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CHAPTER TWO

CYCLES OF TRAUMA

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Letter from DeMarco Raynor, still at the Maximum Security Unit in Tucker, Arkansas: 

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I was transferred here to Tucker Maximum Security Unit 9-25-20 from the Cummins Unit. 

 

A week or so after being in cell block 6, I was awakened one morning hearing guys saying that “someone had hung themself in cell block 8.” By us being in cell block 6 and the way the barracks is constructed, we could look directly into cell block 8. From our vantage point we could see a white male hanging from his cell door. 

 

Word quickly spread around the cell block that it was a guy by the name of A.G. whom I would later find out was Adam Green. I didn’t know him but all of the guys that knew him expressed their grief and anger at what they were witnessing… 

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The guys were saying that she [Sgt. Ridley] told him that he was never getting out of prison and that he would die here. The guys in cell block 8 said that he was trying to get her to move the phone in front of his cell to call his mom because she was sick and that’s how the argument started when Sgt. Ridley refused to bring him the phone. 

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It was brought to my knowledge that Sgt. Ridley had been in the military and you could tell by the way she barked out orders. She also acted like a person that was disturbed or that was possibly on some type of medication that caused mood swings. She would go from proper interaction to wild unprofessional insults in the blink of an eye. I began to notice that only officers who acted with a disdain for inmates were assigned to work in the “solitary confinement” areas.

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[Photos of Green's cell the morning after he died.]

 

 

Letter from J.D. at the Maximum Security Unit:

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Regarding A.G.—

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That morning Sgt. Ridley had cussed him out and was trying to drive him, talking about his mom, and completely disrespecting him. Furthermore, Lt. Freeman ain’t make his officers do rounds that night, on the shift log no rounds were made for at least 4 or 5 hours that night straight.

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Witness Statement from Kevin Lee: 

 

My close friend Adam Green committed suicide due to the negligent behavior of Cpt. Litzsey, Lt. Freeman, Corporal Kelly, and Corporal Tim. The last security round made was approx. 12:30 when Corporal Tim walked the nurse around 8 barracks. NO ONE made another round until Adam Green was discovered approx. 4:50am. Prior to Adam Green’s suicide, he asked Sgt. Ridley to sign his grievance the last shift and she refused. A heated argument between the two occurred between them and she told him “fuck you and you never going home with 115 years.” The next morning, he committed suicide.

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Witness Statement from Eric Carter: 

 

On 10-27-2020, cell 48 got into a verbal argument with Sgt. [Chrystal Ridley]. Sgt. Ridley and 48 cell were back and forward [using] curse words and disrespectful words towards one another. After shift change around 8pm, I called home and 48 cell asked to use the telephone after I was finished. I went to sleep after I gave 48 cell the phone and on 10-28-2020 around 4am, 48 cell was pronounced dead hanging in his cell. 

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Witness Statement from Thomas Maxwell/G-Doffee: 

 

I do not know what could have happened to Mr. A. Green. He gave no warnings or indication he would harm himself. I did not see his acts or hear any sign of a struggle or confrontation. Such is sad to know suicide was his out… Last officer I see talk to him was Sgt. D. Brewer [on] Tues. 10/27/2020… More staff should be on duty. And mental health is not reviewing us every 90 days in confidentiality as Admin. Direct. #17-02 sect. E. 2, page 7 of 12. 

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Witness Statement from Nakia Gibbs: 

 

Sgt. [Ridley] and 48 cell—I know him by A.G.—had major words. She was calling his mother ‘bitches’ and ‘hoe’ and she was telling him that’s why he has all that time that he have. He was going through a lot after all that. He was only trying to get her to sign his paperwork and she wouldn’t. I think it is the number one reason he killed himself.

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Guards are required to check on each person in restrictive and punitive housing at least twice an hour. The official log from that night suggests regular movement by the guards all night, with an 85-minute gap between 2:35am and 4:00am. But the surveillance video timeline shows that no one passed by Green's cell for five hours, between 11:17pm and 4:15am. 

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The video record would not be publicly accessible if Green hadn’t died. This is key in recognizing the importance of first-person accounts. Prison staff overwhelmingly control the documentation of what goes on inside prisons, and administrators are typically the ones to tell the story. 

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Letter from DeMarco Raynor:

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That same month (Oct 2020) of the suicide I witnessed Sgt. Bass, Sgt. Harris, and Sgt. Ridgell spray inmate K.B. with mace while he was naked and posed no physical threat. They were upset because they came to search him and he flushed a cell phone. They sprayed him with mace and paraded him down the hallway naked in cuffs.

 

That type of treatment of inmates here has become common. For any reason they choose, staff will spray you with mace, cut off your clothes, and have you placed in a cell with nothing but boxers and a paper gown. 

 

The first week of December I witnessed this happen to a guy and he was in the cell with no mattress or blanket for over 3 days. He was assaulted by staff but they wrote him a disciplinary saying he assaulted them even though he was in handcuffs and leg shackles. 

 

On any given day, you can hear staff arguing with inmates and calling the inmates “dick suckers” and many other insulting words. Like Sgt. Ridley, there are many officers here that suffer from mental health issues, whether from the military, like her, or other traumatic situations in their lives… Staff members that display this type of behavior are still placed in supervisor roles over the lives of hundreds of inmates… 

 

In my opinion, the low requirements that it takes to become a correctional officer in the ADC [Arkansas Department of Corrections] is the leading cause of most major incidents, especially suicides. My reason for saying that is because I witnessed situations where it was truly a mental health issue taking place and the officer acted aggressive and caused volatile encounters. All of the officers knew how to punish the inmate, but hardly any of them would assist in a matter where the inmate needed help. 

 

It’s a modern day slave environment at all times.

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Between January 2020 and March 2023, 30 people incarcerated in Arkansas state prisons killed themselves and at least 382 others tried. 46% of the suicides and 59% of the documented suicide attempts happened in solitary confinement, even though only around 11% of Arkansas prisoners are in solitary confinement at any given time.

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Among those who died in solitary in Arkansas between January 2020 and March 2023 are Calvin Hammock, who was in prison because of a rule violation while on probation. People in cells near him said he had been announcing he was suicidal all morning. He was 30 years old.

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Anthony Clay, who had a parole plan prepared and was hoping to go home. He got in trouble for not following a direct order, lost his parole eligibility when he went to solitary, and killed himself three days later. He was 31.

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Skyland Harris, who talked with another prisoner through the pipes and said his mom had turned her back on him because of his sexual orientation. He was upset that he’d asked repeatedly for his shower to be fixed, but the guard who looked at it said it wasn’t broken. He said he would go on hunger strike until it was fixed. Then he said he’d kill himself. Someone from mental health came and talked with him. He hung himself soon after. He was 33. 

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[Excerpt from the Arkansas State Police report on Calvin Hammock’s death]

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[Video from Skyland Harris’s death investigation and photo from inside Harris's cell.]

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And Rashon Webb. His friends say he was always cheerful and joking and he had a talent for braiding and twisting people’s hair. In the year before his death, guards gave Webb four disciplinary violations for “failure to keep one’s person or quarters.” The Arkansas Department of Corrections denied our request to see the disciplinaries, but multiple people inside the Maximum Security Unit say that they were because he refused to cut his locks. The ADC has a hair policy that allows long hair but discriminates against traditionally Black hairstyles. It specifically does not allow “cornrows, braids, ponytails, or dread locks.” Guards put Webb in solitary on June 29th, 2022. On September 4th, after nine and a half weeks there, he hung himself. He was 28.

 

 

Chapter 3 >>

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