The prisoners are demanding rec and programming be returned, and these other issues addressed. Please call the following officials and demand that access to recreation and programming be returned, and that the warden meet with and negotiate any other demands the hunger striking prisoners have.
Call Warden Jay Forshey at 330-743-0700You can also email the warden's assistant: Laura.Gardner@odrc.state.oh.us
Write a letter to: Warden Forshey, Ohio State Penitentiary, 878 Coitsville-Hubbard Road, Youngstown, Ohio 44505
Fax: (330) 743-0841Call regional director (and former OSP Warden) Todd Ishee 330-797-6398
Address: Todd Ishee, Northeast Regional Office, Voinovich Building, 242 West Federal Street, Suite #402, Youngstown, OH 44503
Fax: 330-744-3512
Email: Todd.Ishee@odrc.state.oh.us
Call ODRC Director Gary Mohr at central office (614) 387-0588
Address: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, 770 West Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43222
Email: DRC.publicinfo@odrc.state.oh.us
With recent changes, only 15 or so of the over 400 prisoners at OSP are allowed congregate recreation on the range anymore and the prison is severely restricting outdoor rec. There are not enough outdoor rec cages get prisoners their legally required 5 hours a week if prisoners are only allowed out one at a time. Staff said the elevators going five of the semi-underground rec cages were broken, so access to rec is even more restricted.
We don't know how many prisoners are participating in the hunger strike, but Hasan suspects many have joined in.
5B (the highest security level, about 57 prisoners) have also been denied access to programming, including constitutionally protected religious programming. There are a number of smaller greivances relating to the administration rolling back safety conditions and privileges the prisoners have won through lawsuits, complaints and earlier protests. To hear the full description of the prisoner's greivances, listen to the below phone call with Siddique Abdullah Hasan.
You can listen to the full audio of the phone call with Hasan here.
Below is a partial transcript. If you'd like to help out by picking up where I left off, please email Insurgent.Ben@gmail.com (to make sure only one person is working on the same thing at a time) and i'll get it posted. Thank you.
This is Imam Siddique Abdullah Hasan calling from Ohio State Penitentiary. Ohio's state of the art super max prison. Today is March sixteenth and there has been a hunger strike starting today at this institution. There are numerous reasons for prisoners starting this particular hunger strike, but I guess you could say the straw that broke the camel's back is when the prison officials said that for all prisoners at this institution, with the exception of four long term prisoners--the four prisoners who have been here since 1998, who have been here as a result of the Lucasville Uprising, who are on death row--and the cadre prisoners, we are the only prisoners at this point that will be allowed to have range rec.
All the other prisoners, the 5A, the 5B the 4B and the 4A transits. [ed note- 5A, 4B, etc refer to security levels.] It is my understanding that all the 4A prisoners have been transferred out of the institution to Lucasville and Trumbull Prisons [ed note- some 4A's also went to Toledo Correctional]. The reason for this sudden decision--and there's various reasons the prison staff is giving--one of the reasons (and I doubt it's true) they say prisoners are passing things. You know, stamps envelopes, anything passed they consider it to be a major offense. That's one of the reasons.
Another reason that they're giving is that there have been a few instances where the guards refused or neglected to lock the shower door, or to put the latch on the recreation cage, and there were a few incidents where you had some fights, nothing serious, mainly wrestling matches if anything, and they claim that is the reason.
The most pertinent reason seems to be, there was a prisoner here by the name of Cornelius Harris. Years ago he slipped out of his hand cuffs and jumped on a CO by the name of McVeigh and this officer lost two of his teeth. Not long after that he stabbed a CO by the name of officer Burns. Then after that, he stabbed another CO named Wine through the cuff port. [ed note- you can read Cornelius Harris' account of these incidents. Harris was charged with attempted murder for these incidents, but a jury ruled that he acted in self-defense.] There were some other incidents that he was involved in. So because of the prison officials, they have said that he was incorrigable they transferred him out of state to the state of Maryland.
While he was in Maryland, he stabbed two COs there and they ended up transferring him back to Ohio State Penitentiary. After coming back here, he's always been on level 5B, which is the highest security level with the least privileges in the institution. Him and one of his friends, they went up to the program booth, where you've got six cages, where they have classes, religious classes, programs, etc. While up there he stabbed an officer in the neck, and his friend hit another CO with his fist.
After this incident they closed down all the programs, but it was only supposed to be temporarily, until they put some wire fences there so people could not stick their hand out of the cages or the bars to assault another officer. So, now that has been fixed, and what came down as a result of that incident is that any prisoners that are on 5B--the worst level, which Harris and the other prisoner who assaulted the officer were on--so they stopped all programs for 5B people. There are approximately 56 people on 5B who will experience this collective punishment.
This is a constitutional issue of religious freedom. There are some muslim prisoners and non-muslims who're in the upper denominations, and they are effected by this. So what the prison officials basically what are saying, and excuse my expression, they are saying "to hell with the law, to hell with the constitution, we're going to do it our way" and that's the only way they're going to recognize. So all prisoners on level 5B are being deprived of their religious rights and they are also being deprived of any other programs they had in there. You have psychological programs, academic programs, social programs, you have man up programs, all of these programs that are geared toward prisoner's rehabilitation to help them to better themselves so when they can be a credit, or an asset to society as opposed to a liability they are no longer allowed to attend these programs. That is diametrically opposed to what the constitution and the law says with regards to providing prisoners' first amendment rights.
This is also the reason they don't want prisoners to come on the range for recreation. So, they do provide prisoners cage rec, where you can rec in the cage where you're locked down, but they cages that they have as far as height and width, they do not meet the standards of the ACA, the American Correctional Association, and this institution has been given ACA accredidation where they get money from them and when it comes to the ACA, the staff members, the executive members they rotate and a yearly basis, but they mainly consist of wardens from other states. So this year the president can be from Ohio, next year from Minnesota, next year he can be from another state.
When it comes to the inside rec cages not meeting the ACA standards, what the ACA will probably do is make an exception for Ohio, because that's just the way they do, they cover for each other. So as is stands now prisoners are allowed to go outside [a high walled concrete space with metal grating at the top] but the problem with that is they've got one two big cages on one side of the institution for people to go to rec individually, and then they've got five small cages where people can be next to each other, in cages and go out. Now this morning, what they said is that the elevator is broke, so nobody can go to the small cages. In otherwords, five prisoners cannot go outside to congregate together, as if they're going to be out there strategizing and planning, so what they came up with was an excuse, they say the elevator is broke so nobody can go out and use the small cages, everyone needs to use the big isolated cages.
The law reads that prisoners are allowed five hours per week out of their cell if weather permits. Today it's supposed to get up to 65 degrees, and if weather does not permit, then they'll be given inside recreation. That's what the law says, but what the prison authorities have posted on the TV monitors for weeks says that if a person does not get to go out on rec they get to make it up, but they are only allowed to make up one day of rec at a time, so if they miss two or three outside recs due to weather, they are not going to be allowed to make them up. This is in violation of the law that says they get 5 hours rec per week.
Illegal restriction of outdoor recreation is the main reason for the hunger strike, but not the only reason. Denying prisoners ability to go out on the range, and access to all programs for people on 5B. So again, it's not geared toward any kind of rehabilitation. They're just going to warehouse you.
When you come to this institution you've got to be on 5B for one year, so that means for one year the person has no opportunity to participate in any religious academic or vocational programs. You just remain in your cell, go to rec, take a shower and that's the end of it. No rehabillitation.
Even though 5As can participate in these programs, they're participating because what happens if their security level is lowered? They'll end up in a 5B situation.