied appointment of counsel by the Georgia Court of Appeals 11th Curcuit. At present I don't even know what the Appeal Brief should look like, but the case was dismissed due to defendant's claim of failure to exhause administrative remedy. But I turned in grievances and prison officials declined to process or provide me an appeal form to proceed to the next stage in the Georgia Department of Corrections' statewide grievance S.O.P. ILB05-0001, even after I addressed the Grievance Coordinator, Warden, and Executive Assistant with inquiry.

I'm almost at a dead end to take on proceedings through the courts, and I haven't been able to secure much help.

I am 40 years old Hindu Indian from South America Guyana. I have life without parole in the state of Georgia. I have been on Lockdown since 2005.

I was put on lockdown for an incident i did because of my uncontrolled mental health problems which i beg for help, but no one believes me. While I was on lockdown I asked the mental health counselor for some kind of therapy. The only thing they did was give me mental health medication. Those meds mess me up good. And when I complain, they just give me new meds. So i stop complaining because I don't want to become a zombie on mental health meds.

The officers think i am from the Middle East and a terrorist. They told me that their family and loved ones got killed in Iraq. I told them i am a Hindu Indian from Guyana, but they don't believe me. They spit in my food, and sometimes they won't feed me. And they skip me on shower and yard call. Then they lie on me by saying i refuse to eat and shower and go to yard. When I told the warden about this problem he did nothing about it. A few weeks later i was moved to K-BID. In those cells it had a TV, power sockets, toilet bowl flush switch and light switch.

I wrote my family and told them what i am going through every day. My family was afraid that the officers will beat me and kill me. My family told me to stop complaining. That is what i did and i took all the abuses. In my cell i never talked to other prisoners. All i do is read books, listen to music, and watch TV. When the officers come to my cell i don't look them in the face.

The way i clean my cell is i use a rag to put soap on it and wipe the walls, floor, and toilet bowl. Days that they won't let me take a shower, i wash up in the sink. My fan saves me in the summer, the TV saves me from going crazy, and my family saves me to live.

Over the years on lockdown, i walk back and forth in my cell and talk to myself. I worry a lot about if they will spit in my food today or beat me. And when i get a letter from my family I have to read it about 10 times because I don't understand it. And when i write my family they don't understand my letters. So i have to think about what i want to write and read it over and over so it makes sense.

My mental problems have gotten worse and it blew up in July 2013. The Warden Robbert Toole had all TVs, light switches, toilet bowl flush switch, and power sockets removed from K-BID. I then asked Warden Toole why he did this. He just walked away from my cell. Two days later, two CERT team officers handcuffed me and beat me. I never was taken to medical. Every day i worry about what they going to do to me, so i try to kill myself. When they took me to see the mental health doctor, I tried to tell them my problem but they cut me off and said i need new meds. They shot me up with meds and sent me back to K-BID where the cell is so hot and i have to smell my pee and shit for many hours because the floor officer is n where to be found.

I wrote my family and told them what they did to me. That day i stopped eating at all. On the 9th day of not eating, they found me passed out on the floor and they took me to the medical floor and i told the doctor i stopped eating for 9 days. On the 20th day of me not eating Warden Toole told me to write my family and tell them that i am ok and he will have the CERT team beat me no more and have the officers stop spitting in my food. Eight days later i got a letter from my family begging me to eat. I was sad so i ate food again. Two days later they put me back to K-BID to smell my pee and shit. And it got worse.

On 15 July 2014 they took all my personal property and gave me 1 boxer, 1 pair of socks, 1 jumpsuit, 1 state toothpaste and toothbrush, 1 state soap, 1 state shower shoe, 1 toilet paper, 1 bible, 1 bed, 1 blanket, 1 pillow, and 1 bed sheet. Then they told me that i have to do a Tier 2 program. And this is the reason why: "Inmate has received no disciplinary infractions within the past year. Inmate XX was charged with causing the death of an inmate in 2005. And a validated member of Five Percenters. Inmate XX should be assigned to the Tier 2 phase 1."

In the Tier program phase 1 is 90 days without personal property, and commissary is limited to only legal supplies; no books, no magazines, no personal pictures, no general library books. Each cell has a comment sheet on the door. The floor officers write on the comment sheet if a prisoner acts up.

Each phase is 90 days. At the end of 90 days they will do a 90 day review. They will check if you got any disciplinary infractions or any bad comment on the review sheet that is on the cell door. And if there is just one bad comment we have to start over on phase 1. Around November 2014 they made phase 4 for those prisoners who cannot return to population. And around February 2015 they made a phase 3+ which is also for those prisoners who can't go back to population. Now because of the Tier 2 program i can't complain about cell clean up, shower, yard call, and to get my toilet flushed because the floor officers will write a bad comment and i have to start all over on phase 1.

In December 2014 every prison in the state of Georgia gives each prisoner a free food package on Christmas day, but Warden Toole said the Tier 2 program will not get any.

When the mental health counselor comes to lockdown i tell him my problems and ask for some kind of mental health therapy all he does is laugh and ask me if i want some crossword puzzle and then he walks away from my cell.

I put in grievances but they throw it away because of the new rule. Lisa Fountain, Senior Investigator for Inmate Affairs and Appeals Unit Southeast Area said in a memo that when you turn in a formal grievance to the counselor that he will take it back to his office and review it, then they will mail me a grievance receipt. And every time i turn in my grievance and i don't get back no receipt, the counselor lies to me that i never gave him any grievance. So now i can't grieve the Tier 2 program and my mental health problems because Lisa Fountain made a way to get rid of a good grievance. I have no proof at all, and when you complain about it to the Warden he will have the CERT team come in your cell and take all your pens, stamps, legal works and make you do the program from the beginning on phase 1.

Last year a prisoner killed himself because of the punishment in K-BID and this year, 2015, two more prisoners in K-BID killed themselves because of the cruel punishment we get from the wardens, unit managers, officers, CERT team, counselors and the mental health department. I don't know how to file a lawsuit and fill out a 1983 Civil Rights form. It took me about 2 1/2 weeks to write this letter. I wanted to spell the words right and I re-read this letter 35 times to make sure it made sense.

At this moment i am in lockdown in K-BID at Georgia State Prison and it's hot as hell in this cell and i have to smell my shit and pee for many hours and worry about if the officer spit in my food and if they throw away my mail and if they going to beat me again and walk back and forth in my cell every day and talk to myself. I also am getting more mental and i believe if they ever put me back to any general population it will be dangerous. Because i have dangerous buildup that will explode and someone will get hurt again. I need some kind of therapy and help. What is being done to me is also being done to another prisoner who will go home soon. What do you think he will do when he goes home? The free world people in the state of Georgia need to know that Georgia's prisons system creates monsters and society should not be surprised when those monsters are released and do a horrific crime. Society needs to know and they need to know fast. I pray that someone reads this letter an don't put it in a file. I hope someone can help me with my mental health problems that department of corrections won't treat.

A hunger strike against the Tier program at Georgia State Prison started on February 24, 2015 and will be official as of February 26. So far four prisoners are refusing food trays!

I was recently transferred to Georgia State Prison and arbitrarily placed on a Tier 2 Step Down Program. These administrators have placed a ban on all newspapers, magazines, and any publications dealing with any form of press, so I have not received any of your periodicals since I was transferred from December.

I have filed grievances challenging this violation of the First Amendment and also the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments due to these prisoncrats stripping me and others of all personal property, denying access to the law library or outside recreation, and deliberately abusing grievance procedure by refusing to process any grievance that is submitted.

Further, prisoners are being placed on this so-called behavior modification program with no due process! Prisoners are being punished for disciplinary reports that are five years expired, and for sanctions already served. No one in this program has been given any form of evidentiary hearing nor any Disciplinary Report (D.R.) that has sanctioned this so-called program. In fact, all are being punished for past behavior. Even if the D.R. was dismissed or expunged from the prisoner's file he is still forced into this Administrative Segregation Unit.

Prisoners are being housed two men to a cell and locked down 24 hours a day. Prisoncrats state that this is not for punishment, nor is it solitary confinement, but they call it "isolation" with a roommate. There is nothing habilitative about this program and it only instills anger and hate into the individuals housed here.

The only prisoners who have been released off this program are prisoners that have either maxed out their sentences, died back here (3 prisoners in the past 90 days), or debriefed and turned snitches for the prisoncrats.

The majority of mail sent out to family and press is shredded or tossed into the trash, so we are struggling to get public attention drawn to this torture program. It looks as if we will be forced to participate in a hunger strike in order to get help in ending this prolonged solitary confinement program. So we ask that eyes and ears be placed upon this place because there are those ready to starve themselves in order to force these prisoncrats to remove us from these cruel and inhuman conditions.

MIM(Prisons) responds: Comrades in Georgia have been aggressively exposing and fighting the Tier program since it was implemented in 2013, and in some facilities have been writing petitions and gathering signatures against the torture. We offer much respect to those willing to sacrifice their health in order to demand changes to these horrible conditions. And we will do what we can to support this battle (which we only learned about in mid-March due to mail delays). We can not advise on the specific situation in GSP, but we caution activists behind bars that whenever possible we should build support both inside and out before engaging in such a potentially dangerous action. ULK is one good venue for building public opinion, and when we can get the publication into prisons it also serves to help build the cadre of dedicated folks willing to take these actions. Without this support the prisoncrats have an easier time isolating and breaking activists, and can even use this to permanently harm or even kill someone.

Update 9 April 2015 — I'm here in Georgia State Prison on hunger strike, in protest to my 1st, 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendment rights to the U.S. Constitution being deliberatily violated by the Georgia Department of Kkkorrections (GDC). Other prisoners and I have been arbitrarily and unlawfully stripped of all personal property, mail and phone privileges, access to satellite law library, contact visitation, commissary privileges, and to add insult to injury the Warden has taken the toilet's flush button from inside the cell and placed it on the outside. Now here's the kicker: prisonerers are being housed two prisoners to a single-occupancy cell with no way to flush the cell's toilet. This is part of Georgia Department of Kkkorrections' new Administrative Segregation Tier program of prolonged solitary kkkonfinement.

The Standard Operating Procedure states that this program is not to be used as a punishment measure, but GDC's actions are contrary to its stated purpose. According to this policy, a prisoner must be sanctioned to disciplnary Administrative Segregation in order to be placed upon the program. I have yet to come across any prisoner that has received a disciplinary report that sanctioned such a placement.

Then, daily, these prisoncrats come around and spew lies as to why this program was started: "To reintroduce prisoners back into the general population and back into society." This is a farce because none that have completed all phases have been placed back into general population. They've come up with a phase "+" (plus) to keep all prisoner who've defended themselves from guard attacks on permanent lockdown with all segregation/Hi-Max mandates stripped from them.

So I initiated a strike which started 23 February 2015 and ended 19 March 2015, has been resumed since 20 March 2015, and is still going on. I am also putting together a 1983 Civil Suit to challenge and abolish this torture program! I've posted several articles on this subject on IndyMedia hoping to expose this neo-fascist torture program for what it really is. There is nothing rehabilitative or positive in any aspect pertaining to this so-called Step Down/lockdown program. These Klu Klux Klan and bootlicking Negroes are working overtime to keep all grievances/complaints from reaching the courtroom. So this is a war and I'm fighting to destroy this torture program.

We are being subject to excessive rectal searches just to take a shower. Our food is cold, spoiled and inadequately prepared. We don't receive beverages and staff talk over, sweat on, and handle our trays with no gloves, hair nets, or face masks.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Me and my fellow lumpen comrades are definitely determined to sink this "titanic" along with other negligent and corrupt entities within the state. Always remember a closed mouth doesn't get fed. It's time to fight back with our minds, pens and comradery! Believe me that there's only so much that we are going to take laying down! Free all my like-minded brothers of the same struggle.

MIM(Prisons) adds: There is a growing movement of prisoners and lumpen organizations in Georgia standing up to the abuse and unjust conditions in the prisons in that state. Part of this work requires educating and organizing, and for this we need leaders like this comrade. Leaders are willing to put in the work exposing the conditions, and educating fellow prisoners about the need for unity and building for legal and non-violent actions that will further the anti-imperialist movement. United Struggle from Within (USW), the MIM(Prisons)-led prisoner organization, needs more comrades to step up and take on leadership roles behind bars. Get in touch with us for more information on working with USW.

This is not a notice to riot. This is a non-violent protest petition concerning the unconstitutional prison conditions and acts afflicted on the close security prisoners at Georgia State Prison. The following issues have been grieved on numerous occasions yet fail to be attended to. These unjust acts are mainly being committed in the locked down units of the prison, which is where the close security inmates are housed. The issues are as follows:

1. Inhumane living quarters: We are being housed in the condemned part of the facility. There are no sprinkler systems in the cell in case of fire. Mold, rust and filth have accumulated in the tray box and around the toilet. The vents and the window shield are filled with dust, pollen, smut, mace powder and toxic gases from the leakage of the sewage pipeline. The power has been taken which disables us from using our only source of clean air. These issues are unhealthy and the ventilation in these cells can vex or worsen those with medical problems. We rarely receive cell sanitation, raising the risk of being infected with staph, scabies, and various other skin diseases. The inhumane conditions violate our 8th amendment.

2. Denial of access to courts: In Bounds v. Smith the United State Supreme Court requires prison authorities to provide its inmates with an adequate law library. Administration deprives us of this right by failing to provide law library requests. And once we are enlisted to a session the escort officer (CERT team) seldom shows up. This is a violation of our 14th amendment, due process law to seek post-conviction relief.

3. Guards abusing authority: The guards are using excessive force while the prisoner(s) are in restraints and no longer resisting. Frequently forcing prisoners in the cells with another inmate, knowing one has hostile and violent intentions. Some of the inmates may try to refuse housing with an opposition of their social group. The guards then threaten to use physical force if he continues to resist. Reluctantly they comply and suffer being physically assaulted by the aggressor. Verbal harassment is a constant matter to those that grieve their abuses. Officers are refusing to feed those that they have a personal vendetta with. Inflicting punishment on both cellmates even though only one is rebellious. The promotion of violence has resulted in multiple stabbings and two deaths. This is a security issue for the prisoners and the officers.

4. Phone lines out of service: The phone lines are out of service and staff is refusing to fix them. Those that still have the privilege to use the phone are being denied this right. This issue is disabling us from communication with our family and having an alternative to grieve our problems. This malfunction has been an unattended issue for the past two months. The officer in charge and floor officers refuse to put a work order in for the phone lines in lock down unit. This is a violation of our 8th amendment.

5. Inadequate food portion and cold/spoiled meals: We receive meals that sometimes do not meet the adequate calories quota for dietary regulations. The meals are always cold and late due to the officer leaving them in the hallway. The morning milk is spoiled because of the long period of time it sits in the heat before being stored or served. The meals that contain meat are sometimes hazardous because it often causes stomach illness and food poisoning.

6. Officer carelessness with prisoner mail: Floor officer(s) continue to place our mail in the wrong cell and give it to the wrong inmate. Sometimes they blame it on the mailroom staff for putting the wrong housing unit on the mail. This has resulted in inmates' family members, loved ones, and friends being harassed or written to by other inmates.

7. Refusal of clothing and personal necessities: The prison refuses to provide the obligated clothing for new arrivals as a sleeper and/or permanent. The weather conditions require certain clothing and bedding equipment, yet they are rarely given to close security.

8. Vice grievances and procedure: Copies of grievance forms are not restocked weekly. Grievances are always denied and witness statements are always misplaced, making it difficult to have our issues resolved. These poor conditions and malicious acts have resulted in several assaults, suicide attempts and is stagnating the rehabilitation of its victims. This is physical, mental, psychological and emotional torture that is causing many prisoners to commit demoralizing acts seeking relief from this maltreatment.

Enclosed is a list of prisoners who are witnesses to the allegations and are inquiring them to be abolished. We also ask that we receive no reprisal from the Georgia State Prison administration because of our choice to exercise our 1st Amendment.