Friday Call-in Day for Robin the Hood.

Just bumped this up from my post on the 9th because the day to take action is Friday, the 15th. Next up is a copy of my own action via Arizona Prison Watch (I digressed from the pre-formatted letter a little bit).  Oso Blanco is the political prisoner that the neighborhood kids were writing to just last week. He's still in trouble, folks - let's try to send him some support. 

This alert was posted at Break The Chains, an awesome political prisoner support/news website. Note that I'll be sending Oso a copy of the letter I send to the warden, so he knows who's out here saying what. Also note all the other people/places I'm cc'ing my letter to, as well - we have a pretty good network, the prison-watching states, and we're growing. That helps when it comes to dealing with the feds, because our influence can be spread out more broadly across the US Senate if we're in more than just one state.

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Support Oso Blanco by Calling in and Writing on Friday January 15th!!

January 9, 2010 by denverabc

Byron Chubbuck, whose Indian name is Oso Blanco, is serving 80 years for expropriating money from banks and sending thousands of dollars to Chiapas, Mexico to help fund the Zapatistas and feed indigenous children. Because of his political background, he has been subject to horrendous treatment at U.S. Penitentiary Lewisburg which includes: beatings, waterboarding, mail tampering, false charges, and the forced cutting of his hair which is a great offense against a Native American! The torture must be stopped!

*CALL:*

There is going to be a coordinated effort to call in on behalf of Byron Shane Chubbuck. Contact USP Lewisburg on FRIDAY JANUARY 15TH 2010 between the hours of 10am-12:00pm Eastern Standard time, (8am-10am Arizona) If you cannot make this time frame, you can still CALL at another time on the 15th, but make sure you do CALL. It is essential that we maintain a unified effort in letting the prison staff know that we oppose the abuse against Mr. Chubbuck.

*The number at USP Lewisburg is:*

*570-523-1251* (keep trying if no answer!) ask for the Mr. Ademai, the manager of Z Unit.

*WHAT TO SAY*

Hello, I am calling out of concern for inmate Byron Shane Chubbuck, prisoner #07909051. 

I am aware that his mail is being tampered with, he has been denied medical treatment as well as religious rights, and has sustained both physical and psychological abuse by staff at your facility. I am requesting that steps be taken to correct this misconduct and hope to hear a response from you as soon as possible. Mr. Chubbuck will let us know if this continues. 

Thank you, (Name)

*WRITE*

Send letters to:

Warden Bledsoe
USP Lewisburg
U.S. Penitentiary
2400 Robert F. Miller Drive
Lewisburg, PA  17837

Dear Warden Bledsoe,

I have been informed that acts of abuse have been directed towards Byron Chubbuck #07909051. Mr. Chubbuck has been in various USPs and has never received the type of treatment he has been experiencing in Lewisburg.

I understand that Mr. Chubbuck has received disciplinary action including loss of phone, visitation rights and access to commissary items. We find these excessive punishments for the types of offenses he's been charged with. He has also been falsely accused of throwing fecal matter at your staff, carrying a weapon, and assaulting a staff member (Lt. Galleta). Of utmost concern at this time, however, is the treatment Mr. Chubbuck received on November 7th, 2009.

I am aware that officers shot nonlethal chemical pellets numerous times in to the occupied cell where Mr. Chubbuck and his cellmate, Mr. Andrade #16320-085, are housed. Mr. Chubbuck was removed from the cell and restrained by several staff members who subsequently poured scalding water on to his face. He was then stripped and placed in solitary. While this alone is disturbing, I am extremely appalled to hear that PA Potter cut Mr. Chubbuck’s hair. This is a sign of disrespect and a great insult to an enrolled Native American.

In addition, Mr. Chubbuck is experiencing the worst handling of his mail in over five years, at five other USPs. If these gross injustices against Mr. Chubbuck are found to be in retaliation for his political views, this would be a violation of his rights and BOP policy. This kind of abuse and harassment of prisoners is not acceptable.

I am sending this letter in solidarity with the many across the nation. I demand a full investigation into Mr. Chubbuck’s treatment on November 7, 2009 and to see his assault charge from that day be dropped. I also ask that the June 24, 2009 fecal charges against him be reviewed and dropped.

I have sent copies of this letter to state representatives and will establish a written record of what is widely considered as abuse. I will be going through the proper channels within the BOP system to ensure that this incident does not go unnoticed. Mr. Chubbuck will not be cut off from his international supporters. He will not be forgotten!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

*SUPPORT*

Write Let Oso Blanco know that you supported him! It is absolutely essential that Oso Blanco knows how many people he has on the outside that will not allow him to be forgotten, even if it is a single letter.

BYRON CHUBBUCK
# 07909051
USP LEWISBURG
PO BOX 1000
LEWISBURG PA, 17837

*IN OSO’S WORDS*

“Who said to stop calling in!? No one runs us! WE run us!” -Oso Blanco
December 2009

MapachinABC@gmail.com
Ciastaugustine@yahoo.com
–
I am visible–see this Indian face–yet I am invisible. I both blind them with my beak nose and am their blind spot. But I exist, we exist. They’d like to think I have melted in the pot. But I haven’t. We haven’t.


-Gloria Anzaldua

The State, Violence, and prisoners.

Lest there be any doubts about the potential for staff-to-prisoner violence, and the difficulties prisoners have protecting themselves from retaliation while incarcerated. This ties into the letter I'm posting to the warden at USP Lewisburg about Oso Blanco. These folks at the Cesar Rodney Institute Blog (from Delaware) are pretty tenacious - they've been on their DOC constantly agitating for oversight and legislative changes. 

I think the inmates needed to direct this letter to the US Department of Justice, though, to request a Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) investigation, given the evidence of a pattern of abusive behavior by guards. So, I'll print this up and send it in myself - Department of Justice, consider yourselves served with notice that you're responsible for following up on this. 

It's that easy to do, folks - anyone can trigger a CRIPA investigation. You may just have to be persistent about it before they finally respond - and in the meantime, keep in touch with the prisoners involved to assure that they're still able to communicate if there are any problems, and remind them to send copies of all their grievances and other documentation of abuse home so it isn't confiscated and destroyed by the prison.

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Cesar Rodney Institute  Blog

(Editor’s note: this story can also be viewed in CRI’s Special Reports section.)

Victim of the assault by guards still suffering from injuries received during the beating, according to his written statement obtained by CRI.

BREAKING NEWS: Retaliation begins against 42 inmate whistleblowers at SCI

By Lee Williams

After 42 inmates at the Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown came forward telling state officials they witnessed an unprovoked assault by three guards on one inmate – an attack they claim was started by the guards – retaliation has begun against the whistleblowers.

The inmates documented the assault on a Department of Correction (DOC) grievance form, which bears their 42 signatures. It was sent to Attorney General Beau Biden, Correction Commissioner Carl Danberg, the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, the NAACP and Dover attorney Steve Hampton.

They specifically asked Biden and Danberg to shield them from retaliation from the guards, who remain assigned to the tier.

The 42 inmates want criminal charges brought against two guards and a sergeant “who assaulted inmate Usef Dickerson on 11/11/09, in front of about 43 inmates on A-Tier.”

Their grievance states the guards, “violently punched and kicked inmate Dickerson to the body and about the head and face.”

Dickerson’s statement of the events provides more detail. Both complaints allege that the guards verbally provoked the assault, which began with an exchange of words.

In his statement, Dickerson said a guard sergeant “grabbed me by the head and pushed me into the chow hall. Then he quickly tried to slam me to the ground, but I ended up falling on top of him. At that point, I knew he was trying to hurt me, so I held him on the ground with one arm close to his body, so that he couldn’t do nothing to me.

“Seconds later, one officer who I cannot identify because he came from behind me, put me in a choke hold an began choking me while the other officer began punching me in the face. That’s when I let Sgt. [name withheld by CRI] go, closed my eyes and they continued to punch and choke me until I was either knocked out by a punch or until I passed out from lack of oxygen, because I was choked so long. I cannot say which it was, because I was being choked and punched at the same time.

“When I finally regained consciousness, I was being pepper-sprayed and punched in the face, but I was not being choked. I don’t know how it happened, but around a minute later, I was being escorted out of the building in handcuffs by an officer not involved in the assault.”

He strongly denies fighting back during the assault.

Several days prior to the attack, Dickerson said the guard sergeant told him, “I’ll beat you like your daddy should have.”

Dickerson filed grievances about the assault, sick call requests for medical aid, and asked to have his battered face photographed. He claims to suffer from constant headaches and broken blood vessels in his eyes.

Intimidation begins

Acquaintances of the inmates who reported the assault say staff has started to retaliate against the 42 whistleblowers.

The retaliation ranges in severity from the minor – making an inmate dump his food tray before he has had a chance to eat – to the serious.

One inmate, CRI was told, was watching a football game Sunday. He did not hear the guards announce a head count, and remained behind. The guards threatened to charge him with attempted escape, which could add years to his sentence.

Throughout the tier, the guards are asking all of the signatories “why did you sign?”

Dover attorney Hampton said, “The mere mention of the petition by staff to the inmates who signed it is itself intimidation.”

The DOC is also trying to suppress more information about the assault from leaking out of the prison.

The Caesar Rodney Institute has learned that a Delaware news reporter requested to interview three of the 42 inmates who witnessed the assault.

Tuesday evening, CRI has learned, the DOC’s internal affairs investigators pulled the three inmates whom the reporter sought to interview from their cells and interrogated them about Dickerson’s assault.

Department of Correction Commissioner Carl Danberg did not return calls seeking comment for this story.

Danberg has said the investigation into Dickerson’s assault will take months.

SCI has a reputation for abuse, especially if the inmate is small, non-threatening and mentally or physically ill.

Dickerson stands 5-foot, 4-inches, suffers from severe asthma and weights 130 pounds.

In June, guards at the facility nearly beat Laurel businessman David Sully to death, by raining down blows to his head and face. Several wounds on Sully’s face required stitches to close. When he left the facility, he was covered with dye used in the guards’ pepper spray.

Despite horrific photos that chronicled the assault, Danberg said his guards did nothing wrong. He implied Sully had done something to merit the repeated beatings. Sully is 5-feet, 5-inches tall and weighs 140 pounds.

Last month, Gianfranco Carta said guards at SCI shot pepper spray directly into his mouth, and then smacked his head into a concrete wall several times as he walked blindly down a hallway. Carta stands 5-feet, 7-inches and weighs 140 pounds.

Danberg’s internal affairs unit has said Carta’s story is “under investigation.”

In 2006, several guards attacked inmate David Kalm. Sometime during the assault, one of the guards shoved a nightstick or similar object down Kalm’s throat, tearing his trachea. Kalm is 5-feet, 7-inches and suffers from asthma, COPD and severe anxiety.

Danberg’s internal affairs unit investigated and found the guards did nothing wrong. Kalm has since sued the DOC. His case is pending.

The guards – defendants in the civil suit – are represented by the Attorney General’s office, after the office concluded they did nothing to merit criminal charges.

Contact investigative reporter Lee Williams at (302) 242-9272 or lee@caesarrodney.org