Veiled Liberty

Here at CCCF they often room us with mentally ill ladies. On lady was forced to room with another that drew all over her brand new shoes that cost nearly $100. That is a fortune here, when ladies are only making $1 per day working in the kitchen. DOC refused to reimburse her for the cost of her shoes.

Another lady was punished for falling in the kitchen. Conditions in there are still dangerous and they are still forcing us to work there or we get punished. Staff obviously cares more about punishing us than our safety.

CO’s are trained to treat us abusively and disrespectfully. They tell them that we are manipulative and will try to get away with anything we can. All we are trying to do is live our lives peacefully without being harassed. Today at CCCF a lady was going into her room to use the bathroom. The CO told her to get off the toilet, which is a PREA violation. He was yelling at her for having something. She did not even have.

Washington County Jail deputy charged with misconduct

Https://katu.com/news/local/video-shows-washington-county-jail-deputy-attack-inmate-posing-for-booking-photo

We deal with all kinds of discrimination and stigma here at CCCF. Most law firms will not take calls from prisons. One lady contacted the bar association for a lawyer to do her post conviction appeal and was given the names of 3 lawyers (that is all that is allowed within 3 years). They were all for things like immigration, something different than what she needed, so she was never able to get the kind of law assistance she needed.

We have a retired lady in her 70s here at CCCF who is being forced to work in the kitchen. People walking through the halls are subjected to random searches for no reason. We also have a lady here that agreed to come here because a judge ordered her to get drug treatment. But she has not been offered that. Instead they are forcing her to take GED classes, when she would rather just get a job.

A man at Two Rivers Correctional Institution was given a mattress so smelly that even the officers cringed when they went into his room. It was soaked in urine and feces and he had to sleep on it for 654 days. His angiogram displayed occlusion (blockage) including 3 arteries supplying his heart are occluded except for one spot. All it would take is for one to rupture and he would have been dead. They cut off his cholesterol meds for 6 years as retaliation for filing lawsuits. He had 3 heart attacks. Retaliation is supposed to be illegal.

One lady here is in prison, while the man who killed her child is not

Another lady here was being stalked by her ex-husband. He would show up at her house unannounced (he was very abusive) demanding to get his stuff, but he did not bring any boxes. When she told him “no” they used it against her in court. He waited until the last day until she was able to file a restraining order.

Officers here at CCCF are constantly looking up guns and ammo on the units. When it is obvious we are trying to get into our rooms to use the ladies room they don’t let us in. One person even used the rest room in the shower because she could not hold it. Another lady freaked out because they would not let her out of her room and she was punished to more time in her room.

We were making a cake for somebody’s birthday and one lady commented that she wished we had a food processor. The other lady said it was too much of a risk, that the officers would try to put someone’s hand in it.

One lady here has a lump in her breast and it has moved to her lymph nodes. She has been waiting 3 months to receive medical attention.

Even the other officers warn us about a particular officer that goes around looking for reasons to write us up. This is the same woman found in the parking lot giving fellatio to a male officer.

Officers here will cell us in for bringing a tumbler down for milk during meals, but they cannot ever seem to get the actual milk ready for meals which they are responsible for.

We have had almost everything taken away from us at CCCF in the name of “Covid”, but in reality we think it is more like either staff shortages or just plain laziness. Rubicon is gone, which is higher education, craft boxes were all taken away yesterday, and the music program is gone a well. This is especially hard on ladies with life sentences, but everyone suffers and feels like they are being punished for no reason.

The website advertises that CCCF is air conditioned, but we have gone 20 days with no air conditioning in our cells. Many ladies are getting heat sickness.

Under the Prison Litigation Act they are depriving us of liberty to go about our daily prison life and also depriving us of our due process. Several people have been emailing Kate Brown’s office weekly about what is going on, but nothing has been done. We encourage anyone out there to provide this website address to Collet Peters (in charge of prisons) and to Department of Corrections, 2575 Center Street NE, Salem, OR 97309.

Tonight an officer yelled at a lady in front of everyone during dinner. They did not let us out of our cells until hours later. We are tired of being abused and punished all the time for petty things.

FreeSophiaJohnson.com is a website dedicated to the freedom of one of the ladies here. She has experienced much discrimination here along with the rest of us and we want the best for her.

A lady her was given 72 hours in cell for helping another lady move. Another lady got 48 hours because an officer did not believe her when she said she had to breast pump for her baby. These ladies have family members with terminal illnesses and newborn babies and they are not allowed to call there families during these cell-ins.

We have a lady who went into the house she used to live in with her abusive ex-boyfriend to try to get her stuff back. She was charged with robbery and got several years in prison. Another lady’s ex-husband would say he needed to come into the house and get his stuff but when the she told him no the court sided with him. The system is clearly slanted and discriminatory against women and the fact that there is no self-defense law in Oregon only adds to this. We think fair treatment in Oregon requires stopping the practice of siding with abusive men and adding to the abuse of women in prison.

The other night, an officer at CCCF was going around at 3:30 AM waking ladies up and telling them they were improper and then punishing them. We are tired of all the abuse we suffer here.

Today we were all outside enjoying the Sun in the yard. Some of us had rolled up our sleeved so we would not get tan lined. An officer came running outside yelling at all of us like we had done something bad. He even disciplined one lady. We are tired of being treated like we are children.

The one lady here has a knee that keeps giving out. She needs a knee replacement and it keeps on swelling up on her. It hurts her a lot and they are not doing anything to help her.

It has been very hot outside! When we all go out for yard, we bring our coconut oil and lay out there in the Sun. There is no water, but it really feels like we are at the beach. Even the dogs get a kiddie pool and play in it.

We have gotten quite good at volleyball and pickleball! Yesterday we accidentally hit the volleyball over the fence. We offered to clime the fence to get it, but the officer said no.

The ACLU has offered to help us get better education programs here. We are currently trying to find out what is available in other prisons. We know it is possible to pass the Bar Exam from here and we have several ladies that are up for the challenge!

We are all teaching each other to be better with our makeup. It is one of the only ways we can express ourselves here and we are grateful. Going out to get our meals is the closest we can come to having a fashion show. But it is also the place where we are most watched by the officers, so we have to be careful. It is guerilla fashion show! Do not get the wrong idea though. We are all very beautiful and some of us could be fashion models.

Susan Monica, who we mentioned before, has a segment on the TV show ‘Snapped”. She says 80 percent of that is false and we believe her, given the amount of false convictions that have come through the Oregon Justice System. Her side of the story can be found at https://www.unforbiddentruthpodcast.com/

We have a big infestation of big ants here in one of the units, that they do not take care of. Also, in 100 degree weather they turn off the air conditioning because it is leaking into the walls.

We had another lady slip and fall in her unit. Her knee swelled up. She had slipped on some water on the floor. Another lady got chemical burns on her hands from cleaning out garbage cans. They are supposed to be keeping us safe here, but they do not.

Another lady at CCCF had a seizure last night and they made her move without letting her rest first. They also told her she had to go to the kitchen and check in. We hope the coordinator who had been verbally and physically abusive to ladies is not there. Also, it has been pretty hot in there and, along with the extra stress, it could be a trigger for her to have another stroke. The abusive coordinator also sits at his desk and looks up different guns and ammo a lot of the time he is there. Even the other coordinators are afraid of him. Two of the other coordinators are afraid to say anything because they are on 6 month probation because they got caught drinking in the parking lot.

Another lady here likes to live in segregation and the officers keep trying to move her to general population. She gets scared when they try to move her, so she lashes out at them so they won’t move her

Another lady here got 39 months for shooting a man in self defense. Another lady got 25 to life when she didn’t even do the shooting she was accused of. There seems to be no consistency with sentencing and sometimes it seem like outright favoritism. Another lady got 9 years for purposely shooting someone. Why does one lady get 25 to life and others get under 10 years. DAs are given extra funding from the State if they produce more convictions. We think this skews the justice system and results in wrongful convictions.

There are ladies at CCCF getting sued for the custody of their kids or for their possessions. They were given 2 days to prepare. We feel they have not been given a fighting chance. It takes longer than 2 days to get the correct paperwork at from the Law Library here.

A lady at Washington County Jail got charged twice for the same crime. We say that is double jeopardy. During another lady’s trial at Washington County Court, they only let one person come to her trial to show support for her. But they let the over a dozen of the “victim’s” family and friends come to the trial. That one person said an office stood at the side of the court room during trial and stared at one member of the jury and then threatened him as he was leaving because the officer said he was not allowed to look at the person on trial.

Another lady at CCCF had her second seizure last night because CCCF took her off her regular seizure medication. They were trying to save money by giving her a generic medication. This facility is not hurting for money, so there is no reason for this.

Washington County have not been honoring prisoner’s right to a speedy trial. They kept one lady in jail for 2 years without bail after she had been arrested for a crime she did not commit. They said this was because of COVID. We think they should not be allowed to do that.

Ladies here are being forced to work in a kitchen that is not up to OSHA Standards. It is extremely hot in there and there is no ventilation. According to OSHA, when the temperature in a work area gets high like this people are supposed to take regular breaks to keep hydrated and prevent heat stroke. This is not being done here. We think one lady who worked yesterday does have heat stroke. Another lady working in the kitchen burned her hand pretty badly and was trying to go to the clinic but they would not let her. When she went anyway they arrested her and brought her to segregation.

Another lady here is being sued for custody of her child when she gets out in a couple of months. The papers say she will have no say in whether the child will be put up for adoption.

A lady at CCCF was having a grand mal seizure . Seven officers showed up but only one medical professional. They did not take her mask off and they were not protecting her head until other ladies were yelling at them. They told everyone to go to their cells.

Another lady’s knee buckled three days ago and she still has not been seen by medical. Her knee is still swollen and painful. Another lady here says she got punished for trying to help when a lady was having a seizure. Those seven officers last night sure did not look like they knew what to do and there was only one medical professional on the scene. We think officers need more medical training instead of trying to punish us all the time.

One lady here says she was sexually assaulted while leaving the kitchen. Several others said the same thing about the same kitchen coordinator.

Another lady who had been here since 2002 has borderline personality disorder and when visitors were banned during COVID she had trouble dealing with it. Mental health professionals were not helping her, and her therapist disappeared for 3 months. She ended up being punished and moved in an intensive unit, but those of us in the regular unit are so happy to have her with us. She has a wealth of knowledge from being here so long and is especially helping the newer people.

At CCCF there are ladies with severe mental illness slipping through the cracks because they choose to spend most of their time in their rooms. If the line is too long for medication or it’s too loud, they can choose to go days without taking anti-psychotic medicine. If another lady happens to be put in a cell with a lady like this, it is even more punishing to her than her actual sentence.

They use pepper spray as punishment here. When they spray ladies, the whole unit can smell it and then they lock us in our cells with pepper spray in the air. Ladies put towels under the door jam, but the pepper spray still comes in.

They practice bad conditioning here. When a lady does something like instigating violence from another lady, she is rewarded. When ladies do something like sharing coffee or juice, they are punished. On lady was celled-in for three days for sharing juice.

We have ladies here who will not come out of their cells for up to a month because they do not want to be instigated before they are released. There are also ladies that have been conditioned by officers to try to instigate another lady to violence because they have been rewarded in the past for that behavior.

We see this in the courts as well. People who testify against others, whether they tell the truth or not, are granted immunity. We have seen a court documentary where a person that actually pulled the trigger in a murder testified that it was someone else who was innocent actually pulled the trigger. The Justice System is rewarding this bad behavior and punishing an innocent person. Who is to say how many innocent people are getting blamed for crimes they did not commit.

One lady at CCCF turned in money sent her for hair design products, but they refused to give them to her after they took her money.

The 20 year old girl who was punched in the legs by the officer was sent to segregation for doing a cartwheel in the yard. She was just doing a 6 month stint here. CCCF over-punishes people. Another lady was sent money by a friend but it was returned because it was a money order. The friend then gave it to her mother to give to her but her mother has not given it to her for 3 months now. The mother has a history of addiction, so we are not sure if the lady here will ever see it. Because of this the lady here is not able to buy needed shoes.

Another lady here had celiac disease and the kitchen coordinators celled her for trying to show them her 400 sheet. A 400 sheet is an official page typed with statistics of her condition. The coordinator then said that celiacs can eat gluten. Another lady in the kitchen did not want to work there and had a panic attach. They sent her to segregation to be punished.

We read in the newspaper that folks in a Federal Prison in Oregon went on a hunger strike because of COVID quarantine conditions. The prison shut off the water supply to their cells. We feel like that’s a premeditated attempted murder. Also, the prisons get extra money from the State to take care of prisoners in quarantine, so we think they are probably keeping us quarantined for as long as possible.

One lady at CCCF had an officer close a door on her head over and over and over. She was in the infirmary for about a year because she then fell from a top bunk. There was no non-slip tape on the ladder.

We are locked in our cells here for 5 more hours than normal because of a memorial service for a DOC officer who passed away. We are sure we won’t have a memorial service for the ladies here who may pass away, nor will we see ladies working in the kitchen getting 5 hours off for the officer’s memorial service. The most we can hope for if a family member passes away while we are in here is a phone call from the Chaplain.

A lady at CCCF fractured her back falling out of the top bunk on April 23. She was in the medical unit for 2 months and is now back in general population during quarantine. We had 3 days left of quarantine and another lady just tested positive. Most of the ladies here wouldn’t tell CCCF if they were sick because quarantine feels like punishment. It was not our fault that the person giving a religious service caused an outbreak here. During the evening meal ladies were waiting in line to get milk and the officer said to stay away from the isolation ladies that he was going to release to get their food. That is not very good quarantine procedure and we have all been exposed at this point. Also, the orderlies are mixing with both groups, so there really is no real quarantine going on here.

Officer Libenow at CCCF is the one who punched a young lady in the legs. He said in the report that she kicked him, but she did not. He was also the person that ordered the lady’s clothes to be cut off who did not want to be moved to the top bunk. We think he needs to be investigated for using excessive force.

A lady at CCCF was brought to segregation because her roommate punched her. She had been asking to be moved for weeks. They don’t protect us here.

It’s our 3rd day in quarantine at CCCF because a lady came in to give a church service and had Covid. It’s not our fault but it still feels like we are being punished. Yesterday they decided not to serve us lunch, with not much warning, so those of us without extra food in our cells went hungry. We are trying to be more prepared today in case it happens again. We are not allowed out of our cells most of the time, yet orderlies and people in the butterfly program are allowed out of their cells to work still. We suspect they have orderly positions in the units purposely to cause division between the AICs. They are allowed to come out of their cells and make phone calls, work out and socialize, while the rest of us stay in our rooms quarantined.

We had a lot of deaths last Summer because of the heat and sun, and an officer at CCCF would not let another lady bring her sunscreen outside. Another officer was telling ladies they need to have their beds made during quarantine. The bed is the only comfortable place to sit in the cells and most of us are sleeping during the day out of boredom. There has been no consistency with the schedule since we have been on quarantine and often we are unsure if we will even get a meal. They called kitchen workers back to the kitchen, so we are hopeful for more consistency with meals.

Officer Resentez had been caught 3 times having sexual relations with a male officer who is married, once in a closet, once in a parking lot, and another time in an office at CCCF. We are surprised that she still works here.

One lady at CCCF was working in the kitchen. She got her foot run over by one of the big carts carrying food. The crutches they gave her to get around were too small for her. They give girls Thorazine here, which is a very powerful drug that most of them don’t need. On top of that it also makes them gain weight, which introduces a host of other problems like diabetes.

The men at CCCF have paint shop, auto shop, and a call center where they can make commissions. They get paid more and they can get actual degrees by education. The women have none of these benefits. The men have actual apprenticeships for electrician. Again, the women do not have these benefits. On the CCCF Facebook page, they have a list of programs and education opportunities that actually are not offered here! The men’s section can hug each other and do not have to tuck in their shirts; the women get punished if they do either of these things. This is discrimination.

Last year, during the fires in the Summer, ladies here got transported to the Deer Ridge facility. It took a couple of hours and the ladies were only allowed to use a hole in the ground as a bathroom. They were not fed for two days. They had to use their sheets as shower curtains. The phones did not work for 3 days and the tablets did not work either.

We are now on our second day of isolation at CCCF and have just been told we will get only two meals a day. We hope we will get enough food.

Officer Lamb was involved in an incident where the lady at CCCF had her clothes cut off. She lied and said she was not involved in the incident but the victim saw her face. They block us from making any PREA complaints here and if we want to make a report over the phone we face retaliation. A woman here fell down the stairs about a week ago. She was never checked for broken bones. Her name is Anna Foster, SID 14953888.

The lady who fell off the top bunk and broke her foot is Sarah Patrick, SID 22192196. They took her crutches from her and expect her to get around on a broken foot. Another lady here was on a medical treatment program for a year and a half, but CCCF has not given her her medications for the last 3 months. They said they are waiting for the doctor’s approval. But the doctor has already approved it. They are just refusing to give her her medication.

One lady at CCCF was arrested violently for a non-extraditable offense on a safety check in a 2019 vehicle while her child was in the car. We suspect a lot of the officers that work in the State of Oregon and at CCCF have personality disorders like narcissism and exhibit sadistic behavior. While she was cleaning her room an officer purposely tried to shut the door on her. We have come to expect behavior like this from this officer and don’t even try to talk to him anymore as he will most likely just threaten us or even punish us for questioning him.

In the news recently a man fleeing a hit and run homicide has posted bail and has a history of other crimes. Also, a man calling 911 saying he shot his roommate was only detained and not arrested. A woman at CCCF was arrested with no criminal history and held without bail for a shooting, while the officer in charge of her arrest admitted on record that he thought she was another woman. She was never even found with a gun or found at the scene of the crime. There were not even any witnesses.

There is a lady at CCCF who was accused of robbery when she was only trespassing. Nothing was missing from the scene and she was slandered by the DA. She was also a victim of retaliation when she was talking about how her lawyer had been involved in dealing drugs.

The lady mentioned previously who fell from a top bunk was finally seen by medical today and given x-rays. She had broken her foot in two places. It took them 5 days to see her and get the x-rays. We hope her foot heals properly.

A lady at CCCF was taken from a unit by four officers because she told another lady she did not want to give her her chair. They are talking about moving another unit into this one as well. This lady has an infant child and is still breast feeding. They will not allow her to call her family in segregation.

At CCCF we deal with a lot of discrimination and unfair treatment. If the correction officers see see someone without their ID around their neck, even if they just forgot it, some of them will immediately write up certain ladies, but with others they will just give them a friendly warning. We had a lady come out with sandals on and was threatened by the officer. But when we looked around the room, lots of other ladies were wearing sandals and they did not get threatened.

A lady at CCCF was told her dentures would cost $350. But when she had them done the paperwork said $550 would be garnished from her account and she would only be allowed to spend $40 a week when she was used to spending $70. Any additional funds she puts into her account are garnished.

A young lady (20 years old) at CCCF had been punched in the legs by a very large older man. We say that is excessive force. One lady had her legal mail opened before it was given to her, while another lady had legal documents sent from the Governor’s office that had not been marked as legal mail. CCCF staff opened and read it before giving it to her.

One of the ladies from the segregation unit at CCCF had a large bruise on her wrist from officers being excessively rough with handcuffs. Now that she is back in general population the officers are dragging their feet giving her her property back. She has mental health issues, so it is difficult for her to be in her cell for long periods of time without her TV. Another lady coming out of segregation was not even given her toiletries back or her address book to contact friends or family. She has family with terminal illnesses.

The lady who broke her foot falling off the top bunk has not been able to work and she needs money to buy things like toiletries and stamped envelopes to stay in touch with her family. She told an officer and he said they could not do anything to help,