Greg Curry’s Struggle to Exit the Supermax

Lucasville Amnesty reports on Greg Curry’s battle to exit Supermax. For an awesome support poster for Curry, go here.

Greg Curry was charged with joining the death squad that killed snitches during the first day of the uprising based on informant testimony that prosecutors later admitted was coerced and other very improper procedures. Greg says he never even entered the occupied cell block, but he was convicted nevertheless.

Unlike Keith Lamar, he did not receive the death sentence, instead he is serving life without the possibility of parole. Many within the ODRC have made it their mission to correct the judge’s “mistake” of the lighter sentence by targeting Greg for “special treatment” including attempts on his life.

In addition to that violence, the ODRC has made it incredibly hard for Greg to step down through their web of security levels so he can get out of solitary confinement. Serving years longer than other prisoners at every stage, and often being lied to about impending transfers to other prisons that are obstructed at the last minute. He is now at level 4A prisoner, but this is “in name only” because of the ODRC’s determination to hold him at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) the supermax outside of Youngstown.

When the supermax opened in 1996, Staughton and Alice Lynd worked with a handful of prisoners to sue the facility. They won, and forced many conditions to improve. Since then the ODRC has been required to make changes to leave policies and conditions “at a minimum be comparable to the policy & procedures approved by the Supreme Court in Wilkerson v. Austin”.

There are a number of very distinctive differences, Greg has outlined for the record, that make his conditions of confinement unlike those of other general population prisoners. He says these differences “amount to nothing more than cruel & unusual punishment and harassment.”

1. State pay here is less which amounts over time to hundreds of dollars of lost money. 
2.  There is no recreation yard where population prisoners can go jog, nor do pull ups.
3.  There is no chow hall for me to walk to. 
4. Each and every time I leave the block I’m stripped, each and every time I come out the cell I’m felt on. That’s 4-5 a day. The same as security level ERH (Extended Restrictive Housing) prisoners.
5. Sharing a small thing like seasoning for food is a rule violation ONLY at OSP for general population prisoners.  
6. At the other general population prisons they are using the kiosk to send their mail out multiple times per day, with triple the population of OSP which only allows kiosk to us twice a week, with weeks that include five straight days off! This is also like ERH security levels.  
7. Only OSP do they not allow general population prisoners to hold personal razors in our cells, nor shave or shower on weekends before family visits.  

One important part of the decision in Austin v Wilkerson is that all but the highest security level prisoners (including death-sentenced Lucasville Uprising prisoners) must voluntarily accept being housed in the “atypical conditions” of the supermax by signing a waiver. Greg did not sign the waiver, but the ODRC holds him at OSP indefinitely.

“For most prisoners this maybe a temporary condition,” he said, “for me this is over 20 years of like treatment, my body nor my mind can separate any of this and since the courts has already ruled on this subject at this prison, these violations are deliberate indifference.”

Greg is looking for lawyers to work on a civil suit with him against this special treatment. He says he’s seeking “50K per day I’m held here in a lawsuit against this unlawful treatment.” Please help Greg find legal assistance by sharing this post, printing and distributing the new poster and donating to his fundraiser.

You can also read more about Greg on his website, or write to him directly at:

Greg Curry
# 213-159
OSP
878 Coitvsille Hubbard RD
Youngstown OH 44505