Letters From Jail
-
A Google news search for Nathan DeGrave will show nothing more recent than two weeks old. This is peculiar, given that his letter on the conditions at the D.C. Department of Corrections was published October 30 and should be the biggest story in America.
DeGrave is a January 6 protester who has spent the last nine months in a special prison block at the D.C. Department of Corrections. He has not had a trial. He has not been convicted of the crimes with which he is charged. He is there for the purpose of keeping the rest of us at home. He is there as a reminder that, while the government may not care about violent crime on our streets, there is no limit to their brutality when their own power is threatened.
The January 6 protesters were not, by themselves, a threat to that power. But inasmuch as they represent you and me and hundreds of millions of Americans who love their country, the government has taken it upon themselves utterly to destroy them—their lives, livelihoods, and health—as a warning to the rest of us.
If you have not read DeGrave’s letter, you must. But these are the relevant points: Prisoners are subjected to a starvation diet under which DeGrave has lost 15 pounds and now fears he would be unrecognizable to his family. Sanitation is poor; mold and filth are everywhere. Raw sewage has overflowed the cellblock. Chronic sickness is pervasive. Medical conditions requiring breathing machines and medication are left untreated, while prisoners are forced to wear masks at all times (for their health!) or risk loss of privileges and physical abuse.
The guards are all-powerful. They confiscate legal materials, prevent meetings with family and with attorneys (by requiring two-week COVID quarantine lockdowns after such meetings). They lock down the cells any time interviews about the prison appear on TV. The prisoners are prepared, says DeGrave, for more punishment in retaliation for his letter.
The guards are mostly “migrants from Africa who have been conditioned to hate us, and hate America.” They have beaten prisoners for singing the National Anthem. A guard yelled “Fuck America!” and threatened to lock the prisoners down for a week if they ever sing the anthem again. A man who tried to organize a Bible study group was beaten nearly to death, and has been left permanently blind in one eye. The man’s name is Ryan Samsel.
This is happening, not in North Korea nor the Sudan, but in the D.C. Department of Corrections on 14th Street NW, 12 blocks from the White House.
It is not our purpose to comment on the charges these men face—and DeGrave’s charges may be more serious than he suggests in his letter. The point is that the conditions these men face are utterly inhumane. Cruel and unusual punishment is un-American, as is the concept of punishment without trial. But this treatment would be equally unacceptable for convicted criminals.
More... https://amgreatness.com/2021/11/02/the-injustices-facing-j6-protesters-are-warnings-to-you/
-
-
@jolly said in Letters From Jail:
spent the last nine months in a special prison block at the D.C. Department of Corrections.
@jolly said in Letters From Jail:
subjected to a starvation diet under which DeGrave has lost 15 pounds
Okay. I thought this was funny. He has lost 15 pounds over nine months. Just over one pound a month. Doesn't seem like much of a starvation diet.
@jolly said in Letters From Jail:
now fears he would be unrecognizable to his family
LOL Did he only weigh 16 pounds to begin with? 555
-
@doctor-phibes said in Letters From Jail:
@mik said in Letters From Jail:
Not right if true.
Does it sound very likely to you?
That's the question, isn't it? What if it is true? What if half of it is true?
-
@jolly said in Letters From Jail:
Just a dumb question...If locked in a cell with one hour's exercise per day, would you lose weight?
Depends on how much food I was given. If 2000 calories a day, then yeah, I probably would because I’m a fatass…
-
@taiwan_girl said in Letters From Jail:
@jolly said in Letters From Jail:
spent the last nine months in a special prison block at the D.C. Department of Corrections.
@jolly said in Letters From Jail:
subjected to a starvation diet under which DeGrave has lost 15 pounds
Okay. I thought this was funny. He has lost 15 pounds over nine months. Just over one pound a month. Doesn't seem like much of a starvation diet.
Agreed!
-
@jolly said in Letters From Jail:
@doctor-phibes said in Letters From Jail:
@mik said in Letters From Jail:
Not right if true.
Does it sound very likely to you?
That's the question, isn't it? What if it is true? What if half of it is true?
What if none of it is true?
It doesn't sound very likely. Imported African guards who are indoctrinated to hate America, somebody being savagely beaten for a bible class, somebody losing 15 pounds and being unrecognizable to his family?
To be honest, it sounds a little delusional.
-
@jolly said in Letters From Jail:
Medical conditions requiring breathing machines
Listen, I’m willing to listen to some of this and do agree that these guys being “disappeared” like they have is sickening, but this sounds suspiciously like exaggerations… Would this medical condition happen to be Sleep Apnea?
-
The D.C. Corrections Department for a second time turned away two House lawmakers seeking to check the prison conditions of Jan. 6 defendants locked up in the troubled facility.
A jailer told Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Louie Gohmert, “We’re finished,” as they pressed for entry and were denied.
“What are you hiding?” asked Greene, who has helped to lead the effort to free the defendants. “As members of Congress, we have oversight over the district,” she said in a video she posted to Twitter.
She wrote on the platform, “Today @replouiegohmert and myself were denied entry to visit Louie’s constituent & conduct oversight at the DC jail. I’m extremely concerned about the treatment of J6 defendants & now ALL inmates being held there.”