TDCJ's Ad-Seg Program
is for Profit not for Rehabilitation: From Sensory Deprivation to
Sensory Overload – And Back, by Jason Renard Walker – Deputy
Minister of Labor, New African Black Panther Party
After randomly being
awakened in the early morning, boarded on the TDCJ transportation
bus, then shipped to the Ramsey Unit, a prisoner told me that the
experience was like “being snatched from a dungeon and sent to a
new wave slave plantation.”
The statement he made
is a reality that many prisoners housed in close custody units and
solitary confinement cells throughout the state of Texas are
experiencing, on a whim.
In fact, the majority
of prisoners that are sent to the Ramsey Unit claim that they were
forced to board the bus with one small bag of property and the rest
was left in their cells, as is, with the mere promise that it would
be sent later – a situation I'm all to familiar with.
To “middleman” and
profit off of tax, state, and government funded rehabilitation
programs, state and prison officials create then embed unproductive
and meaningless programs within the many costly pre-existing
programs, like the Pamio and CMI psychiatric programs at the Clements
Unit and the Ad-Seg Transitional Program (ASTP) here at the Ramsey
Unit.
On paper these programs
are supposed to help prisoners cope with the physical, mental and
psychological stress imposed from countless years of living in
solitary confinement-like conditions.
They've done everything
but that. A special group of “experts”, teachers, therapists and
counselors are weaselled onto the state's payroll as advisors and
instructors, but not to help us rehabilitate. No! No! No!
The purpose is to
expand the job opportunities for the relatives of ex- and current
TDCJ employees, both in the upper echelons and on the lower rungs.
This way everything is kept “in the family”, the capital is
concentrated and the exploitative practices and for-profit schemes
are perpetually passed from one generation to the next. This explains
why the grievance supervisor, mailroom supervisor and warden all have
relatives (with the same last name) working at the prisons, who are
corrupt as ever, and get away with it. It's a repeated cycle.
But this ASTP program
is clearly one that is shifting unknowing prisoners from sensory
deprivation to sensory overload, then back to sensory deprivation
immediately after the prisoner breaks down from being simultaneously
bombarded with the contradictions of solitary confinement. I'll
explain later.
In response, this
hasn't been a concern to the transition team (who are mostly related
to prison staff), who are using this program to get free pay checks,
ride the clock and use the education building to hold banquets,
premature Christmas parties, and gossip with co-workers all day.
On top of which, the
2017 Texas state budget called for a four per cent decrease in
funding for the state's prison system. This amounts to a quarter
billion in slashed funds for a system that's already under pressure.
With the pressure valve being an understaffed prison system,
over-priced commissary vendor, phone services with sky-high prices,
and the reduction of limited non-Texas harvested food items, like
fish, cheese and coffee etc, which is part of TDCJ's budget.
But even though this
budget cut was called for, this hasn't affected the TDCJ's efforts in
using a compromised budget to design unnecessary and ineffective
programs that call for expanding the annual state payroll, which has
a domino effect on TDCJ's inability to get a budget increase.
How the scheme
works:
Originally the ASTP
program was designed as a “voluntary” program for ad-seg
prisoners only. By their own written policy (which may have changed),
prisoners have to be a line class I (one) or higher to be eligible.
The chosen are picked
during the state classification committee (SCC) hearing that is held
every six months. Prisoners aren't supposed to be sent to the program
unless they agree to the terms and conditions. Those that decline to
participate are supposed to have an alternative route, like medium
custody.
But in any event,
refusing the program isn't supposed to affect our eligibility to be
released from ad-seg, as the program is supposedly “voluntary”.
After arriving at the Ramsey Unit, I was told that we all “agreed
to be here” and could've exercised other options.
I also learned that the
administration are ignoring their own policy and are randomly
enrolling close custody prisoners, regardless of their line class,
ineligibility, or willingness to participate – all to fill up space
and keep the program running and the checks coming in. “If you
don't wanna be here, just say the word and I'll put your ass on the
bus” said Mr McGowen, an obese bigot who's obviously eating well
from his highly paid, non-laborious position as program manager or
held negro in charge (HNIC). “I get paid regardless”, he said
while wolfing down snacks in front of the commissary window.
This get put on the bus
routine only sends the prisoner back to close custody or seg, only to
start their stint over, be reconsidered to attend and sent back, over
and over until they graduate or go home.
Despite this
“volunteer” notion, before they are put on the bus they receive
disciplinary cases for refusing to attend classes or something.
Similarly, with this being done, our placement back into the same
conditions is justified.
The policy says we can
go back to population after being kicked out of the program, but
their statistics show that we are being sent back to close custody or
ad-seg – a revolving door scam.
Additionally, we attend
two separate classes held by two different teachers, one class is
Monday-Friday and the other is twice a week. In regards to the
latter, on days the teacher feels a need to hang out with her
co-workers like McGowen or sleep, she'll simply cancel the classes
for the day and have us forge our names on the roster saying that we
attended the days in question. This is sometimes arranged ahead of
time and told to us before it takes place, as to get our agreement to
conspire in their money scheme.
This ultimately results
in prisoners being forced to stay on the cell block all day while
“control freak” guards like O'Moregie spend the entire shift
provoking them into confrontations then write them disciplinary
cases, resulting in them being kicked out of the program. All the
while, those who run the program and are key to our transition, kick
back in the education building while inmate bellboys cater to their
every want and need.
In retrospect, the
five-day-a-week class can only be completed after we do a minimum of
150 classroom hours, which doesn't include non-school time like unit
lockdowns, holidays etc, which prolongs our completion. So
essentially this class has its perks for staff too.
Normally these classes
are held three hours per group, but due to prison count defaults, we
are routinely forced to stay close to an hour over, in which case we
get no credit for having to stay late, but the teachers get paid as
if class is still being held.
From Sensory
Deprivation to Sensory Overload
Outside of the money
scheme, an abstracted element exists – zero tolerance attitudes
from staff who desire to remove us (mainly Blacks and Hispanics) from
the program under the slightest pretext.
After an openly racist
ranking official (Sgt Gerrold W Sharp) replaced Sgt Hughes as the
program sergeant, “zero tolerance” mode was put into effect.
I observed prisoners
chatting among themselves about how racist Sharp is but thought it
was exaggeration. That's until, on December 11 2017, I witnessed him
use the words “nigger” and “black ass”, following a
confrontation with a Black prisoner who he denied the right to eat in
the chow hall. “You're not getting shit. What you gonna do about
it?” he screamed at the prisoner who was on the other side of the
locked cell block door.
What I noticed about
Sharp is that he doesn't show his true colors unless he's around
white co-workers or the prisoner is locked behind a door and is
provoked by him to hurl impulsive threats, in which case the prisoner
has a lesser chance to be in a position to challenge Sharp's returned
threats. In response, a case can be written and the prisoner can be
kicked out of the program.
“Please don't shut
up, so I can write you up”, Sharp taunted another prisoner in the
education building, following an office asking him to be quiet.
During that time, Sharp was surrounded by guards.
A White prisoner told
me that Sharp explained that he'd assist the Whites in any way he can
to make sure they completed the program, while going out of his way
to coax Black and Hispanic prisoners into getting kicked out. A
second White prisoner told me that he was approached by Sharp and
told “I got y'all's back”, but after finding out that the White
prisoner embraced Black culture, he started harassing him and
threatening to kick him out for minor everyday things. (This prisoner
was eventually removed from the program for one reason or another.)
As I was collecting
evidence from prisoners about Sharp's behavior towards them,
one-by-one they were kicked out of the program for a variety of minor
things that were factually baseless. A Black prisoner, D Bell Jr
#1781174, who'd recently been removed from the program by one of
Sharp's running dogs, sent me this message while waiting to be sent
back to the dungeon, in hopes that I'd bring awareness to it:
“Being falsely
accused is abuse throughout prisons across America. These problems
are often veiled by being conveniently grouped together under a
category of “criminal” or “offender” and by the automatic
attribution of criminal behavior to people of that status. This
causes some officials to abuse their authority and keep this corrupt
behavior breathing. I am innocent and I only wish to complete this
god-given program.”
Given that 80% of
prison staff are of African descent, it is strange that Sharp was
able to survive the short time he did (due to valid complaints, he is
no longer controlling our cell block).
But this still hasn't
solved the problem of prisoners being kicked out of the program on
frivolous grounds. Lieutenant Joe M Lopez has picked up where Sharp
left off; his motive isn't driven by greed or racism, but pure hate
for ASTP prisoners, and his love for absolute authority over them.
During my seven-year
stay in solitary, I'd grown accustomed to expecting and predicting
the outcome of certain situations that I was powerless over, and
other situations where I had some control, e.g.: using the restroom
when I want; sleeping when I want; saving my meals to eat when I
want, etc.
This long state of
extreme sensory deprivation forced me into adjusting to being
restricted from things like social and physical contact with staff;
the ability to leave the cell without leg and hand restraints; the
ability to physically confront staff without them being safely
guarded by a cell door, etc.
But the contradictions
of this program have exposed us to being bombarded by racist,
aggressive, taunting, mentally abusive and verbally threatening
guards; guards running up to our faces; screaming, swearing and
pointing their fingers at us; challenging us to fight but writing us
up when we accept the challenge – that is to say, deliberate
sensory overload.
What I'm about to
describe exposes this program as being bogus instead of
rehabilitative. In the month of November 2017, me and three other
prisoners were scheduled to see medical staff and psychiatrist
Brandon Heiple.
Immediately after we
arrived to the sign-in desk, escorted by Officer Derrick D Day, an
officer who told me that “everyone” is out to get him fired,
Officer Misty C Sam jumped up from the desk and maniacally screamed
“you niggas back the fuck up!” After we tried to explain our
reason for being there, she began swearing and hurling insults. This
was enough to make us step behind the door connecting the walk-way
and the infirmary entrance. Day closed the door.
We fired back insults
of our own, but she obviously wasn't in any mood to have a verbal
battle and got straight to the point. “What's up, what you gonna
do?” she said to prisoner Leonard M Brazier Jr, #784079, who told
her it didn't matter.
As Officer Day opened
the barred door, inviting one of us to challenge her, she stood with
balled-up fists,and as nurses watched, screaming “what's up nigga,
you ready?” Nobody moved, so Day closed the door and the nurses
carried on. “Y'all niggas ain't ready” she said to herself as she
sat back down, smiling.
I confronted Officer
Day about why he didn't control the situation, but he claimed that
prisoners and his co-workers are out to get him fired, so he didn't
want to get involved. But in contradiction to his statement, he
opened the door so as to assist with Officer Sam's attempts to
provoke us into hitting her, and didn't close it back until it was
confirmed that we wouldn't bite. A great example of one way to get
fired.
Program employees like
Mr McGowen, Ms Dogan, Ms King, the Smith sisters and ranking staff
who oversee the cell block are supposed to respond to and assist us
in situations where our position in the program is in jeopardy, but
they don't.
The only time we are
given advice is after we've lashed out at guards, in which case the
advice is usless since being kicked out is inevitable. And other
times, we are told to keep sucking it up regardless of how
unconstitutional and flagrantly abusive their acts are. “What's
more important?” they often ask, with no thoughts of fixing the
dilemma.
On November 27, 2017, I
was challenged to act out yet again. As I was standing in line,
getting food put on my tray, I was approached by the food service
manager, Etta T Armstead, who first told me to get out of the line
for no reason at all.
After I exposed her
baseless reason, she grabbed the tray and tried to jerk it out of my
hand, spilling food on my shirt. “Give me the tray”, she said.
After I asked for an explanation, she claimed that I'd already eaten,
which was proven to be a lie. She then claimed that she saw me steal
two slices of cheese from behind the service line. Officer De Souza
explained that he'd given them to me since I have a medical pass
authorising me to have extra nutrition.
“I run the kitchen, I
don't care what kinda restriction you got” she said, ignoring this
justification. After I wouldn't give up the tray, she called Sharp
and Lopez, and they all huddled up. I went to sit down.
Sharp approached and
demanded that I hand him the cheese. I slid the tray to him so he
could get it himself, but he stated “boy you gonna hand me the
cheese or you going back to seg”, showing me the handcuffs.
I refused to hand it to
him but put the tray where he could grab it, which still wasn't good
enough. “Hand him the cheese or I'll say you stole it” Armstead
said, I refused. I was handcuffed, take nto medical for a pre-seg
evaluation, then thrown in solitary confinement.
To justify the theft
cast they had pre-wrote so I would get kicked out of the program,
character witnesses including medical staff, Armstead and DeSouza
were interviewed.
Knowing that the
initial statement that staff make is usually adopted by others, they
got Armstead's theft claim and tried to see if DeSouza would agree
with it. He and medical staff both admitted that the cheese was given
to me and that it can be used to replace items I'm allergic to.
This forced Lopez to
release me from solitary and throw the case away, but not before
admitting that Armstead may seek revenge on me or write me up on
another day.
This is not a unique
situation, prisoners are being provoked and set-up every day. Due to
the average prisoner being unaware of their own constitutional rights
and how to challenge bogus disciplinary cases, this program has
turned into one that doesn't seek to help us make the transition to
population; but one that is used to provoke us into going back to the
dungeon, and which gives the administration data that can be used to
keep us there and label us as lost causes.
We need the public and
journalists to scrutinize the ASTP program and help crack down on the
state's abuse of it as one that's torturing us by sending us from
sensory deprivation to sensory overload and back.
Dare to struggle, dare
to win. All power to the people.
Jason Renard Walker
#1532092
Ramsey Unit
