Prison work seems to attract those of a certain personality and creed. This is what I’ve discovered from living in prisons. I know this firsthand. I know this from experience, and I see it clearer than those who work in prisons themselves.
Before I begin this essay, I want to say that there are those among prison staff that work in places like this because they have a special calling to change both people and situations. There are those who work in prisons who have the elements in their heart and soul to change the world we live in by working with those who have been affected by the judicial system. But these pearls of great price are rare treasures.
Unfortunately, this essay is not about the rare gems, but the common nightmares. This essay is also about the mainstream belief of those in “power” over my own situation.
If you desire to see what is lurking in the heart and soul of an individual, give them control and authority over a population; a population that depends on them for food, safety, justice, and the protection of their basic human rights. See what they do with the authority they’ve been given and hide all the cameras. A human being cannot keep up a façade forever until he is eventually found out. The “natural man” will surface before he knows it himself.
There is a belief out there, though I don’t know why because of all the actual evidence to the contrary we have seen with our own eves, which says law enforcement can do no evil. This belief is not documented truth, but based on the false hope of the citizens under them that have turned such a blind eye to the evil going on around them that they believe the lies that are being fed to them. In certain
prisons, mainly due to the fact that correctional facilities get almost no media coverage unless something insanely monumental takes place, this evil breeds like a virus. And, nine times out of ten, fi anyone brings this evil to the light and condemns ti for what ti is, that person is retaliated against as the purveyors of justice attempt to hide their actions behind the fences and razor wire. Some even claim a certain level of immunity, but even this is reserved for accidental situations and not for blatant misconduct. But most of those in the community don’t understand the difference because they either don’t understand that even the human rights of criminals are to be upheld and protected, or they simply do not know the laws.
However, from this side of the fence, it’s our word against those who are in control of our situation. And it’s those who the media interviews fi anything seriously “un-coverable” takes place, not the inmate population. In short, this situation allows staff to say and do almost anything they want, especially when they cover for one another. Al they have to do is tell a convincing enough lie and the word of the inmate who is being oppressed is completely destroyed along with any credibility, as fi being in prison in the first place wasn’t a big enough hurdle to leap over.
I know they say that justice is blind, but I think that Lady Justice is becoming blinder to those in certain powers than to the “little man”. fI the reader needs any fraction of evidence, you can see it on the news wherever it is being provided. And even then you aren’t receiving the story to the depths that it goes.
In my situation, guards have used the strip-out cage (which is a room with no cameras where they strip you out for searches) for nefarious and even sometimes violent purposes. These situations have happened to me twice at least. The first time, a guard used this camera-less room to beat the shit out of me and then called for “first responders”. When the first responder team arrived, this guard was kneeling on my neck and cutting off my air supply for the second time in ten minutes. The first time he did so within that ten minute time frame, this guard, after giving me three goose eggs on the top of my head, put me on my neck and head in some weird upside down position that made it so that I couldn’t breathe for a prolonged amount of time. When the first responders finally arrived at the strip-out cage and caught him with his knee on my neck, they told him he couldn’t do that and that it was illegal now because of what had happened to George Floyd. But instead of releasing his illegal hold, the guard
simply shifted his weight and said, “I’m not even applying any pressure. See?” If the first responders hadn’t arrived when they did, I would be a statistic. Nothing ever came of that situation and this same guard continues his abuse of inmates. But now, sometimes and when it serves them, they’ve began wearing body cameras. After that situation, they put me on suicide watch in a dry cell and said I was suspected of a mental health “freakout”. This was a lie.
The second time they used the strip-out cage here for nefarious causes, another guard I’d been harassed by in the past, placed me in the cage and made a false C.V.R. (Conduct Violation Report) that alleged a sexual misconduct on my part, giving me a P.R.E.A. (I would like to make the reader aware that I was in the middle of an “official strip search”, hence the “strip-out cage”). What I had said was, “only queers wear eye shadow” because of the false eyelashes this guard wears from time to time. What he wrote in the report was, “Inmate Warby shook his genitals at me and asked if this was what I wanted.”
This was also a blatant lie, but with no cameras, it was his word against mine. Though I presented my case to the Disciplinary Hearings Officer at that time (D.H.O.), she told me that the officer wouldn’t have written it the way he did if it was not true. She also went on to say that I admitted to it by telling her
that I told him, “only queers wear eye shadow” (which does not fall under the Prison Rape Elimination Act). This write-up (C.V.R.) destroyed me in a recent parole hearing and it wasn’t even based on fact. It literally affected my freedom.
Conduct Violation Reports in Wyoming are almost never based on tangible evidence. I have write-ups that stuck like glue on my record and are not even based on fact. They were based on lies or over dramatizations (wording is also weaponized, never revealing what actually took place, what was actually said, or even becoming a one-sided argument that totally takes out the responsibility of provoking by staff). For instance, I have an MJ 13 (Major Assault) on my facility record with a Predatory Violation attached to it because it was supposedly directed toward staff. I’ve never put hands on anyone since I’ve been incarcerated and the cameras will reflect that. How do I get a major assault when I haven’t even assaulted anyone in a minor fashion?
I’ve never “not” been found guilty ni a disciplinary hearing, ever. They simply drop them to a
lesser charge based on negotiation. fI you do not attend your hearing, it is filed as an admission of guilt.
If you do not negotiate, you will receive the write-up as it was written (meaning fi you plead “not guilty”, you will be guilty of al). I’ve literally, no joke, had a D.H.O. tell me that because they said I did it, I did it because the word of staff is infallible. Keep in mind that C.V.R.’s will keep you from paroling. Ever.
Prisons also get paid a certain amount for the number of inmates they hold, twice as much for segregated inmates. Read that again as you consider my previous arguments.
This is nowhere near being fair, and though I am running out of word count, it doesn’t stop
there.
But what do we do about this? Below Ihave listed some possible answers, according to my views and experiences.
A. The media, as well as the community, need to read into the actual events in D.O.C. and quit just taking what they’ve been told by the D.O.C. at face value. There’s more to the story than they are telling you.
B. Conduct Violation Reports need to require tangible evidence or be thrown out. Officers are weaponizing this system.
C. Those who work in correctional facilities need to be vetted and examined closer.
D. Things such as the use of mace, batons, tazers, dry-cells, and strip searches need to be closely examined. Closer than they are currently. These systems are also being weaponized and abused.
In closing, something needs to be done about the judicial system, especially in Wyoming. Lies are being spread about what is going on in our prisons and those responsible need to be held accountable. The only difference between the majority of D.O.C. staff and the inmate population they control is determined by the side of the razor wire they live on. I can say that,
from my own experience, that most U.S. prisons are run like a communist country, not a democracy. We are being oppressed on this side of the fence. Something if not everything about the corrections system needs to change. D.O.C. needs closer scrutiny.
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