2 Months in Solitary Later: Post-September 9th Repression in Oregon

From Portland Anarchist Black Cross (ABC)

*Note: The following article is written by Oregon anarchist prisoner Joshua “Zero” Cartrette. For info on how to write to Josh, see the bottom of the post. 

No law is too low for the injustice system! Just when I thought I was seeing the worst they could do to me they find yet a new way to make it worse. The Department of Corruptions knows no limits in its mission to destroy the rights and spirits of human beings.

Retaliatory punishment is illegal! Stripping me of my right to communicate with the outside world is illegal! Blocking me from seeking resolutions to legal claims issues with civilians is illegal! Yet that does not stop the Department of so-called “corrections” and its gestapo agents from doing just that! Authority is tyranny and it can be seen no other way. Hypocrisy may just be the single most critical tool in the arsenal of authority and they employ it with zeal to crush any dissent from their indoctrination on any level. Authority is tyranny!

Authority is tyranny. But it’s very existence reveals the fears and weaknesses of those who wield it.

Compensation by intellectual machinations. The religious fears of death. The homophobe fears his own sexuality. the sexist fears his own masculine shortcomings. The racist fears anyone who do not look like him. And the authoritarian fears all of it! Authoritative institutions and their blind servants assume grand airs of self-righteous confidence and outward displays of power and strength. But it’s a lie! A veneer! And all one has to do to see beneath it is to chip away at the surface. It begins to crack. And what one sees beneath the cracks is a wide scale psychological sickness and moral void. Pure rot! And the only way to cure this rot is to cut it out and burn it to ashes. Every last trace of it. From the household to the prison house to the state house and beyond.
And what can I do? A single convict in a single cell with no contact to the outside world? I can keep chipping away at the veneer. And each of their attempts to stop me only motivates me to step it up. Why? Because their retaliations are only proof that I’m invoking their fears and weaknesses. The more we reveal, the weaker they become.

Hypocrites, appointed to uphold the so-called “law” yet who break that law when the validity of that appointment is questioned. And questioned only by someone as lowly as a criminal and social outcast? Something is obviously not as it appears! I smell fear! Let me start at the beginning…

Timeline:

June – September 2016 At Deer Ridge Correctional Institution in Madras, Oregon, the Mailroom Supervisor Ms. Simmelink-Rask begins confiscating and rejecting mail to and from certain inmates (myself included) and two specific addresses on the outside for no more reason than her dislike of the political views being discussed. She then begins violating all mail from those addresses because of the addresses. I begin a grievance process on the issue.

Superintendent (Warden) Mr. Causey refuses me my due process for mail reviews and grievances. He gives no reason, no explanation and responds to none of my “kites.”

Thanks to the grievance and diversity coordinator Mrs. Geils (who is a compassionate and wonderful humyn being who deserves flowers!) I have piles of records proving illegal deliberate indifference on the part of Superintend Mr. Causey and Mailroom Supervisor Ms. Simmelink-Rask.

August 25th: I make a conference phone call from Deer Ridge Correctional Institution to outside activists talking about problems incarcerated people face and my attempts with the ABC to educate incarcerated people. Only days later. Captain T. Manu at the prison in Madras Oregon takes me off the list for vocational programs through the local college. He gives me no explanation.

September 8th: The day before the call for nation wide prison strikes, he finally gives me audience. We make an agreement. If I refrain from participating or influencing others to participate in strikes, he would put me in the vocational program.

September 9th: Finds me sitting at a table under the guard’s nose reading punk rock magazines the the entire day. My word is good. Is captain Tm Manu’s word good? You already know the answer! Fuck no!

September 21st: Not only did I not go to the vocational program, but the gestapo cuffs me in the middle of a phone call and throws me in the hole without a word. Myself and several other inmates spend our first 14 days with no pens or envelopes. This is illegal! We’re all under investigation for conspiracy to commit disturbance, extort D.O.C. employees, and to organize without authorization. The only evidence they have is one confidential informant and a piece or two of my old outgoing mail. I personally spend a total of 4 weeks with no access to telephone or envelopes. Illegal! Illegal!

October 12th: Myself and comrade Scott Elam (sid #16883095) are transported to Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton Oregon to the S.H.U. (segregated housing unit). Comrade Scotty loses 80 days off his early release on top of placement in solitary confinement. Me. I have none to lose.

Phase 2; Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution (EOCI)

October 20th: I sent a heated letter to The Union Gospel Mission. At 3 N.W. 3rd Ave, Portland Oregon 97209. Because they had stolen mail I’d sent to my nephew including photographs. They never allowed my nephew to receive his mail or sent it back to me. They opened it, then destroyed it. Illegal! Illegal!

November 4th: Here’s where it gets really good! The STM (security Threat Management Lieutenant, MR. W. Powell at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton, Oregon pulls me out of my cell and has me chained to a wall in the S.H.H. processing area’s back office. he is waving the letter I wrote to the Union Gospel Mission at 3 N.W. 3rd Ave in Portland Oregon in my face telling me he will not let me “threaten” these “good people”. In the letter I told the Union Gospel Mission that I would sue them if they did not return my mail or compensate me for my stolen property.

Lt. W. Powell told me during this “meeting” that he has a personal grudge against me because he holds me responsible for a pig shooting an inmate and killing him at this prison in 2014 (the only thing that could be more absurd is if he accused me of actually pulling the trigger).

Next he told me that he was scouring every scrap of my mail looking for even the slightest thing that he could find to turn against me. More over, he said I cannot just write anyone I want to. But that he was only going to allow me to send one mail item per week and that he would be reading all of it looking for anything he could to hit me with. This is absolutely illegal! He then took possession of all of my envelopes.

During this entire time he made several derogatory statements about my political and religious beliefs and antagonistically declared himself a capitalist (even though he’s a wage earning government dupe who does not own a business).

Further, in the course of this “conversation” he said to me “we have nothing in common.” And I responded with “well I don’t think either of us are racist, sexist or homophobic,” and he smirked at me. Nothing more. Apparently he’s right. We have nothing in common.

After this he had me unchained from the wall and placed back in my isolation cell.

The next day he slid a misconduct report under my door for extortion, racketeering and unauthorized organization these are the worst violations anyone can get, short of staff assaults of sexual assaults. This will undoubtedly extend my time in solitary confinement. Maybe for years and will also add more “disciplinary fines” to my record.

Because of these same types of incidents, over the course of 5 years. I’ve had to pay off almost $2,000 in fines. Which they take from money my friends and family sends me, or the nickels-a-day wages I earn from working for them. I’ve never once damaged D.O.C. property for them to justify giving me fines.

So STM Lieutenant W. Powell of EOCI in Pendleton Oregon, accused me for a pig shooting and killing a young inmate in 2014. He then uses this as an excuse to openly declare to me that he has a “personal problem” with me. He effectively stopped me and will continue to stop me from seeking resolutions to legal discrepancy with another party (Illegal!). He then openly berates my own personal political and religious beliefs. Then declares himself a “capitalist”- which he knows is absolutely antithetical, therefore, antagonistic to my own beliefs. He threatens me that he will twist anything I say, that he can find against me an “hit me” with it. He then takes possession of all of my access to communication with the outside world, limiting me to a single mail item per week (illegal! Illegal!) Which he will only allow to go out if he approves of it. And to cap off this initiation of a campaign against me, he trumps up a misconduct report for extortion, racketeering, and unauthorized organization which will extend my isolation time and cost my loved ones more of their hard earned money that they bless me with. All of this. While I’m chained to a wall!

From the moment Ms. Simmelink-Rask began violating my mail at DRCI in Madras, up to now, I have not committed a single act to violate a single rule! This can be seen as nothing less than utterly outrageous!

The entire time, I’ve been writing grievances, discriminations reports, letters to superintendents, letters to the D.O.C. central Dome Building, and I hear nothing! They only amp up their aggression against me.

They want me to break. They’re used to people breaking. I swim in a sea of broken vessels and my only crime is trying to help them rebuild and nothing invokes that fear and weakness in my aggressors like the thought of their victims retaining their sense of humynity. They mean to break me, but here they find something they’re confused and afraid of. They push me down. I rise with teeth bared. I will keep rising! They mean to break me, but I will see them break! My enemy is defined and I will live to see a wrecking ball crush at least one of these prisons.

Period! Till then this is the story, the pain of the struggle, and I welcome it.

If you live by the sword, you must learn to love the sting of being cut.

In the meantime, I’m looking to sue these filthy fucking hypocrites and those thieves at the Union Gospel Mission 3 NW 3rd AVE in Portland. They violated my rights to communicate with my own family and I want justice.

If there are any willing lawyers, or registered paralegals who can call here, EOCI, to talk to me about my legal claims or any other issues we would be grateful. If a registered lawyer or paralegal calls here, they’ll put me in a private room with a private phone line to talk.

Also, if anyone out there can call EOCI and make “citizen complaints” to superintendent Jeri Taylor, and call the Oregon D.O.C. central Dome building to make complaints we would appreciate that as well.

I will accept nothing short of their unconditional surrender. If they haven’t got that message yet they will soon enough. Fucking Cowards, Onward!

Call Superintendent Jeri Taylor of EOCI at 541-278-3602

Write to Josh at:

Joshua (Zero) Cartrette #12225965
Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution
2500 Westgate
Pendleton, OR 97801