Sunday 28 July 2013

ACTION ALERT * ACTION ALERT * ACTION ALERT * ACTION ALERT

ACTION ALERT  * ACTION ALERT  * ACTION ALERT  * ACTION ALERT

Contact number:
PA DOC Secretary John Wetzel, 1920 Technology Parkway, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050; Phone number: 717-728-4109; Fax: 717-728-4178

Friends and Activists,  Tomorrow July, 29, 2013 there is a court hearing for  Dallas 6 (for more information see)  http://scidallas6.blogspot.com/.    The Pennsylvania Department of Corruption is up to their normal routine.   I received a letter this weekend from Duane Peters that he was moved from SCI Dallas to Luzerne County Prison for trial.  Upon sheriff coming to get him he advised them that he had boxes of legal material that was needed for the trial.  SCI Dallas would not give him the boxes and denied that he needed the boxes for court.   As usual, what they will probably do is destroy evidence that this man has been compiling over the years. 

Please call or fax Secretary Wetzel’s office and demand that Duane Peters be given his legal material in order to defend himself in court.  They need to know that we are on to them and there action will be made public.  Let them know that it looks bad on their part for withholding evidence that might be incriminating.  I’m going to be in court so I won’t be able to call.  Whoever is able to, please make that call or fax for me.  I really appreciate your efforts!


Luzerne County Courthouse - Courtroom #1
200 N River St
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711
Monday, July 29, 2013 (may last 1-2 weeks)
  9:00 AM

Wednesday 3 July 2013

PACK THE COURTROOM FOR DALLAS 6

DALLAS SIX TRIAL UPDATE
 
PLEASE PACK THE COURTROOM TO SHOW OUR SUPPORT!


Luzerne County Courthouse 
200 N River St
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18711
Monday, July 29, 2013
9:00 AM

Carrington Keys, Duane Peters, Derrick Stanley and 2 others will be in court to defend bogus riot charges brought against them from SCI Dallas in Dallas, PA.   In April of 2010, these men witnessed several beatings in the solitary dungeon at SCI Dallas.  These men were targeted  for many reasons, but mainly in retaliation for bravely contributing to a report by Human Rights Coalition that detailed the abuses that were going on inside the walls there.   They covered their cell doors and asked to speak with outside officials in order to discuss what was going on.  Instead, their cells were forcefully entered and they were beaten, tased and shackled for hours before all but  Duane Peters were emergency evacuated to other dungeons.   Mr. Peters is still being tortured in the dungeon there. 

 The men each filed their own charges of abuse against Dallas.  Mr.  Keys later filed charges against the DA of Luzerne County as well, because he felt she had turned a blind eye to the abuse and dismissed their cases without any investigation into the matter.  Approximately 3 months after the incident, upon learning of the Human Rights Coalition report, SCI Dallas filed retaliatory BOGUS charges of riot against these men. 

Mr. Stanley, who has since been released, appealed the riot claim and won.   This put the trial for the others on hold.   The state decided to appeal and after switching judges to suit their need, the decision was overturned.   Now they all face riot charges.  This case has been dragged out for over 3 years.  It is bogus and retaliatory in nature and the only reason I feel it continues to move through the courts is because of the major corruption that is rampant in  Luzerne County and the Department of Corrections.   They are so intent on winning at all cost because they do  not want to lose to prisoners, especially African American prisoners.  (This is the county where the Judge sold the children to the juvenile system for his own financial gain which was up in the millions.)  

All of the men involved are jailhouse lawyers and civil and human rights activists in their own right, which is part of the reason they were in the dungeon to begin with.  The DOC has a fight on its hands if they think they are going to just walk over these men.  We are asking for courtroom support from any groups that promote civil rights, prisoner rights and human rights.  We are asking for family members and friends to be present.  We want this courtroom filled with the public and not the guards.  Let them know we care and let them know these men will not be stopped.  What happened in this dungeon is only the tip of the iceberg and an everyday occurence everywhere in the dungeons of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections.  It is time for the abuses to end.  Trial may last all week. Please be there for one of the days or as many as you can.  If you have any questions please feel free to send me an email to sd4hrc@gmail.com.

Shandre Delaney
Human Rights Activist/HRC-Fedup
Mother of Carrington Keys

Tuesday 28 May 2013

DALLAS SIX TRIAL UPDATE
LET'S S PACK THE COURTROOM


The Dallas Six will be back in court in the Luzerne County Courthouse on Monday, July 29, 2013.  They are finally going to trial for retaliatory riot charges that were brought about in 2010.  This case has been dragged out for more than 3 years.  It is senseless and baseless.  How can people detained in solitary confinement come together to start a riot and furthermore how can you riot from within a solitary cell?  The Department of Corrections is wasting taxpayer money.  Instead of accusing prisoners of frivolous lawsuits they need to check themselves! More details and  trial schedule to follow.

Thursday 21 February 2013

UPDATE ON JANUARY 7, 2013 COURT PROCEEDINGS

On January 9 2013, Carrington Keys (one of the Dallas 6) had his day in federal court under the jurisdiction of Honorable Judge Richard Caputo.  Mr. Keys was the plaintiff in a civil suit against staff members of SCI Dallas for retaliation and abuse.  He was a Pro Se litigant and performed quite well according to courtroom visitors from Human Rights Coalition.  The trial lasted for 3 days.  Mr. Keys subpoenaed 5 prisoners as witnesses and some SCI Dallas staff members as well.  The prisoner witnesses gave insight into the abuse and torture that occur in solitary confinement and eyewitness testimony of what happened to Mr. Keys.  One prisoner witness,  Isacc Sanchez was court ordered to be removed from SCI Dallas because he was in fear for his life and receiving threats from guards during the trial.  All witnesses said they received threats from prison staff about testifying.  As well as prison guards filled the courtroom and attempted to intimidate Keys supporters by falsely accusing one of voice recording courtroom proceedings and another of taking pictures of the courtroom.  Someone also falsely alerted homeland security who placed some of the supporters under investigation due to their lies.  During lunch break the guards were seen lunching in the same restaurant as the jurors, which was probably intimidating.  In these small towns such as Dallas, the jails are usually the main income and if not for these prisons a lot of people would be out of work.  Therefore, they will do whatever to keep their jobs. The trial ended in a  mistrial.  The jury came out to talk to the Mr. Keys and the defendants lawyer.  They were able to ask questions as to how they viewed the case.  It was unanimous that they believed Mr. Keys was abused by the guards.  Their well known lie about camera malfunction did not work and was very  unbelievable to the jurors.  To clarify about the cameras, cameras are always used when they prison wants to prove something an inmate did, but when an inmate needs footage to prove their point, the camera has a malfunction.  This is an ongoing lie and tactic that the DOC uses to cover up its wrongdoings.  This time it didn't work.  Though they decided that he was abused, the jury  could not  decide that it was malicious.  I've never  heard of prisoners being abused for a good reason!  In my opinion, if they abused this man then it would have to be for a bad reason hence,  maliciousness and therefore retaliation.  Mr. Keys is a known jailhouse lawyer who has many cases against the DOC.  For this reason he has been buried in solitary for almost a decade and constantly starved and abused.    Mr. Keys retrial will be in June of 2013. We would like to pack the courtroom with supporters and media.   Any interested party please email  for updates to sd4hrc@gmail.com or post on the blog.   More information to follow.

A CALL TO ACTION

ACTION ALERT - PLEASE CALL OR WRITE

We need help in getting prisoner Duane Peter- FP7306 transferred out of SCI Dallas. Duane has been under ongoing harassment and abuse which has increasingly escalated. He has been at SCI Dallas for about 10 years with most of it spent in solitary confinement. In 2010, he and other prisoners were accused of riot after peacefully covering their cell windows in protest of retaliatory beatings of prisoners who sent abuse reports to HRC. All the other prisoners were emergency evacuated from Dallas after being beaten and tased for hours, but Peters was not.

Prior to and since that time he has been under constant attack. Now he is under excessive retaliation because he was a witness in a civil suit against staff members of SCI Dallas for abuse and retaliation. During the trial in January, the judge ordered another witness, Isaac Sanchez, to be removed because he was receiving threats as well. Since then, Peters has reported several incidents of retaliation and threats. Deputy Superintendent Mooney personally came to him and threatened him. They are hindering the legal process by tampering with mail, not notarizing legal docs, tampering with food and making threats and denying access to law library. They have tried to serve him raw or spoiled meats and eggs. They broke his glasses while he was at shower. He has exhausted grievances to no avail. He has reached out to Superintendent Walsh in the matter who has not made any effort to stop it since he is calling the shots.

Since the Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent at SCI Dallas are participating in the retaliation, we need to first call the Secretary’s office. Then call SCI Dallas and let them know that we have called the Secretary’s office. Also, I am working on a letter to Secretary Wetzel’s office equesting Mr. Peters be moved.

Demand:
Mr. Peters be moved immediately so there is no conflict of interest with the ongoing litigation
Halt all attacks and threats against Mr. Peters immediately
Do not hinder the legal process
Do not tamper with mail
Take steps to give him the opportunity to be get out of solitary

Please contact:
Central Office
John E. Wetzel, Secretary (717) 728-4109
Shirley Moore Smeal, Executive Deputy Secretary (717) 728-4110
Michael Klopotoski, Deputy Secretary Eastern Region (717) 728-4122 or 4123

Then Contact:
SCI Dallas – (570) 675-1101
Jerome Walsh, Superintendent:
Vincent Mooney, Deputy Superintendent for Centralized Services:
Robin Lucas, Superintendent’s Assistant

Monday 7 January 2013

Pack the Courthouse!

From Facebook, by Carrington Keys' mother:
 
My son Carrington Keys asked me to let everyone know he appreciates their efforts throughout the years and to thank everyone for their support. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he goes before the court this coming week. He has the opportunity to bring before the court what so many of our loved ones have been enduring in the PA DOC. The racism, torture, abuse and outright violation of every human right you can think of.

He was kept in solitary confinement for many years and never let out simply because he refused to discontinue filing lawsuits and taking a stand against racism and unethical behavior. He has endured these abuses not for doing the wrong thing while incarcerated but for doing the right thing! That is being a young black man who has helped people of any race to overcome these circumstances. He has much compassion and in his heart even though he feared for his own life at time. No one deserves to be beat, tortured or starved and thrown into the dungeon for years. No one!

Well, On January 7th, my son will have his day in court and I could not be more proud. He has truly been blessed with a gift to articulate the law. He has endured something that many people would not last one week in. Surely, God is his protector and shield. I am asking all I know to pray, meditate, fast or whatever you do, on his behalf. Victory is his! 


For those who don’t know this is also a part of another struggle. Carrington was involved in a peaceful protest where he and 5 others were charged with riot after the guards beat them for covering their cell windows. They are known as the Dallas 6 and this is the blog related to their case.

Monday, January 7th, 2013:
9:30 AM - Judge Richard Caputo

Place:
 

Max Rosenn United States Courthouse/Court Room 3
197 South Main Street
Wilkes Barre, PA 18701-8701

Friday 9 March 2012

Article From Solitary Watch

“A Time to Speak Up”: Prisoner Freed After a Decade in Solitary Confinement in Pennsylvania

March 8, 2012
Pennsylvania inmate Derrick Stanley has been released from prison after over 22 years of incarceration, more than half of which was served in solitary confinement. Stanley was among six inmates in State Correctional Institution-Dallas’s Restricted Housing Unit (RHU) charged with rioting after a peaceful protest against mistreatment of another inmate in April 2010. Stanley, who represented himself in court, was granted his habeus corpus petition by the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas on December 30th, 2011, after a judge dismissed the riot charge against Stanley. According to the Human Rights Coalition, the judge ruled that the circumstances surrounding the riot charge would “lead to ‘absurd’ charges of riot in the future.” Stanley maxed out of his underlying criminal conviction for armed robbery on February 7th, and agreed to be interviewed by Solitary Watch.

The riot charge stemmed from an April 29th incident in which Stanley and five other inmates, who collectively would be referred to as the Dallas 6, obstructed their cell door windows in protest of the withholding of food from and violent cell extractions of two other inmates. All six were subject to cell extractions over the course of two-three hours. Stanley was the fifth to be extracted, which was done by approximately half a dozen officers, who tasered and beat him before stripping him naked and keeping him restrained in a “hard cell” for 24 hours before being transfered to SCI-Mahanoy, where he would spent over a year in solitary confinement.
According to a July 7th, 2010 criminal complaint, prosecutors used the following definition of riot to charge all six: “A Person is guilty is he participates with two or more others in a course of disorderly conduct with the intent to coerce official action. To wit; the defendant, along with five other inmates, covered their cell door windows and tied their doors shut in order to cause Corrections Officers to perform cell extractions.” (For more specifics on the Dallas 6 case, see my October 2011 article on the issue in addition to the Human Rights Coalition website.)

Stanley’s 1989 arrest, which he attributes to a “reckless time” in his life involving drugs, would be the beginning of over two decades of  imprisonment, and over a decade in isolation. After a few years in general population, he had been placed in the Special Management Unit (SMU) in SCI-Camp Hill, beginning a cycle of repeated placement “in the hole” in facilities across Pennsylvania. His placements, according to him, were typically the result of his consistent willingness to engage in verbal exchanges with the prison guards, whom he saw as abusing their power, particularly in the control units. “I wanted the guards to treat me like a human being, instead they treated me wrong…they were antagonistic,” he says. According to Pennsylvania DOC policy, inmates may be placed in the RHU for reasons ranging from murder to tattooing, “Using abusive, obscene, or inappropriate language to or about an employee,” and “refusing to obey an order.” Inmates may be placed in the RH for 90 days per misconduct charge. For Stanley, his write-ups were routinely for his arguments with prison guards and refusal to accept “degrading” strip searches.
Stanley describes the control unit cells as being “the size of a bathroom,” approximately 8 x 6, consisting of a desk, toilet and sink, with everything made of concrete. His daily routines would consist of breakfast at 6 am, lunch at 10 am, and dinner between 4 and 5 pm.  He would be allowed out of his cell, in shackles, three days a week for showers and yard time Monday through Friday. Yard time consisted of a “dog cage” approximately the same size as his cell, where he would exercise alone. These would all be subject to restriction, including meals.

Describing his periods in solitary “like hell” he says that it made him feel “like a piece of fruit” and occasionally, “psychologically broken.” Verbal confrontation with the guards was one means of “releasing frustration” in reaction to “being oppressed.” He describes the dynamics between the inmates in the control units and the guards as being one of “slave master-slave” and describes an atmosphere of repression. “They’ll do anything possible to keep you subjugated,” which is why he would often speak up for other inmates. “You depend on [the guards]…they play psychological games…they don’t treat us like human beings,” he says, “we can beat them with intelligence, do or die.”
“To keep my serenity I would write, read my Bible, and exercise,” he says. He reports access to religious materials, letters, the law library, and visitation would routinely be denied to him and “dangled like a carrot” in front of him. He tells Solitary Watch that combatting the injustice was a major motivator for him, that while he “many times felt broken,” he felt obligated to use his energy to confront the problems.
By April 2010, he had been held in the RHU at SCI-Dallas since 2006. He describes the situation at SCI-Dallas as particularly antagonistic. According to his description in a HRC report:
The cell extraction team “came with violence and drew my blood splitting my head open over my eye, whereas, I had to get three stitches. Not to even mention how they bruised and injured the left side of my face, and my right knee, etc. . . . Yeah, they threw me in the hard cell naked with nothing [but] a tight restraint belt, barely, allowing me to breathe correctly; my blood could not even circulate properly because of the tight handcuffs and shackles. . . . I had no running water, not even a piece of toilet paper, all I had was a hard cold frame, whereas, I was going through convulsions all night because of the freezing cold. I was without clothes in restraints over 24 hours. Around dinner the next day after the cell extraction I was transferred to SCI Mahanoy. Mahanoy had me in a hard cell for a week until I saw PRC.”
The cell extraction, he says, involved 6 to 7 guards, and that the entire process of extracting all six protesters took 2 to 3 hours. The “hard cell” is a cell without bedding, toilets, sinks, or running water. He would spent a year in solitary confinement at SCI-Mahanoy before being allowed back into general population. “It was weird…but it was beautiful…I adapted and adjusted despite the agitation of the guards.”
Reflecting on the events, he believes he has PTSD. “I’m paranoid now, it’s hard for me to trust anyone…especially people in law enforcement, including family,” he says. “I feel like I live in a masquerade party…my trust is broken.”
Prosecutors are currently appealing the dropped riot charge against him, amd Derrick Stanley is ready to go back and fight the charges–though he doesn’t expect needing to do that. “They don’t have a case…the judge through it out because it clearly doesn’t fit the statutory requirements for a riot, we weren’t a mob of people causing problems…I don’t even worry about it.” Stanley is currently pursuing possible legal action in response to what happened to him in April 2010.

In the meantime, he is “appreciating freedom, family, interacting with other people, self-reliance” and is currently adjusting to a significantly different world than the one he had left, owning his first cell phone and trying to learn the capabilities of the internet.

Asked if there was anything he’d like people to know, Stanley replied, “I want them to know this: In life there is a time for everyone to speak up. When it is time, go in with your heart…nothing else matters, just do it intelligently. You’re going to come out with dignity.”

To view original article and read more articles:

http://solitarywatch.com/2012/03/08/a-time-to-speak-up-prisoner-freed-after-a-decade-in-solitary-confinement-in-pennsylvania/