Letters from Inside: Covid-19 and the Carceral State #8
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 5/5/2020 by ‘Aziyz, published with his permission and edited minimally for clarity.
FACTOLOGY v. MCI LIES Part 3
PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO LANGUAGE SEMANTICS (word games), OF STATE OFFICIALS AND MEDIA,… case and point. According to a MEMO put out on 5–4–2020 by the MCI [Marion Correctional Institution] Warden, Lyneal Wainwright, “No MCI Prisoners have been considered for COVID-19 release.” REALLY?? At this same time the TV media news outlets are reporting that “An investigation is underway to determine if the upsurge in crime is a result of the COVID-19 release of inmates.”;… does anybody smell a rat here??,… OF COURSE WE DO!! On behalf of the Governor [Ohio Governor Mike DeWine] (who is working very closely with prison officials to lie about what’s really going on in Ohio’s state prisons), the media has put out disinformation to “quiet” the public outcry for justice concerning Prisoners whose sentences have literally been changed to death due to COVID-19;… after all no reasonably minded citizen would support the release of ANY Prisoner if some so-called “investigation” stated that crime is going up because prisoners have been released,… RIGHT???,… be on the look out for this so-called “investigation” to do just that.
THE QUESTION SHOULD BE,… WHY AREN’T THEY CONSIDERING SECURITY LEVEL-1 PRISONERS UNDER THE “OLD LAW” (MEANING those sentenced PRIOR to June 1st, 1996), WHO HAVE BEEN LANGUISHING IN PRISON FOR 25, 30, 40, AND 50 YEARS, OR MORE!?!?!?
The MAJORITY of the public are TOTALLY unaware that there are 2 types of Prisoners in Ohio’s prisons (1) Old Law, and (2) New Law. New Law Prisoners have a ‘Definite Sentence’,… which means after serving a specifically stated amount of time New Law Prisoners are released no matter how bad their institutional records look, or how violent the crime is/was for which they were incarcerated,…PERIOD. Old Law Prisoners can ONLY be released by the Ohio Adult Parole Authority (The Parole Board),…. what this has done is that while New Law Prisoners serve on average approximately 8, 12, or 15 years FLAT for Manslaughter, or Murder,….. Old Law Prisoners languish for 25 — 60 years (or till death), FOR THE EXACT SAME CRIME!!! To date there are approx. 4 — 5 THOUSAND “Old Law” Prisoners the Parole board REFUSES to let go. That’s why The Ohio Justice & Policy Center, and/or others have launched MASSIVE law suites against the Parole Borad due to a “Whistleblower” who quit the Parole Board, and exposed LONG STANDING abuses and a Civil Conspiracy on the part of APA members to arbitrarily retain indefinitely 99.9% if not ALL “Old Law” Prisoners, no matter how rehabilitated , IN THE NAME OF MONEY, AND JUST OUT RIGHT CORRUPT SADISTIC CRUELTY;… more on that in a future blog.
ARE THE FACTS AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF ALL VIOLENT CRIMES THE SAME??? We ALL know the answer to that question is a resounding ‘NO’.
The scary reality is that the mind-set of prison staff towards Prisoners is so toxic that this global health crisis has transformed our sentences into literal death sentences. My extremely protracted incarceration (about 30 years in total), has developed in me a VERY POWERFUL ‘complex’ about TRUTH verses LIES. If anyone were to look me up through any of the search apps., it would state that I’m in prison for “1st Degree Murder”, and sentenced to (QUOTE) “Indefinite Life.” Then look up my actual case (State Of Ohio v. Lyle M. Heyward, Case No. 95-CR-39), in summary, my natural ability of being ‘articulate’ was equated as though I had a COMPLETE comprehention of the legal system and how to PROPERLY express what had happened to me. Thus they literally called me a “liar” that deserved to be convicted of murder. My mistake at that time, was that I TRULY believed that in AMERICA there was NO WAY I would be convicted of ‘MURDER’ for DEFENDING MYSELF WITHIN A VIOLENT PRISON, from mortal attack by members of a notorious street gang… yeh,.. on 12–31–1994, 14 armed gang members jumped me on the prison yard of Orient Correctional Institution for daring to attempt to retrieve my property that THEY stole,… (I’m the son of a veteran, raised in the military, and a highly trained veteran of the United States Marine Corps. I got out of the Marines in 1985 and I did not know I suffered PTSD until 2006). Evenso,… TRUST ME,… that ‘Tragedy Of Justice’ (combined with a myriad of monsterous abuses and dehumanization at the hands of prison authority), I’ve both suffered and witnessed, HAS WOKE ME UP to the UGLY TRUTH of the American Justice System, and is the source of my ‘complex’. The semantics/’word play’ injected into my records (administratively), is in fact a lie,.. the truth is that 24 years ago (on September 18th,1996), I was sentenced to 15 — Life (by Judge P. Randall Knece, in the Circleville Common Pleas Court), for what in Ohio is equal to 2nd Degree Murder (2903.02,.. NOT 2903.01, which is 1st degree),… why am I mentioning this ?? Because, the circumstances of every case is NOT the same. Yet, as soon as free world people hear the term ‘Violent Offender’ most immediately and utterally dismiss/disqualify from consideration ANY and ALL ‘offenders’ thus classified. The Governor, the media, and all ODRC [Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction] personnel are VERY MUCH AWARE OF THAT FACT, and are using it to ensure the public don’t hear the truth of what’s really going on in these prisons. COVID -19 has transformed ALL of our sentences to death. I’m an ‘Old Law’ Prisoner that wouldn’t even pick up a rock out of a park and put it in my pocket for FEAR of being accused of stealing,…. I just want to go home,.. which is Charleston, South Carolina.
FROM THE FRONT LINES,… I AM,…. ‘AZIYZ
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
