Today is December the 29th, 2024. My name is Donnell Hickman. I’m currently housed at Red Onion State Prison on long term segregation. I’ve been on long term segregation since October 4, 2023. When it was time for me to go through my next phase, the officer planted a knife on me. I wrote it up but nothing happened. That was the only charge that I received on my stay on long term segregation.
The staff here at Red Onion State Prison are very disrespectful. If you complain about something that they are supposed to do or not doing, you will receive a “ghost tray”. A “ghost tray” is a tray when there’s nothing on it, or either trash is in it. The food here is always cold, half cooked, and the portion is small.
In the summer, they have heat blowing through the vents. The shower water be too hot. At times you can’t stand directly under the shower. They sell shorts on commissary, but we are not allowed to wear them outside of our cells. In the winter, they have cool air coming from our vents. It be so cold in our cells you have to put on your thermal, top and bottom, along with your state issue clothes, hat, and your blanket wrapped around you, and you’re still not warm. The shower water be cold. It’d be so cold that I don’t know if I’m supposed to stand up under it or drink it. At around 6:30am when they start pulling us for outside recreation; no sunlight, and when it’s the coldest. We are not allowed to wear our thermals outside, only one set of state issued clothing. That’s their tactic to stop us from going to the shower or outside.
As I’m writing this down, the officer just refused an inmate his shower. He put up a fuss about his shower, and now he’s on “strip cell”, no property, no mattress, only the clothes that’s on his back, which is his pair of boxers, one tee shirt, and one pair of socks.
With receiving mail from the outside, it may take a month to get to you. Now, they are working on interfering with our emails going out. It costs one stamp to send out your email, only to find out when you speak with your family, they tell you they haven’t received your mail yet. We’re only allowed to use the kiosk once a week, and only two phone calls per month.
We’re always being faced with racial comments and harassment by the office, by the staff here. They will go as far as punching you in the face, spitting on you, or in your food. You have some of us who fight back, some of us go on hunger strike. Some turn against each other, and others who will set themselves on fire only to escape the abuse that we are faced with on a daily basis.
We have those who don’t even speak about the abuse because they feel the retaliation of the officers. January 12th will mark me at 27 years spent in prison, 25 of those years spent here on Red Onion. Nothing surprised me anymore. Yeah, I’ve seen it all. It’s been about two months now since I started having migraine headaches, which they only give me Tylenol for. It don’t even do nothing for my headache, but I take it anyway. When I see things now I just sit on my bed, put the headphones on, and listen to music because if I don’t it will trigger my headache. When I be dealing with my headache, the pain at times be too hard to bear. I done thought about ramming my head against the wall or just ending it all together, just to end the pain. My family and my fiancé is what keeps me sane. If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know where I’d be right now.
You have my permission to use this, and you can also use my name. This fight is for all of us, and the truth about this place has to come to the light. Thank you for putting our words out there so people can hear about the daily struggles that we are being faced with. I am not doing this for no fame, nor am I getting paid to put my words out there. This is being done on my own free will to shine a light on this horrible place, Red Onion State Prison. I declare under the penalty of perjury that my statements are true and ongoing. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
