Reports of Abuse at Red Onion State Prison 2006-2005

Information collected by FedUp! from letters, grievances, and lawsuits sent by prisoners incarcerated at Red Onion State Prison FedUp! 5125 Penn Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15224 412-802-8575 fedup@riseup.net

(please note that some of the descriptions go into detail about physical abuse and sexual assault) Date of Incident
(from most recent) May 4, 2006 (?) Kevin Rashid Johnson #198542

Name and Number of Prisoner Involved

Brief Description of Incident and Guards Involved In the first week in May, while in transport, in the middle of the night from one prison to another, guards shocked Rashid with 50,000 volts of electricity through a stun belt around his waist. They did this two times. He was Urinating blood. "They took me back to medical around 12:00am on Friday 5-19-2006 to look at my back where I was zapped. Nurse Roberts played this game--"i don't see anything" although Ive got two burns on my back from the contact points that the electric belt pushes the current through. so she's being used i expect to claim i have no evident marks which show that i was shocked. C.Os playing bunch of silly games, they shook me down yesterday after taking me to medical the day before to have a head nurse suddenly 'confirm' the burns on my back, which they claim werent there on may 19 when they had this other minor nurse check my back in the middle of the night, 13 days after the fact. They decided to photograph my back too and match the belts electrocution prongs up with the mark on my back. Essentially they're looking for angles to do as much covering up as possible." The warden reportedly came to Rashids cell and said that he was making him (the warden) look bad. 25 people at least have called to complain according to a secretary there. Also the initial incident was said to be set up by the assistant warden. This is what the COs involved told Rashid in the car. C.Os names not known as of this time. 1

March 13, 2006

Donnell J. Blount #300349

Donnell was attacked on March 13, when trying to communicate to Kevin Rashid Johnson that the prison was getting a transportation order so that Rashid would be present to testify as at the trial. While cuffed behind his back and shackled Donell was slammed into the stairs head first. (Correctional Officer) Gentry stated that theyd kill you before you make it to the trial next month. He was taken to medical in a wheel chair for numerous injuries to head and body. The COs said the reason for the attack was that Blount refused to walk up the stairs and this was found untrue by video footage. Blount is not being charged for the guards attacking him. Kelvin Canada #218813 was witness and reported that Officer Gentry weighs 265 lbs. and D. Blount weighs 140lbs. Prison DOP Policy 5-22.6 clearly states that officers are to maintain a high level of professionalism at all times, no exceptions. This officer transgressed that policy by using excessive force against prisoner Blount. Donnell is known for pressing charges legally against abusive guards. ROSP Sexually harassed during strip search by Officer Strouth. Repeadetly said Drip it like its hot. Other officers present were Officers Creech, Milgrin and Thacker. Feels threatened because Strouth and Creech are responsible for feeding him. Put in informal complaint. Sgt. Kendrick supposed to get back with him about it. There is allegedly video footage. See Full Report. ROSP On January 12th, witnessed a cop slug a prisoner in the face who was locked in the shower. I dont know if the cop was mad because the prisoner refused to leave the shower or because the prisoner was maybe talking back to the cop. I dont know how the whole situation started but I can tell you that this prisoner was for weeks having some type of psychological problems. Since he had been moved into this unit he had been placed in ambulatory restraints on strip cell status and had even on at least on occasion been strapped to his bed. He would at times spend hours screaming and kicking and banging on his door for apparently no reason and had been placed on strop cell and in ambulatory restraints for this. Person assaulted was transferred from Jesses unit. Jesse doesnt know name of inmate Assaulted by LT. Mullins while I was hog tied-They ran in on me with

March 11, 2006

Ezekiel Hicks #306912

January 15, 2006

Reported by Jesse Trujillo

November of 2005

Antonio Parker #281203

the shield and gas and assaulted me because I was kicking on the door because they were beating another man that was dying of HIV and could not move and because he failed to respond to them in any manner. November 9, 2005 Jerry Anderson #275446 Assaulted by SGT. J. OQuinn and LT. D. Turner on November 9th 2005 after SGT OQuinn disposed of all my personal property and at 3am came in to my cell without video camera while I was in ambulatory restraints with Lt. D. Turner and assaulted me by back hand up to my nose breaking the skin and causing pain. Jerry spoke with Internal Affairs about this on Feb. 17th 2006. He is waiting for results of the investigation. The warden Tracy S. Ray forwarded it to the Institutional Investigator SGT. T. Adams and he never came to investigate

October 27, 2005

Nathaniel Wright #297745

354431?

Officer Cox snatched Wrights arm out of the food access hatch using the nylon leash and handcuff still attached to one wrist. Cox along with other guards, including Hess, Rusnick, and Bartee pulled and bent his arm outside of and around the cell door attempting to break it, while making it appear that he was struggling with them. One guard repeatedly stabbed him in the hand and wrist with an ink pen causing numerous small puncture wounds. They also broke his left middle finger, completely severing the bone in half. He was then repeatedly informed that his finger was broken, however, the nurse was called in to check him- P. Mullins- refused him referral for immediate x- rays despite his complaints and the obvious deformity of his finger- bent unmovable at a sharp angle. Mullins simply told him to wash his finger with soap and warm water [!!]. Wright made repeated written and verbal complaints of needing medical care for his broken finger. ROSP Unknown inmate ROSP Now to the guy who got beat up. Apparently, he had been having problems with the cops in the unit he came from over having fruit in his cell on the weekends. He is a diabetic and needs the fruit to regulate his blood sugar on the weekends, when we are only fed two meals. He tried to explain that to the cops. But it seems they were mad at him for going out to recreation. I dont know if you know this, but these cops hate to run recreation, and will do nearly anything to deny you recreation, buy it from you or cancel it all together. In fact the cancellation of recreation has become a huge problem since this new warden took over. Nearly one day of the week recreation is lost for inane reasons or no reason at all. I have of course filed a grievance on it. Anyway, I guess yesterday

October 2005

Reported by Jesse Trujillo

the situation with that guy hit the fan. They apparently jumped on him in the unit he was in. Then when they brought him to this unit they jumped on him again. Both times he was handcuffed and shackled. They then put him in restraints in which he still remains. Then the LT. told all the cops present, that the guy should not be fed on the weekends any more. He hasnt been fed all weekend. I am surprised that he hadnt gone into some type of diabetic shock. As further insult, the cops when they pass his cage tell him what food we are going to be served either for breakfast or dinner. Remember its LTs who run the classification process. It is illegal and contrary to their policy for them to deny prisoners food in this manner. But, as I have told you before its able to be done because of lack of high level supervision and the direct participation of low level supervisors such as SGts LTs and Captains too. (Asked Jesse for name and number of inmate and Jesse did not have access to this information) September 9, 2005 Reported by Kevin Johnson #189542 Only days after I attempted to complain about this situation leading to yet another prisoners attempted suicide by self- hanging (viz, C. Ford #315550), two prisoners in the C- 300 superseg unit hung themselves just minutes apart (viz, Jonathan Stuart, # 323894 and Gifford Johnson #304526. Both had to be cut down by guards from hanging ropes by the necks inside their cells and rushed to the medical department. Within a six month time- frame, I have witnessed four prisoners in my assigned unit alone hang themselves- two having to be rushed to the hospital for emergency care. ROSP in the C- 300 superseg unit prison guards Strouth and Mullins beat A. Nelligar #327126 while he was fully restrained and kneeling on his cell floor. Nelligar (a white prisoner) suffered severe facial deformity, swelling and lacerations, also internal facial bleeding as a result of this attack. Strouth repeatedly lifted and slammed Nelligars head and face onto the concrete floor of his cell during this attack. Nelligar was threatened by Strouth that hed better voluntarily confess when the audio/ video portable camera was brought in during the process of putting him into ambulatory restraints, that hed spit on Strouth, which Nelligar had in fact not done, and that hed better not file any complaints to medical staff nor about being attacked, or hed be beaten again, Nelligar did as he was told. ROSP (Currently has a lawsuit against prison 7/2006) Scolded by COs in shower with hot water. Mr. Fortz is 68 years old. Not receiving proper medical care, complaints/grievances never responded too.

July 31, 2005

A. Nelligar #327126 Reported by Kevin Johnson #189542

July 28, 2005

John Howard Fortz #145394

July 25, 2005

E. Ford (number unkown) Reported by Kevin Johnson #189542

in the C- 300 superseg unit E. Ford (number unknown), a newly arrived intake at ROSP from Nottoway Correctional Center, was brutally beaten by prison guards D. McCowan, R. Boyd, and Sergeant J. Fannin while fully restrained and kneeling inside his newly assigned cell. Ford was repeatedly slammed onto the concrete floor for some ten minutes resulting in a gold capped and prosthetic teeth being knocked out and broken. The beating and his suffering pleas could be loudly heard throughout the unit. While the beating was occurring captains David Taylor and Kelly Chris entered the unit, went to the cell and stood watching the attack without intervening. Fowler and R. Phipps had been propositioning an informant white inmate Dennis Webb #151452 to throw feces on me. On July 5th, despite the required search of the prisoner and his items prior to being brought out of his cell for a shower Webb had taken several bloated bags of the feces mixture to the shower. Second, only Webb, I, and one other prisoner were placed in showers in the unit next door to our own (C500 unit), which unlike our own C400 unit showers has no Plexiglas covering the shower fronts or locking covers on the handcuff slots. The C400 showers are designed this way to keep substances from being thrown from them. So, not only was Webb allowed to take the feces bags into the shower, but we were placed into showers in another unit from which Webb could easily throw the feces. Calvin Thrower #258986 was beaten and had fingers dug repeatedly into his eyes by numerous guards, and supervised by Lieutenant Ronald Fowler, following an incident in which he allegedly head- butted a guard while in handcuffs and shackles. Thrower suffered facial swelling and bruising, impaired vision and a large blood clot on his eyeball. From report by Kevin Johnson #189542 Over the past year I've witnessed Teal deteriorate from a normal mental state to one totally dysfunctional, paranoid, delusional, and dissociated from reality. He has lost some 30 pounds due to denial of meals by guards. He is treated not with mental health care but with guard abuses and violence. Mental health staff are content to merely act as spectators to his deterioration. On July 1, 2005 on one of the few occasions he was given a meal tray, Teal refused to return it and was brutally cell-extracted and put into ambulatory restraints by officers McConnell, Wright, Mullins, Boyd, and P. Lane, under supervision of Lieutenant R. Fowler and Sergeant

July 5, 2005

Kevin Johnson #185492

July 1, 2005

Calvin Thrower #258986 Reported by Kevin Johnson #189542

July 1, 2005

Walter Teal #290670

T. McCoy. Several minutes after Teal was replaced into his cell and "checked" by the nurse, Fowler, McCoy, Wright and Boyd re-entered his cell and began beating Teal. The assault was clearly audible to all in the unit. June 24, 2005 June 21, 2005 David Smith #313669 Ronald Mitchell #298888 violence, unprovoked beat downs, threats of bodily harm for writing complaints Sgt. O Quinn, Sgt. D. Tate and Lieutenant S. Mullins Upon one handcuff Reported by Kevin Johnson #189542 being applied to one of Mitchells wrists these three guards together yanked his arm out of the cell doors food access hatch up to the shoulder using a nylon leash that was attached to the handcuffs. O Quinn then began yelling repeatedly in an excited tone Break his goddamn arm! Break his arm! with his extended fully outside the slot by Mullins and Tate, O Quinn began dropping his body weight down onto Mitchells arm attempting to break it at the elbow joint. (Sgt. Quinn broke both wrists of another inmate in previous years.) ROSP Prisoners Kevin Johnson #185492, L. Gholson, Nguyen Tuan #172123, Calvin Hayes all sent affidavits bearing witness to this incident or reported on beating of T. Shelton #158647. Following from Kevin Johnsons report: Upon being returned to my cell, Officers Wright and Boyd skipped over several prisoners who were next in line to receive showers and went directly to Shelton's cell, handcuffed and shackled him. Shelton was brought out, taken downstairs, and while en route to the showers and without warning, Shelton was picked up from behind by Boyd and slammed to the floor. This occurred directly in front of the unit surveillance camera. Shelton's face never touched the floor during this attack, his eyeglasses were still on his face, and no blood was evident anywhere in the unit. Phipps then ran over telling Wright to let him take over, at which point Boyd and Phipps half carried/ half dragged Shelton up the stairs and ultimately back to his cell. At no point prior to Sheltons being taken into his cell was any blood or facial injury to Shelton evident. No blood was anywhere in the unit outside Shelton's cell. Upon Shelton's being taken into the cell above me, I could very clearly hear repeated thumping and scuffling (obvious sounds of a beating) and Shelton repeating several times "Why are you assaulting me? I'm not doing anything." Wright also entered the cell and joined in the attack. Boyd was seen repeatedly slamming Shelton's face onto the floor, Phipps repeatedly punching Shelton in the face, and Wright kicking him in the groin. Shelton's face was badly lacerated, causing him a large loss of blood, and he ended in receiving 18 stitches

June 3, 2005

T. Shelton #158647

in his eyebrow and chin at a local hospital emergency room. Sergeant T. McCoy entered the cell and, using Shelton's dark blue blanket, soaked up most of the blood from the cell floor to conceal evidence from the portable audio/visual camera that was being brought in as part of the procedure for putting a prisoner in ambulatory restraints. Just before the camera was brought in McCoy laid the blanket across the floor to cover up what blood he could not soak up; he also ran some of Shelton's legal documents through blood. McCoy did this to visibly taint them with blood and thereby justify throwing much of it away as "contaminated" with biohazardous fluid. Shelton is a prisoner known to litigate against prison officials, and won a money judgment in at least one case against prison officials, including one Captain David Taylor. Just prior to this attack on Shelton, I have witnessed him being repeatedly threatened and harassed by all ranks of ROSP staff because of his litigation activities - in fact Taylor specifically threatened Shelton on May 6, 2005 that he was going to be targeted with an attack. May 27, 2005 April 26, 2005 Donte Skinner# 255261 George Slaughter #255923 Suffers injury abuse, medical neglect and malpractice. DR. Williams Reported by Kevin Johnson #189542 On that date during showers prison guards R. Boyd and Wright attacked George Slaughter #255923 in front and inside of his cell. Slaughter is the one white prisoner named in the October 2004 report as targeted for routine abuses because of his refusal to submit to ROSP guards' efforts to alienate him from black prisoners. Slaughter was in handcuffs and shackles and being brought out of his cell en route to the showers. His shoes were sitting outside of his cell where the guards had placed them during his strip search. Upon being brought out of the cell, Boyd told Slaughter to kick the shoes back into the cell, which he did. Without warning, Boyd then slammed Slaughter bodily into the cell door and threw him onto the floor, partially inside and outside of his cell. Boyd, atop Slaughter, began repeatedly punching him in the face and slamming his face into the floor, while Wright kicked him several times in the groin. The entire unit overheard, and some saw, this attack, which was carried out in direct view of the unit surveillance camera. Other guards entered the unit, including lieutenants R. Fowler and J. Honaker, Sergeant A. Kilbourne and several others. I was standing at my cell door inquiring of other prisoners what they had seen (as I was in the cell in the tier beneath Slaughter's cell and although I heard the entire attack, I could not see it) and writing down their responses. Fowler, Honaker, and prison guard R. Phipps came to my cell several times commenting sarcastically about my "taking notes" and asking if I was going to send out "another report to the governor." They also attempted to provoke me with verbal antagonisms, threats, and

challenges which I ignored. These guards had Slaughter put into ambulatory restraints and "checked" by a nurse, W. Stidham, with a portable audio/visual (AV) camera filming this. The nurse's question to Slaughter was "Damn, did it hurt?" On the AV tape Slaughter narrated what happened to him and directed attention to his badly swollen and bruised face. April 26, 2005 Retaliation for reporting on abusive officers Lieutenant Fowler then went cell to cell hand selecting every other prisoner in the unit whom I'd named in the previous reports as victims of prior abuses and had us each put on strip cell for several hours. Fowler, Phipps, and the other guards then fabricated reports claiming each of us were kicking doors and making the exact same threat, word for word, viz: "We need to start killing these motherfuckers." Those confronted were myself, Christopher Tinker #283653, Timothy Morgan #242086 (Morgan admits to kicking his door but made no threats), Roberto Mejias #306726, Maurice Hawkins #242361. All of Tinker's, Morgan's, Meijas, And Hawkins property was removed from their cells. I was moved to a vacant cell while all my property remained in my former cell. While in the vacant cell I observed Sergeant A. Kilbourne enter Gholson's cell and remain inside for several minutes. He then came out, went to the unit office for an AV camera, and returned to the cell. Apparently he'd entered the cell the first time to run Gholson's belongings through feces, and then returned to find the property in that condition to make it appear that this was the state in which he originally found it. All of Gholson's property was then thrown away upon claiming that it was all contaminated with hazardous waste.

April 21, 2005

Christopher Strothers #178548

Placed in segregated housing for having 2 zantac pills which were prescribed to him. Been in the hole for months upon receiving letter. Officer involved L. Ratliff Beat and choked by Sutherland Owens, Tomkins, and Kennedy came to cell after lights out to strip search Blount. Ransacked cell throwing hundreds of pages of transcripts, legal mail, personal mail ect around cell. Lt. Mullins, Sgt. Dat, Sgt OQuinn, CPL Lee, CPL Nicholson came running placed legal mail /work in orange bag. Blount needed legal materials for court date on April 14, 2005. OQuinn said We know.

April 7, 2005 March 29, 2005

Antonio Parker #281203 Donnell J. Blount #300349

Fuck you and court. Blount said there was no need for that kind of language. Mullins whispered in Blounts ear Ill Fuck you Nigger! Then sexually assaulted by Lt. Mullins. Mullins tried to stick finger in Blounts anus causing scratches around the rectum and broken skin. Officers, medical staff obstructed grievance procedure. Medical staff refused to examine him with cameras around and said to say that Blount refused the search. When Blount asked for legal material back the officers laughed. (Blount is pressing charges. See copy of lawsuit for full details. Filed September 8, 2005 7:05CV00556)