“Ohio Corrections is a fucked up place, but what state’s department of (rehabilitation &) corrections isn’t that chooses to maintain the following conditions:
Classifying stamps as contraband
Placing people in solitary confinement for five years consistently
Placing mentally ill and developmentally disabled people in solitary confinement
Blocking individuals placed in restrictive solitary confinement from filing official complaints i.e. grievances
Beating & stripping disabled people naked on camera
For these reasons among a multitude of others, a group of men at Toledo Correctional Facility initiated a hunger strike during the last week of March. Lead organizers include Mr. David Easley, Mark Hinkston (read more about these brothers organizing here) and Harris Jr. have been striking for well over a month by the posting of this exposition. After just one week of hunger striking, a riot sized can of mace was unloaded on Harris’ face on a dark Monday morning at 4:00a. Like Harris’ many imprisoned protesters have been separated from general population, isolated for indefinite periods with their most valuable belongings, including their tablet computers for documenting their experiences, being destroyed by staff in leadership at Toledo Correctional Facility in retaliation of their organizing efforts.
While being isolated in restrictive solitary confinement, protesters have been blocked from filing complaints in the form of grievances. Due to the passage of the Prisoner Litigation Reform Act, people in prison are ineligible for filing suit against their abusers during their incarceration. Knowing the daily abuses that go unaddressed in prisons like Toledo’s Correctional Facility (TCF), this is what the 3rd Demand of the National Prison Strike pleads with legislator’s to overturn. With the way that conditions are set, the cycle of abuse that people in prison endure have no sufficient pathway for resolution. This is a main reason why prison is disabling for every single person forced to experience it. No one leaves prison without trauma in at least one area of their physical or mental health. Physical, sexual and psychological abuse extend to exponentially unmanageable proportions when there is no record of the actions taken by either party. TCF makes sure there are no records of the abuses afflicted onto those in solitary. TCF does this in their own mandating that official grievances must be filed through an online channel that is only available via an app called jpay on an inmate’s tablet computer. No paper forms are accepted so when a person in prison is moved to restrictive solitary confinement, stripped of the right to have their tablet computer, then they are effectively also stripped of channels for communicating any abuses they endure while in solitary. With grievance complains having strict filing deadlines (often 7 – 14 days post the initial incident) extended periods spent in solitary are a recipe for ongoing unaddressed abuses like that of Easley, Hinkston and Harris Jr. whose only hope for reconciliation depends on surveilled handwritten letters to the outside world. Some don’t make it out, thankfully this one did, but even more devastatingly some responses never make it back in past corrupt mailroom staff to the intended recipient.
Prison is disabling because the following actions happening for months and even years at a time have an extremely destructive effect on one’s psyche, physical health and overall wellbeing:
Not being able to afford stamps, emails, phone calls to contact loved ones
Confined in an unnaturally lit cage for 23hrs each day
Caged while grieving the death of loved one: parents, siblings, children, etc.
Consuming inedible or nutrient deficient, high sodium food products every day
No access to art supplies or digital technology for therapeutic reflection or entertainment
No access to educational courses
No access to rehabilitative programs
No one to forward grievances to for reconciliation
Noisy, chaotic living environment with constant threats of violence
Constant threat of staff retaliation
The head prison official responsible for all of these conditions at TCF is Harold May and people in prison at TCF want him out and plan to continue their hunger strike until he’s gone.
In protest of prison staff negligence, inside organizers have attempted to engage the general population in larger boycotts and work stoppages. Unfortunately, with protesters’ inability to communicate freely with others captive at their facility make it difficult for separated protesters to engage inside networks effectively. In addition to this outside networks are limited in their ability to communicate with those placed in solitary who are stripped of their belongings and restricted to heavily monitored handwritten communication. This is an obstacle that we saw prisoners surmount during the 2018 National Prison Strike with ongoing outside coordination and incoming tech resources. Many of these lead protesters at TCF have been in isolation units since the 2018 National demonstration and don’t have same organizing capacity as they did before.
The disabling conditions of TCF continue without foreseeable recourse. As recent as this past weekend, lead organizer, Easley, was maced in the eyes, punched in the face and stripped naked on camera (location: D-3-south unit). Without any other pathway for recourse Easley, along with others at TCF and similarly situated penitentiaries, are pleading for public recourse. As taxpaying contributors to our state criminal legal systems we are responsible to the conditions that citizens suffer behind the wall. For those willing to take on that responsibility, contact the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee via phone at (614)466-6649. Make reference to the Department of rehabilitation & Correction’s (DrC) policy 53-CLS-04 Sec. V reads, “An individual diagnosed with a serious mental illness (C1 level) or his diagnosed Intellectually/Developmentally Disables (IDD) shall not be subjected to Restrictive Housing conditions for more than 29 continuous calendar days”. Easley has been held in solitary for 120 days (and counting) along with many others who didn’t have the stamp to send.”
- Amani Sawari, “Conditions at Toledo Correctional Facility Demonstrate How Prison is Disabling.” April 28, 2021.