I have this one life to live, and I tend to live it with dignity and self-respect. Yesterday, April 21st, 2020, I was released from solitary confinement and it didn’t take long for the facility administration to target me. I was moved to D block, 4 gallery, 24 cell. It’s seriously just after the 11 o’clock count cleared, my cell gate opened. Second I’m being led out to get the mattress, pillow, sheets, and the blanket, as well as my stored property, I go downstairs to the D block desk officer.
I was told cell hall wants me, so I report to cell hall. Cell hall tells me I have to go to the small visitor’s room, so I go there. When I arrived at the small visitors room, I see the three honor block prisoners who are our reps for the Inmate Liaison Committee known as the ILC. Just before my unlawful placement in solitary confinement, I was the A block ILC rep and the only rep in the larger general population. Thus the reason general population prisoners called me the voice of the people. Whatever the case, Captain Frazier and two investigators from the office of special investigations walked in.
We have a meeting during which I am vocal about the lack of access to phones and kiosks for general population prisoners. This seems to annoy Captain Frazier. To make a long story short: the meeting ends, and I get my property and everything else I’m supposed to have, and I returned to myself to the stuff I’m missing: my TV, beard trimmers, fan, tablet, charger, earbuds, the legal documents, and some books, including my prisoner’s self-help litigation manual, which I use to guide my legal battles in federal court.
But that’s only that. Just before my company is led out for dinner chow, I’m told by a CO to pack up: I’m moving. I say, what? I just got here. My cell is in disarray from straightening and cataloging all my paperwork. Before I get done, a sergeant and CO come to my cell and escort me to long-term key blocks, for what? They claim they don’t know, but I overhear one CO telling another I pissed off Captain Radica. How? I haven’t seen him that day.
I get an initial phone call on long-term key block that night and call the chair of my support committee to advise her of what’s going on. And for her, and my supporter to call the central office about why am I still being harassed.
The next day, I was surprisingly released from key block but moved to E block A gallery and 27 cell. I’m the only one back here separated by 20 cells from the nearest prisoner. But I’m not mad. This is what these tyrants do. They try to neutralize, isolate, and break guys like me who fight them intelligently. It doesn’t matter to them that I’m fighting them by the book.
To them, I’m just some lowly inmate who should just accept my place. But I refuse to succumb to this notion that I’m less than. I’m a human being with only this one life to live. And I tend to live it with dignity and self respect.
This is Dontie S. Mitchell, better known as Mfalme Sikivu, reporting to you from Great Meadow Corrections Facility in Comstock, New York. Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @freeDontieMitchell. Also, join the Dontie Mitchell support committee if you’re willing to help in small ways.
As a side note, it seems these people don’t want me to go to nowhere. They wouldn’t let people go to dinner tonight but fed me my cell instead, although I’m not in key block. Right now I’m going to play it cool and see how far they go with this. This might be a ploy to get me to react violently or disruptively, which I won’t. If you’re hearing this, it means they’re not restricting my phone access. I’ll keep you all posted.
Thank you for listening, god bless.
![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)