*   Urgent Action Alert !            Urgent Action Alert !
 ABUSE AT SCI GREENE
        
Jimmy is currently incarcerated at the Pennsylvania maximum security Prison known as SCI GREENE.

 SCI  Greene notorious for the abuse of inmates by correctional staff

There are reports of guards (state employees) who openly display KKK and white supremacist tattoos.  Lawsuits against the prison by inmates for the abuses they've suffered were met with retaliatory measures by corrections staff.
  Inmates were denied rights and privileges, including confiscation of all their legal materials and personal possessions, which resulted in a major hungerstrike by inmates.  Here is a list of links to articles about the conditions, abuses and the lawsuits that have taken place since.
 

                  Click below to link to more reports on the notorious . . .
         SCI GREENE



We recieved this urgent message from Jimmy Dennis about racist treatment and abuses against inmates at SCI Greene.

What follows is info about the shifts and the gaurds.
Please call immediately to register your protest !   (See Below)
Tell them to take these gaurds off shift immediately, to launch an investigation, and that we are aware and watchful about any possible retaliation against these and other death row prisoners on the wing.

Jimmy's letter - September 1999

This is what's going on down here.  Need to get media outlets and Amnesty International involved and everyone to put pressure on this jail and Commissioner Horn at Camp Hill who runs all prison systems.  Need you to place on the internet that we are not eating morning and noon meals because of the racial and hostile environment that the guards have created.  We are not eating because we have found particals in our food on the 6 to 2 p.m. shift.  We have encountered blatant racism from C.O. Clovis, DiCiano, Schwartz and Albright.   We are asking that Sec. Horn be notified of what is going on to have the guards removed and the racism investigated.  We have the racist staff on the morning shift and the admin. here at Greene is not providing us with adequate sneaker exchange.  We have holes in our sneakers and can't get them exchanged.  They get cash money from the State for brand new boots and they pocket the money or keep the boots and sell them.  When we place in a request for an exchange, they give us someone else's used boots without care of athlete's feet. Med. treatment is inadequate at the institution, because of the majority of the doctors and nurses have racist attitudes and mislead us about what is wrong.  There are many other guys with serious med. problems not being addressed.
          The admin. here purposefully took $1.00 dollar gloves off our list so we don't have anything to keep our hands warm in the winter.  They won't let us purchase raincoats from our prison store.  We are forced 1 hr. yard time without rain gearof gloves.  We stay locked down 23 hrs. a day, and our only resource for live air is 1 hr. of yard.  We go out to keep from going crazy in these cells.  The guards on morning shift harass and opress us from doing legal work on our cases by taking our law library typewriters.  Under Sec. Horn's policy, there's supposed to be typewriters in each law library booth, but we only have two instead of four.  We had four, but the morning quards removed two so we stop signing up for the law library to type our legal documents for our cases.  They specifically and maliciously took our extended visits(extra hours).  To harass and opress ourfamilies from making the bus trip every other month 6-8 hrs. from Philadelphia up and back.  They deny our request for extended time stating visit's are crowded. This is a flat out lie, visiting room is never full to capacity.  There are 18 visiting booths or 20 never are they completely full.  In fact whenever my dad comes to visit, only 3-4 people are out there in the visiting room.  This is because of the  fact 6-2p.m. shift quards do not like taking us to visiting room.  Only 3 times a year a bus comes up for $10.00 to bring families up here, but even then all the booths aren't filled at all.  Plenty of booths be left open always.  The admin. here  eavesdrop on our legal calls so they can turnover info. to the State procecutor's about our cases.  They refuse to provide us with population commissary lists when Sec. Horn placed it in the policy specifically for us.  We are forced to eat off dirty filthy plastic trays.  The plastic tray's come  w/ disposable inserts to combat micro-organisms so food borne illnesses won't spread.  They violate the state health codes on the food trays.  In PA, plastic is to be used once and discarded.       They do this with the spoons and cups but not with trays.  The State Agriculture Depatment of Health Unit comes to inspect 2X's a year, but never inspect the level 5 unit trays where capital cases are housed.  We are intitled to yard five days a week for 1hr., and on inclement days, yard is supposed to be made up. They have been denying us make-up days when it thunders and lightening on our yard day.  We used to get it, but now they stopped.

          We are calling on worldwide support to write letter to complain or call about the above issues.  We have done all we can do from inside, now we need outside support.  We also request that the media be written specifically on the ssue of us not eating because of racism and fear for safety of our food.  We stop eating on 6-2p.m. shift on August 30th. Now our protest is non-violent.  Us not eating and signing up in the yerd.  On tonight, Unit Manager Warmun comes around saying that on 8/31/99 and 9/1/99, I and everyone who is protesting didn't stand for count.  Now Warmun is saying we must be on the door with lights on, the policy states clearly just be standing and visible.  Nevertheless, this is no more than retaliation for our protest.  Unit manager Warmun is going along with the guards.  He says if we don't stand for count we will be issued a misconduct.  The document saying we didn't stand was signed by C.O. Pennington.  Not once has C.O. Pennington ever taken count.   So they have falsified documents.  Count was taken by C.O. DiCiano, but they don't want to state that, cause it would be clear of retaliation.  Now, we have gotten word that they are going to seperate us and try to give out misconducts.  I expect guards, Unit Manager Warmun will continue the games.  Jermont Cox, Ronald Gibson, Jessie Bond, Donyell Paddy,
Craig Williams and I will be the main targets.

                                    **** IMPORTANT*****

When you write email, fax, call, let it be known that you all know that because of protest we all on B-Pod and on death row will be retaliated against.  Put out an action alert to contact officals.  I want Secretary Horn and Superintendant Blaine's offices flooded with email, letters, phone calls, etc.  These racist guards that I have mentioned need to be removed from L-Block period.  The purpose of them trying to seperate us is to single us out so they can set us up for misconducts.
      Superintendent Conner Blaine,
          Phone #: (724) 852-2902
          Fax     #   (724) 852 5506
          1030 E. Roy Furman Highway
          Waynesburg, PA 15370-8089

          Secretary Martin F. Horn,
          Phone #: (717) 975-4859
          Dept. of Corrections
          P.O. Box 598
          Camphill, PA 17001-0598

                                            www.jimmydennis.com

                  For anyone who'd like to join us in our fight for justice,
                                            email us at info@ccadp.org


This page was last updated November 18, 1999             Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty
      info@ccadp.org            This page maintained and updated by Dave Parkinson and  Tracy Lamourie