Notes from my journal. ICON (intensive control) 23 hour per day lock-down, and regular population. In no particular order.
Temperatures outside were an average of 45 degrees for three months before I was finally given a long sleeved shirt. Temperatures then averaged 40 degrees for another three weeks before I was given a pair of thermals. By the end of November, temperatures averaged 30-40 degrees, and I was given no coat. By the middle of January, temperatures reached as low as 25 degrees. All I had was one thermal and a long sleeve shirt. Throughout the entire winter I was never given a coat. I got one hour per day in the cage outside, a ten by fifteen foot space between four brick walls thirty feet high. My rec time was at 6:00 in the morning. I would secretly wrap my shower towel around my upper body underneath my shirt so I could bear the cold. If I had been caught taking my towel outside, I would have been punished. I would put socks over my hands because I had no gloves.
On several occasions I was served rotten apples and bananas with meals. When I asked for fruit that wasn’t rotten, I was told “all the fruit is like that”.
I was given warm milk for breakfast. When I asked for refrigerated milk, I was refused.
A Sgt. in ICON made the decision to have inside rec at 6:00 because it was raining lightly. By 7:00 the rain had stopped. Still the Sgt. denied inmates their opportunity to have outside rec.
I paid for a new battery from the canteen and was given a half-dead battery by an officer who brought my order to me in my cell. I asked to be given what I had paid for- a new battery- and was refused. I wasn’t able to listen to my radio for seven days because of this, and sat in silence in my cell.
Whe I arrived at Bertie Maximum Custody, my property was inventoried and recorded by staff. The officer took my sunglasses and threw them away. The glasses were not unauthorized contraband, but I was never compensated for the glasses. I worked five days to make the money to buy those glasses. I made 70 cents a day.
Several times I was given inadequate servings of food items on my tray. Inmates who work in the kitchen ‘shake the spoon’ (don’t get a full scoop), and the officers supervising them don’t care.
I was given less calories per day than regular population inmates. I was told by the food service department that inmates in ICON are less active and therefore require less calories. False. I could do more exercise in my cell in one day than many regular population inmates do in a week.
I had the same shirt-jacket for three months. When I asked for a clean one, I was refused.
Several times I was given the wrong books by the librarian. When I asked for books by the author I requested, or an alternative if they were not available, I was ignored.
The only time I ever refused a tray that didn’t have full servings of something, it took 45 minutes for the staff to come to my cell and get my tray, another 30 minutes to bring me a new one. Never again did I refuse a tray that didn’t have full servings.
Different prisons have different rules concerning the amount of canteen items allowed to inmates. Because of this inconsistency between prisons, I was forced to throw away over $15 worth of canteen upon transferring to Bertie. I took me roughly three weeks to make $15.
At Hyde I was wrongfully charged and convicted of a B14. There was absolutely mo witnesses or evidence showing or proving that I destroyed state property. I was charged $10, lost all my earned time, radio privileges, put into disciplinary segregation, and gained 11 disciplinary points.
At Hyde, after my locker was broken into and my property stolen, my mattress urinated on and thrown in the hallway, tobacco planted in my locker to frame me for a B16, and threatened by gang members, I asked to be moved to another block. I was refused. That night I took one of the gang members to the ‘box’ (shower area hidden from officer’s view) and beat him to within an inch of his life. I was charged with a C3 and put into segregation.
Nurses screwed up my ibuprofen prescription dates and refused to refill them.
I was denied the use the sanitized clippers because the barber refused to clean them. The officers said nothing. I went without a haircut or a shave.
In ICON, the cell lights are off all the time. Staff do not follow policy and turn the lights on at scheduled times. I sat in darkness from 5:00 p.m. to about 9:00 a.m., when a small ray of light finally made it through my tiny window.
Officers did not provide me with a mop to clean my cell the entire time I was in ICON. I would clean my floor with a dirty shirt.
Officers did not respond to the emergency call button in my cell the entire time I was there. If I had a heart attack, nobody would have known.
At Hyde, officers made a payroll mistake and did not pay me one weeks wages for my grounds-keeper job. I was never compensated.
At Hyde, I found a dead grasshopper in my turnip greens. I ate it.
At Hyde, I was expected to use a filthy bathroom that leaked toilet water. The dorm janitor never did his job, and the supervising staff didn’t care.
I was punished for breaking rules I did not know existed. I was not given a policy handbook to be informed of the rules. If I accidentally broke a rule I wasn’t aware of, I was punished.
While at Hyde, I was not informed of the Thinking For A Change class, nor that I was required to take it before I could transfer to minimum custody. Because my case manager failed to tell me this, I wasted several months in medium custody, all the while assuming I was to become eligible for minimum custody.
At Hyde, inmates working the kitchen would sneak food out of the kitchen to sell on the yard. By the time my block got to the mess hall, there was no more dessert left.
At Burgaw, I was told by staff to share a bunk with an inmate who had hepatitis C. I refused, and was put into segregation for thirty days.
Ay Hyde I found a worm in my potatoes. I showed the kitchen Sgt. He did nothing.
In New Hanover county I chipped a tooth when I bit down on a rock that was in my beans. I was refused dental treatment to repair the tooth.
At Bertie I was charged twice for a single sick-call. When I reported it, nothing was done.
At Hyde I was put on a waiting list for the next available job. When the job became available, the staff responsible for for giving job assignments gave the job to another inmate who had only just arrived, instead of me.
At Bertie I was not given a clean blanket the entire time I was there.
At Hyde, the water was visibly blue with some chemical- so concentrated that the water literally stained the sink bright blue.
Canteen was called during my rec period. I had to go to canteen, but was not allowed to finish my rec time afterward. Staff would purposely schedule both times at once so inmates would have to sacrifice one for the other.
Staff refused to give me a roll of toilet paper in ICON. I used a dirty sock instead, and had to wash it out afterward because I couldn’t do anything with the sock in the cell.
I was not given an official cell card when I got to blue unit. I had to make one. Staff in the control booth would open your cell door to any inmate that showed them a fake card. You had to watch your cell the entire time or another inmate would get into it.
At Hyde, my good friend Matthew was extorted by gang members. They took everything he had. I couldn’t help him. You mind your own business or pay the price.
At Bertie, John’s tattoo gun was taken by gang members. He asked me and Auto to help him get it back. Impossible. A suicide mission. So, I negotiated with the Aryan Brotherhood, got a squad together, and went to work on the monkeys. Staff never found out what happened.
More later…