April 30th, 2013, Mansfield Correctional Institution- Investigator Angela Hunsinger and Staff Counsel Trevor Clark have started over from scratch in their efforts to persecute Sean Swain for his beliefs and protected speech following threat of legal action from Swain’s defense team. Swain has been held in local control (the hole) since Sept 19, 2012 on allegations that he founded the Army of the 12 Monkeys prison guerrilla resistance movement. Staff at Mansfield have repeatedly changed and violated rules regarding the treatment and conditions for prisoners in local control since Swain was moved there in September.

In a letter to Swain’s lawyer, Mr. Robert Fitrakis, Mr. Clark admits that these allegations relied too heavily on Swain’s beliefs and ideals. The new conduct report he helped Angela Hunsinger put together also admits that the previous effort was dismissed due to its “primary reliance on inmate Swain’s beliefs and possession of anarchist publications”. Mr Clark’s letter states that a “new ticket has been written and new disciplinary procedures will be commenced to address behaviour.” Mr Clark then enclosed a copy of the new conduct report.

This conduct report addresses only the written correspondence of Sean Swain and the recent behaviour and statements made by other prisoners, none of whom implicate Swain. It maintains the offense date of September 19th, 2012, but describes activities mainly occurring in spring of 2013. It fails to support any allegation that Swain produced, disseminated, or otherwise participated in any rules violations back in September .

Sean’s defense team believes this new conduct report is a continuation of the harassment and ideological targeting of their client, which both Hunsinger and Clark have admitted to. They will not allow staff at Mansfield Correctional to hold their client in harsh and illegal conditions indefinitely by simply manufacturing new conduct reports against him. A third frivolous conduct report, alleging that Swain used threatening language in a kite (internal prison communication) sent to another prison official has also been filed.

Sean Swain has publicly refuted all the claims of the new conduct report. He suspects that Hunsinger may have actually manufactured the Army of the 12 Monkeys herself, in an effort to silence Swain’s opposition to recent ODRC policy changes, and gain notoriety for catching prisoner terrorists.

Swain intends to fight the charges through the Rules Infraction Board (RIB) hearing process. Last time, the RIB found Swain guilty and he unsuccessfully appealed the decision all the way to the top. Even ODRC Director Gary Mohr refused Swain’s appeal of a guilty verdict which his accusers now admit was inappropriate enough to be entirely dismissed. Swain is hoping that legal action, and attention from outside supporters will hold the ODRC accountable, since its own process is uselessly corrupt.