Impunity and Cover-Up: Correctional Officers Hang Nooses in SCI Rockview, Prisoners Speak Out!

Report from Dreaming Freedom, Practicing Abolition on growing campaign against repression of prisoners in Pennsylvania who are speaking out against the hanging of nooses by guards. Information about phone-zap here.

Benner Township, PA – On November 24^th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke. By December 4^th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates” and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance over two months later by February 5, 2024 under the guise that it was “being investigated.” However, the sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions for this racist act.

As of March 10^th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison. Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility’s virulent institutional racism.

In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent’s assistant and “grievance coordinator” informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong. When family and friends of prisoners in the facility called en mass between March 18th and 25th to voice their concern, Paul was flippant, dishonest, and dismissive to nearly every caller. Several family members of prisoners felt incredibly disrespected by the behavior of Paul and other staff who answered their calls. In the process of calling in, it also became known that Paul holds several other titles within the prison, including “staff officer,” “lieutenant’s assistant,” and “community liaison.” Samuel Condo, a PA-DOC official responsible for overseeing SCI Rockview, was called over a dozen of times to no avail. When contact was finally made with Condo, he simply would redirect calls back to Nicki Paul whose multiple roles on the prison staff create severe conflicts of interest.

Paul admits that SCI Rockview does indeed have video footage, yet the reasons why they refuse to make this footage public has not been given any reasonable justification. As of the week of March 18th, SCI Rockview has closed the internal investigation, choosing to protect the guards who did this hateful and racist act over the safety and well-being of the prisoners. In the meantime, the administration removed two prisoners from general population who brought the situation to public light. One was transferred out of the prison, and the other one is still in administrative custody, aka “the hole” under  accusations of “encouraging group activity.”

This incident is coming after a year that saw 11 prisoners die in custody. Seven people died amidst an outbreak of legionnaires disease, and four people died while in administrative custody (punitive solitary units with very little public oversight and severely limited communication access). Unfortunately, there is a well-known pattern of premature death and racist discriminatory practices (including beatings and verbal harassment) at SCI Rockview.

There is a resistance campaign that has emerged from the persistent actions of prisoners and outside supporters, who together are demanding an external investigation of the facility and its staff for the cover-up of hanging the nooses. The severity of retaliation for speaking out must also be considered a central object of investigation. We believe the inaction of officials at this facility is symptomatic of a deeper condition of anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and class warfare that PA-DOC legally sanctions and politically condones. On both sides of the wall, people most impacted by the racism of SCI Rockview continue to uplift the demands of prisoners to investigate the noose incident as a hate crime, to terminate Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard, and to require mandatory therapy for CO Kirchner. While a grassroots campaign is indeed growing, and as PA-DOC slides further into dissonant inaction, the call for popular resistance to SCI Rockview’s lethal conditions rings louder by the day.

Phone Zap

This is the second week of a phone zap that has not yet resulted in any further action taken by PA-DOC to reprimand three guards who hung nooses in the office (bubble) at SCI Rockview. We believe the facility’s inaction is symptomatic of the deeper condition of normalized antiBlack genocide and white supremacist class warfare in this facility (and across PA-DOC facilities). At SCI Rockview alone there was eleven preventable deaths in 2023, as well as several instances of beatings of prisoners by guards.

Following a letter campaign from the inside and a multi-day phone zap by outside supporters last week, our imprisoned comrade who filed the initial grievance about this issue was thrown in the hole (solitary) and may potentially be transferred as retaliation for speaking out. Since then we have also learned that there were other grievances submitted since the noose incident first happened, to no filing by SCI Rockview staff.

So, now the goals of our ongoing phone zap this week will be to demand the release of this comrade from the hole, as well as continuing to pressure the DOC and other officials to take action against the guards. As of now: the officers have faced no consequences; the grievances were denied by the superintendent’s assistant (who doubles as the grievance coordinator); and the internal investigation into the “noose incident” has been closed. This is unacceptable, and prisoners in the facility have not relented in their work to expose this situation for the world to see. We owe it to the comrades in the belly of SCI Rockview, and especially to our comrade who was put in the hole for speaking up and letting the world know about this situation. This is the second prisoner at SCI Rockview to face severe consequences for speaking out, all the while the guards have enjoyed incredible degrees of insulation and impunity. The first imprisoned comrade to agitate around this issue was thrown in the hole and transferred to an entirely different state.

We have little reason to believe an internal investigation will achieve what the prisoners have been demanding, which includes the following:

• Release Charles Gilyard (# AY3679) from the hole and do not transfer him to a different facility.
• Investigate superintendent’ secretary Nicki Paul – who is also the grievance coordinator enabling much of this nonsense.
• Investigate the hanging of nooses as a “hate crime” and take their impact seriously
• Terminate Sgt. Mosser and c/o Richards
• Mandatory therapy for c/o Kirchner

We need an external investigation of SCI Rockview & its staff. This facility has seen 11 deaths (that we know of) in 2023 and a severe pattern of racist discriminatory practices. Please join us in calling PA-DOC offices and officials, to further expose this incident and amplify the demands of our captive comrades.

Go here for more info on the phone-zap and who to call.

SCI Rockview is attempting to disrupt the cohesion of inside resistance to these racist guards by targeting and removing people who they think are its catalyst. While resistance inside remains steadfast, the regime is simultaneously attempting to thwart the energy of outside support into individually supporting comrades, while comrades inside are isolated and targeted for reprisal. The struggle from here therefore takes two lines: On the one hand we have defensive work: making sure the comrades who are singled out and face accelerated repression are materially supported and the prison knows we have all eyes on the unfolding situation. And on the other hand we continue our offensive work: adjusting strategy to force PADOC to not only recognize the prisoner demands but to fulfill the requested terms of relief from which such demands emerge.

Photo by Matthew Ansley on Unsplash