Mr. Clyde W. McArthur, Jr
C-049530 H2220
Wakulla "Correctional" Institution
110 Melaleuca Drive
Crawfordville, Florida 32327-4963
May 22nd, 2001
I don't know exactly how to pen this letter. I'll just tell it how I see it. Here is a list of staff I've been in contact with and some of the things they have done to me.
Capt. Hemphill, Sgt. Agerton, Sgt. Wilson, Sgt. Lockhart, Capt. McAplin, Capt. Keen, Lt. Clark, Classification J. Vaughn, Classification Bergeron, Col. Morgan, Asst. Warden Denson, Inspector D. Lee, CO Crumnity, CO Langston, CO Wesson, Sgt. McCoy, CO Croy, CO Chung, Jr., CO Muse, Sgt. Case, Sgt. Dey, Asst. Warden Watson, CO Barrios, Classification Gilliam, Classification Kirkland, Sgt. Boone, CO Henderson, and Co Young.
As you can see, this involves about 30 staff members here. Most of them work in confinement. The staff here accuse inmates of behavior that they call unruly, and punish us by spraying chemicals on us for punishment. They eat our food and don't pay for a meal ticket for same. They eat our own tray or don't even give it to us at all. They strip us of all our clothes and put us buck naked in a cell all night with no bedding or clothes. They threaten to poison or spit on or urinate in our food. They tamper with our mail and read its contents, both outgoing and incoming and take out what they deem necessary to keep them from being exposed.
The grievance process in DOC is a joke! Sometimes they go out, but more times than not, they are thrown away. Again, to keep from being exposed for their actions.
All the staff listed cover up for one another from the warden to the lowest staff officers. The rule says in Chapter 33, we shouldn't get reprisal for our grievances but we do!
They punish us for our actions against them. They make us go weeks at a time with little or no clean clothes or linens to sleep on. I have been washing out my clothes in a toilet for two months now.
If we say any argumentative statements to staff about our problems, it just makes it worse on us in Solitary Confinement.
They have kept me in solitary to keep from a cellmate being witness to what they do, meaning staff members in Disciplinary Confinement.
Staff lies about everything you can imagine and they document it so it looks like we are the ones in the wrong. We have no other recourse but to take the abuse.
Our food is not the same as population gets, and is cold and often stale. Breads and dairy products etc. They feed us leftovers from population meals. All in all, we are not afforded the same as population and are punished for "Raising Hell" about it.
I was railroaded into close management status, so I'll write again when I get to where I'm going.
This kind of abuse must stop. We live in the year of our Lord 2001! Not 1925! The barbaric "Bad-Boy" tactics should not be allowed. But staff covers it all up.
In closing, I hope to expose these evil people for what they are and are doing. I'll voice this in person in front of a Grand Jury or whatever it takes.
You can't image the mental and physical stress we as "men" go through, because of the "Bad-Boy" tactics that are played on us. I hope this will help explain this facility for the wrong they do to other people's loved ones and myself. I hope and pray to God this helps some others.
Please let our politicians and news media in on this circus these people are running here. The captains on all shifts are in on this abuse and they lie about the inmates' behavior and in the end, we get pushed around, thrown on the floor, slapped and sprayed with chemicals! We have no recourse whatsoever.
Take care and God bless you for all you are doing. Sincerely,
Clyde McArthur Jr
C-049530P.S. Here is a stamp for return correspondence.
Tuesday April 17, 2001
I received your most welcome letter and thank you for all you are doing to help. I am going to start with this letter and number my outgoing mail to you. That way we can monitor our correspondence, because I think staff here is tampering with our mail, Outgoing and Incoming. They don't always, but when certain officers are working, they do as they please and pay no attention to the rules and regulations here. That is what needs to stop.
[It seems] these officers here, from all the way at the top to the small-fries, seem to be in on this mess. They think it's a game to treat another human being the way they do, and then just sit around and laugh about their actions. Feel free to let anyone of the folks you know in Tallahassee read these letters. I write the truth and I have nothing to hide.
I signed up for incarceration, not mental and physical abuse! They have gassed me with chemical spray of some kind. I don't know what, but pretty tough stuff! Burns like hell! But that is no reason for using chemical on a person, just because they talk back to the ones that are badgering them. This is a technological society we are supposed to be in these days. Not a barbaric dungeons and chains type of prison that these staff members here are attempting and succeeding to run here at Wakulla.
We just had a man cut his wrist to get away from the ongoing punishment he was subjected to. He was beaten and kicked around and no videos were run on these actions as per Department of Correction's Use of Force Rules state. [Up to now] They just plain get away and we can't do nothing here but take it.
Unless we get some help from Tallahassee and investigation of this facility from the top to the bottom and all the staff in between, these types of actions are going to occur to me and to others here. I speak from and about the confinement area.
Please help us. I am trying my best to maintain. I ask God to bless your efforts for us here and the things you do on our behalf.
I'm not sure on my status here now. I have talked very little to my classification officer. The staff here say I'm a prime candidate for close management status. I don't deserve this for wanting staff to just do their job without all the bully-boy tactics they use and are getting away with.
I've enclosed my mother and sister's address so you can contact them and let them know what's going on. If you send stamps, they get stolen out of the mail, so mention them in your letter when you send them, otherwise I won't know you sent any.
God Bless You,
Clyde McArthur
C-049530