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From: GOTTESFELD MARTIN (12982104)
Sent Date: Monday, August 8, 2022 12:50 PM
Subject: 2022-08-07: C.O. Mr. J. Smith falsified a report
9:44 P.M. Eastern Time, Sunday, August 7, 2022
I hereby make the following statement available under the latest Creative Commons by-attribution, derivatives permitted, share-alike, commercial-use-permitted license, pursuant to the Bureau of Prisons' Inmate Manuscripts Program Statement and federal regulations.
Please be advised that today, August 7, 2022, United States Penitentiary (USP) Marion, Illinois, Correctional Officer (C.O.) Mr. Smith further escalated his recent misconduct, again in regards to a Black adult-in-custody.
To recap: Mr. Smith has called me "the brown guy," told another prisoner, in regards to myself: "Look at his black ass," threw a large, cumbersome object, at a Black adult-in-custody, violated Bureau of Prisons (BOP) counterterrorism procedures and is a (barely) walking violation of BOP's physical-fitness standards.
Today, he falsified an incident report (IR), claiming to have personally removed evidence from a place from which he did not, in fact, remove said evidence. I have submitted a written request to preserve the video proving this, and I have followed up with the Office of Internal Affairs (O.I.A.) and the local Special Investigative Agent (S.I.A.), to whom I had already written requesting the opening of an investigation into Smith's professional misconduct, but from whom I have never heard back.
Before I delve into the details, a little background is necessary. The hot-water taps have been broken here for circa two months. Without these hot-water tapes we prisoners are unable to use the commissary products the prison sells us, **e.g.**, we are unable to make coffee, ramen soups, etc.
I have personally written to the prison to request the repair of the hot-water taps, which inexplicably stopped working shortly into Smith's stint here, immediately following what I was told was "maintenance." A prison official promised to have a working solution by the end of July. Now, a week into August, no such solution is anywhere near reality.
Requests to refund commissary purchases on the basis that they are unusable have been unanswered. Under Bureau policy, each unit is to have a hot-water tap. There is no exception for the communications-management units (CMUs) in the relevant program statements and federal regulations.
Today, Smith charged a Black adult-in-custody with the most serious category of prisoner misconduct, a 100-series incident report (IR), for allegedly attempting to start a fire. In reality, at most, it was an attempt to make coffee. Smith claimed to have removed evidence of said fire from a broom closet. Camera footage will show he did no such thing. Instead the evidence was literally handed to him, in front of another staffer, who knows Smith's report to be false, at least in that regard.
Of course, had the Bureau not broken its own obligation to allow us to heat the products it sells to us at marked up prices, this never would have happened. And nothing justifies Smith's falsification of the report.
I'll write more on this later.
--
From: GOTTESFELD MARTIN (12982104)
Sent Date: Tuesday, August 9, 2022 6:37 AM
Subject: 2022-08-08: Prisoner enters 2nd day in hole
9:44 P.M. Eastern Time, Monday, August 8, 2022
I hereby make the following statement available under the latest Creative Commons by-attribution, derivativespermitted, share-alike, commercial-use-permitted license and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) program statement and federal regulations on inmate manuscripts.
MARION, IL (Aug. 8, 2022)--A prisoner enters his second day in "the hole" for allegedly trying to brew the coffee that he legally purchased from the local United States Penitentiary commissary, after prison officials neglected the hot-water taps in the high-profile communications-management unit (CMU), known as **Gitmo North**.
The CMUs---one in Marion, the other in nearby Terre Haute, Indiana---have always been controversial. Recently a British judge cited them as reason to deny Washington's request to extradite WikiLeaks-founder Julian Assange. That extradition request is now under appeal at the European Union Human Rights Court.
Meanwhile, the list of issues in the Marion CMU is perhaps too long to list here. It currently features only a single working residential-style laundry drier for three dozen men. A second drier has been broken almost as long as the hot-water tap previously used to make coffee and heat commissary foods.
The CMUs have also had notable staffing problems. Unit Manager Todd Royer, of the Terre Haute CMU, stands credibly accused by this writer and others of violating the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA, pronounced **pree-ah**). Weeks ago, a full-time Marion CMU correctional officer (C.O.) was arrested during a sting operation for sexually soliciting a minor. In 2018 a prisoner was nearly beheaded, ISIS-style, in the Terre Haute CMU, his killer never brought to justice.
More recently another Marion C.O., Mr. J. Smith, has used racially charged language, referring to this writer as "the brown guy" and telling another prisoner to "Look at his black ass." Smith also threw an 80-plus-lb. hard box at a Black prisoner, who barely dodged it in time. Requests to BOP's Office of Internal Affairs and USP Marion'sSpecial Investigative Agent (S.I.A.) to investigate Smith's behavior have gone unanswered.
Smith then falsified charges against another Black prisoner, throwing him in disciplinary housing for allegedly trying to start a fire---a charge among the most serious of BOP's disciplinary infractions---when, according to all other available accounts, the prisoner was in fact trying to make coffee. Smith, in his written report, claims to have removed evidence of the "fire" from a broom closet. Witnesses say this was false.
That prisoner now remains in the unit's "special housing" (read: solitary or small-group confinement, aka "the hole"). Worse, he's there during a heat wave.
The CMUs are effectively brick-and-steel ovens. Despite their heat-trap construction, BOP refuses to air condition their living areas. Instead the Bureau uses prisoners' commissary sales to operate an ice machine. The cold beverages help, but the single overworked, underpowered ice machine here cannot meet the demand and frequently runs empty. Compounding matters, the fans sold in the commissary feature grills that render them all but useless out of the box and quickly accumulate dust and dander.
But ice and fans are unavailable in the hole, where the extreme heat wave currently scorching middle America simmers unabated.
The irony. He tried to make a hot coffee and Smith threw him in a perpetual sauna.
I'll write more later.
