On May 30, 2024, at 11:35 a.m., I was using the toilet by the computer room in Education. At the same time, I was working on some papers for a college class. Then this CO who is openly gay came in and yelled, “What are you dong?!” I said, “I’m taking a piss.” He went off on me, getting nose to nose, and called me a white bitch. Said he’d fuck me up and asked where I was supposed to be. I replied that I was in college class. I thought he was going to hit me! I asked if he was threatening me, and he said, “I sure am, bitch.” I asked for his name and he said “Baldwin, bitch,” and he looked. like he was going to hit me again. I walked away and went back to class.
On July 19, at 8 in the morning I was walking to the yard and the same CO was in front of education. He said, “Come here!” and asked why I was wearing my hat backwards. I said, “I like to wear my hat like that.” Instead of asking me to turn my hat around, the CO took it and said I should come get it later. The thing is, staff is making us stay in in the yard from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the hot sun. When I walked away, I turned back and said, “When I get sunburned, I’ll hold you accountable for it.” And he went off on me. He came running at me and said, “Bitch, I don’t care if you get sunburned.” He tried to poke me in the head but I moved out of the way. He then said, “I’ll whoop you, white bitch.” Another staff saw him do this and said, “Don’t do that,” but the CO said he can do what he wants.
From another, anonymous AIC at FCI Atlanta: “The staff (from the COs up to Captain Adorno) are unprofessional, rude and, many times, outright profane. We are yelled at, cussed at, called names and threatened. They regularly retaliate when we file an administrative remedy. Both counselors and case managers go out of their way to avoid answering questions. They tell us to come to ‘open house,’ but then they aren’t there or say they’re busy and come back later. Many of them refuse to give you BP grievance forms. One AIC tried for months to update his release address and was never able to. So, his mother was forced to drive from Tennessee to Oklahoma when he was released. At orientation, staff openly say, “We run things OUR way.'”