Ujamaa, ujamaa. This is Dontie S. Mitchell, better known as Mfalme Sikivu, reporting to you from Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock New York.
New York state is in a bit of a budget crisis due to a $2.3 billion shortfall in income tax revenue. One theory for why this has occurred is that New Yorkers are leaving the state due to high taxes. Whether this is true or not, I can’t say. What I do know is that hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money is wasted annually by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.
For one, correction guards are robbing the state blind. I mean, they steal everything — computers, TVs, equipment, supplies and food purchased by the state. I have personally watched guards steal state purchased food to make meals they sell to other guards. I could never understand how they get away with this. Civilian correction staff, like food service administrators and cooks, are either too intimidated to confront the guards, who are known for assaulting their coworkers in the parking lot, or they join the guards in the pilfering.
Another reason taxpayer dollars are wasted by DOC is due to the unchecked violence of correction guards against prisoners. In several New York state prisons, guards jump on prisoners for the slightest offense. This results in serious injuries to the prisoners and to the guards themselves. So, money is spent in medical costs and on workers comp. This says nothing of the money the state shells out to fight prison lawsuits or to pay lawsuit settlements, or how about the need to pay judges and court clerks to adjudicate and process these lawsuits?
I myself have filed a few state and federal lawsuits to defend my rights. I have two federal lawsuits pending now against corrections officers. In Clayton Correctional Facility, I was assaulted by a correction Sergeant named Woods and jumped by two guards with him, named Napper and Wells. While Napper was choking me and Wells was hitting me on my back, Woods was stomping on my leg, trying to break it. In Wende Correctional Facility, I was again assaulted, this time by a corrections Sergeant named Roberts, a real sadistic bastard well known at Wende for assaulting prisoners. He punched and then pushed me all for looking at his name tag. When I complained about what he did, I was harassed and eventually placed in solitary confinement on trumped-up disciplinary charges and the facility administration, all the way up to the superintendent was in on it. In Elmira Correctional Facility, guards provoked other prisoners to attack me in retaliation for complaining about the conduct of a fellow guard. I was cut and then punched from behind, causing me to fall face first to the ground and suffering a skull fracture.
When all is said and done, New York State will lose millions of dollars defending abusive, sadistic and unprofessional correction guards and incompetent prison administrators. For example, the New York State Attorney General’s Office is expending state resources to defend doctors’ clearly unreasonable decision to deny my request to form a prison chapter of UFD here at Great Meadow. This is just asinine, when UFD would save the state money by decreasing prison violence and lower recidivism. Tune in next time, as we delve deeper into this topic. The state can save billions of dollars or more by coming up with innovative ways to decrease the prison population, close prisons and lower recidivism. Follow me on Facebook and Instagram @freedontiemitchell. Share your questions and comments.
These commentaries are recorded by Noel Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
