Hello Prison Radio. This is Ozzie Mann Wright coming to you from Summit County Jail again. Today, I’ll be reading an excerpt from my upcoming book, “The Making and Unmaking of a Criminal.” I hope you liked it.
As I sat in the suicide cell, virtually naked except for the uncomfortable suicide vests, I had nothing to mutilate myself with, so I was left with no choice but to face the thoughts that were always so desperately trying to force themselves into the frontier of my mind.
I began first thinking about my current condition of being naked in a cell with nothing. I had no toothbrush to brush my teeth, no washcloth to wash my body, and no deodorant to put under my arms.
I was a couple hundred miles away from my family, and I felt alone in this world to face my demons by myself. No matter what corner I turnt in my mind, every path led to one dismal thought after another.
I couldn’t think about home, because my home is where my hell began. I couldn’t think about my future, because the saws of the moment only made the future but a perpetuation of the tribulation that seemed to be my life. I definitely didn’t want to think about the past: the bogeyman of my mind that haunted me every time that my mind became idle.
I felt imprisoned within a prison within a prison, doomed. I would have preferred not to dwell in my own pessimistic sea of thought, but I was drowning, and I had no life jacket and no optimistic sands to call a shore on. I will remain stranded at sea for years to come, but I would eventually make it to dry land—little did I know.
Thank you Prison Radio.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
![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
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