As Lockdowns Spread, Prisoners Call For A Voice In Ending Violence

This Tuesday Minnesota’s Faribault Prison went on lockdown, after four officers were reportedly assaulted. This comes on top of the brutal lockdown at Stillwater Prison, now in its 66th day, after a lone prisoner killed a guard, and nearly a month after it was reported to be ending. Yet prisoners offer a different narrative. They say the Stillwater lockdown is ongoing and prisoners are not the cause of increased violence.

“Channel 5 news reported we are off of lockdown, but we’re not” says Pepi McKenzie a prisoner at Stillwater Prison. “We’re still locked in, they’re just letting us out three hours a day”. McKenzie reports

“no recreation, no yard, no regular meals,” and that normal schedule is being out fifteen hours a day.

Nor does prisoners’ experience match how violence is being reported. According to Stillwater prisoner Tony Jackson, he is spending “all his time calming people down as guards are trying to make people blow up”. Why? “The AFSCME Union continues to create chaos and division here at Stillwater, constantly provoking prisoners. They want us to assault them and create riot situations so AFSCME can gain public support to fraudulently receive more money that will be misappropriated and more staff that will be misused”.

Stillwater prisoner Leonard Richards also challenges the narrative that guards have dangerous jobs. “We have many staff who "work" long hours of overtime...[and] many staff use their wiles to get their children hired as guards.” According to Richards “if prison employment were in fact so dangerous, one would think they wouldn’t [choose extensive overtime] and the least desirable jobs for one's children would be that of prison guard - but that is not the case”. Richard’s conclusion? “Working ("working") as a prison guard is in fact not very dangerous at all.” He also reports that working often means “sitting on phones” and that the lockdown has “expanded that”.

While prisoners have different approaches they are uniform in calling for an immediate end to the lockdown at Stillwater, a voice in the process, and meaningful programming and opportunities. Jackson says “new leadership is needed to break a culture of guard entitlement” while the public needs to be informed and prisoners empowered. “The media doesn’t ask us what’s going on, and because we’re in prison the public has a preconceived notion. But the public needs what’s true - beyond any side”.

McKenzie says recent changes show that “the DOC's ideas for rehabilitation is pretty much over with”. He calls the DOC’s continuing lockdown and closing of an estimated 400-500 jobs at Stillwater an “extreme reaction to an isolated incident that is and will cause a massive response”. McKenzie believes deteriorating conditions incite violence: "the entire unit has no jobs with the exception of those that have GED classes; that unit is a recipe for disaster. No jobs, no recreation, no regular meals, I'll let you do the math.”