Transcript
NO TITLE Willie Williams Menard, IL 62259 I've been incarcerated for 10 years and has spent 7 of those years in Illinois Department of Corrections (I.D.O.C.) in Menard Correctional Department. I am unjustly convicted of a crime I truly did not commit based upon lies, inconsistencies, hearsay and circumstantial evidence. I must admit that my drug addiction put me in a compromising position many times but I never imagined being sentenced to 42 years wrongly and being subjected to some of the worst and inhumane treatments by the hands and ideals of other "humans". It seems that the D.O.C. employs bias and sadistic people and/or trains people to be bias and sadists in their tactics to exert control. Jail and prison is not what it was like when I first was introduced to it 25 years ago – adult facilities housed adults with a few 17-21 year olds (which was the result of new laws permitting juveniles to be charged as adults and juveniles being deemed eligible for adult facilities at the age of 17). At 17 I entered the adult facilities and the adults recognized my immature and undeveloped state and took responsibility for ensuring my maturation and development. Today adult facilities population is majorly people that were incarcerated at the age of 17-32 and the new entries are normally within this age range thus making jail/prison a very immature environment. Being 41 years old I have an entirely different perspective and experiences than those around me, and being father and uncle of youths within this 17-25 age range my compassion and empathy instinctually extends toward the youth. But there's a greater picture that these youths fail to see and comprehend which is the systems capitalizations of the youths ignorance, irresponsibility, inexperience, and impulsiveness. I've always considered segregation as another part of prison that every inmate can expect to experience due to the mentality of the staff and/or any given stressful/emotional mindstate of the inmate(s). I've visited segregation a few times due to both mental state of the staff and myself. At the present I'm in segregation because two (2) confidential informants told Intel that I was a high ranking leader of a gang (classified as a security threat group). There was no claim that I did anything, sanctioned anything, etc., but Intel tried to solidify their claim by a letter I wrote about organizing political and legal minded inmates to seek resolutions and organizations against the inhumane conditions and treatments within this facility. As a result I was given 90 days of segregation, commissary and telephone restrictions and 180 days of contact visit restriction. Within my time in segregation I've noticed that most of the segregation population is labeled Severely Mentally Ill (S.M.I.). Rasho v. Walker, U.S.D.C. (C.D. Ill.), Case no. 1:07-CV-01298-MMM created a movement in I.D.O.C. where a great number of inmates became classified as S.M.I. and were entitled to specific treatment/conditions which cause I.D.O.C. acting Director Baldwin to amend the Departmental Rules 504 which eliminated long term segregation time and limited what constituted confinement in segregation. As a result most of the inmates housed in Menard's maximum security facility does not frequent segregation and/or violate rules that constitute confinement in segregation. The officers openly expressed their disappointments of the D.R.504 amendments because the amendments took away their sadistic illusion of leverage, control, and punishment. While on the other hand, the Disciplinary Adjustment Committee targets inmates privileges and contact visits excessively. And the Intelligence Department has been overly misusing their authority and so-called confidential informants to investigate and charge inmates with Security Threat Group (S.T.G.) violations as the source of filling segregation space for 3-12 months. In 2016, I noticed a very small group of inmates with long term segregation time that was diagnosed as S.M.I. These inmates were housed in one area of one of the gallery. In 2018 I came to segregation for 15 days and noticed that 1 1/2 galleries was housing inmates labeled as S.M.I. In 2019 at this present moment, inmates labeled as S.M.I. has grown excessively and on all 4 galleries of the segregation unit. These S.M.I. inmates constantly bangs on the steel doors and furniture, erratically yell/rant senselessly and aimlessly, attempt to commit suicide, throw/smear urine and feces on self and cell, verbally assault other inmates and staff, and expose their genitals. All of these behaviors are accepted and encouraged by other S.M.I. inmates and often provoked/agitated by staff. Even more bewildering is that most of these inmates are "short-timers" transferred from lesser security level prisons for disciplinary reasons. Most of these inmates has more segregation time than they have remaining on the Mandatory Sentencing Release day. In response to the behavior of S.M.I. inmates policies/procedures are being imposed upon all the inmates in segregation which enhances in severity weekly and infringes upon constitutional rights. Hence, having Intel and Mental Health departments being the source of keeping the segregation unit filled, inmates that are not labeled S.M.I. are forced to be housed with and around S.M.I. inmates. Inmates are not professionally trained to deal with S.M.I. persons nor has most inmates had close encounters with S.M.I. people before. S.M.I. persons often exceeds bounds and finds no wrong in their behaviors. This often becomes the source of fights and assaults between inmates in this segregation unit for, the erratic behaviors of S.M.I. inmates poses a negative and dangerous effect on the inmate population mentally and physically; thus causing inmates to face battles for their sanity and safety. I recognize I.D.O.C. abilities to manipulate situations to get desired effects suitable to support their claims/objectives. I truly believe that the mentioned tactics and situations are purposefully designed to manipulate violence and hostilities to utilize as means to get around their civil defeats that are forcing reformation upon them. The dynamics and culture of I.D.O.C. is to maintain control through schisms, disaffections, mistrustfulness, inefficiency, and despondency; and this must change.
