UPDATES as of 3/31 in slideshow:

Original post (on 2/29) below:

For the past two weeks we have been conducting a participatory phone zap that has brought pressure upon SCI Rockview to reprimand three guards who hung nooses in the facility last November. This is a protracted struggle that has resulted in backlash from the facility staff and revealed numerous chains of complicity, manipulation, and deception that run from the top-down within the DOC. As of now we know two prisoners have been targeted in retaliation for speaking up and demanding their grievances be taken seriously. Prisoners in the facility are being punished for using sanctioned methods of grievance. We have now shifted into a two-fold approach to the phone zap, where on the one hand we plan to make it known that eyes are on what PA-DOC is doing to the comrades, as a layer of defense and anti-repression support. On the other hand we also plan to continue amplifying the demands of prisoners in the facility. There have been several public calls and positions papers that are in circulation, generated from inside-outside discussion from various groups. You can read one of these statements that we have made available here, as well as practical displays of solidarity and mutual support.

We have an update on Charles Gilyard (AY3679), who was targeted and put in the hole at SCI Rockview for filing grievances and for continuing to speak up after the grievances were denied and internal investigation dropped.

Charles (AY3679) was moved to SCI Houtzdale, on Thursday 3/28, located an hour west of SCI Rockview. He has been there since approx. 3:30pm. We received word that Rockview did not ship any of Charles’ belongings and he is to start from scratch with no property. Charles is in his 60s. His experience in the hole (isolation) without any calls permitted and hyper-immobilized for over a week has taken a toll.

On 3/29 we will be calling SCI Houtzdale and PA-DOC East Office to demand that his property be salvaged and shipped. We are also asking any letter writing collectives and books thru bars groups to send Charles (AY3679) some love and light.

Please call SCI Rockview and demand that the property of Charles Gilyard (AY3679) are shipped to him where he is now held, at SCI Houtzdale.

We also need help calling in to check on Charles Carrington (#HS1233) who remains in the hole at SCI Rockview pending a retaliatory transfer. After filing his grievances about the noose incident, he expressed concern for his life & was communicated that he felt staff were trying to kill him. We need to make sure that the prison knows we have eyes on what is happening. There is an absolute difference in the way the guards and staff move when we are constantly checking versus when we are not. And we need to stick with Charles through this, and urge people to not devolve into spectating but actively participate in the defense of people who are retaliated against for defying silence and speaking up in the jaws of unmediated state power.

Please call in to demand Charles Carrington (#HS1233) be removed from the hole at SCI Rockview. If he isn’t transfered we need to let it known that we are watching. And if they say he has been transferred then we need to demand his property be salvaged and shipped.

Contacts:

SCI Houtzdale Phone Line | 814.378.1000

SCI Rockview Phone Line | 814.355.4874

When calling the SCI Rockview facility itself, you can request to speak with the admin or security. If you choose to speak with admin, here are their specs: Superintendent is Bobbi Jo Salamon; Deputy Superintendent of Central Services is Mike Rowe; Deputy Superintendent of Facilities is Scott Woodring; Business Manager is Adam Beck; Superintendent’s Assistant is Nicki Paul (Nicki is also the grievance coordinator – and a big liar!). When you call the prison directly, ask to speak with any of these admin.

PA-DOC East Office

Morris Houser, Acting Deputy Secretary Eastern Region 717.728.4122 | 4123
   Marilyn Richards, Staff Assistant 717.728.4114
   Samuel (Clueless) Condo, Staff Assistant 717.728.4747
   Capt. Bly, Inspection Captain 717.728.4126

Scripts:

SCI Rockview is attempting to disrupt the cohesion of inside resistance to these racist guards by targeting and removing people who they think are its catalyst. The regime is simultaneously attempting to thwart the energy of outside support into individually supporting comrades, while comrades inside are isolated and targeted for reprisal. Therefore on the one hand, we have defensive work: making sure the comrades who are singled out and face accelerated retaliation are materially supported and the prison knows we have all eyes on the unfolding situation. And on the other hand we continue our offensive work: adjusting strategy to force PADOC to not only recognize the prisoner demands but to fulfill the requested terms of relief from which such demands emerge.

Contacts for pushing Inside Demands:

Timothy Holmes, Chief Counsel | 717.728.7763  | tholmes@pa.gov

Morris Houser, Deputy Secretary East 717.728.4122 | 4123

Samuel (Clueless) Condo, Staff Assistant 717.728.4747

Governor Shapiro’s office: 717.787.2500

Michelle A Henry, PA Attorney General: 717.787.3391

PA Office of Inspector General – 717.772.4935

Script

I am calling on behalf of a community of people who are distressed by a recent incident of antiBlack harassment by a group of CO’s at SCI Rockview, who have faced no consequences for their racist actions. On 11/24/23, prisoners at SCI Rockview found two nooses made from extension cords hung by guards in the office (bubble). Two internal grievances have been submitted by prisoners who witnessed the incident, and prison officials have rejected both. The internal investigation on the matter has also been closed, leading us to resort to contacting anyone external that we can. We would like to make you aware that the facility admin has rejected both internal grievances, submitted by prisoners through the proper channels. And while the guards have faced no consequences for their hateful act, prisoners who have spoken out and lodged legitimate grievances have faced severe consequences that have placed them in the hole, led to transfers, and can compromise their records. We have little reason to believe any further internal investigation will achieve what the prisoners have been demanding, which includes the following:

• Investigate the hanging of nooses as a “hate crime” and take its impact seriously
• Terminate Sgt. Mosser and c/o Richards
• Mandatory therapy for c/o Kirchner

The hanging of two nooses is understood by many people imprisoned at SCI Rockview to be a hostile act and deeply offensive. Some are disclosing how these acts are part of a larger pattern of discriminatory practices used by correctional officers at this specific facility. If this was any other workplace, the act of hanging nooses would lead to severe consequences. The admin at SCI Rockview have not only displayed indifference to the racist act, but some even have made efforts to silence prisoners in distress by the incident. We urge PA-DOC officials to recognize the significance of the prisoner demands, which are derived from the exhausted grievances. 

The administration at SCI Rockview is deeply paranoid, fearful, and engaged in explicit damage control right now. SCI Rockview was a site of double digit fatalities and constant gratuitous violence in 2023. The noose situation is tip of the iceburg shit. We are curious to know the extent to which the Correctional Officers union is having a play in this cover up. We are starting to connect the dots a bit more.

The reason for the unprecedented quickness of these transfers following exposure in the Daily Centre and leaking of denied grievances, also may be likely due to pressure for cover up from a high level of PA-DOC. Like we been saying, the noose incident is just the tip of the iceburg at Rockview – a site of persistent, gratuitous violence that is symptomatic of a normalized condition of antiBlack genocide that coheres in PA-DOC. The DOC knows this. This is why they have been so opaque and deflective with the public questioning and independent external investigators. And this is why they have came down so hard on prisoners who will not let this incident go without consequences.

If guards face consequences for something as allegedly “minor” as hanging nooses in the facility, what will PA-DOC be forced to do when the stories of beatings and premature death are dug into further? And to be clear, hanging nooses is NOT a minor act. It is a serious fucking deal. If anyone hung nooses in their “non-law enforcement” site of employment they would be reprimanded and fired with a quickness. This says everything about the institutional culture of PA-DOC. This says everything about the normalized condition of antiBlack genocide that PA-DOC preserves and enforces .

As an recent call to action earlier this week reads:

What is happening right now at SCI Rockview is an autonomous campaign to get two guards fired and for one to received mandated therapy as an act of “mercy.” An autonomous campaign means that it is open to all for participation, using tactics according to their own abilities and needs. It means it is decentralized and not led by a single party, non-profit, or institutionalized entity. It is a type of campaign that anyone who is impacted by the violence of PA-DOC  can join in, anonymously or as their full legal selves. It means a diversity of tactics and direct action are on the table always. It is a type of campaign that has no registration form or membership fees. It simply means that if you are moved by or can relate to the unfolding struggle of prisoners at Rockview, then you are qualified to participate. The situation is becoming more dire by the day in this facility, with the staff initiating a backlash that has put multiple people in the hole (solitary) and even transferred one prisoner out of state.

One specific need that potentially can be fulfilled is further research into specific highly responsible prison officials, which is information available in the phone zap scripts and press releases. This information can be circulated somewhere where people familiar with this kind of research can encounter it, like Scenes from the Atlanta Forest or Philly Anti-Capitalist.

There is an ongoing campaign to expose three officers at SCI Rockview for hanging nooses in the prison facility for many prisoners to see. This saga begins in November of last year, and since January we have been engaged in a protracted struggle to get officials to recognize the legitimate grievances of the prisoners at SCI Rockview. Since January, some prisoners who have spoken out have been identified and targeted for retaliation. Last Tuesday, Charles Gilyard (# AY3679) and Charles Carrington (#HS1233) were placed in Administrative custody (aka the RHU, aka solitary, aka “the hole”). Charles C. is likely being transferred today, whereabouts unknown. Charles G. is likely to be transfered on Monday.

For a primer on what is going down at SCI Rockview, please check out our recent call for a phone zap, which is ongoing until the end of this week:

https://abolitioniststudy.com/2024/03/25/rock-zap-2nd-week-ftp/

In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent’s assistant and “grievance coordinator” informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong. When family and friends of prisoners in the facility called en mass between March 18th and 25th to voice their concern, Paul was flippant, dishonest, and dismissive to nearly every caller. Several family members of prisoners felt incredibly disrespected by the behavior of Paul and other staff who answered their calls. In the process of calling in, it also became known that Paul holds several other titles within the prison, including “staff officer,” “lieutenant’s assistant,” and “community liaison.” Samuel Condo, a PA-DOC official responsible for overseeing SCI Rockview, was called over a dozen of times to no avail. When contact was finally made with Condo, he simply would redirect calls back to Nicki Paul whose multiple roles on the prison staff create severe conflicts of interest.  

Paul admits that SCI Rockview does indeed have video footage, yet the reasons why they refuse to make this footage public has not been given any reasonable justification. As of the week of March 18th, SCI Rockview has closed the internal investigation, choosing to protect the guards who did this hateful and racist act over the safety and well-being of the prisoners. In the meantime, the administration removed three prisoners (that we know of) from general population who brought the situation to public light. One was transferred out of the prison, and the other two are still in administrative custody, aka “the hole” under accusations of “encouraging group activity.” We still have no clue what the actual 802 misconduct write-ups say.

3/20 phone call – “We investigated ourselves and found no wrongdoing”

Please see our blog post from “Phone zap Week 1, which details contradictions in Paul’s responses to family members in prior phone calls.

3/25 phone call – “I cannot change your opinion, or how you perceive it”

Notable lie in 3/25 convo: Charles had no access to phone calls in Administrative custody (the “hole”) – Charles’s wife did not receive a single call from him since last Tuesday. She now (as of yesterday) finally is scheduled to have a video visit with him soon. But it was over a week with no contact. So this one of several instances in the conversation that Paul completely lies about: what he has access to in the “not-hole” hole. More will be coming out in the next few days corroborating our claims.

This noose incident came at the tail end of a year that saw 11 prisoners die in custody. Seven people died amidst an outbreak of legionnaires disease, and four people died while in administrative custody (punitive solitary units with very little public oversight and severely limited communication access). Unfortunately, there is a well-known pattern of premature death and racist discriminatory practices (including beatings and verbal harassment) at SCI Rockview. 

Please let Chief Grievance Officer Dorina Varner (717-728-0350) know that superintendent assistant Nicki Paul at SCI Rockview (who also doubles as community liason and grievance coordinator) needs to be investigated for retaliation and staff misconduct .

We now have two recordings of Nicki Paul outright lying in one & using rhetorical tactics to talk around the fact that Charles was indeed thrown in “the hole” with no demonstrable misconduct on his write up, which in fact is against PADOC policy # DC-ADM 802. Furthermore, it is against policy to retaliate against someone for filing grievances. (See the grievances section in DOC handbook). With no demonstrable misconduct on his 802 petition, Charles is being held in administrative custody (“the hole”/solitary) for what?

Nicki’s boss is Chief Grievance Officer Dorina Varner (717-728-0350) who works below the cheif council Timothy Holmes (717-728-7763)

Office of Chief Counsel’s location is: Pennsylvania Department of Corrections 1920 Technology Parkway Mechanicsburg, PA 17050

March 26, 2024

For Immediate Release

Benner Township, PA.- On November 24^th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke. By December 4^th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates” and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance over two months later by February 5, 2024 under the guise that it was “being investigated.” However, the sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions for this racist act.

As of March 10^th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison. Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility’s virulent institutional racism.

In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent’s assistant and “grievance coordinator” informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong. When family and friends of prisoners in the facility called en mass between March 18th and 25th to voice their concern, Paul was flippant, dishonest, and dismissive to nearly every caller. Several family members of prisoners felt incredibly disrespected by the behavior of Paul and other staff who answered their calls. In the process of calling in, it also became known that Paul holds several other titles within the prison, including “staff officer,” “lieutenant’s assistant,” and “community liaison.” Samuel Condo, a PA-DOC official responsible for overseeing SCI Rockview, was called over a dozen of times to no avail. When contact was finally made with Condo, he simply would redirect calls back to Nicki Paul whose multiple roles on the prison staff create severe conflicts of interest.  

Paul admits that SCI Rockview does indeed have video footage, yet the reasons why they refuse to make this footage public has not been given any reasonable justification. As of the week of March 18th, SCI Rockview has closed the internal investigation, choosing to protect the guards who did this hateful and racist act over the safety and well-being of the prisoners. In the meantime, the administration removed two prisoners from general population who brought the situation to public light. One was transferred out of the prison, and the other one is still in administrative custody, aka “the hole” under  accusations of “encouraging group activity.” 

This incident is coming after a year that saw 11 prisoners die in custody. Seven people died amidst an outbreak of legionnaires disease, and four people died while in administrative custody (punitive solitary units with very little public oversight and severely limited communication access). Unfortunately, there is a well-known pattern of premature death and racist discriminatory practices (including beatings and verbal harassment) at SCI Rockview. 

There is a resistance campaign that has emerged from the persistent actions of prisoners and outside supporters, who together are demanding an external investigation of the facility & its staff for the cover-up of hanging the nooses. The severity of retaliation for speaking out must also be considered a central object of investigation. We believe the inaction of officials at this facility is symptomatic of a deeper condition of antiBlackness, white supremacy, and class warfare that PA-DOC legally sanctions and politically condones. On both sides of the wall, people most impacted by the racism of SCI Rockview continue to uplift the demands of prisoners to investigate the noose incident as a hate crime, to terminate Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard, and to require mandatory therapy for CO Kirchner. While a grassroots campaign is indeed growing, and as PA-DOC slides further into dissonant inaction, the call for popular resistance to SCI Rockview’s lethal conditions rings louder by the day.

Contact: abolitionist-study@protonmail.com

Due to COVID19, the prison has us coming out for phones, showers, kiosks, meals and recreation in cohorts of 21 or 22 cells (roughly 38 prisoners per cohort). Initially, we were in cohorts of 5 cells with 45 minutes per cohort. Now we are in phase two. The problem is that while the cohort size has more than quadrupled, the time out of cells hasn’t. We have eight phones on the block. Staying in touch with family and friends is of the utmost important to us. So phone time is priority.

We get two day room periods (phone, shower, kiosk time) per day for 1 hour each period. Do the math. Everyone cannot use the phones. This creates hostility between prisoners. Everyone wants to call home and check on their loved ones. We have had to negotiate phone time so there are no fights. Everyday, there is an incident. But we know we have to work together.

The incident last night was an attempt by an officer to stoke hostilities between us. Burning us for day room time and telling us to blame certain prisoners was a divide tactic. We don’t need this stuff, especially right now. We are stressed and worried we will be back on lockdown due to the uptick in infections. Some people have never developed a cooperative attitude until now. Because they have to. Our peace is fragile.

The administration is aware of the problems over the phones. It is prison wide. People have written to the Superintendent and the Deputies about the problem. They need to reign in these officers who create problems and difficulties for prisoners. The administration has asked us to be patient and work with them during this crisis. All we want is the same cooperation and patience. Some officers want us to fight each other to justify their creating a more oppressive environment than what we already have. Some officers wish we were locked down completely with no communication to the outside world. We cannot let that happen.