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

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

Article From Solitary Watch

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

March 8, 2012

by Sal Rodriguez

 

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/

Victory for one of the Dallas Six!

From: PA Prison Report
Feb 14 2012
Victory for one of the Dallas Six: On December 30, 2011, a Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas judge granted the habeas corpus petition in the case of one of prisoners known as the Dallas Six, Derrick Stanley. The judge dismissed the riot charge against Stanley, declaring that to bring such a charge would lead to "absurd" charges of riot in the future.

Derrick Stanley's victory comes almost two years after the men who would become known as the Dallas Six staged a peaceful protest against the ongoing racism, brutality, and injustice faced by prisoners at State Correctional Institute Dallas only to be violently cell extracted and beaten in retaliation. The April 2010 attack was the culmination of a series of retaliatory acts by SCI Dallas prison guards against prisoners speaking out against the ongoing abuses within the prison.

Soon after the attack in April of 2010, a criminal complaint was sent to the District Attorney for Luzerne County, Jackie Musto Carroll, about the guards actions in extracting the prisoners. Carroll's office rejected the complaint, claiming a state police investigation yielded no evidence of prosecutorial merit when there were, and still are, no indications a state police investigation was ever launched. In June of 2010, one of the Dallas Six, Carrington Keys, filed a lawsuit against SCI Dallas officials and guards, along with Carroll for her inaction, and in August 2010 the Human Rights Coalition published a report on the incident. It was only after these actions that Carroll's office charged the Dallas Six with rioting, despite the fact the DOC never issued riot misconducts to any of them after the April 2010 cell extractions. Stanley is the first of the group to have his charges dismissed.

The State has appealed from the order dismissing the charges against Stanley, and as of the writing of this report has not yet filed their official response. The response will be heard before Judge Lesa Gelb, a newly elected judge who ran on a platform decrying the corruption and cronyism long present in Luzerne County. Despite the prospect of a reinstatement of charges or new charges being brought against him, Derrick Stanley is currently enjoying his recent release from the custody of the PA DOC last week.

Hearings are over

The Dallas 6 have left Luzerne County. Their hearings have been consolidated and a date has not been set for their trial for riot charges.

Carrington is now at Camp Hill. Send mail to:

Carrington Keys, EF4010
SCI Camp Hill
P.O. Box 200
Camp Hill, PA 17001-8837

Pennsylvania Prisoners Charged with Rioting After Protesting Conditions in Solitary

From SolitaryWatch:
October 15, 2011
by Sal Rodriguez

A group of inmates held in solitary confinement in a Pennsylvania prison have been charged with various felony offenses, including rioting and aggravated harassment, stemming from their participation in an April 2010 protest against prison abuses. The group, which has come to be known as the Dallas 6, covered the windows of their cell doors with bedding in protest of alleged harassment by correctional officers at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) Dallas. Their protest was met with violent “cell extractions” against all six inmates. Officially, the covering of the cell windows constituted an act which coerced correctional officials to perform cell extractions, therefore making their actions rioting.

According to Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up! investigator Bret Grote, there will be a hearing before Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nina Gartley on October 21st regarding a defense motion to consolidate the cases of four of the Dallas 6′s cases into a single case. The hearing involves Andre Jacobs, Carrington Keys, Derrick Stanley, and Duane Peters-El, four of the five members of the Dallas 6 who have yet to have their cases resolved. (Anthony Kelly accepted a plea bargain last year, and Anthony Locke will be tried separately). The four are currently held at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. Carrington Keys was set to go to trial on October 17th, but the trial has been postponed to a later, undetermined date.

The alleged abuses against inmates that inspired the protest are, according to some, reflective of a widespread problem in the Pennsylvania prison system. The most dramatic allegations surfaced last month, when a suspended prison guard from SCI Pittsburgh was arrested on charges that he sexually or physically assaulted more than 20 inmates. Earlier reports suggest less extreme, but nonetheless serious abuses at other prisons.

As of August 31, 2011 there were 51,393 inmates under the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, in a system with a designed capacity of 44,190. Among them are over 1,500 inmates in isolation units—referred to as Restricted Housing Units. Restricted Housing Units are solitary confinement units where inmates are kept in their cells 23 hours a day during the week and 24 hours on the weekends.

For ten months between 2009 and 2010, the Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up! worked on a report documenting abuses across Pennsylvania prisons, but most specifically at SCI Dallas. A medium security prison in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, SCI Dallas houses over 2,100 inmates, including over a hundred inmates in Disciplinary and Administrative Restricted Housing Units.

According to the 2010 report by the Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up! “Institutionalized Cruelty: Torture at SCI Dallas and in Prisons Throughout Pennsylvania”, written with extensive cooperation of inmates, SCI Dallas was particularly rife with abuses. Among them, the “frequent usage of racist slurs, threats of violence, verbal and physical abuse by guards,” “ retaliation against prisoners exercising their constitutional rights to file grievances,” and “failure to provide adequate or at times any, physical or mental health care.”

One prisoner who corresponded with the HRC described his experience in the RHU at SCI Dallas:

“The conditions were very inhumane…hot, no working vents at all… stuffy and humid… My first cell bugs were biting me all over my body, when I said something about it they (medical staff) played like I was crazy then finally after constant complaining they gave me benadryl then moved me and still didn’t clean the cell. They had a light on all day that felt like a rotisserie lamp. It was hard to sleep because of the hot humid cells and constant bugs biting me all day and night… We had no cups to drink the brown colored water that came out of the sinks and toilets. There was constant screaming yelling kicking and banging…”

Read the rest here.