Transcript
Cuomo Doesn't Care On July 3, 2018, I was called out to the Tier Office, where I was angrily confronted by Captain Raczkowski. He had copies of articles I wrote for APWA:"#MeToo? Not Me!", "Cuomo Allows Rape". I subsequently wrote about this in "What Cuomo Did". How did Raczkowski get my writings? Did Cuomo retaliate by sending my complaints to the very people I was complaining about, or was my outgoing mail stolen? I haven't received a single response from APWA since last spring. Recently, I got two letters inviting me to participate in another On The Same Page event and a Poetry magazine prisoners' writing issue. Both were sent to me at Greene CF, where I haven't been for two years. Why didn't New York Writers Coalition have my new address? I have written to them repeatedly from here, but never got a response. Who is stealing my mail? Both writing projects had November deadlines. I got the letters in December. I just got back another grievance. Yet again, prison officials claim that getting a book published violates Directive 4422, which prohibits inmates from "running a business". I have been told that "a copyright is a kind of pseudo-business", that I can't publish my comics on the free prisons foundation site because "It's still a business", and that I can't publish anything anywhere, especially on the internet. I have been told that I can't earn money from anything I do in prison, even though Executive Law § 632 expressly says otherwise. The law is absolutely clear. 4422 says that "media mail" is not subject to inspection or confiscation, period. prison officials can't even open it. I can write about my case, but if my prison account goes over $10,000, the Superintendent has to notify the victims, and also that if I profit from private knowledge of the case, the victims can sue me for that money. How can they have the right to sue if I'm not allowed to make that money in the first place? The fact is that prison officials don't care about the law. There is no law enforcement in New York. Minutes before I was confronted with my writings, I had been meeting with an OSI agent who questioned me about long-ago PREA violations. Did he take my statement? No, he wrote a statement and told me to sign it. There is no way to get prison officials investigated when they break the law. Federal officials are just as useless. Are they even getting my letters, or are those being stolen as well? Obstruction of justice is a federal felony, but cops don't get prosecuted. DOCCS officials have told me in writing that I am not allowed to report crimes to the FBI. I have been repeatedly told, in writing, that I will be retaliated against again if I even try to sue anyone. I believe these threats, since the last time I sent someone a "Notice of intent to file suit" I wound up starving in an OMH strip cell for five days, then in the box. Here at Orleans, staff have again tried to involve OMH in their retaliatory schemes, but this time OMH didn't play along. I was strip searched and sent to Wende CF three times. The first two times, OMH clearly reported that they did not want or need to see me again. I filed a PREA complaint, saying that DOCCS staff were using OMH call outs as an excuse to humiliate and degrade me with unnecessary strip searches. What happened next? I was sent to OMH again. Crowley told me, in writing, that because I had filed a PREA complaint, I had to be sent to OMH yet again. Strange - I never got sent to OMH for any previous PERA complaint. I have no doubt whatsoever that the moment I try to file ant kind of legal action I will wind up back in the box, probably beaten to a pulp, denied medical attention, charged with assault on staff, with my property pillaged. How can a Superintendent use a directive which prohibits interference with media mail to deny me my rights to free expression? She knows that I can't sue her - she won't let me. I can't appeal the bogus Misbehavior Reports I went to the box for, sue for my stolen property, or fight my criminal case anymore. I'm helpless. Cuomo doesn't care. He personally appoints prison superintendents, and the acting commissioner (Annucci). Why is a guy who lost a summary judgement in a federal civil rights case running New York's prisons? Because Cuomo doesn't care. I'm getting his message loud and clear: I have no rights. I can be robbed, raped, beaten, killed, silenced. Cuomo won't lift a finger to help me. This is my last gasp. Will this make it out into the Real World, or will I die unheard?
