Rashid Johnson Emergency

Greetings friends, Please take the time to call Snake River Prison in Oregon. I just received this letter from his friend and know this to be a serious situation. Much thanks, PS if you can call please send Rashid (Kevin Johnson) a post card or letter, expressing your concern & Solidarity. Paulette National Sec Jericho

I have not heard from Rashid for about two weeks, which is  surprising, because he normally sends me 2 or 3 letters a week, sometimes  for other prisoners. I just received a letter written Feb. 11, at Rashid’s  request, by another Snake River prisoner, Corey Freiberg (#15863498).  Corey’s letter begins as follows (edited for spelling etc):

“This is about Rashid. We need a lot of help. They are trying  to kill him. On Jan. 31 they put something in his food that made him crazy. On  Feb. 2 he took 30 pills. They did not do anything to get the pills out of  him…. On Jan. 4 [sic; I assume he means Feb. 4] he ate 3 razor  blades. This is all on videotape. They lied and said the X-ray showed nothing.  The [blades] are still in him right now. He has not eaten since Feb.  3. He has not drunk anything since Feb. 5…. He is passing out and they won’t  do anything to help him…. Said he is the one that won’t eat or drink so they  are not helping him at all. He is peeing blood and has bad kidney pains…. Med  staff will not give him IV fluids…. [As of Feb. 10 he had] lost over 16  pounds. His blood pressure is 191/100 and his urine is the color of coffee….”

I phoned Snake River immediately. If you want to speak with  anyone, you have to dial 541-881-5000 and then press “0″. I left messages with  his counselor, Alice Tomlinson and also with a staff member named José Delgado.  So far I have not heard back from either of them. I then called again, saying  that it’s an emergency and I needed to speak to someone who would pick up (I  mentioned the warden’s office). They connected me with a Sergeant Di Andrea. He  looked up Rashid on his computer and said he was “all right”; I said I wanted to  know more specifically, so he put me back onto the counselor’s answering  machine. Obviously he is not “all right”; on the other hand, I think that if he  had died, they would have had to tell me. I will keep trying. We should make  many calls, reaching as high up as possible.

There are obviously a lot of questions here. How could it  have been on videotape? How could he have obtained all those pills? etc  etc. The idea that he would try to destroy himself is totally out of character;  on the other hand, I suppose that with certain kinds of drug, many strange  things are possible. Let’s all stay in touch if we get any news.

I am sending this both to the listserv and to the individual  addresses I have, just to make sure everyone gets it.

Ironically, just 2 days ago I mailed Rashid the proofs  for the article of his that we will be publishing in the July issue of Socialism and Democracy.

Let’s all write to him (address below). Even if the letters  aren’t delivered, the officials will know that a lot of people are  ready to protest whatever abuses they inflict.

Victor

Kevin Johnson #19370490

S.R.C.I.

777 Stanton Blvd.

Ontario, OR  97914 

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