Prison Radio
Christopher “Naeem” Trotter

Hello, my name is Christopher Trotter.

I’m coming live inside the belly of the beast at Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, Carlisle, Indiana. At this moment, the facility is on lock-down due to COVID-19. A upkick in cases as a result of staff transferring it inside to prisoners. Again, as a result of staff transferring it inside to prisoners. Right now, they have over 50 cases in the last two days—positive cases—amongst the prison population here at Wabash.

They’ve isolated a few prisoners. They did no contact tracing. They did no mandatory testing. And so as a result, this pandemic could get worse in prison. Prisoner lives matter too. And Indiana is a rich state. And instead of them taking the necessary precautions to open slowly, they were concerned about the economy. Economy over lives.

You know, that’s what this capitalist system is all about. Property over human life, capital over human life. And what we hear this day they call herd, H-E-R-D. What they’re saying is just let this run rampant throughout the populations in society and in prison. Let them build up some immunity. Let-Let’s kill a bunch of them. Herd, it’s actually another word for genocide. Genocide, this is what they’re talking about. Allowing a lot of people to die. Just let it run rampant in a prison. It’s going to run rampant.

They’re not going to spend- waste money on putting prisoners on ventilators. Or giving any type of treatment, they’re going to let him die. And who suffers? Those prisoners that have family out there. ‘Cause if you got a prisoner- if you got a- Excuse me. If you have a family member in prison, you need to be defending them right now. You need to call. You need to call. If you’re concerned about about what’s going on inside these prison walls.

That’s why I’m so against prisons. That’s why I’m so against the 13th amendment of the United States constitution, which allowed slavery to exist. And that’s why it’s important that people start to realize that we have to abolish the 13th amendment. If we do away with the 13th amendment, we can do away with slavery inside prisons. We may be able to have-make a big step towards the abolishing of prisons.

So long as the 13th amendment exists as it does, prisons will exist. Slavery inside prison will exist. So think about it. [Inaudible] the constitution, the 13th amendment, allows this type of mass incarceration to exist. It allows prisoners to be sitting in prison now, waiting to be stricken down by COVID. I pray that everyone’s safe in prison. And I pray for the families that have loved ones in prison.

It’s a concern. We’re on lockdown. If you have a voice, vote. Vote Trump out of office. Because he has given people a false sense of security with this pandemic. He just had COVID-19. But he’ll have the best healthcare in the world. If a prisoner catches it, he doesn’t have any healthcare. If the average citizen catches it, they don’t have the healthcare that Donald Trump got. So be afraid of it. Because it’s real. It’s genocide, it’s population control.
Thank you for listening. And I pray that everyone keeps safe.

(Sound of a cell door closing.) These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.