My name is Derrick Gibson, currently incarcerated the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections where I have been confined in solitary confinement and extreme isolation for the last eight years without any or very little privileges, such as television, radio, emails, even cellmate that most prisoners allowed to have. I also am on the restricted release list, or RRL, which means indefinite isolation in the hole, “bucket” as it’s called.
I am also the author of Before Orange Was The New Black, my first published book about the 1989 Canfield prison riot. It caused millions of dollars in damages to the prison complex and prison system. Some of the prison officials that were hostages during the riot are still employed in high positions of authority in the PADOC headquarters, while I continuously suffer malicious and sadistic retaliation, retribution for this publishing, even surviving and enduring numerous murder attempts through the use of excessive force and suffocation at the hands of prison officials. Most recently on December 5th, 2020, I was placed and strapped into restraint chairs inside of my cell. Oleoresin capsiscum, or OC as it’s called, was sprayed directly up into my nostril, face, and eyes, cell walls, and bed frame. A white hood was then put over my head, and I was left sitting there for eight hours while being filmed.
Some of the past murder attempts were being sprayed with 6O large cans of military-force OC, and left inside the cell three hours after missing 27 meals doing a hunger strike, being sprayed while handcuffed behind my back, [inaudible] by myself, and obeying all orders on my hands, arms, front, back, and private parts with lethal intent. So I suggest a serious need for criminal justice and solitary confinement reform.
Black lives matter. And when I say black lives matter, I emphasize and expose the fact that black and colored people, whether in prison or out in society, male or female, armed or unarmed, are systematically targeted, subjected to brutality and abuse, oppression and death at the hands of the so-called law enforcers at alarming rate. And that I refuse to accept it as I continue to struggle to support the call. Silence is complacency and unacceptable, and supporting resistance is greatly needed.
Lastly, my second book called 6-0 Kings, Brass Brothers can also be found on Amazon Kindle, Google Play, Barnes and Noble, and other places. Derrick Gibson, a prisoner author. I can be reached at Smart Communications/PADOC, SCI Phoenix, Derrick, Gibson, JP2190, PO Box 33028, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33733, http://inmatelocator.cor.pa.gov, or authorderrickgibson@gmail.com.
