I am confined in the South Central Correctional Center, a Missouri sate prison located in Licking, Missouri. Within the prison I have been unjustly confined in administrative segregation.

Those of us confined in administrative segregation units ('ad-seg' units or simply 'the hole') here as elsewhere are subjected to conditions similar if not identical to those suffered in the Guantanamo prison camp. The single difference is that we are told that we have civil rights and constitutional protections. If truth be told unless one has money one has no rights at all. If I had money I would not be confined here as I am. Prisoners in the United States are being confined for years alone in tiny cells with minimal human contact, if any at all. We may be removed from our cells at anytime for any reason. When this happens, we are ordered to 'cuff up'. Translated, this means that we must turn around facing the back of the cell, place our hands behind us so that they reach out the food port door where handcuffs are then placed on us. Once handcuffed we are ordered to back out of the cell whereupon two guards, one taking each arm, lead us to wherever it is they are taking us. Then, since we are out of our cells, guards will enter the cells, search them and trash anything they find. They do this when we are out of our cells for any reason.

We are allowed out to 'dog kennel' cages for an hour three times a week; we are allowed three ten-minute showers a week. There is no recreational equipment with which to work out in the cages; no weights, no handballs, nothing at all. Each of us is issued a prison 'jumpsuit' and a coat to wear while in the dog kennel but nothing with which to cover our heads against the rain or snow. Exclusive of the jumpsuit, the additional clothing to which we are entitled in our cells consists of a single pair of socks, a pair of undershorts and a T-shirt. In short, we are half naked in our cells. I need not add that the cells are very cold.

We are not permitted to order food from the canteen. Nor can we watch TV, listen to radios or have educational material of any kind. Similarly, smoking is forbidden in ad-seg units.

Food is used as a means of punishment. We are outright denied food whenever the authorities are so inclined. The food trays are often waterlogged and broken. We are not allowed pepper, butter, fruit or biscuits. These restrictions, they tell us, is for security reasons. If we are found not standing at the cell door when the food trays arrive the guards will pass the cell without leaving the food tray. Complaints about not being served are met with mace and, sometimes, beatings.

Prisoners are maced and beaten on a daily basis for any small thing or for nothing at all. Many prisoners confined in two person ad-seg cells become victims of assault and/or rape; the only way to escape this is to take part in what are called 'gladiator' fights while guards stand outside the cell door placing bets on who the winner will be. Prisoners are forced to fight each other just to be moved to another cell. Another common practice here occurs when a prisoner, fearing for his life, refuses to enter a cell with another prisoner. The recalcitrant prisoner is then handcuffed to an iron bench for 24 hours.

Here in the hole we are allowed one four minute telephone call a month provided that we have 'been good'. We are allowed two no-contact visits a month. This means we can visit with our loved ones for an hour a month during which time we may not even touch their hands. At times our mail is withheld for no reason. These are some of the horrifying conditions under which we live here in the Missouri prison system's ad-seg units.

Ad-seg units have become the homes of prisoners who are mentally challenged; over 85 percent of the prisoners housed in the Missouri ad-seg units are classified as mentally ill and are on some kind of psycho tropic medication. Now consider this: the mentally ill prisoner is confined in a cell for 24 hours a day most days and 23 on others. It is obvious that his condition can only deteriorate. In addition, many prisoners classified as normal when they enter ad-seg units soon find themselves mentally challenged.

Prisoners spend years in cells measuring 8' by 12' all day, every day. A great deal of this time is spent naked or half naked. Horrifying, yes, but it gets worse. On March 18 2004 a prison nurse and two prison guards approached the cell door of Keith Macon, #182929. Keith is classified as mentally challenged and he has been held on solitary confinement for seven years. The nurse ordered him to take some type of medication for which he had not asked and when he refused the nurse's order, both the nurse and the guards walked away.

They returned later and covered the windows of all our cell doors with paper so as to prevent any of us from witnessing the beating they proceeded to give Keith. He was attacked by the guards and the nurse then injected him with a drug of some kind. Mr. Paul McPheeters, Unit Manager of the ad-seg unit here at Licking, tells us that either we take the medication or we will be forcibly medicated. It is some kind of experimental drug they are trying to force upon us; they tell us the drug is for prisoners deemed to have behavior problems. Such a definition covers every prisoner in ad-seg. They refuse to tell us the name of this behavior drug.

Recently I was informed by Mr. McPheeters, that I have been assigned to ad-seg for the remainder of my prison sentence. This is the equivalent of a death sentence for me; at the age of 48 it can be nothing else. (Indeed, at any age a death sentence!) Every prisoner confined in the ad-seg units throughout the nation has a story to tell about the horrifying conditions which he or she is forced to undergo just to stay alive and to preserve his of her sanity. It is time to bring our struggles to the forefront of the struggle by any means necessary. The prisoners confined at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba and the prisoners confined here within the United States share the same struggles and the same enemies.

In struggle and solidarity,



Jerome White-Bey #37479
2B-229
South Central Correctional Center
255 West Highway 32
Licking, Missouri
MO65543-9069
USA

Political
Social
Economics
Religious
Science