After the Riot

Following is a confidential message relayed via a Washington state prisoner concerning the aftereffects of a riot at the Crowley County Correctional Facility in Colorado, where approximately 200 Washington State prisoners were sent.

August, 2004--There is complete lockdown [at Crowley]. With no inmates on kitchen duty, the food is really bad--limited to sack lunches. A guard delivers the sacks by kicking them through the door. The food seems old. [My acquaintance there has had to] survive with no running water, in fact no water to even drink, so no toilets, and no toilet paper other than the paper sack in which lunches were served, which could not be eaten anyway due to dehydration from lack of nay drinking water at all. For the first several days, all the men had only bare cold steel bunks on which to try to sleep, shivering with hypothermia and using torn paper lunch sacks to cover their heads to try to keep warm, as it took days before prisoners received any mattresses, pillows, sheets, and blankets. It was nearly a week before any were allowed to send any mail, and even then only one letter. Conditions are gradually improving for the men, but they are still locked down. Also, an added problem is the facility doesn't recognize Washington prisoner postage accounts, so even though a prisoner, for example, has $50 left in his Washington postage account, he can't use it, because the prison forces them to pay for all postage/mail expenses out of their regular account, which seems to please prison authorities. [My acquaintance there] has made it clear he disapproves of the riot, but expects a worse one to follow, as he sees conduct by the authorities as the cause of the first. With faith not fear, he calls on us for prayers for peace, and for wisdom for authorities and prisoners alike.