MCF: Read how Vernell Freeman is clinging on to life at Miami CF where he is suffering Retaliation, Brutalization, and Manipulation!!

Phone & Email Zap!

Please call and email IDOC headquarters to demand that they stop the retaliation against Vernell Freeman at MCF. Vernell has been incarcerated over 20 years. He has been targeted for horrible abuse and retaliation for the last few years, ever since he spoke up about the need to end the ban on contact visitations at MCF, in his position as a dorm representative. Read more below about the horrifying abuse, including medical neglect after a brain surgery, he has experienced.

Please call & email: IDOC Chief Counsel Robert Bugher: rbugher@idoc.in.gov
IDOC Central Office: (317) 232-5711, ext. 2, ext, 3, ext. 1

Script:
“Hello, I am calling/emailing to request that disciplinary and conduct reports that are dated on or after 8/1/2018 against Vernell Freeman #106305 at the Miami Correctional Facility be dropped immediately. He is a victim of retaliation from the staff at MCF. He did not get the help he needed after asking numerous times and it resulted in him fighting for his life. He has been bullied for 2 years straight after a major brain surgery and numerous setups by facility staff. They are trying to kill him with gas lighting techniques to make him go crazy, paying other inmates off in food and privileges, by not transferring him out, and by not giving him proper medical tests and care.

Because of the severe lack of concern with Vernell’s health and the overwhelming amount of retaliation at this prison, he also needs an immediate transfer to a different facility, testing for Hepatitis B because of the sewer water he lived in for over a week, his visits and phone privileges restored since his write-ups were falsified by staff. He needs food that has not been contaminated or worse has bodily waste in it, and to be seen by a Medical Doctor that is outside of the facility so that there won’t be forged documents and falsified blood tests on him and he can learn his true medical status. Finally, we are asking that all of the good time that has been taken from Mr. Freeman due to retaliatory, falsified conduct reports be restored to him!”

MCF: Read how Vernell Freeman is clinging on to life at Miami CF where he is suffering Retaliation, Brutalization, and Manipulation!!

by Michelle Freeman

When standing up for others makes you a target of retaliation and ridicule, is it still worth it?  For Vernell Freeman it is worth it!  Vernell is the type of person that would give you his last, he would literally give you the shirt off his back if you were in need.  Those who have ever asked him for anything or needed something can attest to that.  The question is; why is he the target of so much negativity and abuse at the Miami Correctional Facility?  

This all began back in December of 2017.  Vernell was admitted to the infirmary where he saw people being neglected, dying, near death, in despair, and in need while no one was helping them.  Some were not getting meds, some were getting them extremely late (missing doses), and their health was declining with every passing second.  Although he had been admitted to the infirmary as an urgent status he went for 4 days and still had not seen a Doctor.  Why was it so urgent that Vernell be admitted to the infirmary if it would take so long to be seen by a Doctor? When he noticed that there was a problem he began to watch the staff, not only for his own safety, but also for the safety of others. He asked the name of a specific nurse, and she told him her name was Alice, when he asked for her last name, she replied, “in wonderland.”  Another inmate then shouted out her real name, at which point she yelled at that inmate and told him that he would need her, and then told my husband the same thing.  She was not licensed to deliver medicine, however, she was doing so.  She was also helping a correctional officer pass out food.  Many of the inmates were in fear for their lives.  He was also told that he needed heating and cooling pads, when Vernell asked a Nurse about them her reply was, “Why didn’t you ask?” Which would indicate that at the Miami Correctional Facility you need to know how to diagnose yourself and know what you need in order to get help.  My husband attempted to put a grievance in, he was told that “someone” would pick it up for him, instead the c/o who he had the complaint about tried to pick it up from him.  Vernell refused to give it to him and told him that it was against him so he wasn’t giving it to him.  Vernell later asked for his prayer rug and his religious items and the c/o told him to pray on the floor in the infirmary.  Had someone checked the tapes this would have been confirmed and maybe that c/o would be more respectful to the religious wishes of those who are in the infirmary where religion in some cases is all that is left to hold on to.   

From there, life in prison as if not bad enough already, went downhill fast for Vernell.  There would be retaliation to pay for Vernell.

By March of 2018, Vernell was the Honors Dorm Rep.  He was harassed by a Sgt., and two correctional officers.  He was written up for smoking and refusing to come out of his cell (when in fact if the tapes had been checked Vernell was over by the microwaves at the time of the write-up) These same officers took chemicals (that he was allowed to have as the dorm rep) and poured them out on camera so that it could look like he had something in the cell and be able to write him up.  A c/o made racial slurs toward Vernell, and there were witnesses that heard him.  Vernell asked for an order of protection against these officers and did not get one.  Later that month, Vernell was locked in the cell (honors dorm doors are open for most of the day) and the water and power were turned off on him.  When Vernell got his protective custody paperwork completed the Sgt. tried to take it from him, Vernell told him they were against him so he wasn’t going to give them to him.  He then replied, “You think I’m scared of you!” “I’m not scared of you!”  (Also an event on camera) We were in fear and asked for a move from that facility or protective custody, however, the prison staff did not respond to his plea.  

Shortly after his stay in the infirmary,  Vernell attended a dorm rep meeting which was with the Administrative staff of the prison.  In this meeting he was advocating for everyone in the prison by asking to get contact visitation back reinstated in the prison. He was seen on a video around the prison, and was given a pat on the back any time there were other people who watched it, they were grateful for what Vernell was trying to get accomplished for them.  As dorm rep, he helped many people out and helped keep the dorms running smoothly.  Shortly after this meeting Vernell was placed in a different housing unit on a top range top bunk, ignoring his bottom range, bottom bunk pass.  He fell from the top bunk and suffered a major injury that resulted in the need to have brain surgery.

After his brain surgery, while attempting to recuperate in the infirmary, he was attacked by another inmate who had a knife while staff watched. The staff threatened
to write Vernell up and take him to the restrictive housing unit. (Yet another event caught on camera that no one checked) There were HIPPA laws broken, medicines were withheld, medicines were given without his knowledge, and he was constantly denied a move from this facility even though he was a target and being retaliated against.  

In October 2018, Vernell was asking for results from tests at which point an LPN told him that he couldn’t ask for that information during rec and to stop talking to him, so he stopped talking to him, at which point he asked Vernell if he was refusing care.  He asked this LPN on a different day if he had the results, and the LPN told him yes, and Vernell asked for them and he replied, “How should I know?”   This happened at another time with a Nurse, she asked Vernell right after he had a seizure was he going to take his meds, and then she reported that he refused care.

In March 2019, Vernell had another health scare at which time a Nurse took his vitals while he lay shaking on a mat, asked Vernell, “What do you want us to do?” She then proceeded to tell him that everything he thought he saw, or knew, or heard was all lies, and that he is imagining everything.  While she was seeing him in the infirmary at that time, officers were shaking the cell down.  As the Nurse continued to refuse to give her name another Nurse came around the corner and asked, “What is he doing in the infirmary?” at which point, the other Nurse replied, “Told him it’s all in his head.” (Pathological gaslighting). At that time, Vernell had not received his seizure medicines for a week.

In July of 2019, Vernell was attacked in his cell.  There was an officer outside of the cell while this was happening, while unconscious the attacker was throwing everything in the cell around, cups, bowls, books, clothes, everything he could get his hands on, and when Vernell came to, he would hit him in his  head more and then continue to throw things around.  I was on the tablet at the time and I clicked over to call the Lt. on the range.  Even though he witnessed everything I did on the phone, he still wrote Vernell up, and took him out of the honors dorm.  They took him to a different housing until, then when the swelling and everything went down (to avoid proof in picture form) they took him to the infirmary.  He asked for a move and did not receive one at this time either.  Conveniently even though the cell was a mess, and everything was everywhere (which can be seen on the logs where staff attempted to document Vernell’s property) there was drugs and a sim card under Vernell’s mattress.  I told the Warden’s secretary that all of Vernell’s property was left all over the cell and no one was packing it up correctly and I told her that I was in fear of him having all my personal information which was in the letters and pictures in the cell and she told me, that his belongings were not in the cell. If his property was not in the cell at that time, and he never got his property, then where did it go? (Vernell going through his box on August 11th can be seen on the camera in the infirmary).  

Vernell’s property was not stored or moved anywhere; it was all mixed up in the cell and the criminal informant and any other person who wanted to walk in the cell and take things, or plant things, were able to.

Vernell reached out to several housing unit counselors and to classification asking to please be placed back in the honors dorm so that he could heal and still have his dorm rep job.  This request went unanswered. Vernell was taken to C house where officers were telling other inmates that he was on a check-in and that he was a snitch. His tv went missing for about a month, he had no doctor follow up after being attacked and hitting his head caused him to be unconscious several times.  He asked for clothes since his were all taken and didn’t get any help.  When he was finally given a replacement it was falling apart and he was told he would be charged for it if it were to become broken. (It was already broken)

Vernell was forcibly taken from his cell to the restrictive housing unit again in January.  His property again went missing.  While in the restrictive housing unit, officers were giving out extra trays of food to inmates if they smoke Vernell’s room out.  His sanity and his well-being were being tested daily and he has been in fear of his life since December of 2017. Even with everything that is/was going on, he still found time to help others, giving away whatever food he could to those who ask, sowing books to them, and trying to be who he was prior to the retaliation from the prison staff.

Vernell went through several moves. Every move items from his property were taken and went missing, and every time he asked for help over and over again.  He was attacked again, and again wrote up for it and moved. With his most recent move he was placed in a cell with no call button.  I called in and told them of his medical conditions and that he was in a room with no call button and no one did anything.  They said they would check on it, and never moved him. 

He began to reach out to mental health, because the abuse has become unbearable for him.  He suffered 4 seizures in the month of April 2020 alone, and when he is seen is told that he is alright and can go back to the cell.  He is taking medicines that suggest he has a chronic heart and kidney issue.  He is at risk of dying at this prison if no one helps him.  They have given him so many conduct reports it will be difficult for him to gain his positive status back.  He asked for help from many different authority figures and there was no help given.  He was distressed and he was attacked again in the cell house.  

He packed up his things and chose not to lock-in, instead he stayed outside of the cell speaking and not yelling and asking can someone please help him, and get him out of there, he told them that he cannot go back in the cell house and that he needed to leave.  Instead of helping him they got the dogs and the stun guns ready.  He spoke to one officer and told him that he was not threatening them in any way, why are they doing that, at which point that officer put his weapon away.  However, they got the weapons back out and would not help. At that point, Vernell said that he didn’t even remember what happened next.  According to the staff he attacked a female officer.  He was deeply hurt by this, and didn’t want to believe that happened.  He was given a 70 year sentence on his 1st offense.  This makes year 21 for him in prison, and he has not ever attacked a staff member in a violent manner.  He asked for help on several occasions and there was no one who helped him.  His back was against the wall, they are telling him that he is crazy, that he is not seeing or hearing things he is seeing and hearing, they are stealing from him, jumping him, and denying him the medical care he needs.  

To-date, Vernell’s property box was found with only a few of his items still in it, as well as someone else’s property.  When he alerted the Sgt. that the items were not his, he was told that it was.  He has gone days at a time with no food and he has not had a shower. He was given his food all mixed up with his tray for example eggs, mixed with oatmeal and applesauce.  He was told “Have at it Freeman use your hands.”  Use his hands beca
use the staff also took his eating utensils from the cell.  He was in feces water for a week (in the cell on the floor from being in a room located directly above the waste of the facility), there is harmful bacteria in the cell, he does not have his religious items, and he does not have a blanket, toothpaste, or toothbrush.  He is complaining of pain and he is not being given a proper diet because staff is tampering with his food, and he isn’t receiving the medical care he needs.  He will die if he does not get the help that he needs.