Letter from an Indiana Prisoner

Sep 10, 2001

We reprint the following letter from a prisoner at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility in Carlisle, Indiana.

On August 15, three pigs were assaulted in GHU, one on the right wing, one on the left and one outside. After the smoke cleared there was blood everywhere. Backup was called in and the cell-house was locked down. Without doing any kind of investigation, the pigs locked up one guy, Sean Parks #952684, for assault on three staff members. To carry out those three assaults, Parks would have had to move with speed unimaginable. With all the blood everywhere, they could have determined if he did it or not. All they had to do was check his clothing, but they didn’t. Now he sits on lockup facing outside criminal charges for something he didn’t do. Parks kept telling the pigs as they were taking him out of the cell-house that he didn’t do anything and for them to test his clothing and his body for blood and bruises, but this was ignored. There are several witnesses who can vouch for Parks, but the staff has said that if he didn’t do it, then someone else did, and until they get the perpetrator, Parks wasn’t going anywhere. They came to the cell I live in today around 10 a.m. and wanted me to speak to I.A. and when I told them “no” they threatened me with a conduct report for refusing to cooperate with an investigation. I am not concerned with their threats. What I need is some help for Sean Parks. I need letters, petitions and calls to the commissioner of the Department of Correction and the superintendent, inquiring why Parks is being held for something he didn’t do.

In struggle,

Kalomo Yero Yerodin

Please write to or call:

Commissioner Evelyn Ridley-Turner

Indiana Dept of Corrections

E334 Ind Government Center South

302 W. Washington St

Indianapolis, IN 46204

(317) 232-5715

Superintendent Craig Hanks

Wabash Valley Correctional Facility

PO Box 1111

Carlisle, IN 47838

(812) 398-5050