Tag Archives: call in action

Sean Swain Incommunicado

We’re not sure what’s going on, but Sean Swain has been blocked from receiving (and presumably sending) JPay emails. He also has not called his primary supporters, or The Final Straw for a new radio segment. We’ll probably hear from him via snail mail sooner or later, but until then, we’ve got to assume he’s cut off.

When we called the prison, they told us he was not in the hole, and did not have any restrictions on his communication. We suspect they may have transferred him back to a 3B spot, undoing the success of our recent call-in effort. They refused to tell us what security level the block he is held in is on and they got surly and authoritarian when we asked.  It seems that the officers at Sean’s newest prison, Warren CI need to learn that their jobs are a whole lot easier when they don’t provoke anarchists from across the country to call and check in on the welfare of our friend who they hold captive.

WARREN CI: 513-932-3388

You can call Warren CI and ask the same questions we asked- why does Sean not have access to communication, what security level is he currently housed in, and does the JPay kiosk in his (or any Warren Unit) actually work right now? You can also leave Sean’s Case Manager a voicemail by punching extension 2281, or try and talk to deputy warden Robert Welch, who maybe got Sean moved from 3B to 3A a few weeks ago, he’s at ext 2005. Whatever lucky anarchist happens to be on the call when when of these officers breaks and spills the beans, please drop a line to AnarchistSwain@gmail.com.

Sean doesn’t like when they fuck with his communication access. Being a writer, getting his voice out is one of the things that help Sean feel connected to the outside world. So he’s probably feeling alone and frustrated. Also, his birthday was Sept 12th, so if you haven’t written for a while, or missed sending him birthday wishes, please consider dropping a line and letting him (and the mailroom monkeys who have to read all his incoming communication) know that he is loved and missed.

Shitville Sticking it to Robert Mahone, Hunger Conspirator: Buried in Medical Dungeon with Broken Jaw, Wearing Same Underwear for Weeks… Seeks Help for Lawsuit Against ODRC and JPay

Robert “Skinny” Mahone had been my next door neighbor since we both transferred from the Ohio State Penitentiary to L-block at Lucasville (for a captivating account of that rip-roaring adventure, check out “Prison Bus to Shitville,”). Skinny got
pepper sprayed and dragged to the hole by racist fuckweasels (for a captivating account of THAT fuckin’ madness, check out “The Hunger Conspiracy“). Because all of you savage cannibal maniacs out there beyond the fence mounted an all-out assault on the Shitville fuckweasels, they dusted Skinny off and returned him to his cell on L-block, his balls still burning from the pepper spray they smeared in his underwear (he called this “waterboarding his nuts”).
But Skinny was no longer my neighbor when I left Shitville on a surprise trip to Warren Correctional. Skinny was in the hospital.

Here’s what happened:
JPay sucks. At Shitville, JPay has four kiosks for general use in the library and two in the gym. Routinely, most of them are broken. This leads to a log-jam as sixty to eighty prisoners attempt to get or send emails or download music in the span of an hour. In the library, for about a week, only one kiosk was working. This led to a whole block of angry maximum security prisoners ready to rumble. Skinny and another prisoner named ATL had a heated exchange over ATL monopolizing the only operable kiosk.
So, JPay’s negligence led to what happened next…
 Continue reading →

Call in Successful! Sean is at 3A!

Last week, we sent out an urgent request that supporters call Warren Correctional and demand that Sean be moved to a 3A level cell block. He left SOCF in mid August, he was supposed to be sent to 3A, but was instead “accidentally placed in a 3B unit. 3B is a disciplinary unit, where prison gangs ran things and young guys who were only in for short stints and had nothing to lose would pick fights and cause trouble a lot. At SOCF and OSP Sean was on higher security levels, which means 23 hour a day lock-down and not many opportunities for open conflict. A 3B unit is the place Sean would be most likely to run into hassles with other prisoners. Admins could use any conflict to justify putting him back in long term solitary on level 4 or 5.

This weekend, Sean’s 3B unit was transitioned to housing 3A prisoners, the level Sean was supposed to be in. But they didn’t leave him there, they transferred him with the 3B prisoners to another 3B unit. Continue reading →

Update on Sean and Urgent Call-In Action

We haven’t heard much from Sean since his transfer to Warren Correctional, and it wasn’t until one of us visited him yesterday that we fully understood why. His access to communication has been frustrated by a whole new set of obstacles. Read on for the details, and the simple action you can take to remedy the situation.

I visited Sean yesterday at Warren Correctional, where he was unexpectedly transferred two weeks ago. Sean’s transfer to a medium security prison was accompanied by a drop in his security level, from 4A to 3A. (Ohio uses a security scale from 1 to 5, 1 being the lowest security. Within each security level, “A” status is a lower security level, whereas “B” status is a disciplinary level of security).

Despite the security level drop to 3A, Sean is being held in a 3B unit at Warren with no indication of when he will be moved. The 3B unit at Warren is heavily-controlled by gangs and membership is a requirement for phone access. Sean is generally a well-respected prisoner, both for his many years in prison and for his reputation as an anarchist shit-starter, but he is in uncharted territory at a new prison among young wild-asses who, unfortunately, tend to direct their anger and defiance at one another instead of at the prison itself. Continue reading →