Editor’s Note: Absence of Light is a project created in collaboration with incarcerated people at Auburn Correctional Facility in Auburn, New York.

What are prisoners to do? We are calling on the public to expose this pattern of incompetence and negligence. Illogical treatment. Irrational behavior. Without attention on this matter, the conditions will get worse. We don’t want to be the example of how not taking COVID-19 seriously has resulted. We are left helpless, hopeless. Unless the pressure is put on the administration to alter the circumstances. Which is soundly within their power to do, with the swipe of a pen.

Jan. 6

Everyone in the yard was running to the televisions. Crowds of 20 to 30 prisoners surrounded a 20-inch flat screen. Under any other circumstance, prisoners would have been ordered to split up and disperse. But today, even the prison guards took notice of what was on the screens.

I watched on CNN as crowds of white people rushed into the Capitol and vandalized it. They seemed to be having fun doing it, too. I wondered what had given them the heart to do such a thing.

Some prisoners screamed out, “This is our sign.” Others whispered thoughts of fear. “If they had the green light to do that, what would they do to us?” A few remained optimistic. “When the world sees this, laws are going to change, hopefully for the better for prisoners.”

As soon as a scene of a Black Capitol police was shown being assaulted, the announcement came over the loudspeaker, “The yard is now closed.” I looked at the time. We had only been outside for 30 minutes, when the allotted time is supposed to be a whole hour.

As soon as I read the first charges filed against those insurgents, my curiosity was confirmed. Disorderly conduct. Unauthorised entry. I asked a couple prisoners if they had seen what charges were brought against those people. Silence lingered for about 20 seconds until someone shouted, “The complexion for the connection.”

You have Black people incarcerated with football numbers for offenses far less damaging. Burglary, robbery, home invasions where no one was injured. Mere weapon possession, drug possession and other offenses that would look like child’s play compared to what occurred at the U.S. Capitol.

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More stories from Cliff Graham:

• Absence of Light: The COVID-19 pandemic shows neglect of prisoners’ health
• An inside account at Auburn Correctional Facility during a COVID-19 outbreak
  
• Absence of Light: Happiness and suffering
  

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The topic began to heat up among the prisoners in my block. We started comparing charges with those filed against the insurgents in Washington, D.C.

“I got 5 years for just having a pistol in my pants pocket, and those insurgents get disorderly conduct for carrying AR’s and AK’s inside a federal building?”

“I received 7 years for burglary after I entered a house when no one was home to steal some jewelry, and those insurgents got unauthorized entry after breaking into a senator’s office and stealing some important documents?”

The comparisons are countless in here.

Jan. 9

The administration has denied prisoners authorization to receive packages from home consisting of face masks, teas, cough drops, vitamin D supplements. Yet, they aren’t consistent with supplying masks, not understanding the fact that the majority of prisoners are indigent. Unable to afford purchasing teas or cough drops, and vitamin D is not even available in the commissary. Their reluctance to authorize the materials shows their disregard. 

Meanwhile, the guards have been blaming our visitors for their rise in COVID-19 cases. The hate they display for prisoners’ lives is sickening.

Jan. 14

The administration did a brief walk-through last week. I stopped the superintendent and asked whether our visitors are being blamed for their uptick in COVID-19 cases. He looked toward his designees and nervously said, “I have heard nothing about that,” but I already knew the answer. Someone is lying about the rapid spread of the cases, and it’s obvious as to who. 

If our loved ones are being blamed behind closed doors, then they need to know the gravity of this blame. 

Prisoners received their visits back in August. In mid-November, we were tested for COVID-19. One or two cases came back positive. Less than a month later the guards started their testing in December, and their cases soared.

What is not being taken into consideration is the fact that, after the guards’ cases soared, prisoner cases soared. All due to unnecessary pat frisks, strip searches and brief conversations without masks. The blame that is being put on our loved ones stems from their “policy of suppression.” An attempt to suppress the truth of their reckless and careless behavior.

Jan. 31

I don’t see things getting better. I see things transitioning toward a more contagious environment. Guards have been overheard saying that, even though they have COVID-19, they are still coming to work, jeopardizing all prisoners. And if that is the case, intervention is so urgently needed. I mean, people are dying, why are they jeopardizing prisoners’ lives just to receive a paycheck that they could receive on paid leave? Our lives are on the line. And so are theirs. Yet, they are choosing currency over health.

Friday

How does one describe the current state of prison conditions without appearing to garner attention or overly state the matter by using words provided to us by this English language? Honestly, no matter what language you choose to use to describe these prison conditions, it will ultimately have the same effect. For some, disbelief, for others, a shock to the conscious.

This pandemic has devastated countless lives. So much so that those charged with the duty to fight against it for a mass of people have had their flaws revealed, unpreparedness exposed, paranoia enhanced.

I write this on behalf of prisoners, who are suffering internally and externally. We have dealt with this crisis the best we know how, we have demanded, asked and requested what was “just,” considering the circumstances. Yet, to no avail.

Our visitations were suspended and replaced with oppressive restrictions. Causing many of us to simmer in deeper states of depression to the point where some felt death may be a better place to exist.

The blame is not on us, in spite of what those “in charge” may say. It is not we who make the policies. It is not we who enforce them, either. The denial and excuses used by administrative bodies, charged with assuring safe and healthy environments, reveals the obstacles that lie ahead for us.

Why does one continue to reason for justice, when those who can deliver it do not intend on being just? Look around you. Whatever it is that you continue to see, whatever it is that you continue to feel, is a continuance because we have not moved.

Cliff Graham is a Syracuse resident currently incarcerated at Auburn Correctional Facility in Auburn, New York. He is serving a 12-year sentence.

Published on February 7, 2021 at 7:59 pm