THE LOCKDOWN AT SING SING
Dear Readers, We happily welcome you all to yet another eye-opening and thought provoking issue of Voices for Justice, where our goal and mission is to be the voice for the voiceless in the fight against injustice and inequality. In this month’s issue, we will be discussing the horrifying and dehumanizing six-day lockdown at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, and the lingering effects of mental, emotional, and physical trauma it has caused not only for the men there, but for their families. On Sunday, November 6, 2022, the men at Sing Sing Correctional Facility were placed under lockdown status. Like myself, several of the incarcerated individuals in my unit were scurried off to our cells without any idea of what was going on, or any indication that in the days to come, the Department of Corrections’ CERT Team will unleash the unthinkable on us. Dressed in full black military, tactical armor apparel, the CERT Team committed large scaled acts of aggression, brutality, cruelties, and dehumanizing humiliations. In efforts to get this story out, I personally reached out and sat down with some of the men here at Sing Sing to share with me their thoughts on what happened, how did it make them feel, and how they’re feeling now. The six men you’ll be hearing from have all agreed to use their voice to speak out against the recent interactions and events that will never sit quite right, all were abjectly humiliating, painful or violent. The first story I would like to share with you is from Mr. Brian Nathaniel Johnson, Sr. (ID #13B0703). JOHNSON: During the search I was physically assaulted, verbally abused and forced to be strip searched by a woman. I am still dealing with the trauma from the CERT Team standing on my neck, back and constantly punching me all over. I felt like a terrorist being captured for world crimes. I was sent out to the outside hospital and cat-scanned. I still suffer from my injuries. Mr. Johnson is one of the youngest members of Voices From Within. He is also a Mercy College/Hudson Link student here at Sing Sing, and is eligible for an early release in March 2023. Next, we have Mr. William Walsh (ID #10A3355) who had this to say. WALSH: Whatever scrap of humanity you were able to hold on to, regardless of how much time you had done or the crime you committed, was snatched away when the CERT Team walked in. Those who were tasked with ensuring the rule and regulations were being followed in the facility, violated every rule to get their job done. Hector Roman (ID #99A1712) chimed in and shared these words. ROMAN: Degraded, violated, dehumanized, antagonized, abused, and traumatized. These are all the words I associate with the lockdown. I felt all of these feelings. Yet despite these feelings, I also recognize my change and positive transition because my focus on the bigger picture stay steadfast. Mr. Roman recently graduated from Mercy College/Hudson Link in the spring of 2022 with his Bachelor Degree in Behavioral Science and is anticipating on going on to his Master’s in Theology. Mr. Roman has been incarcerated since the age of 16 and is now currently 43 years old. Just like Mr. Roman, Mr. John Katehis (ID #12A0161) who is currently 30 years old, has had the misfortune of being incarcerated since the young age of 16. This is what John had to say about the frightening experience. KATEHIS: I never saw such a high concentration of correctional officers. It was an invasion of force, a sea of black-armored uniforms and night sticks. I remember thinking, “damn, I hope they don’t fucking kill us.” I’m just grateful I didn’t get beaten down. Mr. José Llaca (ID #95A4375) has been incarcerated for the past 30 years and shares those same fears as Mr. Katehis expressed. LLACA: In all the years that I’ve been in prison, that was the first time that I actually feared for my life at the hands of my keepers. Mr. Carlos Herring (ID #07B3441) seemed to also echo those same sentiments of fear. HERRING: Looking up as the officers searched the upper tiers, I see the officers with their batons out screaming at a convict to grab his mattress and step out of the cell. When my turn came, I trembled with apprehension as to what was to come. I was told to step out of my cell and face the walls. An officer whispered in my ear, “Do what the fuck I say and we won’t have any problems.” I walked in my boxers and slippers, feeling less than a man, as forty or so officers looked at me with their batons out waiting for me to make a mistake. When it was all over, I just sat on my toilet trembling, I felt hopeless. I felt like I was violated and treated worse than an animal. Since that day, the question has crossed my mind, “Am I a human being with some type of worth?” Because that day made me question myself. The penitentiary is filled with bad and good people. In some cultures, it is the norm to put bad seeds away for a long time and then drive them practically insane while they are serving their time. This is the wrong answer to correct the mistakes of criminals. George Bernard Shaw once wrote, “If you are to punish a man retributively, you must injure him. If you are to reform him, you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries.” Following and experiencing this story first-hand leaves me to question, is prison punitive or rehabilitative? Listening to these men share their experience, it seems the guards are given almost limitless power in what they can do to prisoners. This is far from humane, it is more like a hidden holocaust that no one can do anything about. This lets me understand better than ever before that prison is not about rehabilitation, but rather about punitive ideologies, power, and a very controlled and intentional exercise of it. Unfortunately, these men, and so many like them, will be haunted by the trauma prison has inflicted even years long after they have been released.
LOVE, PEACE, TRUTH, JUSTICE, FREEDOM!
“Justice delayed, is justice denied,”
GARY BENLOSS (#03A6415)
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