OUTSIDE SUPPORTERS

(We are asking outside supporters to make copies of this page and the document below and pass them around to others.)

We are issuing the following on behalf of all prisoners confined in Administrative Segregation units under the jurisdiction of the Missouri State Department of Correction. We would like to draw your attention particularly to the ad-seg units at the South Correctional Center in Licking. We ask you to copy the statement attached and mail it to the following state officials:

Governor Bob Holden
State Capital Building
201 West Capital Avenue
Jefferson City, Missouri 65101
USA / Connie L. Johnson, Member Missouri House of Representatives
201 West Capital Avenue
Jefferson City, Missouri 65101
USA
Gary Kempker, director
Missouri Department of Correction
Box 236
Jefferson City, Missouri 65102
USA / George A. Lombardi – D.D.A.I.
Missouri Department of Correction
Box 236
Jefferson City, Missouri 65102
USA
Michael Bowersox, Superintendent
S.C.C.C.
255 West Highway 32
Licking, Missouri 65543-9069
USA

Date

To Whom It May Concern:

We have been watching the situation with respect to Jerome White-bey, #37479, who is unjustly confined in Administrative Segregation as a result of an alleged assault on another prisoner. Prison officials at the South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri, are refusing to give him a PSE lie detector-Test to prove his innocence. We also have been informed that on 18 march 2004, Mr. Paul McPheeters informed Mr. White-Bey that the latter will spend the rest of his life in Administrative Segregation. As of that time Mr. White-Bey had been in Administrative Segregation for 10 months. We are demanding that Mr. White-Bey be released to the general prison population and that he be given a PSE-Test.

We are asking you to consider the inhumane conditions which exist in the Missouri prison system’s Administrative Segregation units. Most prisoners confined in these units are under indefinite sentence and the conditions under which they are forced to live are barbaric. It is apparent that the system is simply warehousing human beings and, as such, there is no compunction whatsoever to observe their most basic civil and human rights. We send you this message to elicit the attention of government and prison officials whose job it is to investigate such claims and, if proven to be true, corrected.

The following demands have been articulated by Missouri prisoners presently confined in Administrative Segregation units throughout the state:

  1. An immediate end to the indefinite terms in Administrative Segregation units and an immediate delineation of criteria to be implemented so that ad-seg prisoners may work toward release.
  2. An end to the use of food deprivation for behavior modification and punishment; an end to the use of broken and/or waterlogged food trays. Food trays should contain adequate portions for the prisoners being served. Implementation of orders requiring unit staff serving food trays to wear protective gloves and face guards. This last request is made to prevent the guards from spitting in prisoners’ food.
  3. An end to non-contact visits: Implementation of contact visits with family, friends and legal representatives for prisoners in Administrative Segregation.
  4. All prisoners in Administrative Segregation must be allowed to purchase and have walkman radios and limited food canteen items from the Prisoners’ Canteen.
  5. An end to religious discrimination. We demand that prisoners in Administrative Segregation who are followers of faiths other than the Christian be allowed to practice their faiths in accordance with the dictates of their religious laws.
  6. An end to restricted phone access and pre-approved phone calls. We demand that prisoners be allowed to place collect calls during the one-hour recreational access period. Pubic phones could be installed in each unit’s recreation cage area so that during the entire hour prisoners could contact whom they wished. This would be consistent with general population phone access.
  7. An end to the tampering, purposeful mishandling and deliberate delay of both in-coming and out-going mail, personal or legal. Such tampering is an abuse and must cease. U.S. mailboxes should be installed so that prisoners’ mail would be secure from such abuse. Prisoners presently receive mail addressed to other prisoners on a daily basis; this is a unit-wide problem.
  8. An end to discriminatory hiring practices, a problem inherent in the entire Missouri Correctional System. We demand that more Blacks, Latinos and members of other minority groups be hired and on staff at all Missouri prisons as well as throughout the entire Missouri prison administration.
  9. An end to the double celling of prisoners in the Administrative Segregation units, all double celling should end but we are here concerned primarily with conditions in Administrative Segregation units.
  10. An independent and separate Administrative Segregation Committee which is totally free of prison classification staff members.
  11. An end to the physical abuse of prisoners. Such abuse includes but is not limited to: harassing, beating, making, forceful medication of any kind. We demand that all mentally ill prisoners be removed from the Administrative Segregation units of the Missouri prison system and be given care adequate to their needs in a proper institutional setting.
  12. The provision of adequate medical care and adequate clothing to all prisoners confined in Administrative Segregation units. The provision of adequate medical care to all prisoners; this is particularly important in the case of those prisoners confined to Administrative Segregation because of the extremely difficult conditions under which they are confined.
  13. The provision of an adequate law library accessible to prisoners confined in Administrative Segregation for a minimum of 6 hours on a daily basis.

The above list should not be considered complete; we are aware that some issues may have not been addressed nevertheless we submit the above in demand that the dehumanization come to an immediate halt throughout the system. In particular we draw your attention to the case of the above mentioned Mr. Jerome White-Bey who has been the object of particular harassment, abuse, lies and frame-ups. He has our complete support and we demand his release from the Administrative Segregation unit at South Central Correctional Center in Licking, Missouri.

Thank you for your attention and we look forward to hearing from you in the very near future.

Cordially,

Signature(s)