Dear Mr. Basquin:
I write this letter to you further to my disciplinary appeal that is pending before you so that you will know, before the eyes of the world, the full implications of what you are about to do to me. Before sending to you this copy, I have sent a copy for posting to the worldwide web. I have no doubt that you or your boss, Warden Terry A Tibbals, will concoct a rationale for blocking my outgoing mail in order to silence me, but this letter will already be out, and the world will already know the truth, the story of what you participated in doing to me.
This is the story the world will know:
I am a Neolithic Indigenist. That is my religion. I converted to Neolithic Indigenism here at Manci and your chaplains, both formally trained in religion, provided state recognition of my faith system. As my multi-page affidavit reveals- on file in the chaplain’s office- a Neolithic Indigenist rejects, on religious principle, the hierarchical ordering of society as unnatural and against the will of our Creator. Neolithic Indigenists, as consciously tribal people, reject hierarchy. In that way, every indigenist is “against hierarchy,” and is therefore, de facto, an “an-” “-arch” (stratified organization).
I have a right to this religious belief. To Warden Tibbal’s credit, his administration has not only recognized the validity of my religion but has personally approved a religious accommodation for me as a Neolithic Indigenist, allowing me to refrain from cutting my hair. All these documents are on file with the chaplain. If they mysteriously disappear, I have copies soon to be posted online that have the chaplain’s and warden’s signatures.
Unfortunately, Manci investigator Angela M. Hunsinger has not been so accommodating. Her office has persecuted me for my deeply-held spiritual beliefs despite my several efforts to persuade her to stop. She has had me profiled on the “gang list,” despite the absence of any disciplinary action for gang activity, contrary to stated DRC policy. Her reason for violating policy and statute to keep me on the gang list? My thoughtful, spiritual, principled rejection of the hierarch system.
To my knowledge, I am the only Ohio prisoner to be persecuted this way, to be labeled as a gang member, absent gang activity, on the basis of a recognized religious belief recognized by the state.
Recently, Angela M Hunsinger took this religious intolerance and persecution to a new level by declaring the spiritual rejection of hierarchy to be a crime. That means being an “an-arch,” and thereby, being a Neolithic Indegenist, is criminal activity.
“An-archs” are the new Jews.
I refer you to Manci-12-007219, the disciplinary case against me for gang activity, inciting a riot, and using mail to further criminal activity. These charges were brought against me by Investigator Angela M Hunsinger, ostensibly for my alleged participation in the Army of the 12 Monkeys.
For those reading online who are unfamiliar, The Army of the 12 Monkeys emerged here at Manci about the beginning of September. Flyers, pamphlets, and manuals circulated on the compound by the thousands, promoting sabotage and destruction. Locks were jammed and other disruptions occurred.
On September 19, only seven days after my security status was lowered as a reward for my model conduct and I was recommended to go to Marion Correctional, I was placed under investigation by Angela M Hunsinger, suspected of being the creator of the Army of the 12 Mondays. I was later issued the nine-page conduct report that charged me with gang activity. Inciting a riot, and using mail to further criminal activity.
At my hearing before the Rules Infraction Board on October 24, I questioned Angela M Hunsinger. In her testimony she admitted that there is no evidence to indicate that I engaged in any of the nine listed gang “activities.” That means that I was not accused of “gang activity” based upon my activity. According to Angela M Hunsginer, I was accused of “gang activity” because my “ideology” matched the ideology of the Army of the 12 Monkeys.
My “gang activity” was my thinking. My beliefs. I reject hierarchy on spiritual grounds approved by the State of Ohio in a religion given accommodation by Warden Tibbals, but my beliefs are now outlawed, so my “gang activity” was that my beliefs resemble what Angela M Hunsinger supposes that the Army of the 12 Monkeys holds for an ideology.
Angela M Hunsinger appointed herself as an “ideology expert,” then assigned the Army of the 12 Monkeys a comic book villain definition of “anarchy” as an ideology, and has assigned to me the same ideology simple because I reject hierarchy.
Both R.I.B, panel members agreed with Angela M Hunsinger, affirming that being an “An-arch,” one who rejects hierarchy (like a Neolithic Indigenist), is someone who wants “chaos” and “destruction.” Again, “ideology” from a comic book.
On the charge of “inciting a riot,” Angela M Hunsinger admitted under questioning that there was no evidence of any connection between the thousands of pages of 12 Monkey literature and me; that she had discovered the origin of that material and it was not me. To her knowledge, I never had possession of a single page of literature inciting a riot. So what is it that constituted the charge of “inciting a riot”? My “ideology.”
My religion.
My rejection of hierarchy on spiritual grounds.
The word “anarchist” appears five times in the nine-page conduct report; it appears zero times in the thousands of pages of 12 Monkey literature.
An “ideological” match, according to your self-appointed “ideology expert” and her comic books.
An “ideology” is a framework of thought… like Neolithic Indigenism and its rejection of hierarchy.
Again, anarchists- as defined by Angela M Hunsinger’s comic book- are the new Jews.
On the charge of “using the mail in furtherance of criminal activity,” the supporting facts are that I sent an open letter for publication out to a friend of mine who, like myself, rejects hierarchy in favor of another way of life preferable to him. That open letter criticizes the DRC’s new JPay policy.
The nine-page conduct report refers to JPay four times; the thousands of pages of 12 Monkey literature referred to JPay zero times.
Is it a crime to oppose a policy of the DRC in a published article online? Angela M Hunsinger testified that there was no underlying crime. Both RIB members agreed. Then they found me guilty of all 3 charges, including “using the mail in furtherance of criminal activity.”
What is the implicit crime? Rejecting hierarchy. Anarchists are the new Jews.
It is my hope that counsel will acquire a copy of my hearing for posting online so the world can hear what was done to me. RIB chair, Lt. Dalby, said his mother died 2 weeks previously and he didn’t care about this case; he said he was instructed to find me guilty and it was out of his hands.
Any order to find me guilty, Mr. Basquin, would necessarily come from his supervisor. That supervisor is you, the official currently reviewing my appeal. So now we must ask, why would you order that I be found guilty of gang activity (in the admitted absence of gang activity), and inciting a riot (in the admitted absence of any connection between me and the inciteful materials), and using the mail in furtherance of criminal activity (in the absence of criminal activity)? And that brings us back to JPay.
For everyone reading online who is not familiar with JPay, we should give some background. In August, without warning, the ODRC changed policies related to funds sent to prisoners by those on prisoners’ approved visiting lists. Previously, funds were sent to the prison and processed without charge by the prison cashier. Under the new policy, all prisoner funds must be sent to a private company in Florida called JPay, owned by ODRC Director Gary Mohr’s rich golf buddies. Gary Mohr was previously in the private prison business with Corrections Corporation of America, so he once shared laughs in the locker room with corporate lobbyists for JPay and others.
The problem with the JPay policy is, my elderly parents and my other visitors, and approximately 750,000 Ohio prisoner visitors, entrusted their personal information to the State of Ohio for purposes of being added to prisoners’ approved lists; not so that Gary Mohr could bundle all that private information without the consent of those 750,000 people- including my elderly parents – and give it to JPay for forming a database to check approved visitors.
My parents trusted you with private information. You gave it away to identity pirates in Hollywood, Florida- the pill-popping capital of the world.
So after I wrote a published critique of this illegal get-rich scam and free-world people began to organize a legal challenge, threatening to ruin Gary Mohr’s backroom deal, the Army of the 12 Monkeys mysteriously popped up on the compound, complete with computer-generated flyers and scanned images. And suddenly, the model prisoner slated to go to the most-privileged medium security prison, without any evidence, is found to be the villainous mastermind of this new gang, and he is to be sent to Lucasville, a maximum security prison.
Did Angela M Hunsinger ever check your computer, Mr. Basquin? Did she check your scanner or printer? What about Warden Tibbals’? The reason I ask is, I find it very strange that thousands of pages of inciteful literature could pass through stringent mail monitoring, or that prisoners could get thousands of pages around to every single block. That is unprecedented in all of penal history. So that means your boss is the most inept warden in all of penal history and Angela M Hunsinger, unable to detect and prevent this plot, is the most incompetent prison investigator in all of penal history, or else you were all just taking marching orders to fabricate a rationale for an “ideological” cleansing.
Anarchists are the new Jews.
When you sign off on my disciplinary appeal and send me off to Lucasville at the request of Gary Mohr, to silence me and protect his golf buddies’ ill-gotten profits, you will be participating in an “ideological” cleansing. You will be sending a man to his prearranged death because he was designated by Angela M Hunsinger as an “ideological undesirable” due to his deeply-held spiritual belief that a better world is possible.
You will be participating in my murder, Mr. Basquin.
I say that because Lucasville is long the place of exile where prison administrators send critics and whistle-blowers. I refer you to the case of Timothy “Little Rock” Reed, an Ohio prisoner granted asylum in New Mexico by that state’s Supreme Court when he proved that prison officials conspired to send him back to prison without cause, and send him to Lucasville, where a prearranged plan to murder him was in place. The reason? Reed’s outspoken criticism of Ohio’s prison system.
So, we both know my fate. You are going to deny my disciplinary appeal and affirm the RIB decision, despite no evidence of any rule violations. You are going to play your assigned role in my eventual murder, which we both know is coming. You will participate in my murder because Director Gary Mohr has ordered you to do it, and just like Adolph Eichmann and every Nazi official before you, you will send innocent human beings to their deaths for a moderate salary and mediocre benefits.
Zeig heil.
So, I have written this, Mr. Basquin, long before any “accident” where I fall over the range, or any “suicide” where I’m found hanging from my bedsheet in a block with no cameras, or any “unsolved” stabbing where I’m found in a pool of my own blood. I have written this, though I possess no psychic abilities, because I know that you, Angela M Hunsinger, Lt. Dalby, and Warden Terry A Tibbals are accomplices to Gary C Mohr’s murder of me, a murder to protect corporate profits.
I have also written this so there is a testimony to who I am, that I am your victim, that I am a man who spoke the truth and believed in his soul that a better world was possible; and for that, you and your co-conspirators plotted my extermination. And that speaks to who you are too.
All of you.
But the world will know.
No one can deny this truth, Mr. Basquin.
Gary Mohr and all of you will murder me, but the eyes of the world will be watching. The world will know who I was… the world will know who all of you are…
No one is going to believe the official lies.
No one.
I am reminded of an insignificant merchant in Egypt denied the chance to support himself and his aging mother, who lit himself on fire as a statement of his frustration. Although few knew him, millions identified with this insignificant merchant, and they felt his rage, and they took to the streets; so far, 3 governments have been toppled.
I too am insignificant, but I am a man with 2 elderly parents he loves dearly, and extended family, and loyal, compassionate friends who care deeply and live passionately. I believe in them, and in the people of the world. I believe that when Gary Mohr’s “ideological cleansing” succeeds and I die, that the people of the world will avenge me as they did that merchant in Tahrir Square.
And when they do, there will be nowhere you can go. There will be nowhere any of you can hide. You will all face the world you have systematically robbed and ruined.
You thought the 12 Monkeys were a problem?
Wait until the world avenges your murder of me. Then all of you will confront a problem.
The eyes of the world are watching.
Freedom,
Sean Swain
