At about 1 p.m. Dec. 26, two COs came up to me while I was crocheting. One of them asked me what I was making, and I replied, “a child’s purse.” He then asked if was a sex offender and I responded, “What does my charge have to do with me crocheting?” He then said didn’t I think it is weird for a sex offender to make a child’s purse? “You’re fucking sick,” he added. He later called the unit and heard the other CO say I was threatening to write them up. The next day, at 7 p.m., , the other CO, and two others (including my unit officer) cam to my cell and woke my cellmate. They then searched our cell, during which they ripped up my bedding, threw my clothing on the floor and seized my completed crochet work (two medium beards, one small bear with a heart, a tapestry that says “Welcome to our Home,” a cup cozy with my brother’s job and position on it, and a Wiccan pentagram. Then they wrote me up for an incident when I asked for a confiscation form.
When I wrote a BP-8 for the illegal confiscation of my property, the case manager said, “I am going to informally resolve your BP8 and this is how I am going to do it.” He then put it into the shredder.
They also searched the cell of a friend who I did crochet work for. They told him he was being searched because of me, and now that inmate won’t talk to me anymore.
I complained about this incident to a lieutenant, and she just said, “You’re an inmate. Sit the fuck down.”
I also want to say this about programming: The crochet class is probably the only course Rec has held since it opened up to sex offenders. The chapel hasn’t been given a budget in three years.
And infrastructure: There is no AC in the summer and no heat in the winter, and when it rains, it drips into the dayroom.
The same CO who harassed me for crocheting was written up by another inmate for saying, “Chomos who do paperwork get stabbed.” He was fired at one point and rehired only because of the BOP staff shortage. That officer and another (who later became a lieutenant) were fired but then rehired due to the staff shortage.
A couple of the staff members here terrorize sex offenders in the chow hall. We only have three tables and have to stand to eat as a result. Yet we are screamed at to sit down or get the fuck out. They call us “chomos.” One lieutenant called an inmate over for a search and said, “What did you say? You want my penis?” That inmate was written up and sent to the SHU, then shipped.