On Wednesday Feb 11th, we decided to employ a “shotgun approach” after a week and a half of letting the ODRC jerk us around with false info and obnoxious lawyerism. No, we don’t mean the shotgun approach the insurrecto-trolls and ODRC officials might fantasize or accuse us of using. We’re using the word “shotgun” metaphorically: if they won’t tell us who to call to get Sean what he needs, we’ll just call everyone, unload willy-nilly at the full range of possible enemies and hope something sticks. Well, some weird things stuck… If you believe in democracy, it’s probably a good idea to look closely at what it produces.
THE GOOD:
The staff of the new chair of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee (CIIC) made some calls. This is an Ohio Senate + House Subcommittee, composed of elected politicians, and apparently Democratic Senator Sandra Williams’ staff is idealistic enough to think that means they oughta follow up on calls concerning the health, welfare and rights of captives in Ohio’s correctional institutions. She was very helpful, and given that Joanna Saul, the CIIC Executive Director has demonstrated that the responsibilities of Inspecting and overseeing Ohio’s correctional institutions can be totally neglected without consequence, we appreciate the trouble Williams’ office put into this.
Anyway, Williams’ staff made some calls and called us back and made some more calls and answered our questions as well as she could. She found that the person we can contact who has the authority to re-instate the video visits is Chief Inspector Gary Croft. His number is 614-752-1687. The trouble is, Gary Croft doesn’t actually work for the ODRC anymore. He hasn’t worked there since at least April of 2014, the last time the fuckweasels tried taking away Sean’s access to communication.
The funny thing is: the number on the ODRC website goes straight to voicemail for, guess who: Gary Croft. So apparently, the DRC does not know who their own Chief Inspector is. We’re gonna keep calling that number, but we have no idea if anyone ever listens to the messages, we may be calling some dead end Bureaucratic Ghost Town.
THE BAD:
After getting our calls, central office immediately sent medical staff to check up on Sean. They found his blood pressure was elevated, but not to concerning levels. They said they’d let him stay in general population until his BP got higher, and check on him every 48 hours. Then, they conveniently decided to skip that schedule and instead force him to go to the medical wing for more monitoring, on Friday afternoon. This means they can answer phone calls with “the warden isn’t here, nothing we can do about it, until he’s back, call on Monday.” So, they’ve had a weekend to hold Sean in total isolation.
THE UGLY:
Sean believes “the only thing to gain by isolating me is the opportunity to continue refusing me medications after I have agreed to start taking them again. In other words, isolating me gives them the chance to murder me without witnesses, something they can’t do while I’m in population.”
So democracy means: we call a prison warden and beg them to put our friend back in population so they can’t kill him in secret, and we call a number that may not connect to anyone and beg the ghosts to respect our friend’s constitutional rights. How’s that democracy working for you? Ready to got for anarchy yet?