This Ain't Living: Report on Conditions Within the Restricted Housing Unit at Indiana State Prison

This Ain’t Living…

Never in a million lifetimes would I have ever imagined that I will be compelled to live out my existence in such a way.  Now, I have truly come to realize that one compulsion leads to yet another of its kind.  However, a balanced approach to this continuous life-struggle that I have been forced to survive has truly in-turn, compelled me to become proactive instead of merely reactive in how I proceed forward not only year-to-year, but also moment to moment.

My name is Tyrone Hull AKA Kenwood; however, my Muslim brothers call me Faraaji Abdul-Maalik al-Hashem.  I am currently doing a 60-year sentence for murder and dealing cocaine and I am currently housed on a lock-up unit at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana.

Growing up in the inner-city streets of Indianapolis has its advantages and disadvantages; however, I have chosen to see those struggles as the preparation that forged within me the motivation to never quit, but rather strives always for that which is better!  Upon becoming incarcerated I have spent most of my time at two maximum-security facilities in Indiana.  Namely, Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, Indiana and the aforementioned facility in which I am currently a resident (ISP).  At Wabash, the facility was far cleaner as well as organized; however, the staff was really negatively prejudicial against any prisoner but even more against non-white prisoners. 

Without being dramatic in the least I can truthfully bear witness to a kind of treatment not only against others but more so against my person that was consistently ignorant, disrespectful, and all around and routinely un-American!  Racial slurs were common, but this facility’s employees did not parse words on the level of dislike they had for minorities!  I’m a young Black man that stands 5’8”.  I weigh 170 lbs. and I have gold teeth; however, the fact that I have gold teeth should not subject me to unfair and prejudicial racial slurs!  There is no denying that what I look like to the employees at the Wabash Valley facility played a huge role in the many denials that I received.  It was hard…I can do hard; however, it was unbelievably difficult for me to get a job as well as be taken seriously when signing up for programs that I thought would benefit me upon completion in them. 

Now, I have to honest and inform the reader that I didn’t really try too hard to be seen as an individual while at Wabash Valley’s facility because I was in the midst of recognizing the many differences in treatment in which I was currently receiving.  Also, the fact that I’m now 36 years-old and while at W.V.C.F (Wabash Valley Correctional Facility), I was very young.  As I began to internally mature, I noticed the disparaging remarks and unequal treatment was not as easily ignored.  The more aware I became, the more hurt I felt.  Now at the age of 36 I find myself unable to stay quiet about such harshness and malevolent treatment.

I was recently transferred to ISP where the staff is far more multicultural, but that only served to allow me the misfortune of recognizing that the negative aspects that were continuously displayed on the regular were not only racial, but systematic in nature.  Here at the ISP, although the majority of the staff may look like me, the treatment was/is often worse.  As I reside on a lock-up unit, specifically DCH (D Cell House), I have and continuously become overwhelmed with just how inefficient this unit operated.  First of which, there is unimaginable overcrowding as it relates to how prisoners are placed on this unit as well as how they are released from this unit.  We are routinely denied due process of law procedurally.  Facility directives and administrative policies are not properly executed, EVER! 

There is a culture of mistreatment that is part and parcel to how things are done.  If a prisoner finds himself facing a situation whereby, he receives a conduct report, offenders are snatched out of the general population and placed on the Restricted Housing Unit (RHU).  On this unity, prisoners may sit for months on end without ever receiving an actual conduct report for the actual reason as to why one is currently being housed on a unit that restrict the few privileges that prisoners who haven’t been actually found guilty of are supposed to be eligible to receive.  Even when a conduct report is received, no matter how illogical the offense reads, a guilty verdict is reached. 

Sanctions are never applied properly either.  An example of this is I was written up for having/possessing an electronic device (in the form of an illegally purchased phone).  I was never even subjected to a body search or cell search, nor was an electronic even said to be possessed by me from information obtained by an informant; however, because we have absolutely no form of credible due process in place, this systematic failure allows for there to be no evidence for whatever claim is made against me or any other prisoner in the IDOC.  There is also an open social culture amongst certain correctional officers where in “rubber stamp” claims are made against prisoners in the attempt to remove particular prisoners from the general population.  An example of this is when a CO has disrespected an offender by joking, playing, and being all-together unprofessional, they will openly lie and claim that a threat has been leveled toward their personal safety such as “…offender (such-n-such) said that he would kill me…”. 

Many of the officers are very young now and often approach their job as a correctional officer in a very immature manner, forgetting that their number one objective is to “maintain the safety and security of the facility”.  Once the false claim is made, it is routinely automatically perceived not only as real and credible, but also attaches to the accused an eligibility to be removed from the general population before even being screened or notified of the claim made against him.

Now being removed to the restricted housing unit comes with its own set of difficulties.  No matter the nature of the conduct reports, the offender is now being housed on a unit and having to endure an already well-known hardship such as incarceration with a loss of privileges without ever actually being found guilty of anything.  The overwhelming majority of conduct reports written claiming that prisoner has threatened a CO don’t have any witnesses at all.  So, it now becomes the word of the officer against the prisoners.  The prisoner may have one living witness and is limited to only three witnesses total.  No investigation is made as to if the officer is being honest.  They are taken wholly at their word of claim while the camera footage will show an officer with unprofessional body language clearly not operating withing the official duties of his/their employment as a correctional officer in the IDOC.

Now the words defense, evidence, witnesses is now all systematically overlooked due to such an egregious lack of due process.  Before this slight is actually manifested unjustifiable against prisoner the reclassification to the RHU has already placed the prisoner in a 90-day cycle whereby even if found “not guilty” of the alleged offense, they’ve been accused of, they have already automatically lost their favorable housing in general population, their employment or ability to attend positive programs such as AA, NA, religious, education, and recreational activities.  Contact visits are already automatically postponed due to the prisoner’s reclassification or inter-facility transfer from a cellhouse in the general population to the RHU. 

On a personal note, now the prisoner will no longer be able to clean their living quarters or maintain a proper diet by ordering commissary.  Please be made aware that upon a finding of guilt, sanctions/loss of privileges are expected as well as warranted, but why is this all too commonly experienced before the finding of guilt?  There is also a very abundant and visual presence of vermin in the RHU specifically, field mice can be seen everywhere throughout the cellhouse of the RHU.  It has been claimed that this was because of the presence of commissary food; however, it has been a year since the unjust restriction against the privilege of ordering commissary was enacted and the present of mice seems to have been bolstered!  There is also an abundance of wild pigeons nesting inside the cellhouse (specifically at ISP).  Between the daily presence of germs and bacteria from being unable to properly maintain a basic/personal level of sanitary living conditions and the abundance of mouse and pigeon droppings (fecal matter) from which it’s a fact that an entire selection of illnesses that will allow for a rapid deteriorate deterioration of persons good health may occur.

Adding to the accumulation of hardships that one is already experiencing from merely being housed on the RHU without ever even receiving a conduct report, let alone being found guilty of a conduct report, there is also a lack of proper medical care and attention.  Just yesterday an inmate named _____ that was being housed in 115 West hung himself and was totally dead.  Medical services were never called.  This tragic incident was realized by another prisoner because the officer doesn’t do wellness checks in the manner in which they have been ordered to do so.  So, how could they even prevent a suicide attempt?

Earlier, I mentioned how our living conditions are historically unsanitary because we don’t have access to chemicals, broom, mop, etc.….Keeping in mind just how inefficient the RHU operates, the only available manner in which prisoners may even try and attempt to address the many systematic failures that are seemingly perpetually endured by the prisoner population, is to file a grievance.  This process, too, is wholistically ineffective because grievances are routinely never investigated.  Oftentimes the issues raised in a grievance are never answered.  When issues are present against correctional officers or administrative officials, there is almost never a remedy or consequence for whatever is done by them to us!  Therefore, because the facility will not address any issues raised by prisoners in a responsible manner or appropriate timeframe, prisoners seek relief civilly through the courts. 

One of the more important issues that cannot be left without mention is the process by which the RHU receives their meals.  Never is there a consistent manner in which things align in order for prisoners to receive a proper meal at their proper times.  Many times, the trays are missing items or have half portions as well as being cold.  The correctional officers may take an hour or more before pushing the meals onto the range to be passed out by the range tenders.  In a cellhouse overrun by mice/vermin and wild pigeons, our food is left to sit out for extended periods of time before being allowed for distribution to the prisoners.

On the days the showers are given (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), there may only be five to six showers given in a 12-hour shift on a range where 33 prisoners reside.  Many at a time, prisoners are stuck standing in a filthy, mold-infested shower for 45 minutes to an hour and a half while we can hear the rapturous joking, laughing, and playing of the custody downstairs in the officer cage.

So now, I again proclaim that due to the many and seemingly perpetual systematic failing as it relates to how the RHU operates, those who are housed on this unit collectively feel as if “This ain’t living!”  At the time I have penned this essay, each and every issue raised therein is current and ongoing.  In no way whatsoever have I even approached rendering an exaggerated or dramatized portrait of living on the RHU at the Indiana State Prison.  I leave as I came, standing upon the instrument of truth while employing the virtues of hope and patience.

May God (Allah) Help Us All.