My name is Ekong Eshiet, State Number 304103. I’m currently incarcerated at Westville Correctional Facility in Westville, Indiana. My reason for doing this recording is because I want to notify y’all that as of tomorrow morning, June 9, 2025, I am starting a hunger strike because I am wrongfully being held in long term seg [segregation], or what Indiana DOC refers to as the Department-wide restrictive housing.
I got sent here to Indiana from Virginia on April 9, 2025, because I self-immolated by setting myself on fire in a desperate attempt to get transferred from the despicable Red Onion State Prison, in which I suffered daily abuse, physically, mentally and spiritually. Every day at Red Onion, I was getting discriminated against because of my race, my religion and my last name. Another reason I self-immolated is because I was seeking mental health treatment that Red Onion wouldn’t, and couldn’t, provide for me. I set myself on fire Sunday, September 15, 2024, and after having surgery and then returning back to Red Onion, I was in the hole for seven excruciating months before being sent out of state on a retaliatory, interstate contact transfer.
Instead of sending me to another facility within the state of Virginia, Virginia DOC and its director, Chadwick Dotson, sent me hundreds of miles away from my family. I got here to Indiana on Wednesday, April 9, 2025, where I spent over three weeks at the Reception Diagnostic Center, and I was basically in the hole there, because I was on 23 and one with a felony.
My counselor told me I was going to Burlington, but on Tuesday, May 6, 2025 I was sent here to Westville and housed in long term seg, or what they referred to as the Department-wide restrictive house. Since I’ve been here, nobody has told me why I’m in the hole or how long I will be here. They just keep saying it’s up to administration. As a man, I must take accountability for my actions, but if I did anything wrong to be put in the hole, I wouldn’t have had any complaints. But since I did nothing wrong but Indiana DOC and Virginia DOC wants me to be housed in the hole for no reason, I have started my hunger strike tomorrow morning, Monday, June 9, 2025, at breakfast.
I swear by [unclear] that I have no intentions to eat or drink anything until I’m let out of seg. In my records, DOC has labelled me as seriously mentally ill, yet I’m sitting in a hole for no [unclear]. No seriously mentally ill inmate is supposed to do longer than 30 days in seg. I have now been in seg 33 days and counting. I have wanted to die instead of continuously getting oppressed by DOC. If I had to die from thirst and starvation to be let out of seg, then so be it. I refuse to keep getting treated like this. This is cruel and unusual punishment. Death before defilement, my rights could not be defiled no more.
To all those listening that can and want to help, please put pressure on Virginia DOC and Indiana DOC to stop oppressing me. Please help, my life is on the line.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
