Why Do Prisons Punish Someone for “Doing the Right Thing?”

INMATE’S MOTHER WANTS QUESTIONS ANSWERED

by Sharon Rondeau

(Mar. 14, 2018) — On Wednesday morning, The Post & Email interviewed the mother of an inmate at the Morgan County Correctional Complex (MCCX) in Wartburg, TN about her son’s recent report of victimization by not only prison gang members, but also by the system charged with his overseeing his safety.

We were told that the inmate received a ten-year sentence as a result of a plea deal which must be served at 80%. At this time he has served six years in prison, a small portion of which was in the county jail, and has approximately two years left on his sentence. In accordance with Tennessee Department of Correction (TDOC) policy, the inmate was receiving credit for 12 “good” days each month which were being credited toward reducing his incarceration time.

The inmate’s mother contacted us last week regarding concerns about her son’s safety and involuntary forfeiture of the training he was receiving after he reportedly refused to take part in prison drug activity.

During our interview, we asked her what she believed are the most significant problems in the prison, to which she responded, “The dirty guards are number 1, but I’m sure that’s everywhere.  Then you have the gangs and the drugs, and it’s really hard for someone trying to rehabilitate himself to do so in that environment.”

To that, we commented, “I have heard that it’s easier to get drugs inside of prison than outside,” to which the inmate’s mother responded, “That’s what my son tells me.”  She then elucidated, “There are a choice few who are in ‘good’ with the dirty guards.”

Her son went into PC on February 28, after which the schooling he was receiving came to an abrupt halt.

As to officials his mother has attempted to reach about his current situation, she told us that she first made several calls to the TDOC but received no response and therefore resorted to email.  “I did get an email back that said, ‘We have received your email and turned it over to our Investigation and Compliance Department,'” she told us.  “So I waited a few days and never heard anything.  So on the third day, I sent an email back and I said, ‘I haven’t heard anything; could you have somebody call me?’ I got an email back, and it said, ‘You will not be contacted unless they have questions.’  So I sent another one back and said, ‘They may not have questions for me, but I have questions of my own.  Please have them contact me,’ and I provided my phone number once again.

“I got an email back which said, ‘If you have questions, submit them here.’  I haven’t responded to that one yet, but I do intend to.”

“What are some of the questions you want to ask them?” we inquired, to which she responded:

I want to know why my son is getting punished, and why I am being punished because he refused to bring drugs back from visitation and refused to hide their cell phones and knives in his room.  I talked to one of the sergeants in Internal Affairs.  I told him, “I can understand the need for him to be locked up, but it’s hard for me to swallow because he’s locked up 23 hours a day.  He has a shower in his room.  But he didn’t do anything to deserve it.  He was attending school.  He was getting 12 good days a month, and now he’s only getting six days a month. So I’m curious about that.

She then clarified that “You have to either be working or going to school to earn that extra six days.”

“He went to school on February 28.  A couple of weeks prior to that, this particular gang had been trying to talk him into doing this.  He was kind-of blowing them off, thinking they might just go away.”

“What did they want him to do?” The Post & Email asked, to which she responded:

He said they can get in $200 worth of pot.  They turn around and sell that and make about $5,000 off of the $200 investment.  That’s how they take care of themselves and I guess whoever is on the outside.  I didn’t ask him which kind of drugs; he just said it was ‘hard drugs,’ not marijuana.

On about the 26th, he told them, “No, I am not doing it.  I have two years left; I’m not looking to get in trouble; I’m in school.  I’d be putting my mother in danger; if I get caught doing this, my mother goes to jail, because she’s the one who’s visiting me.”

“Would they assume that you were involved?” we asked our interviewee.

Well, I’m sure that if he got caught trying to take the drugs back, they’re going assume that I brought the drugs in to him.

When he returned from school on the 28th – I think it was around 3:00 – he said when he walked back into his pod, everybody was acting weird.  There are only three white fellas in his pod, and the rest of them are black fellas, and about 80% of those are in this particular gang.  So he went in to his cell and could hear them talking about stabbing somebody.  Then he got cornered by one of them; he got away from him and went back into his cell and shut the door.

The ringleader of this gang got one of the other white fellas who was with an older guy to go up to my son’s cell with him.  He flagged a guard down, thinking he could talk the guard into popping my son’s door.  My son said, “This is my house; they don’t belong in here.” The guard realized that, so the door was not opened.

At this point, he got the sergeant to come down to his cell.  He explained to the sergeant what-all had gone on; that they were going to try to stab him.  So they told him to get packed up and they’d get him moved.

When he was packing up, there were four old towels and a garbage bag stuffed under his bed.  I don’t know what the purpose of that was.  When I talked to the sergeant at Internal Affairs, I asked him, “Did you watch the tape of the 28th during the time periods that all this was supposed to have taken place?”  He said, “Yes, ma’am, I did.”  I said, “Did you see people going in and out of his cell?” and he said, “Yes, ma’am, we did.”  This is the way he put it to me:  “Your son has serious problems with this gang.”

He is still sitting in protective custody; I don’t know what’s going on.  I can’t get anybody to return my phone calls.

The Post & Email then said, “According to TDOC policy, when someone is placed in PC, the placement is supposed to be reassessed every seven days.  As you may have read, MCCX inmate Grenda Ray Harmer has been in PC since August first and has reported that his situation has never been reviewed.”

I’m very determined that this is going to be resolved, and it’s going to be in my son’s favor because he did nothing.  He did the right thing.

I asked him, “Why did they pick you?” and he said, “One reason is that I lie back, I don’t cause any problems; I’m not affiliated with any gang; they don’t come searching my cell or giving me a hard time.  So I guess they thought that I would be a good one to do this for them.”  There’s another man who is in segregation for the same thing.

“Did they ask him to do a drug deal?”

Either that, or hide their phones and knives – they calls them “shanks.”

“WSMV has reported extensively on contraband in the state’s prisons, including articles showing inmates using cell phones to post themselves on Facebook allegedly high on drugs.”

I’ve seen them, yes.

“What has changed for you since your son was moved into PC?”

Now I get to visit my son behind glass for two hours every weekend.  I used to go at 8:00; I could hug my son; and I could stay until 3:00.

On Monday, I was lucky enough to have the assistant warden and the acting warden call me.  I don’t know how the assistant warden got my name and number, because as I told his secretary:  “I have calluses on my finger from trying to get a hold of Mr. Hutchinson, and my patience is wearing thin.”  So he called me.

“What did he say?”

I actually spoke with the assistant warden first, Hamby.  So I told him everything that was going on, and he said he’d check into it and speak with my son and get back to me — by today.  Then when I spoke with Hutchinson, I explained to him that I had talked to Warden Hamby and that he had told me he would check into the situation and hopefully get me some answers.  So he said, “Well, if he doesn’t, you call me back.”  And I said, “OK.”

Overall, however, the inmate’s mother is displeased with the TDOC’s response to her many communications.  “They’re treating me like I’m not a human being,” she said.  “If you’re working in the public and you get numerous messages, you owe that person the common decency of returning their phone calls.  It’s just common courtesy.  I worked in the public all my life; I had to go out and meet with people…you treat people the way you want to be treated.  I try to do the right thing, and I have been very courteous through all of this, but I think I’m getting to the point where they’re pushing my button to where I’m not going to be as courteous.”

She continued:

I didn’t even ask Internal Affairs who it was going in and out of my son’s room, what he found out, because I kind-of felt like that’s their business.  That’s really not my business; my son is my business.  But I do want to sit down with an Internal Affairs person and PC board member and one of the wardens.  I have questions, and I want them answered, and I want them answered when they’re asked.  I don’t want to be told, “I have to check with so-and-so.”

He is working as a volunteer while in PC, so he’s getting out two or three hours a day. He was going to HVAC school before; that’s all gone now.  I’ve cried more tears, because that was going to be his new start.  He was going to have a trade under his belt…

“How long had he been in school?”

Only for about two weeks.

The inmate’s mother promised to advise us as to whether or not she received the promised call from the assistant warden on Wednesday.