Letters from Inside: Covid-19 and the Carceral State #6

This is part of our series Letters from Inside: COVID-19 and the Carceral State, centered on amplifying the voices of incarcerated people in Ohio. Below is a transcript of an electronic letter sent to us on 5/4/2020 by ‘Aziyz, published with his permission and edited minimally for clarity.

Thank you for sending me a hook-up so I can communicate truth to the outside world. We’re limited to 6,000 characters for emails, so I’ll continue these as “PART 1, PART 2, etc.” You can post WHAT EVER I write,… I want as many people to know the truth as possible. I’ll send you videograms, photo’s,….. I’ll talk to media, give interviews,… what ever,… and yes you can use my name.

FACTOLOGY V. MCI LIES; PART 1

The truth I want to bring out in this email is that the MCI [Marion Correctional Institution] Health Care Administrator (HCA) and or other MCI staff, and ODRC [Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction] Director boldly lie to the public, and the media, by claiming that 95% of Prisoners here at MCI are “asymptomatic”,… that’s just not true. (FIRST): The MCI Medical Dept. KNOW whom among us are COVID-19 positive,,,, they gave notices to all Prisoners who tested positive informing us of this fact… yet, have never went around and cataloged what our symptoms are/were or even if we had any (by simply ASKING us as they passed out the COVID-19 test notices). Thus, there’s no factual basis for the MCI HCA to outright lie to the public. CLEARLY, they’re just attempting to cover up the truth. (SECOND): I live in here, and it’s a FACT that 95% of Prisoners have a myriad of symptoms varying in severity,…. There’s no treatment for this thing, and all MCI staff do is take our temperatures ONCE a day. Most have a combination of terrible symptoms with no fever.

For the first 3 weeks of this outbreak, MCI staff treated those who were sick as disciplinary problems and placed them in the Segregation Unit (the ‘Hole’), which in turn resulted in 95% of that Prisoners legitimately acquired and possessed non-contraband/non-altered personal property being deliberately mislabeled as contraband. This is an egregious long standing ‘Cultural Practice’ at MCI which has ‘Chilled’ the majority of Prisoners of ordinary sterness from actually complaining about their COVID-19 symptoms. Why would a Prisoner complain when they know it will result in disciplinary action being taken against them?? I was EXTREMELY sick for nearly 3 weeks,.. my symptoms were all at once and multiple (i.e. very dizzy, and super tired, body shakes and chills, my eyes hurt to the touch and watered constantly, my whole body ached greatly especially the joints, I had a super headache,… once my cellie had to assist me in standing up so that I could use the bathroom, while my urine was the color of Cherry Coke no matter how much water I drank, which too was VERY difficult and painful being that my mouth and throat felt like it was made of sand and gravel, I could barely breath and it literally hurt to do so. My normal weight is about 210 Lbs. I lost about 20 Lbs. of muscle, in 14 days I could only eat 3 apples and 1/2 of a bolonga sandwich, and even more,.. at one point I thought I was going to die,.. even with all that I never had a fever). Again, why would a Prisoner complain when they know it will result in disciplinary action being taken against them??

And for this very reason I chose to stay in my cell so that at least I could maintain my property, have access to the phone to call family, etc. Nearly 98% of MCI prison populous, INCLUDING MYSELF, have been officially diagnosed as “Positive for the COVID -19 virus.” The symptoms are absolutely horrendous,… I roughed it out, and now I’m not feeling sick,… evenso, this thing is NOT natural, and we CAN AND DO catch it more than once,… so, we wonder how many times will we catch it and which time is going to kill us?? ‘Reasonable Minds’ would think that the MCI staff would WANT to collect the proper/acurate medical information, conduct convolesent plasma/anti-body testing, catalog ALL symptoms and the duration of the same, etc., to assist medical professionals of Ohio (and the world), in defeating this thing,… but no,.. they’re only concerned with continuing to abuse and dehumanize Prisoners, shift all blame to Prisoners and cover-up their fantastically wanton negligence,…

Ask me what ever you want and you’ll get a direct answer from me. Many guys here at this prison have been conditioned through long standing MCI practices of retaliation and abuse, not to seek legal redress,… I’m NOT one of them. I’m an “Old Law” Prisoner who has been in my opinion ‘Over Incarcerated’,… I enjoy speaking truth to power, and holding these people accountable for their abusive and Unconstitutional treatment of Prisoners. I have seveal Federal lawsuits pending against them right now,…two of which are:

(1) A $19 Million Action (L.M.Heyward v. Heather Cooper, et.al. Case No. 3:16-CV-2774),… and

(2) A $2.5 Billion Multi-Class and Multi-Individual Count Action (L. M. Heyward v. Heather Cooper; et.al. Case No.3:19-CV-02499), BOTH of which are in the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division.,… I’m in the process of putting together ANOTHER Civil Action against MANY state actors here at MCI. I’ve been ‘Over Incarcerated’ for nearly 30 consecutive years, and in those years I’ve been to 14 different institutions,… thus, I’m qualified to state that the MCI staff are uniquely abusive towards Prisoners in EVERY area of human existence. Just as the slave masters of the past believed they had divinely ordained ‘Manifest Destiny’ in their monsterous atrocities of other human beings, the MCI staff, even more than a Christian would profess Jesus, believe with the surety of a megalomaniac, in their abuse of Prisoners. They may believe they’re slave masters,… However, I AM NOT A SLAVE!! In the Civil Action I’m putting together, I intend to include how this COVID-19 global health crisis has transformed our sentences to death.

L. M. “’AZIYZ” HEYWARD #A252–187

940 MARION WILLIAMSPORT ROAD

(P.O. BOX 57)

MARION, OHIO 43302

This letter was published by members of the Community Freedom Coalition, a central Ohio based group working to end all forms of state-sanctioned violence and build a world without police or prisons. Follow our work on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. #FreeThemAll