Recognizing the False Dawns in
Wisconsin-DOC solitary confinement Reforms
By Ras Uhuru and Waupun AC
Collective
Date: 1 26 2016
If the public stops
watching and pushing them (DOC) they will not only stop changing things, but
reverse some of the stuff they did and let the abusive back in rotation.
1) On
behalf of all those still being held on AC (Long status of solitary
confinement) here at WCI and statewide a response and dispute must be
formulated in response to the over praise being
made to WI – DOC ( men on AC composed of time length from 2 years to over
18 and 22 years held status.)
2) The changes mentioned in the 2014 report by
the Association of State Correctional Administrators and some media quotation
of the same, are nothing more than “Gauzes” being applied to a neglected and
septic wound.
3) Showing
strong symptoms of preventative gangrene.
4) We
are working to give measure to the January 17th 2016 and other media accounts
that the tide is turning against solitary confinement.
5) The
public must know that these lip services are at best smoke screens to shut them
up. First of all those lawsuits and settlements mentioned in Dee J. Hill Jan.
17th report (which has the DOC keeping much of the details concealed) mainly
dealt with prisoners with mental illness. And because DOC will not and do not
acquire the proper mental health resource statistics to deal with mental health
issues, the settlements are bandages and nothing more than quieting suits.(i.e.
We tried to slow the bleeding from shooting
out like a water hydrant to a garden hose flow.)
6) Lost in the smoke screen are the hundreds of
us still confined in long term solitary confinement textually called AC Administrative
Confinement. Waupun has 24 people on AC as of the date of writing.
7) My 17 year continuum of AC was briefly stayed
for 60 days for DS (disciplinary Segregation) time. Once this paper shift DS is
up they will paper shift me right back to AC. I've already received a pre- notice
that this is their intent. Nothing much changes but paper works labels.
8) DS
and Ac are so identical that you have to be told they are not the same.
Psychologically they are. I often forget the are not until I could only receive
a one hour visit from my family who traveled from Chicago to only talk to me
through a tv screen. (AC gives two hours)
9) In
the recent news article by Hall, DOC Mental health director, Kevin Kallas
stated they are being more transformative in how they “think and act”. In
Practice and to whom solitary confinement is (protractedly) applied.
10) However,
the reality on the inside is much more real and truthful than the propaganda
being spieled here. I witness mentally ill prisoners down the range losing all
grasp of reality and themselves every
day. One such elderly prisoner has been on AC, shipped here and there for over
20 years, since about 1995.
11) Only
one single mentally ill has been released from AC and this was because
prisoners’ rights advocacy groups like FFUP and others pushed his mental health
status in their face.
12) In
2014 FFUP submitted to the DOC secretary and Waupun WARDEN a transition
workshop/crisis management program designed specifically for prisoners on ac. (held
in an allegedly “administrative/non punitive status for indetermine status)
called Common Grounds.
13) Fostering
self-Help and teaching crisis management to improve and show problem solving
mechanisms. Common Ground also allow prisoners ways to showcase issues they
perceive as neglected by staff and grievances.
14) The
program was outright rejected by staff and not even acknowledge by either. Yet
DOC/Waupun has no program designed specifically for transitioning AC prisoners
off Ac. Instead they offer stuff not a ASE requirement or need that statistically
they can gain more money for. Yet Waupun has been double digit for past ten
years with AC placement.
15) How
can we trust DOC spokes people when in 2014 they made claims of major changes
in Disciplinary segregation rules and applications.(DOC 303 code) However when
the new 2014 rule book came out they not only increased the time sentences but
added new offenses and time frames that allowed punishment of 360 days in
confinement.
16) Only
after prisoners complained to advocacy groups like FFUP, Wisdom and WCEHTP WCIJ
(Wisconsin Center for Investigative
Journalism) and only after WCIJ filed
a lawsuit did the DOC issue a DAI policy clean up. Why print a new rule book
with policies you were not going to implement or that was contrary to the new
Changes promised to make?
17) And
it was still not being enforced. When the DAI clean-up policy came out counteracting
the 2014 rule book rogue joints like WCI concealed and refused to implement or
even make known the DAI's mandate. And we never even knew there was a DAI
policy until August of 2015.
18) And
no way Madison was not aware that rogue institutions like Waupun was not went
Sarah Palin on us by not implementing the new DAI policy which was created ad
hoc. Every time a prisoner appealed an ICI to Madison on a disciplinary
procedural Madison/ DAI etc was placed on notice. Those appeals would have made
it clear. Madison said nothing and did nothing for almost a whole year-Waupun
refused to disclose and follow the DAI policy.
19) We
learned of the DAI policy when by rumor from Green Bay, but this was not
official. Then confirmed by a newspaper article. Making copies to circulate to
enlighten others of our class and to get more information was denied.
20) This
skullduggery and dilatory tactics illustrate that DOC (by facts and
extrapolations) is not serious nor sincere in their words and will never be
proactive in these issues of solitary confinement constraint. They will only
make small window show changes to get the attention and focus off of them and
not to appear the only state out of the fad.
21) Only
if there is pressure and monitoring by society will they follow through.
22) DAI
Cathy Jess statement showcases this very fact and the DOC attitude. “It is
somewhat of, I would say, a culture shift for the staff” ( a culture they have
been and continuously denied existed in first place and all lawsuits and
complaints files alleging such).
23) She
continues, “I've been in the Department (DOC) for 29 years. Things change, the
pendulum swings with corrections, and depending on the public's opinion and how
laws get passed and different things.”
24) To
her it is not a matter of doing the right thing or following human conscience
to treat others humanely. To her it is a matter which oscillation the wind is
blowing.
25) So
the question to the public is: who has to push the pendulum to get moving? For
she's been here 29 years and has played a major role in that so-called culture
they barely expose. When she says “it swings with Corrections” we must be
suspicious of what “corrections” she is talking about. The Department or the
official misconduct? The culture? Or with the humane changes that Obama and
other prison reforms are being called for. The abolition of solitary as a
management continuum in general? She has the power individually to do so right
now.
26) Furthermore,
DOC staff do not get paid with tax dollars to build and establish a culture (Abusive
or otherwise). They get paid to follow mandates laid down by DAI and other
hands in Madison. They don't live here, they don't have the psychologist
interests or investments to prison lifestyle to be cultured into a way. The
fact that they have shows a lack of management and training coming in policy
and practices from Madison’s Academy.
27) My
Observations and experience lead me to extrapolate that “swings with
corrections”
is more metonymy than the noun.
28) If
they were sincere! WCIJ would not have to keep suing them to
gain access to the truths facts and figures they wish to conceal- Public data
that suppose to be on DOC's website.
29) They
will continue to make these window dressing changes and false claims until the
pressure and focus is removed. And they will not only stop making changes but
they will reverse a lot of the ones they've made.
30) They
could release all 24 of us from AC today and a few weeks later place us ALL
right back on it if the public don't demand legislative actions and law
regulating DOC acts and boundaries. We need AC caps and constraints. The
pre-1998 change was more humane.
31) Lastly.
What Culture shift? When a lot of the ethno centric minds, like Jess herself
(29 years recall) played major roles in this abusive and disgusting culture in
the first place. When talking of cultural institutions involving official
abuses and misconduct. That means people like Jess were aware of these abuses
at least and/or encouraged it, overlooked it, or organized it from the very
start.
32) These are the lessons in “Corrections” that we
prisoners are learning-that ALL the negative qualities that landed some in prison-it's
okay for these same qualities to be exhibited by government employees.(re-to
beat, abuse, lies, neglect or kill).
33) To
amplify what Rev. Kate Edwards of WISDOM finds to be (a catch 22) “concerning.”
That “a specified max period of confinement .. for aggravated circumstances” is
the Only thing that will pause and begin to cure this House. This cannot be
overstated.
34) First:
“Aggravated circumstance” turns on an ambiguous expansion in terms. Because without
that maximum time cap for AC placement, either as a rule infraction or as a
cause for non-infraction, all the so-called changes will merely be washing and
cleaning the outside of the wound and leaving the inside infected and putting
the same bias bandages shown to not keep it clean back on it ( re: same
attitudes, policies, staff, officials etc )
35) WCEHTP
(Wisconsin Committee for the Ethical and Humane Treatment of Prisoners) was
created to be a oversight Board to ensure its eponymous name by being composed
of citizens and professionals who review the “aggravated circumstances”: and
make oversight rulings and findings when prisons officials exaggerate and abuse
the power of those electives.
36) No
agency will ever truthfully and honestly police itself once it has abused its
power or gone outside the scope of its mission policy. Let alone self –
incriminate its policies, practices and abuses. It is a joke and mockery of activism
and human rights to assume they will do so or to conceded to such hypocrisy.
37) But
hey, I'm just one of the evidences of this official vice. 18 Years and counting
in solitary oscillating between AC and DS.
38) The
Mandela rule is what the nations of the world need. How many more segicides
(segregation suicides) or post confinement segicides need to occur before we
demand they do what's humane.
39) President
Obama has taken the lead. But can
other politicians do what's right?
40) It
is the public who are to hold these power blocks responsible and compel human
rights. Mandela Rule: Everyone call and write to Madison and demand the Mandela
rule/law on solitary confinement in WI and the nation
From oppressive confines of Waupun. 18 years and continuum
Ras AtumRa Uhuru Mutawakkil; PO
Box 351 #228971; Waupun, WI 53963
Note: WCEHTP and Common Ground
and a summary of the Mandela Rules included in insert. We envision a six week
workshop mandate of transitional placement of AC prisoners upon completion of Common
Ground. No money or resources are
required than what’s already being misused. Doc Secretary has the power to
assign cases to the board (WCEHTP) to review such matters. This would be true
and real accountability. Contact FFUP for more information or to get involved.
