Transcript
Jamil Hayes Aka King Millz I wake up different hours of the day and each time I awake to yelling and loud noises. Men arguing with each other and officers. Men beating on the doors rapping songs that express their hurt, pain and sufferings. And doors being kicked. Those are the sounds of the Tier program. Being locked behind a door 24/7 can do something to your mental. causing you to be angry and violent. It's like a disease you can catch. Georgia says the purpose of the Tier Program is to rehabilitize you and help you make better decisions and be a more productive "offender". It's actually designed to punish you. Break you down physically and mentally and won't let you out until you are submissive. You don't receive the counseling and classes they say are offered to Tier housing units and you are treated worst than animals. The reason I know is not because of hearing it from individuals who have been on Tier, but first hand. Because I am on the Tier Program. On the Tier Program, you're going to lose weight your first twenty days. Looking around I don't see anybody with meat on their bodies. We all look like refugees from a POW Camp. We're fed the bare minimal and aren't allowed to buy food until Phase 3. There are 3 phases to the program. Phase (1) Phase(2) and Phase (3). Each are 90 days apiece. You must complete them successfully in order to be able to return to population- The minorest things can get you kept in your current Phase or have to start all over at Phase 1. It's all meant to break you and destroy your spirit. But I'm not writing to inform you of the Tier Program. But enlighten you upon how the Tier Program effects a person mentally and the impact it has on one's mind. I was placed on the Tier Program back in March of 2018. It was because of my decisions and I take complete responsibility for my actions. My first thoughts were to complete the little 9 months, play their game and return to population. Easy enough. I couldn't see how you could do years locked down on Tier when you knew the rules. What I didn't know was it was my ignorance and lack of knowledge of the Tier Program speaking. The Tier is extremely hard when you don't have a strong outside support system. Someone to cheer you on, hold you up when you feel like (?) No letters to remind you that there's someone waiting on you, needing you to return home. At that point the walls begin to close in. Your mind becomes your worst enemy. You become depressed and lonely. Your stomach sounds like a lion roaring and you only get enough food to get you to the next day. Three meals during the week, 2 on weekends. You try to sleep your time away. The noise is too loud, and besides, the Tier will get its time from you. Either you sleep all day and up all night or sleep all night, either way, you was doing the time. A lot of people convert to suicide or drugs. But quickly loneliness and depression turns into anger. I wasn't angry at myself, the true source, but at everyone else. I became so angry, so destructive. There has been times I thought of death, slit my wrist to end the pain, escape the Tier. But suicide just isn't in my blood. It can turn you crazy when it dawns on you that, Dang, The only time this door opens is at shower call or if I get called out for medical or "Hey" I just received this tiny meal at 2pm and won't eat again until 4am the next morning. Everything tends to enrage you. Bothers you, like the Snickers commercial. You aren't yourself if when you're hungry. An officer might stop by your cell talking junk just to get under your skin. All for the simple fact that they can. They hate their jobs and take it out on us. Might wait hours after trays have arrived to pass them out or hang up the phone while you're talking. They want you to get angry so they can run in with no less then 4 officers and jump on you, then after that, put you on strip cell. Take all your property, leave you in a cold empty cell, naked. And you'll be like that for days at a time. No one cares and no one will call the supervisors. If you go on strip cell Friday, you won't get your clothes and (?) and water turned on 'til Monday. I know because its been done to me more than once. Now dealing with the oppression of Tier, the outside problems stacked on the fact that you're always hungry. It's too much. You can't talk to your loved ones, can't see your kids. People you love are dying. It's hard to remain sane. I've gone to see the mental health doctor seeking help, understanding of why I become so angry. I could go from zero to 100. How I'm now so antisocial, heartless and compassionless. My first response is violence. That isn't normal. But she blew me off. Says nothing is wrong with me. I could see it in her eyes. What I read was, "you're a young black man, You're out there shooting folks, robbing, gang banging. Now you want to cry about your environment. What people are doing to you. You deserve this. There's no sympathy for people like you." She didn't even give me a chance to talk. She didn't know me. But as young black men were enemy number 1. Being slaughtered in the street and tortured in prisons. Nobody wants to listen in a cell from the rest of the world. I got tired of trying to seek help and being cold shouldered. A major thing being done on Tier is officers being sprayed with bodily fluids. At first I'm like, "Those dudes are losing their mind." But like anything else, being around something long enough, it gets to become normal. By nature, females are emotional and sensitive creatures. 75% of people work in the department of corrections are women. That being said, one time a C.O. walked into the dorm saying, "I'm not feeling it today. Talk to your kids. Try to be as much of a father as possible." But now you couldn't, all because the C.O. had a bad day. Immediately, everyone would become angry, kicking the door, screaming. But the C.O. wouldn't care. She'd go to the booth where the noise was muted. If you needed medical attention nobody would come. Your roommate could be killing you and yet still not come. So what an inmate will do is yell out "Hey! I got 75 dollars to shoot Ms. so and so down!" The C.O. wouldn't last another hour. Soon as she'd open the flap to serve trays, she'd be sprayed with a shampoo bottle full of feces. That's how it went with a lot of C.O.s. You either get with the program or get fluids thrown on you. It would get to the point you no longer cared. You'd fight the officers, throw bodily fluids and become violent. The C.O.'s jumped on you, sprayed you with Mace and taze you. It's our way of fighting back against oppression. See how crazy it is being outside looking in? But inside, it's normal. A way of life, and little by little, day by day, you lose more of your sanity. It's crazy how such situations can turn a human into a savage. That's how your 9 months will turn into years on the Tier Program. They only respect violence. Being soft spoken gets you nowhere. The submissive are the ones who complete the program. They want to be able to talk to you any type of way, speak to you any type of way. Show any sign of aggression, rebellion and you'll be kept on Tier. It's the same technique the slave owners used to beat the slaves into submission. Take you away from people, deprive you of water and basic necessities. Turn you against each other. Either you play by their rules or continue to suffer. It's give up your rights or stay locked down. The Willi Lynch Theory. Seems like being high is the only way to get by, day by day. To not go crazy, revert to violence. Make it through the hard times. The Tier Program is meant to destroy the strong. But instead, it hardens a person, makes them more violent. The Tier Program was ruled by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional, but yet is still running strong in the State of Georgia. It's all about dollar per inmate. But like the great Tupac said, "That's just the way it is. The men who fight against oppression are being held and tortured under the Title 'Tier Program." I will be 25 this year and feel like I've learned a lot within this 25 years. People ask this question. Has the Tier made you a better person and my answer is this, "No, because the government definition of better is submissive so 'no', I am not a better person. But I'm wiser. Stronger mentally and physically and the greatest thing I learned is this - You can not, can not, beat the system in which oppresses us with force or violence. But with the pen, your words last longer than your muscle. They can destroy your body, but can't destroy the paper trail the pen leaves. I'm a young man who seeks to inform others of what's done in dark.
