So, when our ex-warden, Nash, she just left a couple of months ago. She was here, she was acting as a Madam, running a brothel. She let the COs get away with with whatever it is that they wanted to. She was supposed to govern them; however, they were governing her. So, nobody got any retribution for anything that it was that they were doing. There was one time after my sexual assault with the chaplain, where I was still being retaliated against, so I’m always housed in the hole. I was in the hole, and there was another CO, his name was Senior Gates. He used to come and get me and take me to the shower, escorting me back and forth from the shower. He used to always have his hand on my breast. One time I readjusted myself, after about the eighth time that this happened. I readjusted myself, and I told him I didn’t feel comfortable, and he looked me in my face and told me, I don’t have a choice this time, mocking the fact that I had a sexual relationship with the chaplain, and that it looks like I’m resisting on the camera, he’s going to slam me on my face. The next time that he tried to escort me from the shower, I said, I don’t feel comfortable. I feel like a female officer should escort me from the shower. I said it more than 10 times. He then called the female officer. When I looked and saw that it was her, I stuck my wrist out. He grabbed my wrist, he began to yank and tear, and he pulled something in my wrist, injuring my wrist to where I had to wear a wrist brace for 3 months.
Also, when I was going to the hole one time, they put me in the hole. There – this is them being retaliating against me. They put me in a cell that a mentally ill patient had been in. The girls in the rest of the hole said that she hadn’t showered in about 9 months. This cell smelled horrible. There was feces all on the wall, all on the floor. There were female toiletries that are unmentionables that were lying around, they were old. It smelled horrible. I asked them if I can have something to clean with, like bleach, mop, broom. They refused me. I had to clean that cell with maxi pads and shampoo. When I had a TIA, which is a mini-stroke, I ended up going to the hospital. They said from the pressure and the stress that they had applied on me from being in the hole so much. I ended up in the hospital. The hospital tested my blood; I had sepsis. This was about 3 years after I had been housed in this disgusting cell. They found sepsis in my blood, and they found a 13 mm cyst in my pineal gland. They told me when I got back from the hospital, not knowing that I had already understood that something was wrong with me, when I got back from the hospital, I had four bottles of pills that I’ve never taken before in my life, like aspirin, lisinopril, some other cholesterol pill. They said that there was nothing wrong with me, and the next time I man down or go to the hospital, that they were going to charge me for it. The next time that I ended up going to the hospital was because someone sanctioned me and told me, first, Lieutenant Jefferson said that I could not call, be on the phone because I had got sanctioned to phone restriction for 90 days. This was for some write-ups, like, I got two sexual harassment write-ups one time at the same time by two different officers because I was housed in Unit 7, where them walls are metal. They don’t have any air conditioning back there; they have a swamp cooler, which has been illegal for over 10 years. The swamp cooler was broke. The lady came and checked our cells. Our cell was 102° that day. I had a heatstroke. In Unit 7, you’re locked down 21 hours a day for four days out of a week, and then for three days out of the week, you’re locked down for 36 hours. I had been locked down for about 36 hours in my cell, and I had a heatstroke. I was passed out.
Apparently, I had on like my panties and bra. A officer, a male officer, walked by. He said that I was, I was sexually harassing him because I’m passed out in my panties and my bra on the floor, and my bunky’s telling him like, Hey, she needs some kind of medical attention. He calls another male officer. The male officer comes and says the same thing. They called Jefferson, which is a retaliating sergeant. He told them to give me, both of them, to give me two sexual harassment write-ups. It’d be one for each person. He then, one of the officers then explained to a girl who was trying to tell him like, It’s hot. We’re hot. She needs to go to medical. He told her, She’s not going to medical today. She’s going to the hole since she wants to put PREAs on my officer. That officer was Witherow, who has since been walked off for some kind of sexual inappropriateness with an inmate. Also, the guy Gates, he would give me these write-ups. I, you know, reported the things that happened to me with him, and they were never, ever followed up. And he would use to always call this Lieutenant Sanchez. Lieutenant Sanchez would always get the write-ups that Gates gave me, and he would always find me guilty. He would never, ever, ever listen to my side of the story. Lieutenant Sanchez has also been walked off and has pled guilty to sexual misconduct with an inmate. Also, when we’re here in the hole, there’s a SB bill that says that we’re not supposed to be housed in a Unit Four in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days in one 30-day setting. There’s also an AR that says we’re not supposed to be housed in Unit Seven, which is the BMU, for more than 30 consistent days. They have had me housed in the BMU for two consecutive years, a year, 9 months. They have had me housed in solitary confinement for 4 months, 6 months, 3 months, 5 months, every single time that I’ve came back here, and there’s, since the Senate bill has been passed, they have not been following any of the rules or regulations. As a matter of fact, when we get a write-up, we automatically go to the hole before we even get found guilty on the write-up. In some incidents, we’ll go to SCC and we’ll talk to SCC and SCC will give us the maximum already, the 15 days in the hole. We haven’t even been sanctioned yet, but you guys are already giving us 15 days in the hole for something that we haven’t been found guilty on, and then after we get sanctioned, after those 15 days, if we – someone sanctions you to like the days, then you stay in the hole for a consecutive 30 days. The 15 days does not count. I also got sanctioned, like I was saying, I had got a, sanction that I couldn’t talk on the phone to anybody. So, they seen me on the camera, on the phone. However, we’re allowed to call our lawyers, and we’re allowed to call the PREA hotline. I was talking to my lawyer on the phone. The C/O came and told me to get off the phone. I said, I’m talking to my lawyer. She told me, Well, Sergeant Jefferson said he doesn’t care who you’re talking to. You’re not supposed to be on the phone. Get off the phone. So, I didn’t get off the phone, of course, cuz I’m on the phone with my attorney. She goes and gets a ser- a Sergeant Evangelista. Evangelista comes and is like, What’s the problem? Like, I’m on the phone. You need to let them know I can talk to my attorney and my PREA, and the PREA hotline if I choose to call them. And he said, That’s true. So, I said, Well, what is the problem? I still got two write-ups from two different officers for two different incidents of me being on the phone talking to my lawyer. When I got sanctioned on the write-up, Evangelista is the one who sanctioned me, who should not have been sanctioning me in the first place because he was one of the sergeants that was called.
However, after he was called, Sergeant Jefferson came down there and told me verbatim in front of, C O Ballao, You-I don’t care who the f you’re talking to. You’re not supposed to be on the f-ing phone. I don’t care if you’re talking to your lawyer or not. I got sanctioned on that write-up. Ms. Ballao apologized, because she figured out the rules. However, the write-up that she gave me I got found guilty for, and the write-up that Gillespie gave me I got found guilty for. The Sergeant Evangelista, who shouldn’t have been sanctioning me anyway cuz he was a part of the incident, he gave me 90 days phone restriction, 60 days hole time. This is an illegal sanction. So I’m saying you can’t sanction me to more than 15 days. 15 days is the max. How are you sanctioning me to 60 days for me talking on the phone to my lawyer? This is blatant retaliation. Evangelista has also been under investigation for inappropriate sexual activity within the prison. So he’s, and I’m quoting AR to him, and because I’m quoting AR to him, telling him that that’s not valid for me to go to the hole and that it’s not valid that you give me, you can’t, it’s illegal for you to give me 60 days, he’s telling me I said, I’m not going to the hole. I got attacked. They sent me to the hospital. When I got to the hospital, they said that I had multiple soft tissue contusion, which are bruises, a lot of bruises, which means that you guys beat me up. So when I came back from there on July 24th—that happened March 5th of 2025. When I came back from the hospital on July 24th, they charged me $15,000 and have been taking money out of my account ever since because they beat me up and sent me to the hospital. And I still did those 60 days in a hole, and I still couldn’t talk on the phone for 90 days. So, yeah, that’s pretty much basically how, oh, and also, one time I did a, a hunger strike so that I can talk to the wardens so I can explain to them what’s going on. I need to speak to somebody. So I’m in medical. I hadn’t ate or drunk any water in 5 days. I literally saw myself on the ground in my own feces, and I told myself like, not right now. And then when I woke up, I had a knot on my head, and I was on the ground in my own feces.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
