Report from Angaza Iman Bahar
On Nov. 13, 2021 a prisoner housed at Indiana State Prison on the Restricted Status Housing Unit (RSHU) at 3am hollered that he was experiencing symptoms related to covid-19. He was located on the 200 range, east side of the unit, cell 221. The entire unit had been placed on lockdown for 14 days due to another prisoner testing positive for covid. For over 2/3 hrs the prisoner’s pleas for medical assistance went ignored. It took an hour for the officer on duty to even come and inquire into what was the problem and even then told this prisoner who was in extreme pain (one of the criteria for calling signal 3000) that he would have to wait until the nurse showed up on the unit to pass out meds to be checked out. Please keep in mind that this is the same unit where two prisoners in less than a week were found dead supposedly having committed suicide, yet their bodies weren’t discovered for hours, possibly days, due to staff incompetence. The cells are literally falling apart and mice infested. Such has created a dangerous life threatening environment where the well being of prisoners housed on the unit is simply not a concern for the administration ànd thus the staff who work over here. Policies which clearly specify the manner in which the unit is supposed to be run are blatantly ignored and the conditions over here would be described by the International Commission on Human Rights as deplorable and unfit for human beings. Officials here will claim that these are lies but I ask that an independent agency be asked to seek a court order to force the prison authorities to allow them to come and see for themselves what is going on. Only then will they be able to get to the bottom of this. I personally am being subjected to all of this simply because of my political views, having not committed any crime and being illegally held past my correct release date on technical parole violations. The courts here in Laporte County seem to be purposely delaying setting a hearing to address the habeas corpus I’ve filed seeking my immediate release.
11/20
Update is that they left this guy unattended for two days after he first sought medical attention and when they finally tested him he came back positive for covid.
11/29
As you all know the administration here at ISP has had the RSHU unit on quarantine lockdown for about a month due two an outbreak of covid. Yet they refuse to test everyone on the unit to determine who may be infected at one time, isolating those individuals and bringing the situation under control. Instead they simply wait until someone becomes sick enough to realize he has covid and requests to be tested. This has allowed them to maintain the lock down status the unit was placed on beyond the required two week quarantine period. At this rate everyone on the unit is at risk of becoming infected due to the administration’s deliberate neglect. It is as if they purposely designed a potentially dangerous situation and at this rate someone will probably die as a result of their negligence. Under the quarantine lockdown status many of us who were placed on the unit pending disciplinary hearings have had our hearings postponed indefinitely, leaving us in a state of unknowing. Yet I learned that some disciplinary hearings are being held, it’s just that Disciplinary Hearing Officer Smith is choosing who he wants to see, postponing those cases where prisoners have been brought up on trumped up charges by staff who have chosen to use the disciplinary process for vindictive purposes. What’s really shocking is that I haven’t received one notice of postponement, which policy requires she issue to justify her reason for delaying the hearing. I believe this is a tactic to maximize my exposure to covid and prevent me from pursuing the issue of my illegal incarceration at the hands of the Indiana Parole Board. Locked inside of this cage 24/7 I cannot utilize the resources of the law library, making my fight to access the court that much more difficult. This has been my status for over a month and like I said I have not been found guilty of anything, nor am I under investigation. I write these updates so that the public out there are aware of the human rights abuses that are happening right here in amerikkka, who love to claim it is such a free and just society, unless you’re incarcerated.
12/01
It has been revealed to us prisoners that the possible origin of the covid outbreak here on the RSHU was a Case Team Manager who tested positive for covid, I believe over the holiday weekend. It would make perfect sense, for she was responsible for walking the ranges and came in contact with pretty much everyone on the east side of the unit where I am currently being held. I personally was forced to interact with her, for without her it would’ve been impossible for me to access the court, for she picked up my legal mail and brought me the notices of the lawyers requesting I call. Yet despite this revelation ISP still has not done enough to effectively bring this situation under control. Testing for the entire unit has not been mandated and is clearly the only logical approach if you were serious about fighting the spread of the deadly virus. Yet as I have repeatedly proclaimed that seems not 2 by the aim of this administration. Instead they seem to rather allow it to slowly run its course through the unit for it gives them justification to keep us confined to the cells 24/7. I have also learned that the disciplinary hearing officer has been coming to the unit and conducting disciplinary hearings. Yet I have yet to have my matter heard despite the fact that it has been over a month since the incident and I was placed in RSHU pending disciplinary hearing. My due process rights have been blatantly disregarded and violated, for I have yet to receive a notice of postponement of the hearing which must give a legit reason for the continuation. It is like they have intentionally placed me in a high risk environment hoping I become infected with this deadly virus. All that I have said here can be verified and I write this simply as documentation of the human rights abuses being carried out here at ISP. I truly hope that you forward this to any and everyone willing to listen and take action to expose what is being done to us here before someone dies as a result of these people’s deliberate indifference…