Tier II is straight torture

by Paul Maynard

First and foremost, I would like to thank God and my brother Kelevin Stevenson. If it wasn’t for my blessed brother, I would still be lost and not knowing what and who to turn to.

Georgia-prison-striker-advocate-holds-poster-beaten-prisoners-at-press-conf-010611-by-Kristi-Swartz-AJC.com_-225x300, Tier II is straight torture, Abolition Now!
A supporter of the Georgia prison strike holds a poster showing viciously beaten strikers at a rally Jan. 6, 2011, less than a month after the historic but short-lived Georgia prison work strike of Dec. 9, 2010, put down with unparalleled brutality: Guards threw one prisoner off a tier and beat two others with hammers, one of them Kelevin Stevenson, now known as the conscience of Georgia prisons. That one-day strike shook the prison world, sparking the California mass hunger strikes and the current nationwide spate of prison strikes and outside boycotts to end prison slavery by striking the slavery clause from the 13th Amendment. – Photo: Kristi Swartz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

First thing I would love to address is how us human beings get treated like stray dogs. My brother told y’all all about prolonged solitary confinement. Well, we back in this same situation once again and, before we repeat the action again, I want to tell on my own behalf what’s going on behind these walls of GDOC (Georgia Department of Corrections).

These so-called officials took an oath to protect and serve; it’s not going on at all. We’re in these small cells, it’s June now and it’s 93 degrees outside so you can imagine what it feels like behind these walls. Ants and other unnamed insects are in these cells as well.

We are supposed to get ice in these hot cells three times a day and that’s it. It’s straight torture! We don’t even get that. It’s not 4:25 p.m. and I’m sweating while I write this urgent letter to y’all.

I always thought it was help for us human beings that’s doing hard torturous time for our mistakes. There’s nobody in this world that’s perfect. We just got caught and doing time for whatever reason but we don’t deserve to be treated like stray dogs.

Even the supervisors make sure that they make our days and nights as hard as possible. And when we react in a way that’s fitting for how we are being treated, we’re the bad guys. That’s wrong, totally wrong!

I’m currently on the Tier II program in Valdosta State Prison in Valdosta, Georgia. Our medical and dental issues don’t even get answered. They always tell us it’s a long list, even when you tell them you’re in pain. I have had a hole in my tooth for over two years and I filled a sick call out to be seen by a dentist from Rockwest Dental Office; that was a year and a half ago.

All I ask is that we be treated like human beings. The counselor of this Tier II program at Valdosta State Prison is awful as well. We write grievances and try to go about it in the right way, but the counselor never turns them in. He’ll give us receipts after receipts but we never get any notice back. Even though it takes 40 days to get a response, we never get one, because we behind these “hot walls.”

If possible, can somebody come and visit this prison and take a step into one of these cells? It’s sad. GDOC have the outside world thinking we’re just being punished, but the world doesn’t know that we’re being tortured and treated as stray dogs. If you look at the first “Planet of the Apes,” that’s exactly how we’re being treated.

All I ask is that we be treated like human beings.

All I ask if that we get treated fairly. Oh yeah, we don’t have no air conditioning, period.

Send our brother some love and light: Paul Maynard, 1141065, VSP, P.O. Box 310, Valdosta GA 31603. This story was written June 4, 2016, but misplaced; the Bay View apologizes for the long delay.