- 54 years old
- 36 years of incarceration
- Currently at Westville Control Unit
Table of Contents
Commentaries
Contact Info
Leonard McQuay #874304
Westville Correctional Facility
5501 S 1100 W
Westville, IN 46391
Biography
Leonard McQuay, better known as Khalfani Malik Khaldun, is currently located at Westville Correctional Facility. He is an activist, writer and spoken word artist who has spent decades in prison for a crime that he never committed, and he remains committed to justice for all.
Change is Possible: A Rite of Struggle and Passage
Today, inside Amerika’s prison plantations a world exists permeated by the reality that the prisoncrats’ repression breeds resistance. And sometimes, the real cause of this resistance is rarely identified or exposed to the general public, because the authorities behind repression do any and everything possible to conceal and to cover up those who are responsible.
This way, only the negative environmental realities are seen to justify their actions while all positive transformations from prisoners changing their criminal colonial mentalities, are in most cases intentionally suppressed. Having been forced to live inside these plantations for the past 27 years, I was held against my will for a crime that I didn’t commit and in solitary for 20 of those 27 years.
Change is possible no matter how deep, dark, the holes or windowless cells they hide us in are, devoid of the vitality of nature’s natural sunlight, consumed by severe depression, and clearly overwhelmed by feelings of hopelessness, and poisoned by sensory deprivation that tends to suffocate and rob us of mental and physical health.
However, conscious men with the burning desire to relinquish all criminal impulses and striving to enhance the quality of our lives, do realize that change is necessary and it is inevitable. The growth of humanity in man will allow us to go through a developmental process, from boys to men, where each stage we gain enlightenment, maturity, growth, and development – this is man’s rites of passage.
Deny us water and we will die of thirst, for all of humanity needs water to exist. Denying us an opportunity or ability to feed our brains and souls with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, we will, without a doubt, deteriorate. This hasn’t stopped us from being aspiring revolutionaries, prison activists, jailhouse lawyers, and freedom fighters.
I am the voice of Indiana’s forgotten political prisoners;
Bro. Khalfani Malik Khaldun
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
https://conta.cc/4ayDxlB](https://www.prisonradio.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)