Please call and email Plainfield CF, IDOC HQ, and the Ombudsman Bureau to demand that Aaron Isby-Israel be allowed access to the law library in accordance with policy and procedure. See below for his description of the harassment and obstruction tactics he has been facing as he tries to exercise his constitutional right to access the courts from behind prison walls!
Phone/Email Zap Instructions and Sample Script
- Plainfield CF: (317) 839-2513 ext. 7 ext. 9 ext. 1 or 2 (Warden or Deputy Warden of Operations)
- IDOC Commissioner Christine Reagle: creagle@idoc.in.gov
- IDOC HQ: (317) 232-5711 ext. 0 ext. 1
- Ombudsman Bureau: ombud@idoa.in.gov
Script: “Hello, I am [calling/emailing] because I am concerned that Aaron Isby #892219 is being denied access to the law library at Plainfield CF in violation of IDOC Policy & Procedure and his constitutional right to access the courts. Mr. Isby is on the law library deadline countletter list and the law library staff is fully aware that he has ongoing cases in the courts, yet since March 18 he has not been provided with a pass to the law library. Law library staff, including Ms. Grover, and guards, seem to be interfering with his legal mail and law library passes intentionally. Please ensure that Mr. Isby is given a pass to the law library today and on all future Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays as long as he is on deadline, in accordance with IDOC Policy & Procedure.”
Messages about the Denial of Access to the Law Library and Legal Mail
3/25/24
At Plainfield Correctional Facility, I am told by Nigerian prison custody staff who is working in my unit West L-dorm, that I am not on law library list at all? I am on a deadline list and I should have a 7:30 a.m. law library pass for today. My schedule is Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. I have to file my legal brief in the Miami County Circuit Court, on the Borkowski case today! This is intentional, Ms. Schmitt and the Ezelle woman who is responsible for this schedule, should of had my name on the list? My brief has been on my computer and completed now for almost two weeks but the law library supervisor Schmitt has not been able to print my brief because the printer and system has been not working? Calls must be made to address this immediately, because if I do not meet this deadline, My case is going to be lost!
3/21/24
On March 21, 2024, at Plainfield Correctional Facility, in west L-dorm, my housing unit, one of the custody staff between 6a.m. and 6:30 a.m. delivered to me a 9:30 a.m. pass for legal mail. The problem with this pass it was a day late and it was dated March 20, 2024, yesterday. Someone held my pass intentionally beyond this day(3/20/24) that I had to go pick up my legal mail. Today all movement in this prison has been placed on hold and Legal mail processing and delivering is not being done. Spread the word!
3/19/24
On 3/19/24, at Plainfield Correctional Facility I had a 9:30 a.m. pass for legal mail. Sometime after 9:30 a.m. I left my unit in west L-dorm and walked over to the PCF administrative to pick up my legal mail. At some point Ms. Grover who is responsible for processing incoming legal mail showed up while I was waiting at the legal mail window, she then took my Prison I.D. card and pass, looked at them and grabbed my legal mail from her table and placed same in the printer to be copied. There was a sheet of paper sitting on the mail window ledge folded up with my name on it, that I had to sign for my legal mail. Because I could not see my name on this sheet of paper in this folded condition, I picked it up and unfolded the paper, to see where my name was so I could sign it in the right place. This is when all hell broke loose, Ms. Grover became irate and upset with me for unfolding the sheet of paper, and she started yelling at me in a very hostile manner and being disrespectful. It did not make sense why she was angry about me unfolding the sheet of paper, so, I question her why was it an issue, and she told me to leave the building. I then asked her several times why was she harassing me, she said i am not harassing you, and told me to leave. I ask her if she was refusing to give me, my legal mail her response was no, but, she then threaten to write me up and told me to leave and return to my dorm. I left at 9:43 a.m., and went back to my dorm. I was denied my legal mail by Grover. There was no justification for this abuse by Grover, I was never disrespectful or disruptive, I just ask why I was being harassed and denied my legal mail, and this individual became hostile and told me to leave without giving me my legal mail. This has been a pattern by Grover, and I have filed complaints in the past against her for violating my rights, but, nothing has been done by her superiors to stop her abuse.
3/18/24
No law library was provided to me today (3/18/24), at the Plainfield Correctional Facility. I confronted a Nigerian guard working on west L-dorm about my law library pass at 8:48 a.m., he claimed that I had no pass for law library. I explain to this guard that this cannot be so, because I am on the law library deadline count-letter list and urged him to call the law library to confirm this but he refused to do so! Once again these guards are interfering with my ability to go to the law library and I believe this is a continual pattern of retaliation for a complaint I filed against Lt. Roche for harassing me. This is an example why this program here will not benefit me and a justification for granting me a transfer to Chain-O-Lakes. Aaron
Photo: Libraries in Prison. Credit: Zoukis Consulting Group.